At BlackLion Law LLP, we treat complaints seriously and strive to resolve them efficiently, transparently and fairly.
CONTACT DETAILS
BlackLion Law LLP
79 College Road
Harrow
HA1 1BD
Telephone Number: 020 112 8616
E-mail Address: contactus@claimlionlaw.com
COMPLAINTS STAGES
1. Communication with lawyer
Your first point of contact will be the lawyer or legal executive assigned to your case. The lawyer will consider your case fairly and efficiently, taking into consideration the seriousness of your complaint. Should a resolution not be reached, the lawyer may pass the complaint to the senior member of the firm or request a written formal complaint be sent to our offices.
2. Communication with department manager
The lawyer will be in contact with you to discuss your complaint and try reaching a resolution. Failing this you will be asked to put your complaint in writing or electronic mail with full details of the complaint to start the formal procedure.
3. Acknowledging your complaint
We will send you a written or an electronic acknowledgement of your complaint. We reserve the right to decline to consider a complaint that is made more than six months after the complainant became aware of the cause of the complaint. However we have discretion to waive this time limit and still undertake the complaint. We will confirm to you in writing or electronic mail if we are prepared to consider a complaint that has been made outside of the time scale of six months.
4. Investigating your complaint
Your complaint will be investigated by the lawyer and overseen by the senior partner. We endeavor to ensure that the person investigating the complaint has not been directly involved in the matter to which the complaint relates. The senior partner and the senior solicitor have the authority to settle complaints.
5. Responding to your complaint
Within four weeks of receiving your full written complaint, BlackLion Law LLP will send you either:
a) An acknowledgement, which explains that BlackLion Law LLP is in receipt of your complaint in addition to indicating when BlackLion Law LLP will make further contact with you ; or
b) A response setting out BlackLion Law LLP’s full investigation of your complaint.
Within eight weeks of receiving your complaint, BlackLion Law LLP will send you either:
a) A response setting out BlackLion Law LLP’s full investigation of your complaint; or
b) A holding response of the following:
i. Explaining why BlackLion Law LLP are still not in a position to provide you with a response, giving reasons for the further delay and stating when we expect to be able to provide you with the stated information; or
ii. Informing you that you may refer the handling of the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are dissatisfied with the delay.
6. Redress
Where we decide that redress is an appropriate solution to the complaint, BlackLion Law LLP will provide you with fair compensation for any acts or omissions for which we are responsible and comply with any offer of redress which the complainant accepts. Appropriate redress will not always involve financial redress. It may involve an apology or an offer to redo the work.
7. Final response
If after receiving our response you’re still unhappy we will refer our decision to our Senior Partner who will then send you a final response.
8. If you are still unhappy
If you are still dissatisfied with our Final Response, or if a complaint is not resolved after eight weeks,
you may refer the complaint to:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough SL1 0EH
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
0300 555 0333
The ombudsman will only intervene once all steps of the firm’s complaints procedure have been followed. The ombudsman can review the handling of the complaint and investigate the complaint further, ultimately making a determination about the complaint and giving binding directions about how the complaint should be resolved.
The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
Further information is available at:
http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/consumer/index.html