We at Jackson Quinn are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to continue to improve our standards of client care. We are committed to this.
If you have a complaint please advise the fee earner who has conduct of your case immediately on the basis that any issues raised by you can be resolved as quickly and as smoothly if possible. If you feel unable to raise the matter with the fee earner for whatever reason then please contact the fee earner’s supervisor heading the communication complaint and giving as much information as possible of the complaint in order that the supervisor can investigate the matter quickly and respond to you. If you are not able to send a letter then please telephone and ask to speak to the supervisor of the fee earner involved. The supervisor will then agree a way forward with you and a timescale. If it is not possible to resolve your complaint directly with the fee earner or supervisor you can, at any time, contact the Client Care Partner (Miss Lucy Camm). You can contact her at Jackson Quinn Solicitors, 11 Watson Road, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 2BA; e-mail l.camm@jacksonquinn.com, telephone 01909 480066. The Client Care Partner will pass your complaint to the Partner in charge of the department involved in your complaint and request sight of the file and ask for further details from the fee earner involved.
1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the specific areas of concern if necessary. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 2 days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
3. We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm what will happen next. We will suggest a timetable for resolution of the matter or if we have sufficient information deal with the complaint immediately with explanation and suggest a way forward to resolution if appropriate or possible at this stage. In any event we will provide a substantial response within 21 days of receiving your communication.
4. When we investigate your complaint this may involve one or more of the following steps:-
(i) We will ask the member of staff who has acted for you to present your file to the client care partner immediately on receipt of the complaint, and to provide a detailed factual response to those areas of concern raised by you.
(ii) The client care partner will then examine the file and the information in your complaint. The client care partner may ask for more information either from you or the fee earner involved.
(iii) We may invite you to meet with the Client Care Partner to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
(iv) Within 2 days of the meeting if one takes place we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
(v) If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. This will happen in any event within 21 days of receiving your complaint unless we have mutually agreed another timetable
5. At this stage if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen as follows:-
We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 5 days of the request for a review. This will usually be the Practice Manager who is not a lawyer but who is responsible for the running of the practice and is well aware of Jackson Quinn’s high standards of client care. She will discuss the matter with the Client Care Partner who is responsible for complaints across the practice and you will be advised of the review decision within 5 days of the end of the review process.
6. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. Once you have made a complaint, we will deal with it in the timescales detailed above, unless we have mutually agreed another timetable. If we have to change any of the time scales above we will let you know and explain why. We have up to 8 weeks to respond fully to your complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints if you are unhappy with the level of service that Jackson Quinn have provided you with. This could be in respect of any number of issues, but some examples include not replying to your emails, letters or calls, losing documents, giving you unclear advice, charging you an amount you are not happy with, not explaining issues properly so you do not understand or delays and the time it has taken for work to be done.
Before you can make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must firstly make a complaint to us, in the hope that we can resolve it with you. You have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of the complaints process, if the complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within 8 weeks of it being made to ourselves, or if we have failed to respond to you within 8 weeks.
In certain circumstances, the ombudsman may consider that there are exceptional reasons for him to consider your complaint sooner, or without it having been made first to ourselves. On occasions, the ombudsman may consider that in house resolution of your complaint may not be possible due to the irretrievable breakdown of the relationship between you and ourselves.
From 1st April 2023, the time limit for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman has changed and a complaint can only be referred to the ombudsman one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about or one year from the date when the complainant should have realised there was cause for complaint. The time limit rule that requires complainants to make a complaint to the ombudsman within six months of the date of the final complaint response has not changed. The ombudsman do still allow themselves discretion to accept complaints out of time in circumstances where they determine it fair and reasonable to do so.
If your complaint does not meet these timescales then the Legal Ombudsman may not be able to investigate it. A final response is when we have nothing further to say and we tell you that if you are still unhappy you can contact the Legal Ombudsman.
The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at PO Box 6167, Slough,
SL1 0EH, by telephone on 0300 5550333, or by e-mail on enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) could help you if you think that we have been dishonest in our dealings with you, or if you have concerns about our behaviour or conduct. Examples include dishonesty or deliberately over charging you, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
Jackson Quinn are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority the SRA. There are seven principle that all law firms regulated by the SRA must meet which are as follows:-
1. They must act in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law and the proper administration of justice
2. They must act in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors profession and in legal services by authorised persons
3. They must act with independence
4. They must act with honesty
5. They must act with integrity
6. They must act in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
7. They must act in the best interests of each client.
The SRA deals with cases when concerns are raised that the principles set out above have not been followed. The SRA also has a Code of Conduct which all legal firms must follow.
If your concern relates to a breach of one of the above principles, it is open to you to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SRA are unable to consider complaints about the service you have received from us but are able to investigate when a concern relates to an alleged breach of a principle.
The SRA can be contacted at:- The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN, by telephone on 0370 606 2555 or by email at:-- report@sra.org.uk
Remember, a Solicitor may not give you the legal advice you want to hear or a Court decision may go against you.