At Supreme Law Solicitors 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 maintain and improve our standards.
If you have a complaint, please contact the Managing Partner Mr. Haq with the details.
What will happen next?
Stage 1
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details. We will also let you know who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 14 days of us receiving your complaint.
Stage 2
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within 7 days of receiving your complaint.
Stage 3
We will acknowledge your reply and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within a day of your reply.
Stage 4
We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps.
• If Mr. Haq acted for you, he will consider your complaint again. He will then send you a detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. He will do this within 14 days OR, if you request, another fee Senior Fee Earner from our Family Dept. (where one is available) will both consider and reply to your complaint or invite you to a meeting.
• If someone else acted for you, Mr. Haq will ask him or her to give me their reply to your complaint within 14 days. We will do this within 7 days.
• Mr. Haq will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. He may also speak to the person who acted for you. He will do this within 7 days of receiving their reply and the file.
Stage 5
Mr. Haq will then write inviting you to meet him and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 7 days of procedure 4 above.
Stage 6
Within 7 days of the meeting the person who dealt with your complaint will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he/she may have agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the person who dealt with the complaint will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. He/she will do this within 14 days of completing his/her investigation.
Stage 7
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review the decision. This may happen in one of the following ways.
• The person who dealt with the complaint will review the decision him/herself within 7 days.
• We will arrange for someone else who is not connected with the complaint to review his/her decision. He/she will do this within 7 days.
• We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within 14 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within 14 days. We will let you know how long this will take.
Stage 8
We will let you know the result of the review within 14 days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman and SRA. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint. If I have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
Legal Ombudsman
We are permitted a minimum of eight weeks to consider the complaint. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us within that timeframe, then our clients are advised that they may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.
Clients are free to refer any complaint about our work, fees or level of service but there are some conditions and time limits. Please be aware that any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the client has received a final written response from us about their complaint. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six years of the act or omission about which the client is complaining occurring or within three years from when the client should have known about or become aware that there were grounds for complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or date of awareness was before 6 October 2010.
For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.
Solicitors Regulation Authority
If someone thinks a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, they have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#report.
Further Information
For further information about our complaints handling procedures, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01922 682822 or by post to Supreme Law Solicitors, 37 High Street, Pelsall, Walsall WS3 4LX.