Complaints Procedure
We aim to offer you an efficient and expedient service. If you have a complaint about our service or about your bill, please try and resolve it with the lawyer handling your case. If you do not feel that he or she has dealt with your complaint satisfactorily, please contact the client care manager.
If you then feel that we have still not dealt with your complaint satisfactorily, please contact the complaints officer.
The name of the client care manager is in the Terms & Conditions of Business and repeated in the initial letter we send to you to explain what we will be doing for you and how much we will charge you. (We call this a ’client care letter’.) If you do not have these details to hand, please see the relevant details below:
Mustafa Barak, Client Care Manager
Saffron Solicitors
Castle Cavendish Works
Dorking Road
Nottingham
NG7 5PN
or email mustafa@saffronsolicitors.com
When we receive your complaint we will let you know, within seven days, that we have received it and we will investigate it within 28 days. At this point we will write to you with the results of our investigation.
If after that you are not satisfied with the way we have handled your complaint you may be able to ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. This applies if you are an individual, a business with less than 10 employees, a charity or trust with a net income of less than £1m, or if you fall within certain other categories (you can find out more from the Legal Ombudsman). You can write to them at:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
or telephone them on 0300 555 0333
website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
The time limits for the Legal Ombudsman accepting a complaint are six years from the date of the act (or failure to act) or three years from when you should have known about the complaint. You must complain to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of you receiving a final response from us about your complaint.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you 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 another characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
If we are not able to settle your complaint and it relates to a contract we entered into with you online or by other electronic means, you may be able to send your complaint to a certified alternative dispute resolution (ADR’) provider in the UK using the EU ODR platform.
The ODR platform, which is available for disputes in the UK and abroad, is an interactive website for consumers and traders who want to sort out disputes relating to online contracts for goods or services. The website address for the ODR platform is http://ec.europa.eu/odr/