Claremont Litigation Limited

Complaints Policy

Claremont Litigation Limited (“Claremont”) is committed to providing high quality legal advice and services to all of its clients. If, however, something goes wrong you need to let us know so that we can try to resolve the matter for you and raise our own standards.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint including a complaint about our fees please contact the person dealing with your matter or Stephen Inglis who is the director with responsibility for client care and complaints handling at Claremont. We aim to deal with matters as quickly as possible but if we need more time we will let you know and explain why.

What happens next?

  1. We will (typically within 3 business days of receiving your complaint) send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details.
  1. We will record your complaint on our Central Complaints Register and open a file for your complaint.
  1. Where appropriate, we will ask to meet with you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. Typically, we would hope to be able to meet with you no later than 14 days after we first receive your complaint. If you do not wish to meet with us, or if we cannot agree a meeting within an agreeable timescale, we will write to you setting out fully our views on your complaint and, if appropriate, any redress we are able to offer to you.
  1. Within 5 business days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place at the meeting and to confirm any matters we agreed with you.
  1. If you remain dissatisfied you can write to us again to let us know and we will arrange to review our decision. We would typically aim to do this within 14 days of your letter. This will happen in one of the following ways:
  1. We will review our position.
  2. We will arrange for someone at Claremont who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
  1. We will let you know the outcome of this second review within 5 business days of the end of the review by writing to you and setting out Claremont’s final position regarding your complaint. We will also give you details of the Legal Ombudsman where appropriate. If you are still not satisfied, you will be at liberty to contact the Legal Ombudsman and, in the case, of a disputed invoice you may apply to the Court for an assessment of our invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Legal Ombudsman

  1. Please note that the services offered by the Legal Ombudsman are offered to all members of the public and small businesses, charities, clubs and trusts and further details can be accessed via the Legal Ombudsman website at legalombudsman.org.uk
  1. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman normally has to be made within 6 months of you receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.
  1. The Legal Ombudsman’s telephone number is 0300 555 0333. You may email the Legal Ombudsman at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or write to the Legal Ombudsman, PO BOX 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ. Further information about the Legal Ombudsman is set out in our Letter of Engagement and at clause 18 of our Terms and Conditions of Business.

Solicitors Regulation Authority

  1. We are authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (sra.org.uk) and the rules and regulations governing how we should act and carry out our business are contained in the SRA Handbook and the SRA Code of Conduct. These can be accessed at www.sra.org.uk/handbook or we can provide you with copies of the relevant provisions if you ask us to.
  1. Alternative complaints bodies also exist which are competent to deal with client complaints We do no use alternative complaints bodies as we believe the Legal Ombudsman is best placed to deal with client complaints.
  1. How to contact us:
    1. Claremont Litigation Limited
      No. 1 Aire Street
      Leeds
      LS1 4PR
      +44 (0)113 457 0037
      Email: info@claremontlitigation.com