Complaints
At Cross Border Legal Solicitors we are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it so that we can resolve the problem and continually improve our standards.
Our Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact the person who has the conduct of your case in the first instance.
What will happen next?
- Within seven days of receiving your complaint, we will send you a letter acknowledging receipt. We will provide details of who will be dealing with your complaint, and when you can expect to have a response. It may be necessary at this stage to ask you for more information, or to invite you to meet with us to discuss your complaint.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and will investigate your complaint by reviewing the relevant file and the issues you raise. The member of staff who acted for you may be required to provide further details.
- We will then provide you with a detailed written response to your complaint, this may include our suggestions for resolving the matter. We will aim to do this within fourteen days of acknowledging your letter. If your complaint is very detailed, or your matter has been very complex, it may take us longer to complete a review and to respond to you, but we will keep you advised if this is the case. Once again, it may be necessary to ask you to come in and meet with us in order to discuss your complaint before we are able to respond fully.
- Within seven days of any meeting we have with you, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions we have agreed with you.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 14 days.
- We will then write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will endeavour to do this within eight weeks of receiving your complaint unless there are exceptional reasons why we cannot, and we will keep you advised if this is the case.
Complaining to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about us
For some types of complaints about solicitors, you may contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA). The SRA is the regulatory body which regulates solicitor firms in the UK.
We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance, contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to deal with any issue. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure listed above. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, 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:
- Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
and
- No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
- No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.
Contact details
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can also 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.