Complaints Policy and Procedure
1. About this Procedure
1.1 We are committed to providing the very highest quality of legal services to all of our clients. If something goes
wrong we want you to tell us about it so that we can address the issue with you and resolve the matter to your
satisfaction.
2. How to Make a Complaint
2.1 If you are unhappy with any aspect of the service which you have received or the costs which you have been
charged, you can raise your concerns immediately with the person who has had conduct of your matter, their
manager or the supervising solicitor. Their contact details are in the Letter of Engagement signed by you upon our
instruction.
2.2 If your complaint relates to another employee or a manager, we understand that you may wish to contact the
supervising solicitor, Natalie Foster, directly.
2.3 If you have already raised concerns and are not satisfied with the response received, we would encourage you to
contact Client Care directly to investigate fully.
3 Form of Complaint: Conduct
3.1 If you wish for your complaint to be formally investigated, we require your concerns to be set out in writing and to
include:
3.1.1 Your full name and contact details;
3.1.2 Details of where you feel we failed to act appropriately, including names, dates and specific details;
3.1.3 What you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint; and
3.1.4 The file reference number connected to the matter concerned.
3.2 All complaints should be sent to:
Natalie Foster
Complaints Team
Inspire Legal Group
32 Queen Street
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 1HD
Alternatively, you can e-mail: clientcare@inspirelegalgroup.co.uk
Please mark your correspondence ‘Private & Confidential’ as all our post is opened by employees in the office upon
receipt, unless marked ‘Private & Confidential’.
4 Form of Complaint: Costs
4.1 If your complaint concerns costs, please follow the process set out at (3) above and include with your complaint
the invoice number(s) concerned.
5 What Happens Next?
5.1 Within one week of receiving your formal complaint in writing, we will send you a written acknowledgement
together with a copy of this procedure.
5.2 Responsibility for investigating your complaint will be assigned to the member of the firm best placed to carry out
the investigation. They will usually review the file and speak to those who carried out the work.
5.3 If appropriate, you may be invited to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. If we propose a
meeting you will be contacted within two weeks of the sending of the acknowledgement letter. If a meeting takes
place, we write to you within one week after it takes place confirming what took place and setting out any solutions
which were agreed with you.
5.4 If we seek to resolve the matter without the meeting, or if you advise you do not wish to attend a meeting, once
our investigation is complete we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our findings and
our suggestions for resolving the matter. We would normally expect to send this response to you within six weeks
of sending you the original acknowledgement letter (sent in 5.1 above). If, for any reason, we are not able to send
you a full response within that period, we will write to you with an update and advise when we do expect to be
able to write to you again.
6 Legal Ombudsman
6.1 If you are unhappy with our findings, following our final decision, you may have a right to refer your complaint to
the Legal Ombudsman.
6.2 The Legal Ombudsman is an independent organisation with powers to resolve complaints about legal services when
issues have not been resolved between an individual and their lawyer.
6.3 In order to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman you must:
6.3.1 be a member of the public or a very small business, charity, club or trust; and
6.3.2 make your complaint within six months of our final decision; or
6.3.3 within one year of the act or omission which are you complaining about (or within one years of becoming
aware of it).
6.4 You can contact the Legal Ombudsman here:
The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
0300 555 0333
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
6.5 The Legal Ombudsman will not normally accept a complaint for investigation unless eight weeks have passed since
you first raised your complaint with us. This is to allow us the opportunity to deal with your concerns.
6.6 You may make a complaint at any time within six months of our final decision about your complaint. If you do not
refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within that six month period, then your complaint may not be
accepted by the Legal Ombudsman.
6.7 You may also lose your right to refer a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if more than one year has passed since
the event(s) about which you wish to complain, or if more than one year has passed since you should have realised
that you had a possible complaint. It is important that you act promptly if you think you are entitled to refer a
complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
6.8 Alternative complaints bodies such as ProMediate (http://www.promediate.co.uk/) and Small Claims Mediation
(scmreferrals@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk/ 0300 123 4593) 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] such alternative mechanisms.
7 Costs Complaint: Court Assessment & Legal Ombudsman
7.1 Should, for any reason, we not be able to resolve your concern as to the costs you do have the right to apply to the
Court for an Assessment of Costs under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Please note, however, that the Legal
Ombudsman may decide not to consider any complaint you may have about an invoice which has already been
referred to the Court for an Assessment of Costs.
8 Solicitors Regulation Authority
8.1 If your concern relates to our conduct, you may wish to make a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
8.2 You can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority here:
SRA Report
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
DX 720293 Birmingham 47
03706062555
report@sra.org.uk
www.sra.org.uk
