We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all of our clients. When something goes wrong, or if you are unhappy or concerned about our service, we need you to tell us about it immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

Please note that making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

Complaints Procedure

It may be helpful to first contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues.

If you would like to make a formal complaint, Mrs Juliet Benson is the Complaints Handler for the firm. Please let her know the full nature of the problem. Ideally, your complaint should be made in writing so that any scope for misunderstanding can be avoided.  However, if you are not able to do this then you may provide the details of your complaint over a telephone call or in person. If you are able to set out your concerns in writing then you can do this by emailing juliet@jbensonsolicitors.com or writing to Juliet Benson at J Benson Solicitors 270 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 2BY. In some cases, in order to avoid a misunderstanding, Juliet may deem it necessary to only communicate in writing with you. In the absence of Juliet Benson, Heather Aligbe will deal with the complaint.

Step Two:

Juliet will write to you to acknowledge your complaint. In this letter, Juliet will confirm the commencement of an investigation. Juliet will explain what happens next and include information about the process she will follow to investigate your complaint and the timetable for doing so. We normally aim to acknowledge any complaint within 4 working days. Our investigation of the matter can take between 2 to 4 weeks depending on the complexity of the matter and the number of issues raised.

Step Three:

We are permitted eight weeks from the date of your complaint to consider and deal with the concern. However, Juliet will attempt to try and resolve the issue in a much shorter timeframe. Certainly, within this permitted period, you will receive a substantive response from Juliet addressing each of your complaints and confirming what, if any, action will be taken. 

If it is agreed that the level of service was not at the level one would expect, Juliet will be in contact with you to discuss the issue you have raised and hopefully resolve it to your satisfaction.

The complaint would then be considered as closed.

Step Four:

If you are satisfied with Juliet’s response following Step Three above, that will be the end of the matter.

Step Five (other avenues):

You must always try complaining to us first. In most cases you will not be able to take your complaint further without allowing us the opportunity to put things right.

Legal Ombudsman

We are permitted a minimum of eight weeks to consider the complaint. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us within that timeframe, then you may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

You are free to refer any complaint about our work, fees or level of service. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check if you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving our final response to your complaint and no more than one year from the date of the act or omission complained OR no more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was a cause for complaint.

For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at Legal Ombudsman, PO BOX 6167 Slough SL1 0EH or via email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Solicitors Regulation Authority

If you are unhappy with our behaviour for example if you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, you also have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).  There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman).  For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/