Complaints
B P Collins LLP is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about our charges, you have the right to complain. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which is available from the Practice Group Leader or our Senior Partner, Simon Deans.
In the first instance, you should raise your complaint with the person concerned. If you are not satisfied with their response, you can escalate your complaint to the Practice Group Leader. Where it would be inappropriate to raise the complaint with the person concerned, you may raise it directly with the Practice Group Leader. If the complaint concerns the Practice Group Leader, it may be escalated to the Senior Partner.
We will normally acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it. Data protection complaints are subject to the timescale set out below. We will then investigate your complaint and aim to give you a decision within eight weeks. We will keep you informed of our progress throughout the investigation.
If you are dissatisfied with our decision, you may request a review. The review will be carried out by the relevant Practice Group Leader or, if the complaint is about the Practice Group Leader, our Senior Partner, Simon Deans. We will endeavour to notify you of the outcome of the review within 15 working days. The outcome of the review will be our final decision.
Legal Ombudsman
If you are unhappy with the service you have received from us, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body that investigates complaints about legal services. Their contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Telephone 0300 555 0333
Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Ordinarily, before complaining to the Legal Ombudsman, you should first give us a chance to resolve your complaint directly. You should first raise your complaint with the person concerned, unless it would be inappropriate to do so, in which case you may raise it directly with the Practice Group Leader.
The Legal Ombudsman will only investigate complaints that have been made within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining, or within one year of you realising that there was a cause for complaint.
You must also refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
Alternative complaints resolution bodies (such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Clerksroom) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and the firm wish to use such a scheme. We confirm that we do agree to use alternative complaints resolution bodies in appropriate circumstances.
Data Protection Complaints
A data protection complaint is not the same as a data subject access request or a request to exercise another data protection right, such as rectification or erasure. Those requests will be handled under our data protection procedures rather than this complaints process, although we will ensure that the matter is directed to the appropriate person within the firm. If you have a data protection complaint, please in the first instance email compliance@bpcollins.co.uk.
Data protection complaints will be acknowledged within 30 days of receipt, although where possible we aim to acknowledge them sooner.
Unresolved data protection complaints can be raised with the Information Commissioner’s Office:
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://www.ico.org.uk/
SRA complaints
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you 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.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
