All Solicitors must attempt to resolve concerns that may arise with their services. It is important to us that any problem is raised and resolved immediately.
The details of the person (case worker) conducting your case will be confirmed within our client care letter. The Law Society requires a supervisor/principal to be allocated to each case. Unless otherwise notified Gerry Di Piazza is the principal in all cases.
Any queries or concerns about our work should be raised with the case worker of if you would prefer not to speak to the case worker, please contact the case supervisor. In the event matters cannot be resolved please write to the Client Care Director Gavin Keogh at DP Cameron Solicitors 1st Floor, 43a Topsfield Parade, London N8 8PT. The letter should contain as much detail regarding the complaint as possible together with copies of any relevant documentation. Thereafter, Mr Keogh will investigate the complaint and report the outcome together with any actions to remedy the problem.
Our Complaints Policy
If you have a complaint, contact the Client Care and Complaints Director Gavin Keogh by letter with the details.
What will happen next?
- We will send you correspondence acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out . We will aim to send to you our correspondence within four working days of receiving your complaint.
- We will record your complaint within a central register and open a separate file for your
complaint. Ordinarily, we will do this within two working days of receiving your complaint. - We will acknowledge your reply to our correspondence and confirm what will
happen next. You can expect to hear from us within five working days of your reply. - We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following
steps:- (i) The case worker will be asked to respond to your letter of complaint and supply any relevant documents (case papers) within five working days. The response will be considered and discussed between the case worker and Complaints Director which may also involve the case supervisor within the following five working days.
- (ii) The Complaints Director will then send a written explanation in response to your complaint and any suggested remedies to resolve matters as quickly as possible. Alternatively you will be invited to attend a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve matters. This will ordinarily take up to five working days after stage (i) above.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again by letter and we will review the position and respond in writing within five working days of receiving your letter.
- In the event matters cannot be resolved despite the complaints procedure, or if you do not wish to implement the procedure you are entitled to contact the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates problems about service from lawyers. 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 can 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 9am to 5pm
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Post to Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Who can make a complaint
A complainant to the Legal Ombudsman must be a client and satisfy one of the following:
- An individual;
- A micro-enterprise as defined in European Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (broadly, an enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet value not exceeding €2 million);
- A charity with an annual income less than £1 million;
- A club, association or society with an annual income less than £1 million;
- A trustee of a trust with a net asset value less than £1 million; or a personal representative or the residuary beneficiaries of an estate where a person with a complaint died before referring it to the Legal Ombudsman.
If you do not fall into any of these categories, you should be aware that you can only obtain redress by using our Complaints Handling Procedure or by mediation or arbitration, or by taking action through the Courts.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
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.
Please note that we do not agree to use Ombudsman Services.
Reports to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the SRA)
The SRA attend to matters where firms or those that the SRA regulate have breached the SRA Principles. Complains that related to poor service should be directed to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks that your case involves a breach of the SRA Principles (which can be found on the SRA website), they will refer your case to the SRA. Likewise, if you report a solicitor for poor service, The SRA will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman;
The SRA do not have the ability to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees.
However you can you report the matter directly to the SRA if you think a firm or anyone regulated by the SRA has breached an SRA Principle
You can also report a firm or someone regulated by the SRA for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent or expert fees) if
- you have a County Court judgment in respect of the fee, and
- the judgment relates to the practice in connection with providing a legal service.
There are some issues The SRA do not investigate however the SRA always do consider allegations of dishonesty or discrimination.
If the SRA have closed a firm and you believe that the firm owes you money, you may be able to make a claim from the SRA Compensation Fund.
Continual improvement
We seek at all times to give our clients the best possible service. Your service issue or complaint will be recorded on our central register and will be used to improve our service to our clients by identifying the cause of any problems and correcting unsatisfactory procedures. Please be assured that we very much value both your business and your feedback.
If we have to change the timescale for the complaints procedure, we will let you know and explain why.
Mr Gavin Keogh, based at our Crouch End office at 1st Floor, 43a Topsfield Parade, London N8 8PT (Tel: 0208 341 6700) will assist with the administration of the complaints procedure. Please contact him directly (0203 213 0670 / gavink@dpcameron.co.uk) if you require any further information or clarification.