We are committed to providing a high quality legal service and to dealing with all our clients fairly. We acknowledge that we may not always get it right so if something has gone wrong, including in relation to your bill, we need you to tell us.
In the first instance you should normally take the matter up with the partner responsible for your matter. If you do not wish to do that however you can contact Andrew Pike who is Burlingtons’ Managing Partner and he will review any concerns which you may have. His email contact details are:
andrew.pike@burlingtonslegal.com
Alternatively you can call Andrew on 0207 529 5420 or you can write to him at:
5 Stratford Place
London
W1C 1AX
Understanding Your Complaint
To help us to understand your complaint, and in order that we do not miss anything, please tell us:
We will record your complaint in our central records.
We will write to you within a maximum of fourteen days acknowledging your complaint.
We will investigate your complaint. This will usually involve:
We may also need to ask you for further information or documents. If so, we will ask you to provide the information as soon as possible.
We may also, if appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. You do not have to attend if you do not wish to or if you are unable to. We will be happy to discuss the matter with you on the telephone as an alternative should you so wish.
We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.
We will write to you at the end of our investigation to tell you what we have done and what we propose to do to resolve your complaint. We will aim to do this as quickly as possible and normally within 14 days of the date of our letter of acknowledgement unless this timeframe has to be extended if we need further information from you in order to properly investigate your complaint.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of our complaints handling procedure please first let us know if you feel that there are any material points which we have not considered and we will review the matter further.
If you are still unhappy and your complaint relates to an issue regarding the quality of the services which we provide you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to look into your complaint. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman:
You must usually refer your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months of our final written response to your complaint. Further details are available on the Legal Ombudsman's website.
Alternatively, if you believe that we have breached one of the Principles of the Solicitors Code of Conduct you can refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. You can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority:
We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
Please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding together with costs in respect of any recovery proceedings which become necessary. Such additional interest and costs will not be payable in the event that your complaint is ultimately upheld.
The Legal Ombudsman and Solicitors Regulation Authority services are free of charge.
The time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be no later than one year from the date when the act or omission being complained about occurred or one year from the date when it should have become apparent that there was cause for complaint.
There is no specific time limit for raising a complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.