Complaints Handling Procedure and Policy

Our approach to complaints

If something has gone wrong, or you are concerned about the service you are receiving, please tell us. We would much rather know early, while we can still put things right, than find out later.

Complaining costs you nothing. We do not charge for handling complaints, and making one will not affect the standard of service you receive.

We take complaints seriously. We investigate them properly, we answer them honestly, and we use what we learn to improve how we work.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction with our service, our fees or our conduct, whether or not you use the word “complaint” and whether or not you put it in writing. We treat what you tell us by telephone in the same way as a letter, and we record it either way.

Some concerns can be sorted out straight away with a phone call, an explanation or a correction. Others need a proper investigation. This procedure covers both.

Who can use this procedure?

This procedure is open to our clients and former clients, and to people to whom we have offered or refused to provide services. We will also consider concerns raised by others where it is appropriate to do so.

Please note that being able to complain to us is not the same as being able to take a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has its own eligibility rules, which are summarised below.

How to complain

The quickest route is usually to speak to the solicitor or fee earner handling your matter. They will often be able to resolve the issue immediately.

If you would prefer not to, or you have already tried, please contact:

Client Care and Resolution, The Jonathan Lea Network
Commerce House, 21 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3TP
Email: wewillhelp@jonathanlea.net
Telephone: 01444 708640

It helps if you tell us what has happened, the dates involved, and what you would like us to do about it. Nothing turns on the format.

What happens when we receive your complaint

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing, ordinarily within two working days of receiving it. Our acknowledgement will tell you who is dealing with it, how to contact them, what will happen next and when you can expect to hear from us. We record every complaint centrally.

Resolving things informally

Where a concern can sensibly be dealt with quickly, we will try to do that. That might mean a telephone conversation, an explanation, an apology, correcting or completing work, giving your matter priority, or adjusting a bill.

If we resolve matters this way, we will confirm the outcome to you. If we cannot, or if you would prefer a formal investigation, your complaint will be investigated under the next section. An informal attempt to help does not use up any of your rights.

Our investigation

We will allocate your complaint to an appropriate person, having regard to its nature and seriousness. Where it is reasonably practicable, and particularly where a complaint is serious or concerns professional conduct, it will be considered by someone who was not directly involved in the matter you have complained about.

Our complaints handler will consider whatever they reasonably think is necessary to investigate your complaint properly. Depending on the circumstances that may include reviewing the file, correspondence, attendance notes and time records, speaking to the people involved, considering billing information, considering any relevant supervision or compliance issues, and asking you for further information.

We aim to send our final response as soon as reasonably practicable, and ordinarily within 20 working days of acknowledging your complaint. More complex complaints can take longer. In every case we will comply with the applicable Legal Ombudsman requirements, which means that if we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks of you first making it, you may take it to the Ombudsman if you are eligible.

If we are not going to be able to give you our final response within eight weeks, we will write to you before those eight weeks expire, explain why, give you a revised date, and confirm that you may approach the Legal Ombudsman at that point without waiting for us.

Complaints about our Principal or senior managers

Where a complaint concerns our Principal, our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, or the person who would ordinarily handle complaints, we will allocate it to another appropriate senior person. Where we consider it appropriate, we may ask someone from outside the firm to consider it. This does not create an additional stage of review.

Our final response

Our final response will be in writing. It will ordinarily:

• identify the complaint and the issues we have considered;
• explain briefly what we did to investigate it;
• explain our conclusions and our reasons;
• say what, if anything, we accept;
• explain any remedy we propose;
• identify anything we have not upheld and why;
• tell you how to take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are eligible and remain dissatisfied; and
• confirm that it is our final response and that our internal complaints procedure is complete.

Where a complaint is upheld in whole or in part, the remedy will depend on the circumstances. It may include an apology, an explanation, correcting or completing work, prioritising an issue, reducing or refunding fees, paying compensation where that is the fair outcome, or changing how we do things. No particular remedy is automatic.

After our final response

We do not operate a separate internal appeal, and our final response will ordinarily bring our internal complaints procedure to an end. If you disagree with our conclusions, the Legal Ombudsman provides the independent review, and you can approach it directly if you are eligible.

