Complaints Procedure

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to sort out any problems or misunderstandings and to improve our standards. All complaints will be dealt with promptly, fairly and free of charge.

If you have a complaint please raise the problem in writing or email with the lawyer responsible for your matter or if you prefer direct to our Complaints Manager Mr Mark Bridgman at:

Mr M Bridgman

Elliott Bridgman Solicitors
66-70 Court Street
Madeley, Telford
TF7 5EP

What will happen next?

  1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within 3 working days of receiving it.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve our Complaints Manager reviewing your file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you. We may also need to ask you for further information or documents.
  3. Sometimes we may invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. You do not need to attend if you do not wish to or if you are unable to. We will be happy to discuss the matter with you on the telephone.
  4. Within 14 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter our Complaints Manager will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint including his proposals for resolving the matter
  5. At this stage if you are still not satisfied you should contact us again within 7 days.
  6. If we do not hear from you within 7 days of receipt of the detailed response letter we will assume that you are satisfied with the investigation into your complaint.
  7. If we have to change any of these timescales we will let you know and explain why.
  8. If you have exhausted our internal escalation process yet remain dissatisfied or a period of eight weeks has expired since we acknowledged your complaint without our final response being received you are entitled to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman will look at the complaint independently and any investigation by them will not affect how we handle your case.

    Before accepting a complaint for investigation the Legal Ombudsman will check:
    -you have tried to resolve the complaint with us in the first instance and
    -you have suffered significant financial loss, distress, inconvenience or
    detriment which deems it proportionate for them to investigate.

    We will always be happy to discuss your issues further prior to you going down this route if you wish to do so.

    For complaints about our service including billing issues, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman via one of the methods below:

    Phone: 0300 5550333
    Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
    Post: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

    Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response to your complaint. You should also be aware that the Ombudsman will consider your complaint if you refer it on to them within either of the following:

    -one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about OR
    -one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there
    was cause for complaint.

    The Ombudsman has discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific customers if on the evidence it is fair and reasonable to do so.

    Note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations, unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman’s website.

    It is worth considering whilst it is open to you to submit a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman they apply strict criteria to determine whether they will ultimately accept a complaint for a full investigation. They have the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of a complaint if they believe:

    a) it does not have any reasonable prospects of success.
    b) you have not suffered (and are unlikely to suffer) significant financial loss,
    distress, inconvenience or detriment.
    c) it is frivolous, vexatious, lacks merit or where there is a compelling reason not
    to accept it.
    d) the likely impact, size, complexity, scope, volume of evidence or your conduct
    render it disproportionate/unreasonable/impossible for the complaint to be
    investigated.
    e) you have previously complained about the same issue to them unless you
    provide material evidence that is likely to affect the outcome which only
    became available to you after you submitted the original complaint.
    f) there has been undue delay in the complaint being raised.

    Also note:

    a) If during the course of an ongoing investigation by the Ombudsman a
    revised/increased offer is made by us which is deemed to be fair and
    reasonable redress and you decide to reject that offer the Ombudsman has
    the discretion to dismiss or discontinue all or part of your complaint.
    b) If you have already accepted an offer to settle your complaint made by us
    during our internal complaint handling process which is deemed to be fair and
    reasonable redress unless there has been some significant intervening act
    you will not be able to have that agreement overturned in the hope of
    securing a preferential outcome by pursuing your complaint via the
    Ombudsman.

    For more information on the Legal Ombudsman’s rules and requirements please see their Scheme Rules dated April 2023.

  9. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things such as dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Visit the SRA website at www.sra.org.uk to raise your concerns.
  10. If a complaint cannot be resolved you may also be able to ask for it to be referred to a process of alternative dispute resolution using a certified provider. This is not available to businesses. We will give you more information about that right if it becomes appropriate.

Updated April 2023

The Legal Ombudsman (an independent complaints body which investigates complaints
from consumers about their legal service providers in England and Wales) is introducing
updated Scheme Rules effective from 1 st April 2023.
A key change relates to the timescale to refer complaints to the Legal Ombudsman –
this is reducing to within 1 year from the date of the act or omission about which you
are concerned or within 1 year from when you should reasonably have known there
was cause for complaint.
The requirement to refer complaints to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of
receiving a final response from the firm about a complaint will remain the same under
the new Rules.
The Legal Ombudsman will have discretion to extend the timescale beyond 1 year
where it considers it would be fair and reasonable to do so however this will not be a
given and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
To view the rules in full please see the Scheme Rules on the Legal Ombudsman’s website.
Our complaints procedure has been updated to reflect these changes.