Complaints Procedure

If something about our service has fallen short, we would rather be told, and told early, because at that stage it can usually be put right.

Making a complaint costs you nothing and will not affect how we deal with your matter.

Stage one: tell us

Start with the person handling your matter. Most complaints arise from a misunderstanding about what was going to happen, or about when, and a conversation will often resolve them the same day.

If that does not resolve it, put it in writing to our Client Relations Partner.

By email: complaints@jillingham.com
By post: The Client Relations Partner, Jillingham and Co Solicitors, Second Floor, 44 Candleriggs, Glasgow G1 1LD

It helps if you can tell us what happened, when it happened, who was involved, and — importantly — what you would like us to do about it. You do not need to use any particular form of words and you do not need a solicitor to complain.

What we will do

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within five working days.
We will investigate it. That normally means reviewing the file and speaking to the people involved, and we may come back to you for clarification.
We will give you a full written response within 28 days of acknowledging it, setting out what we found, whether we uphold the complaint, and what we propose to do.
If we need longer — because the matter is complex or someone necessary is unavailable — we will write and tell you why, and when you can expect our response.

The complaint will be looked at by someone who was not responsible for the work complained of.

Stage two: the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

If you are not satisfied with our response, or if we have not responded in a reasonable time, you can take the matter to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. The SLCC is the independent gateway for complaints about legal practitioners in Scotland, and it is free to use.

You must give us the chance to put it right first. The SLCC will not normally accept a complaint until at least four weeks have passed since you raised its substance with us, so that we have had a reasonable opportunity to deal with it ourselves. Our 28-day response target above is set to match that window. If there is a reason why you could not come to us first, explain it when you complain — the SLCC can proceed straight away where waiting would serve no purpose.

Note that the four weeks described here is the period we have to answer you. It is a different thing from the 28 days allowed for appealing an SLCC decision, which is dealt with at the end of this page.

Contact details

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

Address: Capital Building, 12–13 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 2AF
Telephone: 0131 201 2130
Email: enquiries@scottishlegalcomplaints.org.uk
Website: scottishlegalcomplaints.org.uk

Time limits

There are time limits, and they matter.

For a complaint about the service provided, the SLCC must generally receive it within three years of the date on which you were last provided with a service in connection with the matter you are complaining about.
For a complaint about conduct, the period is generally three years from when the thing complained about happened.

In working out those periods the SLCC disregards any time during which you were excusably unaware of the matter. It may also accept a complaint outside the time limit where it considers there are exceptional reasons why it was not made sooner, or that the circumstances are exceptional.

If you think a time limit may be close, contact the SLCC directly rather than waiting for our internal process to finish.

What happens next

The SLCC first considers whether a complaint is eligible to be taken forward. Where it is, complaints are separated according to what they are about:

Service complaints — that the work done for you was inadequate — are investigated by the SLCC itself.
Conduct complaints — that a solicitor has behaved in a way that falls below the professional standards required — are referred by the SLCC to the Law Society of Scotland, which investigates conduct. If you are unhappy with how the Law Society has handled a conduct complaint, the SLCC can look at that separately.

A complaint can contain elements of both, in which case each part is dealt with by the appropriate body.

What the SLCC can do

Where a service complaint is upheld, the SLCC can require an apology, direct a practitioner to reduce or refund fees, direct them to redo the work or take some other specified action, and direct them to pay compensation for loss, inconvenience or distress.

The statutory maximum compensation for a services complaint is £20,000. Within that maximum the SLCC applies its own published limit of £5,000 for inconvenience and distress specifically.

It is worth being realistic about the scale. Awards at or near the maximum are very rare, and awards for inconvenience and distress are typically in the low hundreds of pounds. The SLCC's usual outcomes are an apology, a fee adjustment or work being put right, rather than a large payment.

Appealing an SLCC decision

An SLCC decision can be appealed to the Court of Session, with leave, within 28 days. The grounds are narrow — broadly an error of law, procedural impropriety, an unreasonable exercise of discretion, or a decision the facts do not support — and an unsuccessful appellant can be found liable for expenses.

Who regulates us

Jillingham and Co Solicitors is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland, registration number 00000.

Two points sometimes cause confusion, and are worth stating plainly:

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman regulate and handle complaints about solicitors in England and Wales. Neither has jurisdiction over the Scottish practice of a Scottish solicitor, and for the Scots law work described on this site the SLCC is the body to approach.

Where the firm has advised you under a qualification other than the Scottish one, the route for a complaint may be different. We will tell you which route applies to your matter in our letter of engagement, and you can ask us at any time.

Complaints about Scottish solicitors have gone to the SLCC since it opened on 1 October 2008. Before then the professional bodies handled complaints themselves, with the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman able to review only how they had handled them, rather than the substance. That office was abolished when the SLCC took over. Any other body named in older material is not an alternative route and should be disregarded.

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