Complaints Policy & Procedure

V2. Updated 12/08/2026

1. Purpose of this Complaints Policy

1.1. Monaco Solicitors Ltd welcomes and encourages feedback of all kinds from our customers. If you have a Complaint about our services, our customer service, or about our employees, agents, or subcontractors, we want to resolve it to your satisfaction. We also want to learn from it in order to improve our business and customer experience in the future.

1.2. It is our policy to resolve Complaints quickly and fairly. The aims of the policy are:

1.2.1. To provide a clear and fair procedure for any customer wishing to make a Complaint about Monaco Solicitors Ltd, or about our services, customer service, employees, agents, or contractors;
1.2.2. To ensure that everyone working for or with Monaco Solicitors Ltd knows how to handle Complaints made by our customers;
1.2.3. To ensure that all Complaints are handled equally and in a fair and timely manner;
1.2.4. To ensure that important information is gathered from Complaints and used in the future to avoid such a situation arising again.

2. What this Complaints Policy covers

2.1. This Complaints Policy applies to the provision of services by Monaco Solicitors Ltd, our customer service, customers and our employees, agents, and contractors.

2.2. For the purposes of this Complaints Policy, any reference to Monaco Solicitors Ltd also includes our employees, agents, and contractors.

2.3. Complaints may relate to any of our activities and may include (but not be limited to):
2.3.1. The quality of customer service you have received from Monaco Solicitors Ltd and
2.3.2. The behaviour and/or professional competence of our staff.
2.3.3. The professional service we have provided to you, including the way your case has been handled and any advice given; and
2.3.4. Our charges, including any bill we have sent you and any deduction we have made from a settlement or award.

2.4. There is no charge for making a Complaint. We will not charge you for the time we spend investigating or responding to it.
2.5. Making a Complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

3. Making a Complaint

3.1. You may make a Complaint at any time. We would encourage you to raise any concern with us as soon as you become aware of it, so that we have the best chance of putting it right quickly, but we do not impose a time limit on making a Complaint to us. Time limits do apply if you later take your Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman — see paragraph 4.5.

3.2. All Complaints should be made in one of the following ways:
3.2.1. By emailing our Complaints Department at [email protected]; or
3.2.2. In writing to Monaco Solicitors Ltd at Fox Court, 14 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8HN.
3.2.3. By telephone on 020 7717 5259, or by telling any member of staff working on your case. If you make your Complaint verbally, we will record it in writing and send you our written summary so that you can confirm we have understood it correctly.

3.3. When making a Complaint, you will be required to provide the following information in as much detail as is reasonably possible:
3.3.1. Further details of your Complaint including, as appropriate, all times, dates, events, and people involved;
3.3.2. Details of any documents or other evidence you wish to rely on in support of your Complaint;
3.3.3. Details of what you would like Monaco Solicitors Ltd to do to resolve your Complaint and to put things right.

3.4. If you need this policy in another format, or need us to make any adjustment to make it easier for you to complain — for example because of a disability — please tell us and we will make reasonable adjustments.

4. How we handle your Complaint

4.1. Monaco Solicitors Ltd operates a two-stage Complaints handling procedure. Our aim is to resolve Complaints to your satisfaction at Level One. If you are not satisfied at the end of Level One, you may escalate your Complaint to Level Two, with progression to External Resolution as a last resort.

4.2. Level One and Level Two Complaints may be more appropriately discussed in detail over the phone, thus in some situations, they will be handled by phone.

4.3. Level One
4.3.1. Upon receipt of your Complaint, a Complaints Handler will log the Complaint and acknowledge receipt in writing within 5 business days.
4.3.2. The person named in the Complaint will contact you and try to resolve the matter. If it is more appropriate for a third party to try to resolve the complaint, it will be passed to another person to handle.
4.3.3. If we need additional information that we think is important to the successful resolution of the complaint, we will ask you for it. Please try to provide it promptly to avoid delays. If you do not provide it, we will attempt to proceed without it, but it may delay or otherwise affect the resolution.
4.3.4. The person named in the Complaint will try to resolve the issue with you within 14 days of our initial acknowledgement. However, if the issues are complex, or due to absences, this may not be possible. We will make every effort to inform you of any delay.
4.3.5. The purpose of Level One is to enable a two-way dialogue between the affected people rather than a one-off response from the subject of the Complaint.
4.3.6. Please note that in some situations, we will recommend a referral to Level Two immediately and bypass Level One. If this is the case, we will inform you accordingly.

