Complaints Policy

Our complaints procedure

We 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 so that we can put matters right as quickly and effectively as possible. Also, this will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint about any aspect of the service you have received or about a bill, please contact us on complaints@harcusparker.co.uk with a short summary of your complaint.

If you have a data protection complaint, you can complain to us on the above email or otherwise to privacy@harcusparker.co.uk – refer to our Privacy Policy for further information.

What will happen next?

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and provide you with a copy of this procedure. At the same time, if we need further information from you to enable us to deal with your complaint, we will let you know.

We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the firm’s Complaints Partner, Damon Parker, Chief Operating Officer, Jacqueline Young, or another partner in the firm, who will conduct an investigation by reviewing your matter file and speaking to the partner and other members of staff who have been acting for you.

Mr Parker, Ms Young, or another partner of the firm, will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, normally within 21 days of sending you our acknowledgement of your complaint or, if we have asked you for further information in order that we can deal with your complaint, within 21 days from receiving that information. At the same time, you may be invited to a meeting to discuss, and hopefully resolve, your complaint. If complex issues are involved, then we will agree with you a realistic and fair timeframe for us to resolve your complaint satisfactorily.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and aim to resolve it as quickly as possible. We have up to eight weeks to consider your complaint and provide our final response.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint within that timeframe, or if you remain dissatisfied after receiving our final response, you may be able to ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman is an independent organisation that helps resolve complaints about legal services. Their service is free to use and will not affect how we handle your matter.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted as follows:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response to your complaint.

Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must also usually be made within one year of the act or omission you are complaining about, or within one year of the date when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

For further information about eligibility and time limits, please visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help if you are concerned about our conduct or behaviour. This may include concerns about dishonesty, misuse of client money, discrimination, or other breaches of the SRA Standards and Regulations.

The SRA does not usually deal with complaints about the quality of service provided by a law firm. Those complaints should normally be directed to the Legal Ombudsman.

Further information about raising concerns with the SRA can be found at:

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor

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