Complaints and requests for information
Should something not meet your standards, then this is the process that you should follow in the hope that it can be resolved to your satisfaction. This will assist us in maintaining and improving our high standards and the provision of a high-quality and efficient legal service to all of our clients.
​
Our Complaints Handling Procedure - Mediation and Legal Services
Our Complaints Handling Procedure tells you how we will deal with your complaint and how long it is likely to take. It also provides you with important information about what you can do if you are not happy with the way in which we are dealing with your complaint, or about our final decision.
​
Designated Complaints Handler
If you have any concerns about our service, our work, or our charges, you should discuss these first with the mediator who conducted your mediation or your case worker. If this person cannot satisfactorily address your concerns and/or you wish to make a complaint, please contact our Designated Complaints Handler, Lisa Pharaoh.
Lisa is a Director, Mediator and Solicitor, and you can write to her at Pharaoh Legal Limited, Chaldon House, 22 Middlemarsh Street, Poundbury, Dorset, DT1 3GD or send an Email to lisa@pharaohlaw.co.uk
​
Step One: Acknowledging Your Complaint
Within two working days of receiving your complaint, it will be recorded in our Complaints Register, and a separate file will be opened in which we will store any correspondence and other documents relating to your complaint. Within two working days, we will also send you a letter acknowledging your complaint.
​
Step Two: Investigating your Complaint
Within five working days of receiving your complaint, we will review your file(s) and any other relevant documentation and send you a letter telling you how we propose to deal with your complaint.
​
Examples of what we might say in this letter are as follows:
· If your complaint is straightforward, we might make suggestions as to how we can put things right, or we may offer you some form of redress.
· If your complaint is more complicated, we might ask you to confirm, explain or clarify any issues.
· We may ask to meet with you to discuss things face-to-face, and we would hope to be in a position to meet with you no longer than fourteen working days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write to you fully setting out our views on the situation and making suggestions as to how we can put things right, or asking you to confirm, explain or clarify any issues. Within three working days of any meeting, we will write to you again to confirm what took place and to confirm any offer of redress that we have made.
· Whichever form our investigation takes, all complaints will be investigated and responded to within 21 working days of the date of receipt.
· There may be some occasions where further time may be required, in which case you will be notified of this in writing.
​
Step Three: Appealing against our Final Decision
If you are not satisfied with our final decision, please let us know within 5 working days of receipt of our response, and we will review our decision again. We will let you know the result of any review within 5 working days of receiving your appeal and will then confirm your options in writing. If you remain dissatisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. We will also advise you whether we are prepared to engage in alternative methods of mediation.
​
Step Four: The Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman is set up by the Office for Legal Complaints. It handles complaints against lawyers. It is an independent complaints-handling body, and it also operates a non-judicial dispute resolution procedure.
You can raise your complaint or concern with the Legal Ombudsman, but before being accepted for investigation, checks will be made that you have tried to resolve the matter with us first.
We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time, you may be able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman "LeO" if you satisfy certain criteria.
​
To make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must be one of the following:
· An individual;
· A micro-enterprise as defined in European Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (broadly, an enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet value not exceeding €2 million);
· A charity with an annual income less than £1 million;
· A club, association or society with an annual income less than £1 million;
· A trustee of a trust with a net asset value less than £1 million; or
· A personal representative or the residuary beneficiaries of an estate where a person with a complaint died before referring it to the Legal Ombudsman.
If you are not, you should be aware that you can only obtain redress by using our Complaints Handling Procedure or by mediation or arbitration, or by taking action through the Courts.
The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your matter.
The LeO, under its revised Scheme Rules from 1 April 2023, will not normally consider complaints unless they meet ALL of the following criteria:
The poor service occurred after 5 October 2010
The complaint is referred to LeO within either of the following :
- one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about, or
- one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint
The complaint is referred to LeO within six months of the firm's final response
The LeO has a discretion to consider outside the above time limits where is determines it is fair and reasonable to do so.
To find out more about the relevant time limits in the version of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules in force from time to time please access them at: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/downloads/documents/publications/Scheme-Rules.pdf) or contact the Legal Ombudsman using the contact details provided below.
The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted in the following ways:
Web : www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone : 0300 555 0333
Email : enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address :
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
​
The Court
Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 makes provision for an assessment of our charges by the Court. You make an application to the Court. The Court may order that the charges be assessed. A Costs Officer then assesses not only the account but the costs of the assessment, and they certify what is due to, or made payable by us, in respect of the account, and the costs of the assessment too. Please see Sections 70 to 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974 for further information.
The SRA
The SRA can assist you if you are concerned about our conduct or behaviour.
website : https://www.sra.org.uk
Complaints : The Civil Mediation Council
The CMC operates a final stage complaints procedure, whereby it can consider complaints from those people who have exhausted our own complaints procedure and if the response is not accepted.
The grounds on which CMC can consider complaints are:
· That a Registered Mediator or Registered Provider does not meet the requirements for Registration.
· That a Registered Mediator is not a fit and proper person to be Registered.
· That the service provided by a Registered Provider does not meet generally acceptable standards.
· That an Unregistered Individual or Organisation Member of the CMC has brought the CMC or the mediation profession or the mediation process into disrepute.
Complaints will be dealt with in accordance with the procedures adopted by the Complaints and Discipline Committee of the CMC from time to time.
A copy of the Rules is available on request from the Registrar.
The Civil Mediation Council Complaints Resolution Service Contact Details
Address: Civil Mediation Council, The International Dispute Resolution Centre,
70 Fleet Street,
London,
EC4Y 1EU
Telephone: 020 7636 4422 : 07841 017905
Email: applications@civilmediation.org
Website: https://civilmediation.org/for-the-public/complaints/