When a party fails to disclose assets in divorce proceedings, the courts are entitled to draw appropriate inferences from the non-disclosure. This was demonstrated in a recent case in which the Family Court described the husband's conduct of the...
Complaints Procedure
How do we define a complaint?
“A complaint is any expression of customer dissatisfaction however it is expressed which the person with conduct of the file is unable to resolve immediately.”
About our Complaints Procedure
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. We treat complaints very seriously and make every effort to deal with them effectively. (You will not be charged for any of the stages outlined below).
If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.
What will happen next?
At first it would be helpful if you could discuss any feedback or concerns which you have about our service or how it might be improved with the lawyer dealing with your matter. If the lawyer dealing with your matter cannot resolve your concern informally, or if the issue is of such a serious nature that you do not feel comfortable raising it with your lawyer, you can make a formal complaint to our Client Care Director, Richard Kerry, who is also our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice. Richard can be contacted on 0121 362 7566 or richard.kerry@belllax.com
Upon receipt of your complaint:
- We aim to send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to Richard Kerry. If Richard has had involvement with your matter previously, we will pass your complaint to one of our other Directors who has not been involved in your matter. One of them will review your matter file and speak to the members of staff who acted for you
We will then either:
- Invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. 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 we have agreed with you.
- Send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our 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 one of our other Directors or Consultants, or someone unconnected with the matter to review the decision.
We will contact you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman, who are the independent complaints body for complaints about lawyers. The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and, again, it will not affect how we handle your matter.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation though, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than:
One year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
Within one year of you realising there was a concern about our service.
You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.
Contact details
Web: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Tel: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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.
Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
