We acknowledge that we may not always get it right, so if something has gone wrong, including in relation to our charges, we need you to tell us. This will help us to improve our standards of service.
How do I make a complaint?
You can contact us in writing by letter or email or by telephone. We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
Please note; if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding. This is explained in our Terms of Business.
If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you, then please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.
In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and they will do their best to resolve any issues. If you do not feel able to discuss your concerns with them, please contact the person responsible for the overall supervision of your matter, who will be named in the client care letter we sent you at the beginning of your matter.
If you do not feel able to raise your concerns with either of these people, or you are unsatisfied with their response, please contact Miss Caroline Wright who has overall responsibility for complaints and whose contact details are:
Miss Caroline Wright
Director/COLP
Baker Street Legal Limited
3rd Floor
Eastgate
Castle Street
Castlefield
Manchester
M3 4LZ
complaints@bakerstreetlegal.co.uk
To help us to understand your complaint, and to help us deal with the matter in a timely manner please provide the following;
- your full name and contact details;
- your file reference number (if you have it);
- what you think we have done wrong; and
- how you would like your complaint to be resolved
How will you deal with my complaint?
We will write to you within three working days acknowledging your complaint.
We will investigate your complaint. This will usually involve:
- a full review of your complaint;
- reviewing your file(s) and other relevant documents; and
- liaising with the person who dealt with your matter.
We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.
We may also, if appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. This does not have to be a face-to-face meeting, we will be happy to discuss the matter with you by telephone.
We will write to you at the end of our investigation to tell you what we have done, what are our findings and what we propose to do to resolve your complaint. Where possible, we will aim to do this within 21 days of the date of our letter of acknowledgement.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we are unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. This applies if you are an individual, a business with fewer than 10 employees and turnover or assets not exceeding a certain threshold, 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 about these other categories by contacting the Legal Ombudsman service.
The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with solicitors and will look at your complaint independently. It will not affect how we handle your legal matter.
The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within;
- a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned; or
- within a year of you realising there was a concern; or
- within six months of our final response to you remains the same.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them using the contact details below.
Contact details
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00am and 5.00pm. Minicom number: 0300 555 1777
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
We have chosen not to adopt an ADR process. If, therefore, you wish to complain further, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman.
The Legal Ombudsman service is free of charge.
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(s).
Please visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
What will it cost?
We will not charge you for handling your complaint. Please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding. This is explained in our Terms of Business.