Complaints

Principles 2 and 6 of the SRA Handbook 2019 make clear that we must act in a way that both upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors’ profession and in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion.

Our regulatory obligations therefore extend beyond strict compliance with anti-discrimination legislation, we must also be inclusive and create an environment where everyone feels welcomed and valued.

This firm is therefore committed to:

• eliminating discrimination; and
• fair treatment for all.

As a consequence, we promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our policies, practices and procedures and in those areas in which we have influence.  This applies to any complaint.

We are committed to high-quality legal advice and Client Care.  If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about a bill, please contact the Fee Earner responsible for your case.  If your issue still cannot be resolved, please then contact our Client Care Director, Ian Clift by telephone on 01268 820111, by email at ic@jsp.legal or by post to our Southend office.

This Firm has a zero-tolerance policy for abusive behaviour and any behaviour that is abusive, threatening, or harassing will not be tolerated and may result in termination of services.

We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which may be found below.  We have 8 weeks to consider your complaint.  If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

Complaints Procedure

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

1. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Client Care Director, Ian Clift who will review your case file and speak to the Fee Earner who acted for you.

1. Ian Clift will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

1. Within 3 days of the meeting, Ian Clift will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.

1. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Ian Clift 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.

1. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director to review the decision.

1. 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.

If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman is an independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with legal services complaints.

The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted about your complaint in the following ways:

By post:                Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

By telephone:       0300 555 0333 (calls charged at a local rate)

By email:              enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website:                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 1 year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside this period, within 1 year of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

The SRA can help you if you are concerned about out behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, losing or taking your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.  Information about raising a concern can be found at their Website www.sra.org.uk

You have the right to challenge, or complain about, a bill to include applying for assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Please be aware that whilst any client has the right to make complaint about either the services of this firm or a bill to us, most businesses (unless a micro enterprise), charities and clubs with an annual income of more than £1m and trustees of a trust with asset value of more than £1m do not have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

Alternative complaints bodies such as Small Claims Mediation (UK) Ltd exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.  We agree to use Small Claims Mediation (UK) Ltd and information about that body may be found at

www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk.