Legal and Regulatory

Disclaimer

The content of this site may not, in whole or in part, be reproduced, copied stored, transmitted or used by any party, except for the purpose of private non-commercial, viewing purposes or where we ABN Solicitors have given our prior written consent.

ABN Solicitors endeavour to provide accurate and up to date information on our website, legislation and the law can constantly change and will affect individuals in different ways depending on your specific circumstances.

ABN Solicitors reserve the right to alter the information in this website at any time.

The information contained within this website is no substitute for specific legal advice and we will not accept any liability if you rely solely on information from the website.

Complaints Procedure

At ABN Solicitors we pride ourselves on our professional service. We take seriously, and we will ensure that we respond promptly to, any complaint regarding our services or company.

If you feel that we have failed to do what we agreed, have not achieved an acceptable standard of service or are not meeting your needs, we want you to tell us at the earliest opportunity, so that we may address this.

We commit as a company to consistently monitor and improve our work and services.

We will always promptly and fully look into any client concerns objectively and keep you informed as we aim to work with you to move towards a resolution.

If you wish to raise a formal complaint, our director will look into your complaint and carry out an investigation.

Our complaints procedure is as follows:

Step One:

Please advise the full nature of the problem.
Your complaint should be confirmed in writing in order that any scope for misunderstanding can be avoided.
You can do this by emailing us at a.noor@abnsolicitors.com or writing to us at ABN Solicitors, 443 Rayners Lane, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5ET.

Step Two:

Within 10 working days we will write to you acknowledging your complaint and confirm what will happen next.

Step Three:

The matter shall then be investigated by reviewing the matter file and speaking to the member of staff concerned. This shall, be done within 10 working days of acknowledging receipt of your complaint.

If, for some reason, the matter cannot be investigated in this timeframe, 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, the complaint handler shall invite you to discuss the issue(s) you have raised and hopefully resolve the complaint.

This could be a meeting or telephone call and will take place within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
We shall then write to you within 10 working days of any meeting or phone call to confirm our discussion and the solution agreed upon and/or any final redress that is offered.

Alternatively, if you do not want to or are unable to attend such a meeting or you would prefer to continue to correspond by letter or email (or if a meeting is not required), we will send you a detailed, written response, including our proposed solution, within 21 working days of sending you the letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint.

Step Four:

If you are satisfied with our response following the above steps, that will be the end of the matter. However, if you are not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will review our decision or, depending on the circumstances, will arrange for another legal professional to review our decision.

We will write to you within 21 days of receiving your request with confirmation of the firm’s final position in relation to your complaint, outlining the reasons and any final redress that is offered.

Step Five (other avenues):

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.

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.

The nature of your complaint may be about our bill. In these circumstances you have the right to complain to the legal ombudsman and/or have a right to apply to the Court for assessment of the bill under Part 3 of the Solicitors Act 1974. You should be aware that if you have already applied to the Court for an assessment of your bill, the legal ombudsman may not deal with your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman

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 response to your complaint; and
no more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
no more than one year from when you should have known about or become aware that there were grounds for complaint.

For further information, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman on the following:

Telephone: 0300 555 0333
From overseas: +44 121 245 3050
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

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