Complaints procedure - Burley Law
Skip to main content
Privacy
Burley Law

Complaints Procedure

Our Complaints Handling Procedure and how and when you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA

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. The Legal Ombudsman normally asks that you allow us to respond first.

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman in certain cases.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you an acknowledgement letter within three days of receiving your complaint, enclosing a copy of this policy.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve Des Burley, who is a Director, reviewing your complaint initially.
  3. Des will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will normally have the meeting within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. Within three days of the meeting, Des will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions you have agreed with us.
  5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Des will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including 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 normally arrange for the matter to be referred to another SRA regulated solicitor or law 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 you are still not satisfied, and you are an individual, a beneficiary of an estate, a charity or trust, a micro- enterprise or other entity able to refer under the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules, then you can then contact them with your complaint. Their address is:

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH

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.  For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

  1. The Legal Ombudsman was considering an application to become a provider for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) between consumers and solicitors. This has not happened yet and is under review. (A consumer here means “an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession”.)
  2. Under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 we are required to notify you of a body authorised for ADR covering legal services. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is such a body. Details are as follows:

ACCA
accaglobal.com complaintassessment@accaglobal.com 020 7059 5000

Referral to ADR is voluntary for both you and ourselves. At this stage we do not expect to be voluntarily agreeing to refer matters to the ACCA. We expect to be reviewing the position if the Legal Ombudsman becomes authorised to carry out this service.

  1. You may also contact our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their website is sra.org.uk and their address is:

The Cube
199 Wharfside Street Birmingham
B1 1RN

You can call them on 0370 606 2555 (from the UK) or +44 121 329 6800 (for beyond the UK).