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.

You will not be eligible to apply for a grant from the SRA Compensation Fund.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of us receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will investigate your complaint. This will involve reviewing your file and speaking to the members 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 usually takes 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. 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 would 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 we must change any of the timescales, we will let you know and explain why.
  7. If you are still not satisfied, you can have the complaint independently considered by the Legal Ombudsman:

Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk

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

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Write to:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhamption
WV1 9WJ

You should not send any original documents to the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Ombudsman usually only deal with complaints once our complaints procedure has been exhausted and allows us eight weeks to do this. The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out about the problem. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman this must 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.

 

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.