Legal & Compliance

Our complaints procedure

Sinclair Gibson LLP is committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. If at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided or any bill we have issued, please speak to your client partner in the first instance.

If the matter cannot be resolved with your client partner and you decide that you would like to make a formal complaint, please send a short summary of your complaint to the firm’s Managing Partner, Lucy Gibson (lucy.gibson@sinclairgibson.com).

What will happen next?

• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure. If we require any further information from you to enable us to deal with your complaint, we will let you know at this point.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will either be dealt with by Lucy Gibson, or another senior partner of the firm, who will conduct an investigation by reviewing your matter file and speaking to the partner and other members of staff who have been acting for you.
• Lucy Gibson, or another senior partner of the firm, will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, normally within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter or, if we have asked you for further information in order that we can deal with your complaint, within 21 days from receiving that information. You may be invited to a meeting to discuss, and hopefully resolve, your complaint. Exceptionally, if complex issues are involved then we will agree with you a realistic and fair timeframe for us to resolve your complaint satisfactorily.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

What will happen if my complaint is not resolved satisfactorily?

If your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks,you can ask The Legal Ombudsman (or Family Mediation Standards Board (‘FMSB) if related to family mediation services) to consider your complaint independently.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. There are also time constraints within which you can involve the Legal Ombudsman, which are set out below.

• Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint

and

• Within 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.

The FMSB will also check that you have tried to resolve your complaint regarding family mediation with us within the last three months before dealing with a complaint.

For further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman and/or FMSB. The legal Ombudsman may be contacted on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman’s address is PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. The FMSB may be contacted via the Family Mediation Council on 01707 5494055 or by e-mail at complaints@familymediationcouncil.org.uk.

If your complaint relates to a bill we have raised, you may also be entitled to apply to have our charges reviewed by the Court, whether they are for contentious or non-contentious work. This procedure is known as assessment by the Court. The rules are set out in sections 70 – 72 of the Solicitors’ Act 1974. Except in exceptional circumstances, the Court will not allow a bill to be assessed more than 12 months after delivery.

Solicitors’ Code of Conduct

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and our registration number is 658891. We are therefore subject to the rules and standards imposed by the Solicitors Regulations Authority, which are available here:

http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct.page.

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 to see how you can raise your concerns with the SRA https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor