GHP Legal wants to give you the best possible service, however, if at any point you become unhappy with the service we have provided to you, or have concerns about your bill, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you remain concerned or you, and we, could not agree an appropriate course of action, then please take it up with the Practice Manager Mrs Nicola Thomas or the Complaints Handler, Mr Robert Williams, who would contact you, and attempt to resolve the matter to your satisfaction. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, which is available from the practice manager or you can view a copy here.
Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. You must have tried resolving your complaint with us first, but if we are unable to help you, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman will look at the complaint independently and any investigation by them will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check :
- You have tried to resolve the complaint with us in the first instance and
- You have suffered significant financial loss, distress, inconvenience or detriment, which deems it proportionate for them to investigate.
We will always be happy to discuss your issues further, prior to you going down this route, if you wish to do so.
Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response to your complaint. You should also be aware that the Ombudsman will consider your complaint if you refer it on to the 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 you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
The Ombudsman has discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific customers if, on the evidence, it is fair and reasonable to do so.
Please note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations, unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman’s website.
It is worth considering, whilst it is open to you to submit a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, they apply strict criteria to determine whether they will ultimately accept a complaint for a full investigation. They have the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of a complaint if they believe:
- it does not have any reasonable prospects of success.
- you have not suffered (and are unlikely to suffer) significant financial loss, distress, inconvenience or detriment.
- it is frivolous, vexatious, lacks merit or where there is a compelling reason not to accept it.
- the likely impact, size, complexity, scope, volume of evidence or your conduct render it disproportionate/unreasonable/impossible for the complaint to be investigated.
- you have previously complained about the same issue to them, unless you provide material evidence that is likely to affect the outcome which only became available to you after you submitted the original complaint.
- there has been undue delay in the complaint being raised.
Also note:
- If, during the course of an ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman, a revised/increased offer is made by us which is deemed to be fair and reasonable redress and you decide to reject that offer, the Ombudsman has the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of your complaint.
- If you have already accepted an offer to settle your complaint made by us during our internal complaint handling process, which is deemed to be fair and reasonable redress, unless there has been some significant intervening act, you will not be able to have that agreement overturned in the hope of securing a preferential outcome by pursuing your complaint via the Ombudsman.
For more information on the Legal Ombudsman’s rules and requirements, please see their Scheme Rules dated April 2023.
Contact details
Visit: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) can help you 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.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/instructing/your-right-to-complain/
GHP Legal is Authorised and Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under Ref No. 51566 https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/ and the firm's VAT Registration Number is 159/1087/54.
In accordance with the disclosure requirements of The Provision of Services Regulations, our Professional Indemnity Insurer is Starr International (Europe) Ltd whose registered address is Starr International (Europe) Ltd. 30 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 5AD and Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE . The territorial coverage of our policy is worldwide.
In the event of any dispute as a result of content posted on this website, the Courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction and English Law applies.