We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. In the unfortunate event that you feel dissatisfied with any aspect of our service and feel that you cannot resolve the matter directly with your Lawyer/Fee earner dealing with your matter, please write to Sanjeev Verma, the Complaints Officer of the firm at sanjeev@ak-law.co.uk who will attempt to resolve issue raised. The Principal Partner of the Firm is Mr Milton Andreou.
You may also contact the Complaints Officer and the Principal Partner at our office address:
AK Law
14 Spring Bridge Mews
Ealing
London
W5 2A
What will happen next?
1: We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2: We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will then investigate your matter file and discuss your complaint with the Lawyer/Fee earner who acted for you.
3: Where appropriate Sanjeev Verma or Milton Andreou (“AK Law”) may invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. This will take place within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4:Within seven days of the meeting, AK Law will write to you to confirm what took place and any possible solutions agreed with you.
5: If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, AK Law will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. However, if the complaint is of a more complex nature, we may require some more time for a complete response.
6: At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review the decision.
7: If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
8: If you do not respond to any correspondence we send you within 2 months, than that correspondence will stand as our final written response to your complaint.
9: If you are still not satisfied, after the above procedure has been followed, you can refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response on your complaint and within one year from the date of the act or omission giving rise to the complaint, or one year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. For any further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at send an email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
The relevant time limits are set out in the version of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules in force from time to time (which can be accessed at: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/corporate-publications/scheme-rules).
Ordinarily, you cannot use the Legal Ombudsman unless you have first attempted to resolve your complaint using our Complaints Handling Procedure. If you wish to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman you must be one of the following:
• An individual;
• A micro-enterprise as defined in European Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (broadly, an enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet value not exceeding €2 million);
• A charity with an annual income less than £1 million;
• A club, association or society with an annual income less than £1 million;
• A trustee of a trust with a net asset value less than £1 million; or
• A personal representative or the residuary beneficiaries of an estate where a person with a complaint died before referring it to the Legal Ombudsman.
If you are not, you should be aware that you can only obtain redress by using our Complaints Handling Procedure or by mediation or arbitration, or by taking action through the Courts.
Alternative complaints bodies, such as ProMediate UK Ltd (www.promediate.co.uk) exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not usually agree to use mediation schemes as we believe the Legal Ombudsman is better equipped to resolve complaints against legal firms.
Complaints about our professional conduct or behaviour
Our regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) 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.
We are bound by various professional rules of conduct (contained within the SRA Handbook) which can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk/. You can also see more information about the help the SRA can give to you here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page
Solicitors Regulation Authority Contact Details:
Address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
Telephone: The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s contact centre’s number is 0370 606 2555
Email: report@sra.org.uk
Website: www.sra.org.uk
Updated: November 2024
