Backhouse Jones Watermark

Complaints

Customer Service

Backhouse Jones is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The code of conduct for solicitors can be found at: http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct.page.

At Backhouse Jones we carry appropriate professional indemnity insurance. Please email compliance@backhouses.co.uk if you require further information.

 

Complaints Procedure

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

If you have a complaint, please contact Mr Andrew Woolfall, the director responsible for dealing with client care issues. You can contact him by post at The Printworks, Barrowbrook Business Park, Hey Road, Clitheroe, BB7 9WD, or via email at andrew.woolfall@backhouses.co.uk.

If you make a complaint, what will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within a maximum of three days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will involve reviewing your file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you. If your complaint relates to a matter where the file has been closed, we may need to obtain your file from our archive facility, which may take 1-2 days.
  3. Andrew Woolfall will send you a detailed reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for a director who has not had any dealings with your matter to review the initial decision. If you wish to appeal, we ask that you contact us within 14 days of receiving our detailed reply to your complaint.
  5. 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.
  6. If you are still not satisfied, you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman whose contact details are:

Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call 0300 555 0333, lines are open 9am to 5pm

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Write to:
Legal Ombudsman, P O Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

You should not send any original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to them to make computer copies and then they will destroy the originals.

The Legal Ombudsman will not normally deal with complaints unless our complaints procedure has been exhausted and allows us eight weeks to do this.

The Legal Ombudsman can usually only investigate complaints up to one year from the date of the act or omission complained about or within one year of when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman this should be done within six months of our final response to your complaint.

  1. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour.  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 Regulations Authority at http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page.
  2. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will endeavour to let you know and explain why.

 

Objecting to our bill(s)

You may have the right to object to our bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Section 70 of the Solicitors Act 1974.

 

Non-payment to our bill(s)

You should be aware that the firm may be entitled to charge interest if all or part of our bill(s) remains unpaid.

 

October 2023