Complaints
If you are not happy with the service that has been provided by Budd Legal, please write to Neil Budd at nbudd@buddlegal.com providing details of your complaint. Neil Budd will provide a written response within 14 days.
Complaints to Legal Ombudsman
Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the Company's final response to you. For further information you can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
In addition, you have the right to object to any invoice raised by the Company , and to apply for assessment of it under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. However, please note that the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about an invoice if you have already applied to the Court for the assessment of the invoice.
Complaints to the SRA
The SRA deals with cases where firms or those it regulates have breached the SRA Principles (details of these Principles can be found at the following link: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/who-we-are/sra-regulate/#principles).
Most of the time, complaints about solicitors are about poor service, and therefore should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of the SRA’s Principles, they will refer your case to the SRA. Likewise, if you report a solicitor to the SRA for poor service, the SRA will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman. The SRA does not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees.
However, you should report the matter directly to the SRA if you think we have breached an SRA Principle.
You can also report a firm or someone regulated by the SRA for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent or expert fees) if
- you have a County Court judgment in respect of the fee, and
- the judgment relates to the practice in connection with providing a legal service.
There are some issues the SRA does not investigate. However, they always consider allegations of dishonesty or discrimination.
In order to submit a complaint to the SRA, you will need to file a report. For further details, please see the following link: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor