Regulation of Legal Services

HSR Solicitors is a member of The Law Society of England and Wales. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of The Law Society. The Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling arm of The Law Society. HSR Solicitors is recognised as a professional body by, and regulated by, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. HSR Solicitors, its partners and employees are governed by the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct. The Code can be viewed on the website of the Solicitors Regulation Authority www.sra.org.uk

Our Complaints Policy

It is important to us that we provide services of the highest quality to all our clients. We aim to ensure that any complaints that clients may have are identified and dealt with in accordance with this procedure.

Our Complaints Procedure

You can register your complaint with the person dealing with your matter or the Practice Manager, who is responsible for ensuring that complaints are handled effectively and in accordance with this procedure.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of your raising your concerns, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care partner, Mr Rana, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. Mr Rana will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. Within three days of the meeting, Mr Rana will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
  5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr Rana will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter we may at this stage arrange for another partner to review the decision.
  7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

Taking Matters Further

If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH; or call 0300 555 0333 about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 6 months of your receiving a final written response from us regarding your complaint. 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.

Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal Complaints Procedure has been exhausted.

The Legal Ombudsman has provided further guidance on its service at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Alternative complaints bodies such as ProMediate http://www.promediate.co.uk/ exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not agree to use ProMediate or any alternative complaints body.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

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 our final response to you.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can also help you if you are concerned about our conduct. 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. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Their contact details can be found at: www.sra.org.uk or by telephone on 0370 606 2555