Complaints procedure

Making a complaint about a Cost Draftsman, Costs Lawyer or member of staff

Costs Draftsmen/Costs Lawyers and staff at Dickinson & Rabbitte Limited aim to provide a quality service which meets the expectations of all our clients. You can have confidence in the work that we do, but very occasionally things can go wrong and the service is not up to the required standard. If this does happen, you need to know how you can make a complaint.

If something has gone wrong, please tell us about it so we can put things right and improve what we do in the future.

Please tell us about any problems as soon as they arise, so we have the best chance of fixing them.

You should not feel obliged to use this formal complaints procedure – you may tell us about a problem informally and we will do out best to put things right – but if you do find yourself in the position of wishing to make a formal complaint with us then please follow the steps below.

We will never charge you for the time it takes us to handle your complaint.

How to complain

You may make a complaint either in writing or by telephone by contacting the following person:

Patrick Rabbitte
Dickinson & Rabbitte Limited
33 Repton Road
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 7EP
Email: p.rabbitte@dickinsonandrabbitte.co.uk
Telephone: 0115 9826394

Please tell us who or what the complaint is about and when the problem happened or when the problem started if it is still ongoing, and how you would like us to communicate with you (by telephone, letter or e-mail)

What happens next

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing. We will try to this within 7 business days.

We will look into details of your complaint and consider what we need to do to put things right, which might include:

  • Explaining what we think happened
  • Apologising to you
  • Repeating work, or parts of work, we did for you
  • Reviewing our procedures so we do not repeat a mistake
  • Reducing our fees
  • Compensating you for any loss we have caused you to suffer

Once we have investigated your complaint we will reply to you. We will do this withing eight weeks of when you first complained to us. If you have asked us to contact you by telephone we will do so but we will also write to you.

The Legal Ombudsman

If we have been unable to put things right, or we have not resolved your complaint withing eight weeks, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates problems about poor service from lawyers.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

  • Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
  • No more than six years from the date of the act/omission giving rise to the complaint; or
  • No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted using the following details:

Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website : www.legalombudsman.org.uk

There are other alternative dispute resolution schemes that exist such as ADR Group whose website is www.adrgroup.co.uk should both we and you wish to use such a scheme. Generally, we do not use such schemes.

The Costs Lawyer Standards Board

Individual Costs Lawyers who work for us are regulated by the CLSB and the CLSB can investigate complaints about those Costs Lawyer’ professional conduct. If you wish to complain about a Costs Lawyer’s conduct, you should contact the CLSB promptly.

The CLSB will consider complaints made withing 12 months of the date on which the matters giving rise to the complaint occurred or the date on which the complainant first became aware that they had grounds for the complaint. This period can be extended in exceptional circumstances. The CLSB will usually expect you to give us a chance to resolve your complaint first.

The CLSB can be contacted using the following details:

Address: Centurion house, 129 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3WR
Telephone: 0161 214 7904
E-mail: enquiries@clsb.info
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Last updated on 24th May 2021