Policy
Morgan LaRoche Limited (“Company”) is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all its clients.
In order to assist us to improve our standards, we welcome constructive criticism of our services which also helps the Company to adapt to the needs of its Clients and improve our standard of client care.
The Company treats all complaints confidentially and seriously and considers complaints objectively.
All clients of the Company have a right to complain in respect of allegations of professional misconduct and/or the provision of inadequate professional service including bills/invoices issued by the Company.
We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
Procedure
1. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service (including professional misconduct and/or the provision of inadequate professional service including bills/invoices) and you wish to make a complaint, please contact Mr Stephen Mundy, who is the Director of the Company responsible for dealing with Complaints (“Complaints Director”).
You can contact the Complaints Director –
- in writing at Morgan LaRoche, PO Box 176, Bay House, Phoenix Way, Swansea SA7 9YT, or
- by telephone on (01792) 277848, or
- by E mail via [email protected]
For additional information regarding your rights in connection with allegations of professional misconduct, inadequate professional service or in connection with a bill/invoice, you can contact the organisations referred to in paragraph 12.
Should your complaint relate to a bill/invoice, you may also have the right to object to the bill/invoice by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill/invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
2. The Complaints Director will acknowledge your complaint in writing within three working days of receipt of your complaint. A copy of this complaints procedure will be provided to you with that acknowledgement.
Matters requiring clarification in respect of the complaint will be raised with our acknowledgement also.
3. Your complaint will be recorded in the Company’s central register and a file will be opened to deal with the complaint.
4. The Complaints Director will then investigate your complaint.
This will involve the Complaints Director –
- Reviewing your transaction/case/matter file;
- Either interviewing the member of staff that dealt with your instructions or requesting their written response to the complaint within five working days of acknowledging your complaint; and
- Reviewing the response to the allegation and the information contained in the complaints file in light of the contents of your transaction/case/matter file within two working days of the interview or receipt of the written response.
5. Within 10 working days of acknowledging your complaint, the Complaints Director will invite you to a meeting to discuss and attempt to resolve the complaint.
6. Within 3 working days of the meeting, the Complaints Director will write to you to confirm the matters discussed and the conclusions reached and any solutions that have been agreed with you.
If you do not wish to attend the meeting or it is not possible for you to attend, within 5 working days of your informing him of your inability to attend the meeting, the Complaints Director will provide you with a detailed written response to your complaint, including suggestions for resolution.
If the Complaints Director has been unable to contact you to arrange a meeting (due to your unavailability), he will within 10 working days of the timescale referred to in paragraph 5 send you a detailed written response to your complaint including suggestions for resolution.
7. If you are still not satisfied, you should inform the Complaints Director and explain your reasons and we will review our decision in light of your response.
The review will be carried out by another Director (who has not been involved in your transaction/case/matter), who will undertake the review within five working days of your request for a review.
8. Within five working days following completion of the review referred to in paragraph 7, you will be informed of the result of the review and of the Company’s final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons leading to our conclusions.
9. The Company will contact you in the event that it is necessary to alter any of the timescales referred to above and explain the reasons for the alterations.
10. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact one (or depending on the nature of your complaint, both) of the organisations referred to in paragraph 12.
We shall reiterate your right to contact the organisations referred to in paragraph 12 below at the conclusion of our complaints procedure and regardless of the outcome of your complaint. Additional information regarding the rights which you may have to refer your complaint to The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales are set out later in this policy.
You must usually refer your complaint to The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales within six (6) months of our final written response to your complaint.
11. Please inform the Complaints Director if you wish to decline an offer to review our decision as set out in paragraph 7 and explain your reasons.
If you decline the offer of review and you are still dissatisfied, you can contact one (or depending on the nature of your complaint, both) of the organisations referred to in paragraph 12.
We shall reiterate your right to contact the organisations referred to in paragraph 12 below at the conclusion of our complaints procedure and regardless of the outcome of your complaint. Additional information regarding the rights which you may have to refer your complaint to The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales are set out later in this policy.
12.1 For additional information regarding your rights in connection with allegations of professional misconduct, you may contact –
Solicitors Regulation Authority of The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN.
Contact details – Telephone:- 0870 606 2555 (inside the UK), or +44 (0)121 329 6800 (international calls) between:-
- 08.00 to 18.00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
- 09.30 to 18.00 Tuesday
Additional contact details are available via the SRA’s Website: www.sra.org.uk
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society.
12.2 For additional information regarding your rights in connection with allegations of inadequate professional service, you may contact–
The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH.
Contact details:- Telephone Helpline:- 0300 555 0333 between 08.30 to 17.30 Monday to Friday
E Mail: [email protected]
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Additional information regarding the rights which you may have to refer your complaint to The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales are set out later in this policy.
The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales – Additional information
Not all clients are eligible to refer a complaint to The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales (“LeO”).
Eligibility is dependent on your satisfying the criteria set out in LeO’s scheme rules which can be viewed on the website referred to in paragraph 12.2 of this policy. Access “Information for Consumers” and then access the link “Our Scheme Rules”.
Alternatively we can provide you with a hard copy of the scheme rules on request.
LeO’s service is free of charge.
Who can complain?
You may have the right to complain.
Eligibility criteria are set out in LeO’s scheme rules. Unless you have provided the Company with the information required by LeO, which will enable us to clarify the position, we will be unable to advise you whether or not you are eligible. In that instance, or additionally/alternatively, we suggest that you clarify your eligibility with LeO in any event. (Please refer to the previous page for contact details).
What can you complain about?
The complaint may relate to an act/omission by us (including complaints about a bill/invoice) whilst acting for you.
From 1 February 2013, LeO will also consider complaints made by prospective clients. This means that, for example, LeO will be able to accept complaints when we have –
- Unreasonably refused to provide you with our services
- Persistently or unreasonably offered a service that you do not want
Timescales
Ordinarily, you cannot refer a complaint to LeO unless you have first used our complaints procedure.
You can, however, refer a complaint to LeO if –
1) the complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight (8) weeks of the complaint being made to us.
2) LeO considers that there are exceptional reasons to consider the complaint –
(i) sooner, or
(ii) without the complaint having been made first to us, or
(iii) where LeO considers that resolution between us is not possible due to an irretrievable breakdown in our relationship.
Ordinarily, a complaint to LeO must also be referred to LeO within –
a) Six (6) months of your receiving a final response from us, if that response complies with the requirements set out in rule 4.4 of LeO’s scheme rules.
AND
b) Six (6) years from the date of act/omission, or
c) Three (3) years from the date when you should reasonably have known there were grounds , and
In respect of b) and c) above –
i) the act or omission which you wish to complain about must have occurred on or after 06 October 2010 or
ii) If the act or omission occurred before 06 October 2010, you only became aware of it on or after 06 October 2010.
However, please note that from 1 April 2023 these time limits are changing. From the 1 April the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern. The requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you remains the same.
LeO will assess when you should have reasonably known there was cause for a complaint on the basis of your own knowledge, disregarding what you might have been informed if you had sought advice.
Please contact LeO for additional information on other time limits which may affect your eligibility to refer the complaint to LeO.
Please note that LeO may not deal with a complaint about a bill/invoice if you have applied to the Court for assessment of the bill.
The Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales is an independent public organisation, accountable to Parliament through the Lord Chancellor.
Authorised and approved by the Board of Directors of Morgan LaRoche Limited.
