COMPLAINTS  POLICY

Albany Solicitors is 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 concern or a complaint that has not been dealt with to your satisfaction by the person handling your case or their supervising partner, please contact Anne Harrington as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed.  Anne Harrington’s contact details are 16 Park Grove, Cardiff CF10 3BN Telephone 02920 472 728 or Email [email protected]

What will happen next?

  • We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your concerns within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  • We will then investigate your concerns. Depending on the nature of your concerns this will normally involve passing your written concerns to either our Client Care Office Manager - Anne Harrington or one of the Partners - who will review your matter file and where necessary speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  • If necessary, we will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve the matter. We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  • Within three days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that we have agreed with you.
  • If a meeting is not necessary, we will send you a detailed written reply, including 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 arrange for a partner unconnected with the matter to review the decision.
  • We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on the matter and explaining our reasons why.
  • If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 5550333 or at legalombudsman.org.uk. This should only be done if your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within 8 weeks of the complaint being made. If you want to contact the Ombudsman, the details are:

 

             Legal Ombudsman

             PO Box 6806

             Wolverhampton

             WV1 9WJ

 

              Tel: 0300 555 0333

              Email: [email protected]

 

  • With regards to the question of which complaints are covered by the Ombudsman are governed by the Scheme Rules, which are published on the Ombudsman’s website.

Any matter taken to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint for you and within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining (or if outside of this period, within 3 years of when you should have reasonably been aware of the problem)

  • Alternative bodies, such as ProMediate, also exist which are Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’) certified and competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. However, we do not agree to use ProMediate as the legal Ombudsman already works in a similar way even though they are not currently ADR certified. https://www.promediate.co.uk/

If we have to change any of the above timescales, we will let you know and explain why.

The complaints procedure also includes complaints arising concerning a bill.  There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part 3 of the Solicitors Act 1974; and that if all, or part, of a bill remains unpaid, the firm may be entitled to charge interest.  If you do apply for such an assessment the Legal Ombudsman may not be able to deal with your complaint.