Complaints
Complaints handling procedure
We aim to deal with all complaints quickly, efficiently and professionally.
Our complaints policy
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.
Our complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact the Director responsible for dealing with complaints as named in our client care letter. If you do not have those details then please contact Mr Parvez Akhtar, our Complaints Director, at our office at 49A Bradshaw Gate, Bolton, BL1 1DR.
What will happen next?
- We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 7 days.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint.
- We will then begin to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Complaints Director, Mr Parvez Akhtar, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
- Parvez Akhtar will then write to you with his findings within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. However, if the complaint is complicated then further time may be needed. If so, Parvez Akhtar will write to tell you and set another time limit.
- We may invite you to a meeting to discuss (and hopefully resolve) your complaint. Normally, we would do so at the same time as we write to you with our findings as referred to in paragraph 4 above. If you don’t want a meeting or it is not possible, then we will write to you with our suggestions for resolving the matter at the same time as we write to you with our findings or within 14 days of you indicating that you do not want a meeting or such a meeting is not possible.
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- If you are still not satisfied at this stage then you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director to review the 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 you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint then you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. (Address : PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ (website: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, telephone: 0330 555 0333). Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within six years of the matter complained about or alternatively three years from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was a cause for complaint.
- Alternative complaints bodies, such as pro-mediate (promediate.co.uk) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both parties wish to use such a scheme. We currently do not use any alternative complaints bodies to resolve complaints. Unresolved complaints about our services will be dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman under the Statutory Complaint Scheme.
- If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
Complaints regarding conduct
If your complaint relates to our conduct rather than the service provided you may wish to raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This could be for things such as dishonesty, misconduct, taking or losing your money, discrimination or breach of a principle of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Code of Conduct.
Website: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems
Phone Number: 0370 606 2555 between 9am – 5pm.
Non-client complaints
Non-clients of Lexadeen Solicitors who wish to complain about the conduct of the firm, or its employees, should contact the Complaints Director. The Complaints Director will then contact you to explain how we will deal with your complaint.