Harcus Parker Limited is committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. If at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided or any bill we have issued, please speak to your client partner in the first instance.
If the matter cannot be resolved with your client partner and you decide that you would like to make a formal complaint, please send a short summary of your complaint to the firm’s Complaints Partner, Jon Beresford (JBeresford@harcusparker.co.uk).
Next steps
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure. If we require any further information from you to enable us to deal with your complaint, we will let you know at this point.
- The Complaints Partner will then conduct an investigation by reviewing your matter file and speaking to the partner and other members of staff who have been acting for you.
- All complaints received by us are recorded in a central register kept by this firm (the “Central Register”).
- The Complaints Partner will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, normally within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter 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. You may be invited to a meeting to discuss, and hopefully resolve, your complaint.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
What if my complaint is not resolved satisfactorily?
If you are not happy with the response provided by our Complaints Partner, we will provide you with the name of an approved alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) body which would be competent to deal with the complaint. We will also let you know whether we agree to use the scheme operated by that body.
At this stage, you may be able to refer the matter to the independent Legal Ombudsman, who can be contacted at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or by telephone on 0300 555 0333. There are time constraints within which you can involve the Legal Ombudsman. You must complain to us or the Legal Ombudsman within one year of when you realised there was a concern. You should give us a minimum of at least eight weeks to resolve your complaint before you raise the matter with the Legal Ombudsman. In any event, you should refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than six months after your last contact with us.
You may also be entitled to apply to have our charges reviewed by the Court, whether they are for contentious or non-contentious work. This procedure is known as assessment by the Court. The rules are set out in sections 70 – 72 of the Solicitors’ Act 1974. Except in exceptional circumstances, the Court will not allow a bill to be assessed more than 12 months after delivery.
Standards & Regulations
We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and our registration number is 653501. The firm and the solicitors who practise from the firm are therefore subject to the rules and standards imposed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, including the Code of Conduct for Solicitors and the Code of Conduct for Firms, as applicable, which are available here:
http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations