How to make a formal complaint
Our complaints form will help you provide the information required for a formal complaint. You can make a complaint without using the form but you must:
- put your complaint in writing
- identify yourself and the person you are complaining about
- provide your contact details
- state the subject matter of the complaint and support it with copies of any relevant documents.
When the Complaints Service receives your complaint, it will be acknowledged and checked to see if it is valid. If so, it will be sent to a Standards Committee for consideration. A copy will be sent to the lawyer being complained about and they will have the right to make a written submission to the Standards Committee.
The Standards Committee can either:
- inquire into the complaint
- ask you and the lawyer you are complaining about to consider resolving matters by negotiation, conciliation or mediation
- decide to take no action.
If the Standards Committee decides to inquire into the complaint, you and the lawyer concerned will be told what will happen next. You will be given the opportunity to comment on any explanation the lawyer provides.
A Complaints and Standards Officer (CSO) will usually carry out the initial inquiry or investigation. CSOs are lawyers or administrative officers who help the Standards Committees. They deal with complaints as fairly, efficiently and effectively as possible. Their investigation is impartial and they do not give legal advice to either the complainant or the lawyer. The CSO may contact you and the lawyer involved to clarify the issues and the evidence.
The assessor may decide to meet you and the lawyer before making a report to the Standards Committee.
When the investigation or inquiry is complete, the Standards Committee considers all the evidence (this is called ‘conducting a hearing on the papers’) and decides what should happen. Usually a complainant does not have to give evidence in person. You will be kept informed of progress along the way.
Resolution
If the Standards Committee believes the complaint could be resolved without a lengthy investigation and hearing, it may ask both parties to try to resolve the complaint, or any part of it, by negotiation, conciliation or mediation. If this leads to an agreed settlement, the Standards Committee may record the terms of the settlement and, with the consent of the parties, declare that to be all or part of its final determination.
If appropriate, the CSO will send the complaint to an experienced mediator who will contact you, possibly by phone. You and the lawyer can choose your own mediator but you would then have to pay for their services.
No action
A Standards Committee may decide to take no action on a complaint. This could be because:
- the complaint has been made so long after the issues arose that it is not practical or desirable to investigate it
- the complaint is trivial, frivolous or vexatious, or is not made in good faith
- the person affected does not want the complaint to proceed
- the person who makes the complaint does not have sufficient personal interest in it
- some other adequate remedy or right of appeal is available.
It may also decide to take no further action if the investigation indicates that further action is unnecessary or inappropriate.
If this is the case with your complaint, you will be told the reasons for it and about your rights to have that decision reviewed.
You can withdraw your complaint at any stage. However, the Standards Committee can still take action on its own account on matters raised in your complaint if it considers them to be serious.