HARDINGTON HOGG SOLICITORS

Complaints Handling Policy

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients.  When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it.  This will help us to improve our standards.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.

What will happen next? 

  • We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure. 
  • We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our designated complaints person, Gillian Pierce, who is a Solicitor and Director/Partner with the firm. She will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. In the event that the complaint relates to a matter involving Gillian Pierce, the complaint will be investigated by another member of the management team at the firm who will write to you accordingly.
  • Gillian Pierce may then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. 
  • Within five days of the meeting, Gillian Pierce will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you. 
  • If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Gillian Pierce will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.  
  • At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will, if possible, arrange for someone unconnected with the matter at the firm or, if we both agree, another local solicitor or someone trained in mediation to review the decision. 
  • We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  • If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why. 
  • We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

[NB. The term days refers to working days].

Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman 

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service, we provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure above. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

  • Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and
  • No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
  • No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

For more information contact the Legal Ombudsman.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Alternative dispute resolution:

Alternative complaints bodies, such as ProMediate UK Ltd (www.promediate.co.uk) exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this firm wish to use such a scheme.  We do not usually agree to use such schemes as those operated by ProMediate UK Ltd as we believe the Legal Ombudsman is better equipped to resolve complaints against legal firms. 

Note: If we entered into a contract for the provision of services with you online you may also be entitled to use the EU Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform at: http://ec.europa.eu/odr  to assist in resolving matters. The Platform will direct you to various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) specialists who are competent to deal with complaints about legal service [e.g. www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk] however we should point out that this firm does not ordinarily use such schemes and relies upon the services of the Legal Ombudsman to resolve such matters.

Complaints about our professional conduct or behaviour:

Our regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for concerns that you may have including dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. 

We are bound by various professional rules of conduct which can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk. You can also see more information about the help the SRA can give to you here: 

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/reportsolicitor.page 

Contact Details for Solicitors Regulation Authority: 

Address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN 

Telephone: 0370 606 2555  

Email: report@sra.org.uk

Website: www.sra.org.uk