Complaints Procedure
We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care and we are keen to resolve any complaints as soon as possible and to do this, will follow our complaints handling procedure.
Our complaints procedure is as follows:
Step One:
If you have not already done so, please let us know the full nature of the problem. You can do this by emailing Mr Islam Khan at khan@lincolnssolicitors.com or writing to him at Lincolns Solicitors, 19a Plashet Grove, London E6 1AD.
Step Two:
We will write to you acknowledging your complaint within three working days. In this letter, we shall confirm what happens next.
Step Three:
We shall then investigate the matter by reviewing the matter file and speaking to the member of staff concerned usually within five working days of acknowledging receipt of your complaint. If, for some reason, the matter cannot be investigated in this timeframe, then we will write to you notifying you of this together with the reason why and giving a revised timescale.
Once the investigation has been completed when appropriate, we shall invite you to a meeting to discuss the issue(s) you have raised and hopefully resolve the complaint.
This meeting will normally take place within fourteen days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. Following the meeting, we shall aim to write to you within five working days of the meeting to confirm our discussion and the solution agreed upon.
Step Four:
If you do not want to or are unable to attend such a meeting, we are happy to send you a detailed, written response, including my proposed solution, within fourteen working days of sending you the letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint.
Step Five:
If you are satisfied with our response in either Step three or four above, that will be the end of the matter. However, if you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
Step 6:
You must always try complaining to us first. In most cases you will not be able to take your complaint further without allowing us the opportunity to put things right.
Legal Ombudsman
We are permitted a minimum of eight weeks to consider the complaint. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us within that timeframe, then you may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.
You are free to refer any complaint about our work, fees or level of service but there are some conditions and time limits. Please be aware that any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 6 months of you having received a final written response from us about your complaint. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring; or within three years from when you should have known about or become aware that there were grounds for complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or date of awareness was before 6 October 2010.
For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk[http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/]. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.
Solicitors Regulation Authority
If you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, you also have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#report[https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#report]
