Complaints Handling Policy
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients and/or persons connected to ELMS Legal. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.
If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
What will happen next?
1. We will send you an email attaching a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this policy.
2. We will then thoroughly investigate your complaint.
3. Reanne Martin, Practice Manager of ELMS Legal, will then invite you (where possible) to a meeting in person and/or a conversation over the telephone to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. Within three days of the meeting, Reanne Martin will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Reanne Martin will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for Ed Shoreman-Lawson, Solicitor at ELMS Legal Ltd, to review Reanne Martin’s decision.
7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
8. If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the CILEx Regulation as our regulatory body at:
CILEx Regulation Ltd
Room 301
Endeavour House
Wrest Park
Silsoe
Bedfordshire
MK45 4HS
info@cilexregulation.org.uk
https://cilexregulation.org.uk
01234 845770
Where your complaint relates to the misconduct of a CILEx member, CILEx Practitioner or a CILEx Approved Manager, you can refer your complaint free of charge to CILEx Regulation for them to investigate. Misconduct complaints must be made within 12 months of the act or omission that gave rise to the complaint or within 12 months of the complainant having knowledge of the act or omission that gave rise to the complaint, whichever is the greater.
Or the
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
You should note that there are restrictions to the availability of the services of the Legal Ombudsman and that, in particular, only small companies may access this scheme. For more details see the Legal Ombudsman’s website at the web address shown below.
If you do qualify for the scheme you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint and no more than one year from the date of the act / omission that gave rise to the complaint; or no more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Please click on the following link to access the Legal Ombudsman’s decision data page: Ombudsman decision data | Legal Ombudsman as at September 2024.