complaints 

Complaints Information

Our complaints policy

A.M. Strachan & Co, Solicitors are committed to providing high quality legal services to all our clients. We aim to work with our clients in considering options and obtaining the best possible outcomes. Client satisfaction is a high priority and should a client feel our service has in any way fallen short of  objectives, we want to know.

If you are unhappy with any aspects of our service we want to know because we take all complaints seriously. Being informed of any concerns will assist us in improving our services.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a concern or a complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of any problem so this can be addressed.   In the first instance, please contact the Solicitor dealing with your matter by phone, email or post. If they are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction you can contact our complaints officer.

What will happen next?

• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of our receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care manager, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff dealing with your file.
• We will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint. We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  Within three days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.
• If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible to hold one, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter we may at this stage arrange for another partner to review the decision.
  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.
• If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, about your complaint. Any complaint to the LeO must be made within 6 months of your receipt of our final letter to you under our internal complaints procedure. The LeO has a Complaints Acceptance Policy which sets out the timeframes in which they would expect you to raise any complaint with them.
  From 1 April 2023, the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be no later than:
  – one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
  – one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint.

  For further information, you should contact the LeO on 0300 555 0333 or refer to www.legalombudsman.org.uk

 Procedure for non-clients

We can only deal with complaints from non-clients if there is an allegation that we are in breach of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct. If you think this applies then you will need to specify the alleged breach before we agree to deal with your complaint. You should write to the Complaints Officer at the address above. We will tell you as soon as reasonably possible if we consider there has been a breach and how we intend to deal with your complaint. At any time or if you are not satisfied with our response then you may ask the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority to investigate. Their address is:

Solicitors’ Regulation Authority, whose address is: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN

Telephone: 0870 606 2555

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