Complaints

Orchid Law is committed to high quality legal advice and client care.  If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please contact Michelle Post on 01233 822250 or email michellepost@orchidlaw.co.uk or by post to our office.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ to consider the complaint.  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 a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or you becoming aware of it).  The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints concerning poor service.

All solicitors must comply with certain Principles set out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).  If your complaint concerns the breach of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Standards and Regulations and is, for example, an allegation of dishonesty or discrimination, then your complaint should be made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Orchid Law Complaints Handling Procedure

Although we aim to provide a quality service which is responsive to our clients’ needs there may be occasions when clients are disappointed in some way with the service provided. This procedure aims to deal with such occasions as quickly and sensitively as possible. The procedure applies to all staff working in the practice.

  1. At the start of any matter, clients must be sent a client care letter stating who will be dealing with their matter on a day-to-day basis with the details of their status (qualified/unqualified). It must also point out that any matters not satisfactorily dealt with by that person should be raised with Michelle Post informally by the client or by the member of staff themselves.
  2. Clients who are regularly engaged in a number of simultaneous or sequential matters need not be sent a client care letter on each occasion.
  3. If the problem is not resolved at this first stage, it must be referred to Michelle Post for further consideration. The complaint must be acknowledged in writing within 3 days and the client given an indication of the likely time that it will take to deal with the complaint, which should not normally exceed 3 weeks. If it is likely to take longer than that, the client must be sent a holding letter explaining the reason for the delay. A copy of this procedure must be sent to the client with the acknowledgement.
  4. Following an appropriate investigation, a full written response to the client must be sent by Michelle Post. The written response must explain that if a client is not satisfied with the response, that they are entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and will explain how they can be contacted.
  5. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern.  You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you following any complaint. 
  6. If the complaint relates to Michelle Post herself, following an appropriate investigation, she will send a full written response to the client. The written response must explain that if a client is not satisfied with the response, that they are entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and will explain how the Ombudsman can be contacted.
  7. Details of the problems or complaints raised by a client under this procedure and of any subsequent investigation must be carefully documented.
  8. Complaints raised directly with the Legal Ombudsman without going through the procedure described above will be referred to Michelle Post by the Ombudsman. Michelle Post will then attempt to deal with the matter as in point 4 in consultation with the appropriate member of staff.
  9. The outcome of the complaint will be reported to the Legal Ombudsman.
  10. At the conclusion of each complaint Michelle Post and the appropriate member of staff will review the cause of the complaint in order to try to prevent similar problems happening again.
  11. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted as follows:
    PO Box 6806
    Wolverhampton
    WV1 9WJ
    Tel: 0300 555 0333
    Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
  12. Clients may have a right to object to their bills by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of a bill under Part III of the Solicitors’ Act 1974. Please note the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if an application has been made to the court for assessment.