Complaints Procedure
Persons responsible: the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), the Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA) and the Complaints Partner, Sandy Abrahams.
Introduction
We are committed to providing a high standard of service and to dealing with all of our clients fairly, however if at any time you feel that this is not being maintained, we want to know so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In setting out this complaints procedure, we aim to:
provide clear and easy to use information for those wishing to make a complaint;
provide a prompt response and our assurance that the matter is being reviewed;
make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way;
make sure that all complaints are, wherever possible, resolved;
gather information that helps us to improve our service.
How do i make a complaint?
In most cases, an informal chat with the lawyer responsible for your matter will resolve your concerns.
If it does not, you can formalise your complaint or speak to someone other than the lawyer responsible for your matter. Our Complaints Partner, Sandy Abrahams can record everything you are unhappy about and recommend the best solution for you. You can contact Sandy on sandy.abrahams@luxnovapartners.com or 07734959653.
To assist us with your complaint, please tell us:
your full name and contact details;
what you think we have got wrong;
what you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint;
you client matter file reference number (if you have it).
If you would prefer not to discuss your concerns with the person conducting your matter (or his/her supervisor), you may request that the COLP (Sandy Abrahams), COFA (Tom Bainbridge) or the Complaints Partner manage your complaint. The COLP will in any event be notified of the complaint in order that it may be recorded in our central register. The COLP and COFA look after risk and compliance for the firm and work with Sandy Abrahams (Complaints Partner) who oversees the handling of complaints.
Their contact details are:
Complaints, Lux Nova Partners
124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
E: sandy.abrahams@luxnovapartners.com; tom.bainbridge@luxnovapartners.com
If you require any assistance in making your complaint, please let us know and we will help you.
How will you deal with my complaint and when can i expect to hear from you?
We will contact you within 2 working days of your notifying us of your complaint, acknowledging the nature of your complaint and letting you know the name of the person who will be dealing with it. We will record your complaint in our central register.
We will investigate your concerns by:
reviewing your complaint;
reviewing information from the documents on your file(s) and any other relevant documentation;
speaking with the individual who dealt with your matter and anyone else who may be involved.
We may also need to ask you for further information and if so, will write to you asking you to provide this information within a specified timeframe.
If in the course of the investigation we think it would be helpful, we may invite you to discuss the matter with the complaints partner with a view to finding out more and seeking to resolve your complaint.
We will keep you updated on the progress of your complaint as appropriate, but will in any event, write to you within 21 days of the date of our letter of acknowledgment, to confirm the progress of our investigation, the outcomes of any discussion we may have had with you and if available at that time, our suggested resolution to your complaint.
Our aim is always to ensure that we have properly addressed your concerns within as short a time as possible although the length of time taken will depend on the complexity of your matter and the nature of your complaint. In any event we aim to provide our final response and proposed resolution to your complaint within eight weeks of you making it.
If this initial investigation by Sandy does not resolve your concerns, you can escalate your complaint to another senior member of the firm, who has not had any dealings with your matter thus far, to review the initial decision. Details of how to escalate your complaint will be included in our initial investigation response.
Referral to the legal ombudsman
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint or our proposed resolution, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman, which is an independent and impartial scheme that deals with complaints about legal services. Please note, before accepting a complaint for investigation the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.
The Legal Ombudsman’s details are:
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
T: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
E: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
You should contact the Ombudsman no later than:
six months after receiving our final response to the complaint; and
From 1st April 2023: one year from the date of the act/omission complained of; or
From 1st April 2023: one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for a complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them or visit their website www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Alternative dispute resolution
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. We are not required to agree to such a request. In any case this is not available to businesses, only consumers. We will give you more information about that right if it becomes relevant.
misconduct allegations
If your concern is about professional misconduct, such as dishonesty or discrimination, rather than the way in which we have provided a service, please do discuss this with us, by contacting the COLP using the contact details above.
We take any such allegation seriously and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you. If we are unable to resolve your misconduct concerns, you are entitled to refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Visit the SRA’s website at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page for details of how to submit a report.
Last updated 30th March 2023