Disagreement with our conclusions does not by itself lead to a fresh internal investigation, and correspondence that repeats or re-argues points we have already considered will not ordinarily receive a further substantive response, although we will always read what you send us.

We may, at our discretion, look again at a matter after our final response, for example where significant genuinely new evidence emerges, where a material factual error is identified, where it appears we misunderstood part of your complaint, or where a regulatory issue requires further consideration. If we decide to do that we will tell you. This is a discretion we retain in the interests of fairness, and it does not give rise to a right to an internal appeal or to a second investigation.

If we do revisit a matter, please note that the Legal Ombudsman’s time limits run from the date of our final response, so you should not delay contacting the Ombudsman while we consider anything further.

If you remain dissatisfied: the Legal Ombudsman

If you are unhappy with our final response, or if eight weeks have passed since you first complained to us and we have not resolved matters, you may be able to ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint.

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Time limits

If you wish to use the Ombudsman you must ordinarily refer your complaint:

• within six months of the date of our final response; and
• no more than one year from the act or omission you are complaining about, or one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

The Ombudsman has a discretion to extend these limits where it considers it fair to do so, but you should not rely on that.

Eligibility

The Ombudsman cannot help everyone. Its scheme is generally open to individuals, very small businesses, charities and clubs with an annual income of less than £1 million, trustees of trusts with assets of less than £1 million, and personal representatives or beneficiaries of an estate. If you are unsure whether you are eligible, the Ombudsman can tell you.

Complaints about your bill

If you are unhappy about a bill, please tell us. We will consider it under this procedure in the same way as any other complaint, and we can reduce or refund fees where that is the fair outcome.

You may also have the right to apply to the court for an assessment of our bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Strict time limits apply, and your rights may be more limited if you delay or if the bill has been paid. The Legal Ombudsman may decline to deal with a complaint about a bill where a court is dealing with, or has dealt with, the same issue. Because choosing one route can affect the other, please ask us or take independent advice before deciding.

Concerns about professional conduct

The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints about the service we have provided and, in most cases, about our fees. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is our regulator and deals with serious concerns about professional conduct, such as dishonesty, the misuse of client money, or discrimination.

The SRA does not resolve individual service complaints and cannot award you compensation or a refund.

Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN
Telephone: 0370 606 2555
Website: www.sra.org.uk/report

Complaints about your personal data

If your concern is about how we have handled your personal data, including disclosure, accuracy, retention, security, marketing, or how we have dealt with a subject access request or other privacy right, please contact our Data Protection Lead at Commerce House, 21 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3TP or admin@jonathanlea.net. We will acknowledge your concern, investigate it and aim to respond within one month.

You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk at any time, including before raising the matter with us.

Where your concern involves both data protection and the legal services we provided, we will normally deal with it as a single complaint under this procedure and cover both aspects in one final response. Doing so does not create an additional stage of review, and it does not affect your right to complain to the Information Commissioner.

Complaints and potential claims

Occasionally a complaint raises, or may raise, an allegation that we have been negligent. Where that is the case we may need to notify our professional indemnity insurers and take account of their position, and there may be limits on what we can say while we do so. We will tell you if that affects how we respond to you.

Nothing in this procedure affects your legal rights, and this procedure is not a substitute for independent legal advice about any potential claim.

Complaints while your matter is ongoing

Making a complaint will not affect how we deal with your matter, and we will continue to act for you in the normal way.

Very occasionally the relationship between a solicitor and a client breaks down to the point where we cannot properly continue to act. If that happens we will tell you, explain why, and give you reasonable notice and reasonable assistance in moving your matter. Our professional obligations, and our rights under our terms of business, including in relation to conflicts of interest and unpaid fees, are unaffected by this procedure.

Records and confidentiality

We record all complaints centrally, including those resolved in a single telephone call, so that we can identify recurring issues and improve our service. The complaints record is reviewed regularly by our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice.

We handle complaints in confidence and in accordance with our privacy policy. We keep complaint records for the period set out in that policy.

Accessibility and reasonable adjustments

Please tell us if you need this procedure, or any part of the complaints process, in a different format, or if you would like us to communicate with you in a particular way. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure you can use this procedure.