APJ are committed to providing a first-class legal service to all our clients. However, we recognise that on occasions things may not go as planned. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it in order to help us improve our standards. Molissa Hughes is our designated complaints handling person with overall responsibility for complaints. She can be contacted at compliance@apjsolicitors.co.uk or by post at Anthony Philip James & Co Limited, Pure Offices, Lakeview 600, Lakeside Drive, Centre Park Square, Warrington, WA1 1RW.
The Complaints Process
Query / Concern If you are a client or other interested party and have any queries or concerns about the way in which the matter is being handled, please raise it, in the first instance, with the Fee Earner dealing with the file. We aim to provide you with a response to your concern within 21 business days.
If the Fee Earner is unable to deal with your concern to your satisfaction, you may then ask that the matter be formally investigated under our Complaints Procedure Stages 1 to 3 detailed below.
Stage 1 If your concern has not been addressed to your satisfaction by your Fee Earner, then please write to or email their supervisor, who will conduct an independent investigation of the complaint. You will find the Supervisor’s details in your initial paperwork or through your Fee Earner. If you are unable to locate this information you can contact Molissa Hughes by emailing compliance@apjsolicitors.co.uk
Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 business days and a written response will be provided within 21 business days of the acknowledgment to your complaint being received under stage 1 of the process.
Stage 2 If the complaint remains unresolved, it will, at your request be escalated to David Goodall, a Director at APJ Solicitors. The complaint will be reviewed, and further investigations may be carried out, if deemed necessary. We will write to you within 14 business days of receiving your request for review at Stage 2 of the process, to confirm our response to your complaint and explain our reasons.
Stage 3 Should you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of our decision at Stage 2 of the process, you may escalate your complaint to Molissa Hughes, our designated complaints handling person via compliance@apjsolicitors.co.uk. Molissa Hughes shall consider any existing information relating to your complaint, who may consider it necessary to undertake further investigations. We shall write to you with our final response to your complaint within 14 business days of receiving your request to escalate your complaint to Stage 3 of the process. Kindly note that should you wish to bring a formal complaint that we have eight weeks to consider a client’s complaint. Following our final response or, if your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your matter.
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 must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
- within six months of the date of our final written response to your complaint;
and
- no more than one year from the date of act/omission; or
- no more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
As stated above currently 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 of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the written final response.
If we are unable to meet any of the timescales noted above, we will let you know and explain why.
Contact Details:
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, you can contact them at:
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm.
NGT Lite: 18001 0300 555 0333
Minicom text phone: 18002 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Postal: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Alternative Complaints Bodies:
Other complaints bodies, known as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers, exist, such as Pro Mediate (www.promediate.co.uk) and Small Claims Mediation (www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk) which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm agree to use such a scheme. You can find out more about ADR online. Please note that some of these schemes charge for their services. We have however, chosen not to adopt an ADR process as we believe the Legal Ombudsman scheme is the most suitable body for complaints about legal services in England and Wales, and you should therefore contact the Legal Ombudsman.
We will fully co-operate with the Legal Ombudsman should you choose to contact them.
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.
Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/
What will it cost?
You will not be charged for our work investigating a complaint made by you.
Please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on a 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 within our Terms and Conditions of Business.
The Legal Ombudsman service is free of charge.
Special Requirements
If because of a special need, you require us to deal with your complaint or communicate with you in a particular way please let us know so that in as far as is practicable, this may be accommodated.