Complaints about our service

We are committed to providing a high standard of service, and pride ourselves on being open and fair in our approach, regardless of the outcome of the case.

If you wish to complain about the level of service that we have provided, please let us know at any point while we are still handling the case or within two months of the closure of the case, and we will try to put things right for you.

For example, you can complain if you feel we have:

• Been rude to you.
• Not communicated with you in the way we agreed.
• Not met your needs.
• Taken too long to look into your complaint about your lawyer.
• Not kept you informed of the progress in your case.

What we cannot investigate under our service complaints process

There are some issues that we cannot deal with as part of our service complaint process. For example, if:

• You are unhappy with the decision made on the complaint, including any decision to dismiss a complaint or any decision about whether or not we are going to make a misconduct referral to a regulator.
  
  
• You disagree with the evidence we have taken into account or the weight we have applied to it.
  
  
• You do not agree with the complaints we have said we can deal with, or how we have worded those complaints.
  
  
• You want a change of an investigator or are unhappy with a Team Leader’s decision not to allocate the complaint to a different investigator.
  
  
• You believe we have been bias.
  
  
• You do not believe we have sent you all the information are you entitled to under a Freedom of Information or Subject Access Request.

These issues would normally dealt with as part of the investigation process, through judicial review or by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you wish to make a complaint please follow the stages below.

What is the service complaints process?

Stage 0

Firstly tell the person who's been dealing with your case. If they are unable to resolve your concerns, please request that they escalate the matter to their manager, who will independently review the matter with the hope of resolving things straight away.

Stage 1

If you feel the problems have not been sorted out, the complaint will be escalated to our Customer Experience Specialist, who will carry out an independent investigation into your concerns.

Stage 2

If the Customer Experience Specialist hasn't been able to sort our your complaint, you can ask that a senior member of staff reviews your concerns.

You will need to make this request within one calendar month of receiving a response from our Customer Experience Specialist.

Stage 3

If you are still unhappy you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed by our external, independent Service Complaint Adjudicator, who is appointed by our Board.

The Adjudicator will only consider your complaint about our service after our investigation into the lawyer has closed. If the case has concluded, you must make this request within one month following a response from a senior manager.

How do I contact the service complaints team?

Service complaints are managed by our Operation Support Team whose contact details are below. If you would like them to communicate with you in a particular way, please let them know.

Post:

Operational Support Team
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6803
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WF

Email:

service.complaints@legalombudsman.org.uk 

Telephone:

0300 555 0333 (and ask to speak to a member of the service complaints team).

We are committed to making sure the way we work doesn’t put you at a disadvantage so in addition to our legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people, if you need any help or support, please tell us about it and we will do our best to meet your needs.  We also understand that your circumstances might change, along with the support that you need, so please let us know at any time and we will consider your request. Please note that our calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.