4.4. Level Two
4.4.1. If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint at Level One, you may, within 20 business days of the Level One conclusion, escalate your complaint to Level Two. In escalating your complaint, you should provide a detailed response to our approach thus far and your reasons for disagreeing with it.
4.4.2. Escalations should be directed to your original Complaint Handler (and copied to [email protected]) who will forward the request to an appropriate Level Two Complaint Handler. We will endeavour to acknowledge your request in writing within 5 business days.
4.4.3. We aim to resolve Level Two Complaints within eight weeks of receipt of your original complaint. However in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible, in which case you will be informed.
4.4.4. In any event, if your Complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks of you making it, we will write to you with the information set out at paragraph 4.5 below, so that you can take your Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you wish.
4.4.5. As we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, you have the right to seek External Resolution of your Complaint if you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint at Level Two.

4.5. External Resolution
4.5.1. If you are not satisfied with our final response to your Complaint at Level Two, or if your Complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks of you making it, you may refer your Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

4.5.2. Ordinarily, a Complaint must be referred to the Legal Ombudsman:
– Within one year of the act or omission about which you are complaining; or
– Within one year of when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for Complaint.
You must also ordinarily refer your Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of our final written response. The Legal Ombudsman may exercise discretion to accept a Complaint outside these time limits where it considers it fair and reasonable to do so.

4.5.3. The six-month period in paragraph 4.5.2 applies only where our final written response prominently told you that the Legal Ombudsman was available if you remained dissatisfied, gave you the Legal Ombudsman’s full contact details, and warned you that you must refer your Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of that response.
4.5.4. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by telephone on 0300 555 0333, by email at [email protected], by post at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH, or through the Legal Ombudsman’s website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

4.5.5. The Legal Ombudsman can consider complaints from individuals and from smaller organisations — broadly, businesses with fewer than ten employees, charities and clubs with an annual income under £1 million, trustees of trusts with assets under £1 million, and the personal representatives or beneficiaries of someone who has died. It will normally expect you to have used our complaints procedure first.

4.6. The Solicitors Regulation Authority
4.6.1. The Solicitors Regulation Authority may consider concerns about a solicitor’s or law firm’s conduct or compliance with its regulatory obligations — for example dishonesty, or the misuse of money held for a client. It does not ordinarily investigate complaints solely about the standard of service provided, and it cannot award you compensation for poor service. Further information is available through the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website at www.sra.org.uk or by calling its contact centre on 0370 606 2555.

4.7 Alternative dispute resolution
4.7.1. Alternative complaints bodies exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services. If we have been unable to resolve your Complaint through our own procedure, we may agree to a request from you to use the scheme operated by an alternative complaints body.

4.8 If your Complaint is about a bill
4.8.1. If your Complaint is about a bill, you may also have the right to apply to the court for an assessment of that bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Strict time limits apply, so you should take advice promptly if you wish to do this. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman may decide not to deal with a Complaint about a bill if a court is already dealing with, or has already dealt with, the same issue.

5. Confidentiality

All Complaints and related information are treated with the utmost confidence. Such information will only be shared with those employees, agents, or contractors of Monaco Solicitors Ltd who need to know in order to handle your Complaint.

We keep a central record of all Complaints and their outcomes. We use that record to identify patterns and to improve our service, in line with paragraph 1.2.4 above. Any analysis of that kind is anonymised.

6. Questions and further information

If you have any questions or require further information about any aspect of this Complaints Policy, please contact the office manager by phone at 020 7717 5259, or by email at [email protected].

 

7. Policy responsibility and review

Overall responsibility for this Complaints Policy within Monaco Solicitors Ltd, and the implementation thereof, rests with Alex Monaco, Founder & Solicitor-Advocate (All Higher Courts).

This policy is reviewed regularly, and in any event as soon as reasonably practicable after any change to the Legal Ombudsman Scheme Rules or to the SRA Standards and Regulations. The version number and review date are shown at the head of this policy.