IMD SOLICITORS LLP COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our Clients and we hope that you will never have a reason to complain about our service to you or a bill of costs that we send to you. However, if something goes wrong, or the bills appears to be incorrect, please bring this to our attention, so that we can do our best to resolve the issue for you in a fair and efficient manner. This will also help us to improve our standards.
Legal Ombudsman is an independent body that handles complaints about legal services. You can ask the Legal Ombudsman to become involved at the end our internal complaints procedure, if you are unhappy with the outcome. The Legal Ombudsman has a helpline if you need to speak to them about how to make a complaint, and they also have some helpful resources on their website.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our conduct and that it may be in breach of the SRA’s Code of Conduct. You can find information on how and when to raise a concern with the SRA on the SRA website.
How to complaint to us?
Please send an email to our Managing Partner, Marcin Durlak at m.durlak@imd.co.uk, who is responsible for handling complaints in our firm. We do not require any specific format, so you can describe your concerns in your own words.
What will happen next?
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve reviewing your matter file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you.
- Marcin Durlak will then arrange a meeting (held remotely) or a telephone call to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
- Within 3 working days of the meeting, Mr Durlak will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
- If you do not want a virtual meeting or telephone call or it is not otherwise possible, Mr Durlak 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.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review his decision.
- 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, having received our initial decision, you do not contact us within 14 days of a date of a decision requesting that it is reviewed, then our decision will be deemed final.
- If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
- We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
Complaining to the Legal Ombudsman
If we are unable to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.
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 6 months of our final response to your complaint. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
- Website: legalombudsman.org.uk
- Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
- Telephone 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm
Calls from both mobiles and landlines to 03 numbers cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02). Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.
- For minicom call 0300 555 1777
- In writing: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.