Complaints
AG LAW is committed to providing a high standard of legal service to all its clients. If, however, you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service, complaint handling procedures are in place to deal with your concerns.
If at any point you become unhappy or concerned about our service, you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage.
However if your concerns are still not resolved and you would like to make a formal complaint, you can do this by contacting our switchboard on 0203 150 4168 and requesting the email contact details of our client care team. Alternatively, you can put your complaint in writing and addressed to:
Altin Kaprata
C/o Client Care Team AG LAW LTD
Address : The Grange 5th Floor 100 High Street London N14 6BN
Your complaint will be formally acknowledged upon receipt, and you will be provided with a copy of our complaints handling policy which sets out exactly how your complaint will be handled with timescales.
Please note once you have gone through our internal complaints procedures and you are not happy with our final response and suggested resolution, you are able to take your complaint further to the relevant independent bodies.
AG LAW is regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Legal Ombudsman
Once you have gone through our internal complaints procedures and are not satisfied by our final response or resolution, you can then refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act, who can investigate complaints about the legal service you have received from us.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
From 1 April 2023, the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be not 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.
The Legal Ombudsman will retain the ability to apply Rule 4.7, which allows an Ombudsman to exercise discretion to extend the 1 year time limit for specific customers if, on the evidence, it was fair and reasonable to do so.
The communication of the change to time limits is key and it will be important that the communication service providers provide to their clients is amended from 1 April 2023 to reflect the new time limits. This will include information published on service providers websites as well as any signposting or guidance document providers may use which outline when a complaint can be taken to the Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman will also ensure that information and guidance on time limits is clear and accessible through all of its customer channels. The circumstances in which discretion can be exercised and how customers can request that it be exercised will also be published on LeO’s website.
Scheme Rule5.7: Ombudsman discretion to dismiss or discontinue a complaint
Rule 5.7(b)
LeO will be introducing the word ‘significant’ within Rule 5.7(b) which will allow an Ombudsman to consider whether it is a proportionate use of resource and time to investigate a complaint where the detriment to the complainant is not significant.
The introduction of ‘significant’ provides for cases to be dismissed if the loss, detriment, or impact is deemed minor enough that it would be disproportionate to conduct a full investigation whereas under current wording a complaint can only be dismissed under this rule if there has been no loss or detriment.
As with all dismissals under Rule 5.7 it is important to note that this is a discretion to dismiss that can only be exercised by an Ombudsman and only after the parties have been given the opportunity to explain why the complaint should not be dismissed.
Rule 5.7(p)
The introduction of Rule 5.7(p) will provide an Ombudsman with the opportunity to consider if a case should be dismissed on the basis that the size and complexity of the complaint means that it would be disproportionate for it to be investigated.
It is important to note that this Rule would apply to a very small proportion of cases and then only to those where it is considered disproportionate, unreasonable, or even impossible for LeO to investigate the complaint. LeO will be producing and publishing guidance which outlines the circumstances in which this rule can be applied.
Rule 5.7(q)
The introduction of Rule 5.7(q) will ensure that new issues cannot be added to an ongoing investigation if they were already known to the complainant at the time the investigation commenced- but were not included within the complaint at that time. This will ensure that one an investigation has commenced, all parties have certainty as to the issues that have been raised.
It also ensures that parties cannot deliberately protract or delay investigations by seeking to add additional grounds to the scope of the original complaint.
Rule 5.19: Escalation of cases to an Ombudsman for decision
There will be a revision to Rule 5.19(c) to enable an Ombudsman to conclude that a final decision is not needed on a case if no substantive issues have been raised in response to the investigator’s findings or remedy. In those circumstances, the case would be deemed to have been resolved by the investigator’s findings, using an amended version of the existing Rule 5.20 provision.
An Ombudsman will still have discretion to pass a case for final decision irrespective of the responses to the investigator’s findings if, for example, there were vulnerability issues, or if the service provider has closed and a decision is needed for a claim against the firm’s run off insurance, or if the decision was needed for enforcement purposes
Whilst the Legal Ombudsman recognise that the changes are not yet live, they are publicising the changes now as it is important that Service Providers are given enough notice to ensure that any internal changes that may be required are in place for 1 April 2023. Over the coming months, LeO will be drafting and publishing guidance, including FAQs, on the Scheme Rules changes to ensure that customers are aware of how the changes might impact on them or their complaint. They will also ensure that all their templates, factsheets and guidance notes are updated and easily accessible to all their customers.
The Legal Ombudsman are continuing to engage with regulators and professional bodies to ensure that they are fully sighted on the changes to our Scheme Rules and will work with them to ensure that signposting information and complaints handling processes are up to date.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, you can contact them directly.
You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by
Contact details
Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.