HS LAW SOLICITORS & NOTARIESComplaints Handling Procedure
HS Law Solicitors and Notaries are committed to 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. If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you, then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.
If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.
What will happen next?
1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of our complaint procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. Since, I am Principal (MR HARI SINGH) of this law firm, therefore I will be responsible to deal with the complaints. Thus, I will review your matter and, if appropriate, speak to member of staff who might have done some work on your file.
3. After investigating the complaint I will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. I will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. Within three days of the meeting, I will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions I have agreed with you.
5. If you do not want a meeting, or it is not possible, I will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including my suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange an independent, local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five days should you give us your permission to release your data to them. We will let you know how long this process will take.
7. 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.
8. If we are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you may be able to have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman.
9. The Legal Ombudsman will accept complaint from an individual client, and will investigate a complaint about poor service on behalf of eligible individual or organisation(s).
10. The Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six months from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out the problem. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman this must be done within six months of our final response to your complaint. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm.
Do not send your original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any document you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.
11. Any complaint to the LeO must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response to your complaint. You should also be aware that the Ombudsman will consider your complaint if your refer it on to them within either of the following:
·
- One year from the date of the act or omission being complained about;
OR
- One year from the datewhen you sould reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
The Ombudsman has discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific customers, if on the evidence, it is fair and reasonable to do so.
Please note that LeO service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the LeO WebsiteSolicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
12. If you think that a Solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about his ethnics or integrity, you have the right to notify to 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. However, the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of such nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). When reporting, you should set out your concerns clearly, identify individual(s) you considered responsible and enclosed any evidence in support of your claim. You can email your complaint to the SRA at contactcentre@sra.org.uk
13. If we have to change any of the timescales above, will let you know and explain why.
14. We will not charge any fee for handling your complaint.
15. Your Data Information
During the process of your complaint, personal and sensitive data is required to ensure that all our information is correct so we can handle your complaint in a timely and lawful matter.
Any documentation, requests, evidence and associate notes etc will be stored on the matter file to which access is restricted. This information will be kept in line with the firm’s retention policy and subsequently deleted after this time.
If you raise complaint with the Leo, we will be required to provide them with supporting documentation from your matter so we can, in turn, copy with our legal obligations to them.
16. For further information about our complaint procedure, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Hari Singh on 020 3264 2130 and hsingh@hslawsolicitors.com or by post to HS Law Solicitors and Notaries, 90A The Broadway, Southall, Middlesex UB1 1QF.
