Kidd & Spoor Solicitors’ Complaints Policy and Procedure

Our Policy

  1. 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.
  2. If you wish to complain, please contact Paul Drabble, who is our Client Care Director (CDD) and Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) by email at pdrabble@kiddspoorlaw.co.uk or by writing to him at 7 Marden Road, Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear, NE26 2JN. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, we would prefer any formal complaint to be made in writing.
  3. Please note that a complaint can include a complaint in relation to a bill. You may have a right to object to a bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitor’s Act 1974.
  4. If you have any special needs, which we should consider when dealing with your complaint, perhaps due to language or disability, please let us know. We will take those needs into consideration during the handling of your complaint.
  5. In the section below, we outline each stage of the complaints process, along with the target timeframes for completing each stage. Where, for any reason, it is not possible to observe any of these limits we will let you know and explain why.

 

Our Complaints Procedure

  1. Should a formal complaint be received, the COLP/Risk and Compliance Manager (RCM) will acknowledge receipt within three days of receiving the complaint.
  2. Upon receipt of your complaint, our CCD/COLP and/or our RCM will investigate your complaint promptly, fairly and without charge. As part of that process, we will read the case file and will consult with the employee about whom the complaint has been made.
  3. Once your complaint has been investigated, the CCD/COLP/RCM will contact you in writing within 21 days after having received the complaint, addressing your complaint and confirming the further steps, if any, which will be taken by the Firm to resolve your complaint.
  4. At this stage, if you remain dissatisfied with our formal response to your complaint or with the further steps that have been proposed to resolve the complaint, you have the option to ask for another Director of the Firm to review the original decision regarding the complaint. The Director reviewing the matter will have 14 days from the date they are asked to carry out their review to respond to you with our final position on the complaint.
  5. If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman (see section below). Please note that if the handling of your complaint remains ongoing 8 weeks after having received the original complaint, we are obliged at that stage to remind you of your right to ask the Legal Ombudsman to investigate.
  6. If we have not heard from you within 21 days of having sent either 1) our formal response to your complaint or 2) our response to the request for further review by a Director, we will treat the complaint as being ‘resolved.’

 

Complaining to the Legal Ombudsman

  1. If we remain unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently reviewed by the Legal Ombudsman, which is a body that investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. The time periods to submit your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

a) six months from the conclusion of the Firm’s complaints investigation process;

b) within one year of the act or omission to which your complaint relates; or

c) within one year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

  1. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman at:

Tel:                      0300 555 0333

Email:                 enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website:           www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Address:           PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

 

  1. The Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of the bill.
  2. Alternative complaints bodies such as Promediate (www.promediate.co.uk) exist, which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our Firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not agree to use Promediate.

 

Complaining to the SRA

  1.  You may alternatively contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) if you have concerns as to whether we have breached any of their professional rules for solicitors or 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Details will be found at www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/principles and the SRA can be contacted at The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN, or by email to contactcentre@sra.org.uk.