What Will Happen Next?
- Once you make it known to us that you have a complaint, we will endeavour within three days to send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.
- We will then record your complaint in our central register. We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.
- If appropriate we will then invite you to meet the fee earner who handled your matter and the Client Care manager to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write fully to you setting out my views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.
- Within three days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that 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 10 days. This will happen in one of the following ways.
- The client care partner will review his own decision
- We will arrange for another partner in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review the decision and your complaint.
- We will invite you to agree to independent mediation, if appropriate. This may take longer than 10 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
- We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
If you are still not satisfied, you have the right to contact the Legal Ombudsman (“LeO”), who have official powers to resolve complaint. Most complaints can be resolved informally. If needed, the LeO will carry out a formal investigation. As this could involve getting more information from us and from you, it may take longer to deal with.The LeO is an independent body with the power to resolve complaints about legal services when issues have not been resolved at firm level. Alternatively, you may apply to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1994. The LeO may not deal with a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of that bill. The LeO will not accept every complaint made to it. In order to file a complaint with the LeO you must be an individual or one of the following:
- an enterprise which, at the time at which the complaint was referred to the respondent, is a micro-enterprise within the meaning of Article 1 and Article 2(1) and (3) of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, as that Recommendation had effect at the date it was adopted;
- a charity with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million at the time at which the complainant refers the complaint to the respondent;
- a club, association or organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members or a committee or committees of its members, with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million at the time at which the complainant refers the complaint to the respondent;
- a trustee of a trust with an asset value of less than £1 million at the time at which the complainant refers the complaint to the respondent;
- a personal representative or beneficiary of an estate of a person who has subsequently died; and who had not by his or her death referred the complaint to the ombudsman scheme.
Ordinarily, you cannot use the LeO unless first you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure, referred to above. But you can use the LeO if:
- the complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks of being made to us; or
- the LeO considers that there are exceptional reasons to consider the complaint sooner, or without it having been made first to us; or
- where the LeO considers that in-house resolution is not possible due to irretrievable breakdown in the relationship between you and us.The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year from when you should have known about the complaint. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at:
Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
You can download a complaint form on the LeO website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk Alternative complaints bodies such as Ombudsman Services at www.ombudsman-services.org.uk exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. We state that we do not agree to use the Ombudsman Services Scheme.
We very much hope that we can resolve your complaint without involving the Legal Ombudsman. Ordinarily, you cannot use the LeO unless first you have exhausted our internal complaints procedure, referred to above.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Service issues will not be dealt with by the SRA. However, the SRA will investigate concerns about dishonesty or breaches of its Principles. For information on how and when a complaint can be made to the SRA, please click here.
The SRA can be contacted at:
Address: The Cube199 Wharfside Street Birmingham B1 1RN
Telephone: 0370 606 2555
Email: report@sra.org.uk
Complaint Procedure – GDPR/Data Breach
- Our Policy
You have the right to complain to us in the event you consider that Saracens Solicitors (a trading name of Saracens Solicitors Ltd) has breached the UK GDPR.
You will not be charged for any time spent handling your complaint.
You can request a copy of this Complaints Procedure at any time.
We will issue a copy of this Complaints Procedure:
- On request.
- When you raise a complaint.
- On our website.
We shall aim to deal with any complaint that we may receive promptly, fairly, openly, and effectively.
We will aim to issue a final response within 8 weeks of the date your complaint is received.
- Making a Complaint
If at any point you become aware of or believe the Firm has breached the UK GDPR or any other data protection law or regulations, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
You should raise your concerns with the Data Protection Officer, who is Fraz Butt, by emailing clientcare@saracenssolicitors.co.uk or writing to him at Saracens Solicitors, Thanet House, 231-232 Strand, Temple, London WC2R 1DA, or by telephoning 020 3588 3500.
Making a complaint will not affect our relationship with you.
If you need to make a complaint, you should:
- Complain as soon as possible.
- Provide your full name and contact details.
- Provide us with information for us to identify you.
- Be clear on what the issue is and how you would like it to be resolved.
- Wait for an acknowledgement within three working days.
- Our aim is to resolve all complaints within eight weeks from the date of receipt.
If you require any help in making your complaint, we will try to help you.
- Handling and Resolving a Complaint
We will write to you within three working days acknowledging your complaint.
We will investigate your complaint. This will usually involve:
- Reviewing your complaint.
- Reviewing any relevant documents.
- Liaising with those in the Firm who have engaged with you.
We may also need to ask you for further information or documents. If so, we will ask you to provide the information within a specified period.
We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.
We will provide you with a written outcome following an investigation into your complaint, outlining what we have done and what we propose to do to resolve it.
We will respond to your complaint in writing within 8 weeks of the date we receive it. If you are not happy with our outcome, or we have not acknowledged your complaint within three working days, or we have not responded with an outcome within 8 weeks, you can raise your complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the ICO will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have not, they are likely to reject your complaint and refer you to us.
If you would like more information about the ICO and its complaints procedure, please visit their website for guidance on how to complain: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/.
- The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
As a law firm, in addition to meeting the requirements of the UK GDPR, we are also required to meet the requirements of the LeO and SRA.
Therefore, if you do not wish to raise your complaint with the ICO and we have not provided you with an outcome of your complaint within eight weeks, you can also contact the Legal Ombudsman, provided that you fit one of the following categories:
- an individual.
- a business or enterprise that was a micro-enterprise (European Union definition) when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
- a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
- a club/association/organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members/a committee/a committee of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
- a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
- a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before he/she died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case. The Legal Ombudsman’s service is free of charge and can investigate complaints about the legal service you have received from us.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.
The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year from when you should have known about the complaint. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman will only extend these time limits if they determine it to be fair and reasonable to do so.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them as follows:
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Phone Number: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
For complaints that relate specifically to an alleged breach of the SRA Standards and Regulations including the SRA Accounts Rules, you should refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This could be for things like general misconduct, losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. The SRA will not investigate complaints about services provided by the Firm. They will refer such matters to the Legal Ombudsman.
Website: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/
Phone Number: 0370 606 2555 between 8am to 5pm. Except Tuesday 9:30am to 5pm.
Contact page: https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/
