Matrix Law Solicitors — SRA No. 8014467
Complaints Procedure
Matrix Law Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number: 8014467). We are committed to providing a high-quality service to all our clients, and we take any concerns about that service very seriously.
If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received from us, or about the level of a bill, please let us know so that we can put things right. In the first instance, it may help to raise your concerns directly with the person who has been handling your matter, and we will do our best to resolve the issue informally and as quickly as possible.
If you would prefer to make a formal complaint, or if we have not been able to resolve your concerns informally, please contact the person in the firm responsible for complaints handling:
Ravinder Merhas, Senior Partner
Telephone: 0203 369 7969
Email: ravi@matrixlawsolicitors.co.uk
Post: Matrix Law Solicitors, First Floor, 239 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6SN
Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your matter if it is still ongoing with us.
Our complaints procedure
We will follow the steps below in order to resolve your complaint as quickly and fairly as possible.
Step One: Tell us what's wrong
If you have not already done so, please let us know the full details of your complaint, ideally in writing (by letter or email), so that we can look into it properly.
Step Two: We will acknowledge your complaint
We will write to acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it, confirming what will happen next.
Step Three: We will investigate
We will investigate your complaint by reviewing your file and the circumstances you have raised. We aim to complete this within five working days of acknowledging your complaint. If, for any reason, we are unable to do so within this timeframe, we will write to tell you why, together with a revised timescale.
Step Four: We will respond
Once we have completed our investigation, we will invite you to a meeting to discuss the issue(s) you have raised and, we hope, resolve your complaint. We aim to hold this meeting within fourteen days of sending our acknowledgement letter. Following the meeting, we will write to you within five working days to confirm what was discussed and any solution agreed.
If you do not want, or are unable, to attend a meeting (or a meeting is not necessary), we will instead send you a detailed written response, including any proposed resolution, within fourteen working days of acknowledging your complaint.
Step Five: Our final position
Matrix Law Solicitors is a recognised sole practice, so there is no separate internal appeal to a different senior colleague. The written response you receive at Step Four represents our final position on your complaint. We hope it resolves matters to your satisfaction, but if you remain unhappy after receiving it, you are entitled to ask the Legal Ombudsman to look into your complaint, as explained below, or to raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority if they relate to our professional conduct rather than the level of service you received.
You must always give us the opportunity to resolve your complaint first. In most cases you will not be able to take a complaint further without allowing us to try to put things right.
The Legal Ombudsman
We aim to resolve complaints within eight weeks of receiving them. If we are unable to do so within that time, or if you are not satisfied with our final response, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman — an independent complaints scheme for legal services — to consider your complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman will normally only investigate a complaint that is brought:
- within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint; and
- no more than one year from the date of the act or omission you are complaining about, or no more than one year from the date on which you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
You can contact the Legal Ombudsman:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Legal Ombudsman deals with concerns about the level of service you have received. If, instead, you believe we have acted dishonestly, or you have concerns about our integrity or ethics — for example, misusing client money, or treating you unfairly because of a characteristic such as your age or a disability — you can report this to our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The SRA is not able to deal with concerns about poor service; these should be directed to the Legal Ombudsman instead.
There is no time limit for reporting a concern to the SRA, although there are limits on what it is able to consider.
For more information, or to report a concern, visit: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor
Further information
If you have any questions about this procedure, please contact Ravinder Merhas, Senior Partner, on 0203 369 7969, by email at ravi@matrixlawsolicitors.co.uk, or by post to Matrix Law Solicitors, First Floor, 239 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6SN.
