Complaints

Our complaints policy
At Chapel Law Solicitors Limited we are fully committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. We want you to tell us if you feel this hasn’t been achieved by our colleagues or our company.

We pride ourselves on our reputation for delivering excellent client service, but we also recognise that mistakes can and do happen and that, occasionally, our people may not establish or effectively meet client expectations.

Where this is the case, we will work with you to try to resolve the matter swiftly and fairly. This will help us to improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure
The Solicitors dealing with your case should be able to answer your immediate queries but, if this not the case, you should follow our complaints procedure.

If you have a complaint, please contact our Director of this firm Ms Danny Liang, 2nd Floor, 4-8 Ludgate Circus, London, EC4M 7LF or by writing to info@chapellaw.co.uk

If you feel unable to write a detailed letter or email, we will be happy to arrange a telephone call for you to tell us about the issue.

What will happen next?

Please note:
The timescales for dealing with your complaint will vary depending on the complexity of the matter. The timescales stated below show our target length of time you will be expected to wait for a response.

1. We will send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.  You can expect to receive our letter or email within three working days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps:
   • • • We may ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 14 days of receiving your complaint.
   • • • The partner in charge of the department will reply to your complaint within 14 days of receiving your complaint.
   • • • We will invite you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.  If you want to arrange a meeting, we will do this.
   • • • If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint.  This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter.  This will happen within 14 days of receiving your complaint.
4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:
   • • • The partner in charge of the department will review his/her own decision within seven days.
   • • • We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 14 days.
   • • • Our complaints partner will review your complaint within 14 days.
   • • • We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint.  We will let you know how long this process will take.
   • • • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation.  We will let you know how long this process will take.
5. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

   Our Client Services Manager may then contact you within 7 days to check you are satisfied with our response. Your feedback will be used to inform our ongoing training and development for our lawyers and staff.  Our Client Services Manager is not a Complaints Partner.

6. The Legal Ombudsman may be able to help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at complaints independently and accessing the Ombudsman will not affect how we handle your case. Most ‘consumer’ clients (as opposed to large businesses) will be able to make use of the Ombudsman scheme however there are restrictions for some larger clients. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will normally check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. You must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint from us. From 1 April 2023, the Legal Ombudsman also expects complaints to be made to them within 1 year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned (prior to 1 April 2023: 6 years) or within 1 year of you realising there was a concern (prior to 1 April 2023: 3 years). The requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you remains the same.

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk full details are here https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/news/guidance-scheme-rules-changes-april-2023/

Contact details
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333       between 9.00 to 17.00.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

If we must change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.