We are committed to maintaining the highest professional standards and providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. A complaint can show us how to do better. If something goes wrong, we want to know about it and put it right as quickly as we can. In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact the solicitor working on your case to discuss your concerns. If you do not feel able to raise this concern with them, please speak to our complaints contact, Clayton Miller, whose details are below.
The aim of the formal complaints process is to resolve a problem to the satisfaction of the person making the complaint.
If you would like to make a formal complaint, our complaints contact is Clayton Miller who can be contacted on clayton@kmjsolicitors.com. If you have special needs which we should take into account due to language or disability, please let us know. We aim to deal with complaints according to the following timetable.
You will not be charged for our time spent in responding to a complaint.
| Action | Timescale |
| Acknowledge the complaint in writing and send a copy of the complaints procedure | Within seven working days |
| Invite you to an in person meeting or a telephone call to discuss the issues (where deemed appropriate) | Within 7 working days thereafter |
| Confirm the outcome of the meeting or telephone call in writing (if a meeting or call takes place) | Within 3 working days thereafter |
| Investigate the issues and write to you with the outcome | Within 21 working days of the meeting/telephone call |
| Review and close the complaint | Within 8 weeks of receiving the complaint |
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
Alternative Dispute Resolution
If it is appropriate in the circumstances and we agree to participating in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and we may provide you with the name and website of an ADR approved body which would be competent to deal with your complaint, if requested. A list of ADR bodies is available on the Chartered Institute for Trading Standards website.
The Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves or if you do not agree with the outcome of our complaints process. The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case, although we may be unable to continue acting for you while your complaint remains unresolved.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
– Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint
and
– No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
Their contact details are as follows:
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH; telephone 03005550333 or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the amount of our fees, you have the right to complain about your account through the complaints procedure detailed above. If that does not resolve your issue, you may be able to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (procedure detailed above) and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If you have applied for an assessment of our fees to the Court, the Legal Ombudsman may not deal with the complaint.
Our behaviour
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. Visit their website (https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/) to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.