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Complaints Procedure

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. If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you or you have concerns about your bill, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.

What is a complaint?

A report by a client that their expectations of what they consider to be a good service have not been met.

Making a complaint

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. Please write to us with full details of your concerns. You can write to us at 191 Angel Place Fore Street, Edmonton London N18 2UD. Alternatively you can email us at info@salandco.co.uk

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to one of our senior partner, Mr. Ibrahim Sal, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. Mr. Sal will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter as indicated above.
  4. Within three days of the meeting, Mr. sal will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
  5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr. Sal will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another director/senior partner or someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review the decision.
  7. 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.
  8. If we are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body, established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints
  9. You have six months from the date of our final written letter in which to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

    10. The Legal Ombudsman may:

    • Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a solicitor to a client.
    • Investigate allegations that a solicitor has breached rules of professional conduct.
    • Investigate allegations that a solicitor has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service to a prospective client
    • Investigate allegations that a solicitor has persistently or unreasonably offered a professional service that the client does not want

    Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal Complaints Procedure (outlined above) has been exhausted. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further. You will have to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final response from us about your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern.

    The Legal Ombudsman’s address and contact details are:

    PO Box 6167,
    Slough,
    SL1 0EH;
    telephone, 0300 555 0333;
    website, www.legalombudsman.org.uk; or
    email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

    Alternative Dispute Resolution Schemes

    Alternative complaints bodies e.g. ProMediate exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. However, we don’t currently agree to use this Alternative Dispute Resolution service in view of the availability of the independent Legal Ombudsman Service established under the Legal Services Act 2007.

    We are bound by our Regulatory Code to comply with the Legal Ombudsman.

    Contracts Entered into Online

    If we are unable to resolve your complaint which relates to a contract entered into online, you may contact the Online Dispute Resolution providers by accessing the following link http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr

  10. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
  11. We will not charge you for handling your complaint.