Legal & Regulatory

DUFFY & CO’S COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Duffy & Co Solicitors is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to its clients.  In the vast majority of cases our clients experience an excellent and unblemished service.  If, however, something goes wrong, we would like to resolve the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible to your satisfaction.  It is important that any problems you experience are reported to us in order that we may remedy the situation and make sure it does not happen again.

If you are dissatisfied with the service you have received we encourage you to raise it with the member of staff you are dealing with in the first instance – if you feel comfortable doing so.  We hope that by doing this matters can be resolved quickly to your satisfaction.  If you do not feel able to do that, or, you do so but do not arrived at a satisfactory outcome, you may use our formal complaint procedure.

HOW TO MAKE A FORMAL COMPLAINT

Please send an e-mail to anthonyduffy@duffyandcosolicitors.co.uk or a letter marked “For the Attention of the Compliance Department” at Duffy & Co Solicitors, Suite 11, Sheffield Business Centre, Europa Link, Sheffield, S9 1XZ.  The letter or e-mail you send should contain the following information:-

  • Your full name and address.
  • The firm’s case reference.
  • The name of the individual who acts for you.
  • A concise outline of the complaint you have together with any supporting documents or evidence.

The formal complaints policy is available to all clients of the firm.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

  • We aim to acknowledge receipt of complaints within 4 working days of receipt.
  • We will then investigate your complaint.  In order to do this we will consider any documents or evidence you supply and all our files and records.  We will also speak to the individual member or members of staff who are dealing with your case.
  • It usually takes us up to 28 working days to consider and fully investigate your complaint.  It may take longer if there are staff absences or if we are waiting for you to provide any clarification or further evidence that we request.
  • Once the complaint has been fully assessed we will do one of two things within 7 working days of completing the investigation:-
  1. We will either invite you to attend a meeting in person or by telephone to discuss your complaint; or
  2. We will write to you with our findings and determination.

The timescale for dealing with a complaint (as set out above) is subject to the complexity of the issues.  If a complaint is particularly complicated the investigation may take much longer than that required for a more straightforward matter.  If that is the case we will inform you as soon as it becomes apparent that more time is needed.

As a regulated law firm our services are subject to the jurisdiction of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Legal Ombudsman.

If you remain dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman which you can do through the link listed below within six months of the date of our final response:-

https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/

If you fail to comply with the strict time limits of the Legal Ombudsman, they will be unable to investigate your complaint.

If you consider that it would be appropriate to report your complaint to the SRA (Solicitor’s Regulation Authority) which you believe may have breached an SRA principle we refer you to the Memorandum of Understanding for more information on this arrangement.  Full details can be found on the SRA website whose address is:-

https://www.sra.org.uk/

ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING/ ANTI FINANCIAL CRIME

The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations (Information on the Payer) 2017 require independent legal professionals to verify the identity of all their clients and, where the client is an entity, to identify, and in some cases to verify, the natural person/s who is/are its ultimate beneficial owner/s. This means we may ask a client (or persons or organisations who instruct us on a client’s behalf) for passport and other identification documents and about out client’s wealth and source of funds.

We may also obtain relevant information from external organisations, including credit reference agencies, who may keep a record of the search. Where our client is an entity (or where a person or organisation instructs us on behalf of an entity which is our client) we may ask for a structure chart and for confirmation of who the natural person/s is/are who ultimately beneficially own more than 25 per cent of our client. We will seek this information at the outset of our business relationships, although we may need to update it during the course of our ongoing business relationships.

We may either decline or not be permitted to proceed to act or to handle funds until our client due diligence checks are complete. Where we instruct other professionals, such as counsel or overseas law firms, on a client’s behalf, we may provide the other professional with copies of our client due diligence, unless specifically instructed not to do so.