Complaints Procedure for Clients
We are committed to providing an efficient and effective service to all our clients and to treating our clients fairly. However, should you be unhappy with any aspect of the legal service we have provided to you or have any concerns about our bill, we aim to resolve the matter between us. Please raise your concern in the first instance with the partner supervising your matter or the Head of Department who will do their best to deal with your concerns.
If you are unable to resolve the issue with the partner or Head of Department, you may raise a formal complaint with our Complaints Partner, who is currently Razi Mireskandari, who may be contacted using our office details below or by email at: Razi.Mireskandari@smb.london.
To assist us with dealing with your complaint, please include your full name and contact details, file reference (if available), the full details of your complaint and the resolution you hope to achieve.
What will happen next?
We will:
- Acknowledge your complaint enclosing a copy of this procedure within three working days;
- Investigate your complaint which may include requesting further information/documents from you, reviewing your file and, speaking with the person dealing with or who dealt with your matter;
- If appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint;
- Provide a written response within 21 working days of the date of our acknowledgement letter where possible. If we are unable to meet this timescale, we will write to you to explain the reason.
What happens if you are not satisfied with our decision
If you are not satisfied with our resolution of your complaint, please let us know as soon as possible and the Complaints Partner (or another partner) will review the matter further.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman which is an independent and impartial body. The Legal Ombudsman’s service if free of charge and the contact details are:
Address: Legal Ombudsman, P.O. Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will ordinarily expect you to have exhausted our complaints procedure and we have 8 weeks within which to consider your complaint and provide our final response. Complaints about a bill may not be considered if the bill has been challenged for assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
Your complaint must normally be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response and with one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about or one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint.
Who can complain to the Legal Ombudsman
You can only complain to the Legal Ombudsman if you are:
- An individual;
- A micro-enterprise as defined by the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules;
- A charity with an annual net income less than £1 million at the time you complained to us;
- A club, association or organisation, managed by its members/committee of its members and with an annual net income of less than £1million at the time of the complaint was made to us;
- A trustee of a trust with an asset value of less than £1 million at the time the complainant was made to us;
- A personal representative of an estate of a person; *
- A beneficiary of an estate of a person*.
*The services to which the complaint relates must have been provided to a person who has subsequently died and had not by the time of their death referred to the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Alternative dispute resolution bodies such as ProMediate exist which are able to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. We have, however, chosen not to adopt an ADR process.
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour
It is our policy to treat clients fairly and in accordance with the law and our professional rules. However, if you are unhappy with our behaviour (this could be for things such as, you believe that we have behaved dishonestly or treated you unfairly because of your age, a disability or any other characteristic), please contact our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, Ewan Keen, who will investigate your concerns and revert to you.
If you are dissatisfied following notification of his decision, you may refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority which deals with conduct complaints against solicitors.
Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Address: Simons Muirhead Burton LLP, 87-91 Newman Street, London, W1T 3EY
Telephone:+44 (0)20 3206 2700
Fax:+44 (0)20 3206 2800