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Home / Complaints

Complaints

When things go wrong you have a right to complain. Here’s how to raise a concern with us, how we’ll handle it and what to do if you’re still not satisfied.

Introduction

We are committed to providing all of our clients with a very high level of service but we accept that occasionally things go wrong and clients are left feeling that we have let them down.

When this happens you have a right to complain and we are committed to responding to you promptly and fairly.

Who should I complain to?

You should initially raise any problems with the case manager having day to day conduct of your case, and then if necessary with Michelle Peters. You can email her at michelle.peters@tqlaw.legal.

How will my complaint be handled?

  • We are a modern law firm and our success is based on the positive professional relationships we build with most of our clients.
  • We are not ‘stuffy’ or ‘remote’ lawyers and we like to sort problems out quickly and efficiently.
  • We will deal with your complaint by letter or email.

How long will you take to reply to my complaint?

  • We will respond to any correspondence within the following timescales (or sooner if we can).
  • We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days.
  • We will provide a detailed response to your complaint within 28 days.

What if there are delays?

If there are exceptional circumstances which mean that we cannot meet these timescales we will still write to you within five working days of receipt of your written complaint or of the date of any detailed discussion and explain fully why we are not able to give you a detailed written response.

This could happen, for example, if we have to wait for information from a third party that is in some way involved before we are able to write back to you properly.

In any event we will keep you fully informed about what is happening and will explain all delays to you as soon as we can.

Will it cost anything?

We will not charge you for any time we spend investigating any complaint you make about our service.

What is your firm’s attitude towards complaints?

  • We will take your complaint seriously and investigate it thoroughly because we want to fully understand why you feel dissatisfied.
  • We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your dissatisfaction is addressed and resolved wherever possible and that any root causes are eliminated.
  • We will apologise if we get things wrong and we will try to offer appropriate redress to you.
  • We will learn from our mistakes.

What if I am still not satisfied?

You can take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. You will have six months to do this from the date of our final response.

Legal Ombudsman

Helpline: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

If you make a valid claim against us for a loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the Compensation Fund administered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (from whom details can be obtained). Alternative complaints bodies, such as Ombudsman Services (www.ombudsman-services.org), exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. We agree to use Ombudsman Services.

You can also use the Ombudsman service if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks of us receiving it.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check:

  1. you have tried to resolve the complaint with us in the first instance; and
  2. you have suffered significant financial loss, distress, inconvenience or detriment, which deems it proportionate for them to investigate.

The time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be not later than:

  • One year from the act/omission; or
  • One year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; or
  • Six months from the date of the final response.

Please note, the six month rule only applies if:

  • The final response makes it clear the complainant is able to refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman should they remain dissatisfied;
  • Full contact details are provided for the Legal Ombudsman (phone number, email address, postal address and website);
  • It has been explicitly stated that they have 6 months to refer their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the written response.

The Legal Ombudsman will retain the ability to apply Rule 4.7, which allows an Ombudsman to exercise discretion to extend the 1 year time limit for specific customers if, on the evidence, it was fair and reasonable to do so.

The ombudsman deals with service-related complaints; any conduct-related complaints will be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations, unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman’s website (see above).

It is worth considering, whilst it is open to you to submit a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, they apply strict criteria to determine whether they will ultimately accept a complaint for a full investigation. They have the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of a complaint if they believe:

  1. it does not have any reasonable prospects of success.
  2. you have not suffered (and are unlikely to suffer) significant financial loss, distress, inconvenience or detriment.
  3. it is frivolous, vexatious, lacks merit or where there is a compelling reason not to accept it.
  4. the likely impact, size, complexity, scope, volume of evidence or your conduct render it disproportionate / unreasonable / impossible for the complaint to be investigated.
  5. you have previously complained about the same issue to them, unless you provide material evidence that is likely to affect the outcome which only became available to you after you submitted the original complaint.
  6. there has been undue delay in the complaint being raised.

Also note:

  1. If, during the course of an ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman, a revised/increased offer is made by us which is deemed to be fair and reasonable redress and you decide to reject that offer, the Ombudsman has the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of your complaint.
  2. If you have already accepted an offer to settle your complaint made by us during our internal complaint handling process, which is deemed to be fair and reasonable redress, unless there has been some significant intervening act, you will not be able to have that agreement overturned in the hope of securing a preferential outcome by pursuing your complaint via the Ombudsman.

For more information on the Legal Ombudsman’s rules and requirements, please see their Scheme Rules dated April 2023.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) 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.

Visit the following page of their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the SRA: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

For guidance on the complaints process, call the SRA Contact Centre

Solicitors Regulation Authority – Contact Centre
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
DX 720293 BIRMINGHAM 47

Phone: 0370 606 2555
Email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk
Opening hours: 08.00 to 17.00