Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients.  When something goes wrong, we should be grateful if you would tell us about it.  This will help us improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please first contact Dr Qazi Jalisi (qazi.jalisi@legal-fm.com), our Client Care Partner.  If we have to change any of the responsibilities or the timescales set out below, we will let you know and explain why.

What will happen next?

1.      Within three days we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details.  If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage.  We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint (“Reviewer”).

2.      We will then record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint.  We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.

3.      If appropriate, we will then invite you to meet and discuss and, hopefully, resolve your complaint.  We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint.  If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write fully to you setting out our views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.

4.      Within three days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you.  In appropriate cases we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.

5.      At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know.  We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 10 days. This will happen in one of the following ways.

  • The Reviewer will review his own decision.
  • We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
  • Dr Thaer Sabri, the Managing Partner, will review your complaint within 10 days.
  • We will ask our local law society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint.  We will let you know how long this process will take.
  • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation.  We will let you know how long this process will take.

6.      We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review.  At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.  

Legal Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint by contacting it:

  • By Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ, UK.
  • By Telephone: 0300 555 0333 – Monday-Friday between 08.30 and 17:30 (UK time).
  • Online: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman will only consider complaints from:

  • an individual;
  • a business or enterprise that is a micro-enterprise;
  • a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to us;
  • a club/association/organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members/a committee/a committee of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to us;
  • a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to us;
  • a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before they died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”)

We do not normally act for consumers, however, we set out below, for the purposes of completeness, the information requirements pursuant to regulation 19 of the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint directly:

  • you could consider using the services of the certified ADR provider the Ombudsman Services –

http://www.consumer-ombudsman.org / http://www.ombudsman-services.org;

  • you can find the Ombudsman Services and other certified ADR providers on the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s online list of ADR Approved Bodies  –

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/consumers/adr-approved-bodies;

  • however, please note we do not intend to use ADR services provided by any such certified ADR provider.