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Complaints Policy

COMPLAINTS POLICY AND PROCEDURE

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure is below.

If your complaint relates to an issue regarding costs or a Costs Lawyer, then please refer to the difference in procedure outlined towards the end of this document, under the heading Complaints involving Costs Issues.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact Joanne Dewhurst, our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP).  You can contact her at Antony Hodari Solicitors, 83 Fountain Street, Manchester M2 2EE, by telephone on 0161 838 7146, or e-mail Compliance@antonyhodari.co.uk. Joanne Dewhurst will pass your complaint to the Manager in charge of the department involved in your complaint.  If she has to change any of the time scales set out below she will let you know and explain why.

What Will Happen Next

We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details.  If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage.  We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.

We will then open a file for your complaint and we will commence our investigation.  This may involve one or more of the following steps:-

  • We will ask the person who acted for you to provide their comments on your complaint. We will then examine their reply and any information in your file, and we may also speak to the person who acted for you.
  • We will then write, discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
  • We aim to resolve any complaint within 7 days of its receipt.
  • In appropriate cases we would offer an apology/a reduction in any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.
  • Alternatively if the matter cannot be resolved swiftly then we would liaise with the person dealing with your file to attend to any problem to your satisfaction before the file is continued with.

At this stage if you are still not satisfied please let us know.  We will then arrange to review our decision.  We would generally intend to do this within a further 10 days.

This will happen in one of the following ways: -

  • The person handling your complaint will review their decision,  or
  • We will arrange for an alternative Manager or Partner in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review the decision.

We will let you know the result of the review within 5 days of the end of the review.

If You Remain Unsatisfied

If you are still not satisfied, and your complaint relates to a service issue i.e. the work done or communication issues, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. We very much hope this will not be necessary. The postal address of the Legal Ombudsman is :-

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH.

Telephone : 0300 555 0333 Minicom: 0300 555 1777

Their web address is www.legalombudsman.org.uk

There is a time limit for complaints to the Legal Ombudsman.  If you wish to make a complaint, the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within 1 year of the act or omission. You must also refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you. 

The Legal Ombudsman will not consider a complaint before the solicitor has had the opportunity to seek to resolve the complaint through its own internal complaints procedure.

You may also wish to consider ADR/mediation to seek to resolve any unsettled complaint.  There are a number of mediation providers offering an online video mediation service, which we consider the most proportionate method. Pro Mediate (www.promediate.co.uk) provide a complaints resolution service.

Whilst we would consider requests for mediation, we consider that the service offered by the Legal Ombudsman is the most appropriate means of resolving complaints.

We would not consider mediation if the matter has already been dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman.

If your complaint relates to poor conduct/behaviour on the part of a Solicitor or a firm, and you remain unsatisfied, you can report the issue to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.  You can do so via their online reporting form on the SRA website:

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor)

There is no time limit for reporting complaints of this nature.

Complaints involving Costs Issues

If your complaint relates to the quality of service provided by a Costs Lawyer, then your complaint will be dealt with in line with our internal complaints procedure as set out above.

If the service complaint is not dealt with, or you are not satisfied with the response, then you can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman as set out above.

If your complaint relates to the professional conduct of a Costs Lawyer, then your complaint will be dealt with in line with our internal complaints procedure as set out above.

If the conduct complaint is not dealt with, or you are not satisfied with the response within an 8-week period, then you can refer it to the Costs Lawyer Standards Board (CLSB). 

There is a time limit for complaints to the CLSB.  This is ordinarily within 12 months of the date on which the matters giving rise to the complaint occurred or when you realised you had cause for complaint.

The CLSB contact details are: -

Costs Lawyer Standards Board
PO Box 4336
Manchester
M61 0BW

Tel - 0161 956 8969

E-mail - enquiries@clsb.info

Website - https://clsb.info

If a complaint concerns both service and conduct issues relating to a Costs Lawyer, it will usually be considered by the Legal Ombudsman in the first instance.

COMPLAINTS POLICY AND PROCEDURE - VERSION 8 - DATE CREATED: 25/06/2014 - LAST REVIEWED: 07/04/2026 

We’ve helped thousands of clients since 1984 recover over £100 million pounds. 
Antony Hodari Solicitors is a trading name of Antony Hodari Holdings Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 08098734 at registered address 83 Fountain Street, Manchester, M2 2EE. DX Number - DX14419 Manchester 2. Antony Hodari Holdings Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number 569572. Our VAT number is 135 5784 92.
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