Privacy & Data Protection

1. Introduction

This document sets out the obligations of Red Bar Law LLP (the ‘Firm’) regarding data protection and your rights as our client (‘data subjects’) in respect of your personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) which sits alongside the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘DPA 2018’), and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (‘PECR’). The Firm is also subject to the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (‘DUAA’), which reforms data protection and promotes the secure and effective use of data, including both personal and non-personal information.

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

The UK GDPR defines “personal data” as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that natural person.

This document sets the Firm’s obligations regarding the collection, processing, transfer, storage, and disposal of your personal data. The Firm has implemented procedures and policies for our employees, agents, contractors, or other parties working on behalf of the Firm to follow at all times.

The Firm is committed not only to the letter of the law, but also to the spirit of the law and places high importance on the correct, lawful, and fair handling of all personal data, respecting the legal rights, privacy, and trust of all individuals with whom it deals.

2. Lawful, Fair, and Transparent Data Processing

The UK GDPR seeks to ensure that personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights as the data subject.

As you are a client of the Firm and have contracted with us to provide you with the necessary legal assistance, under the UK GDPR we are allowed to process your personal data as a necessity for the performance of the contract.

We collect and use your personal data to provide legal services. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing those services.

3. The Data Protection Principles

The UK GDPR sets out the following principles with which any party handling personal data must comply. All personal data must be:

Processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
Collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes. Further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes.
Adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed.
Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that is inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which it is processed, is erased, or rectified without delay.
Kept in a form that permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed. Personal data may be stored for longer periods insofar as the personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes, subject to the implementation of the appropriate technical and organisational measures required by the UK GDPR in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject.
Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction, or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

4. Cookies

This website uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies support essential site functions. Other technologies, including relevant analytics or advertising tools, will be used only in accordance with applicable consent requirements. Visitors can manage or withdraw their cookie preferences through the website’s cookie controls.

5. Professional indemnity insurance

Red Bar Law LLP maintains professional indemnity insurance in accordance with the requirements applying to SRA-authorised firms. Information about our qualifying insurer and the territorial coverage of our insurance is available on request.

6. Website Terms of Use

Material on this website is provided for general information and does not constitute advice tailored to any person’s individual circumstances. Website use or submission of an enquiry does not by itself establish a solicitor-client relationship or mean that Red Bar Law LLP has accepted instructions. External links lead to third-party websites for whose content Red Bar Law LLP is not responsible. Website material remains subject to applicable intellectual property rights.

7. Keeping You Informed

The Firm shall provide the information set out below to every client: -

Where your personal data is collected directly from you, you will be informed of its purpose at the time of collection; and

Where your personal data is obtained from a third party, you will be informed of its purpose:

If the personal data is used to communicate with you, when the first communication is made; or
If the personal data is to be transferred to another party, before that transfer is made; or
As soon as reasonably possible and in any event, not more than one month after the personal data is obtained.

8. How Your Personal Data Is Collected

We collect most of this information from you direct. However, we may also collect information:

From publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
Directly from a third party, e.g.:

Sanctions screening providers;
Credit reference agencies;
Client due diligence providers;

From a third party with your consent, e.g.:

Your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor;
Consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter;
Your employer and/or trade union, professional body or pension administrators;
Your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals;

Via our website—we use cookies on our website (for more information on cookies, please see our Cookies Policy on our website.
Via our information technology (IT) systems.

9. How and Why We Use Personal Data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, e.g.:

Where you have given consent;
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
For the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.

The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why.

What we use your personal data for	Our reasons
Providing services to you.	To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us.	For our legitimate interest, i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us.
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity. Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes. Other activities necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law or rules issued by our professional regulator.	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
To enforce legal rights or defend or undertake legal proceedings.	Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; —in other cases, for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect our business, interests and rights.
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies.	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Ensuring policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use.	For our legitimate interests, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you.
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control.	For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price.
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.	Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information; —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business.	For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price.
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems.	Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us; —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
Protecting the security of systems and data used to provide services.	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We may also use your personal data to ensure the security of systems and data to a standard that goes beyond our legal obligations, and in those cases our reasons are for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect systems and data and to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us.
Updating client records.	Depending on the circumstances: —to perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; —for our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services.
Statutory returns.	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments.	Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; —for our legitimate interests, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you.
Marketing our services to: —existing and former clients; —third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services; —third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings.	For our legitimate interests, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients.
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies where applicable	For our legitimate interests, i.e. to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services
External audits and quality checks.	Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards; —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties that will or may take control or ownership of some or all of our business (and professional advisors acting on our or their behalf) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale or in the event of our insolvency. In such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary.	Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; —in other cases, for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets.

10. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data—Special

Certain personal data we collect is treated as a special category to which additional protections apply under data protection law:

Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership;
Genetic data;
Biometric data (when used to uniquely identify an individual);
Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, e.g.:

We have your explicit consent;
The processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
The processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

11. Sharing of Personal Data

During our retainer with you we may share your information with the following entities: -

Courts and Tribunals;
Experts required to advise or provide reports;
Barristers & Barristers Chambers;
Accountants;
Our Professional Advisors including support for Regulation, Compliance and Risk related issues;
Opposing Lawyers and representatives;
Solicitors Regulation Authority;
Legal Ombudsman;
Banks and Lenders;
Mediation and Arbitration Service providers;
Government Bodies;
Auditors;
IT support, infrastructure and system providers;
Employees of the Firm;
Contractors to the Firm working on your matter;
Postal service providers, including couriers;
Insurers and Brokers;
HM Land Registry;
Other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts;
Third parties approved by you, e.g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
Credit reference agencies and card payment providers
Our external auditors, e.g. in relation to the audit of our accounts or files, or systems and processes;
If considered appropriate Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology utilised by the Firm.
Other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business (and our or their professional advisers) in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition or asset sale or in the event of our insolvency, usually, information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of any of your personal data will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

Where we outsource to third party providers, we only allow those organisations to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on them to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.

12. Marketing

We will use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.

We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes. This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information. If we change our marketing approach in the future so that consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.

You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by emailing your request to our Data Compliance Manager/Data Protection Manager at "); or writing to our firm at Red Bar Law, Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL, or calling 020 7129 1424

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell or share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.

13. Personal Data Collected, Held, and Processed

The following personal data is collected, held, and processed by the Firm:

Data Ref.	Type of Data	Purpose of Data
Client Name	Your Name	To identify you.
Address	Your Address	To send letters to you.
Email address	Your email address	To send communication via email.
Mobile telephone	Your mobile telephone number.	To communicate with you by phone and/or by text.
Date of Birth	Your date of birth	To identify you.
Passport Number	Your passport details	To identify you and comply with Money Laundering and Sanctions Regulations – where applicable.
Driving licence number	Your driving licence details	To identify you and comply with Money Laundering and Sanctions Regulations – where applicable.
Utility Bill	Your utility bill (s)	To identify you and comply with Money Laundering and Sanctions Regulations – where applicable.
Matter Information	Matter history and associated information.	Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation.
Credit Check	Your finance/credit information.	Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you.
Financial Data	Your financial information.	Your financial details so far as relevant to your instructions, e.g. the source of your funds if you are instructing on a purchase transaction.
Client Service Data	Your access to our communication systems,	Information about your use of our IT, communication and other systems, and other monitoring information.

14. Personal Data Collected for Compliance with the Firm’s Regulatory Responsibilities

Pursuant to Regulation 41 of The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 and The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 and 2022, the Firm will only use any personal data provided for the purpose of complying with the regulations and for the prevention of money laundering or terrorist financing.

15. Where Your Personal Data Is Held

Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see section 7, ‘Sharing of Personal Data’).

16. How Long Your Personal Data Will Be Kept For

We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used or as agreed with you.

As a general rule, if we are no longer providing services to you, we will delete or anonymise your account data after [seven] years. However, different retention periods apply for different types of personal data and for different services as set out in our Client Care letter and Terms and Conditions.

Following the of the relevant retention period, we will delete or anonymise your personal data.

17. Transferring Your Personal Data Out of the UK

The EEA and other countries outside the UK and the UK have differing data protection laws, some of which may provide lower levels of protection of privacy.

It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK. In those cases, we will comply with applicable UK laws designed to ensure the privacy of your personal data.

Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK where:

In the case of transfers subject to UK data protection law, the UK government has decided the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy regulation’) further to Article 45 of the UK GDPR. A list of countries the UK currently has adequacy regulations in relation to is available here.
In the case of transfers subject to EEA data protection laws, the European Commission has decided that the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy decision’) further to Article 45 of the EU GDPR. A list of countries the European Commission has currently made adequacy decisions in relation to is available here.
There are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
A specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.

Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK, we do so on the basis of an adequacy decision. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time, we will not transfer your personal data outside the UK unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by UK data protection law and reflected in an update to this notice.

Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we rely on to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Changes to this Privacy Notice’ below.

18. Transferring Your Personal Data Out of the UK - Further Information

If you would like further information about data transferred outside the UK, please contact us.

19. Your Rights (As a Data Subject)

The UK GDPR sets out the following rights applicable to data subjects (please refer to the parts of this Notice indicated for further details):

The right to be informed;
The right of access;
The right to rectification;
The right to erasure (also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’);
The right to restrict processing;
The right to data portability;
The right to object;
Not to be subject to automated individual decision making;
The right to withdraw consent.

20. Data Subject Access Requests

You may make Subject Access Requests (‘SAR’s) at any time to find out more about the personal data that the Firm holds about you, what it is doing with that personal data, and why.

If you wish to make a SAR, you may do so in writing. SARs should be addressed to the Firm's Data Protection Officer/ Data Compliance Manager, who is Hatti Suvari. You should send your request by: email to: "); or post to: Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL. You can also make the request by telephone to: 020 7124 1424.

Responses to SARs shall normally be made within one month of receipt, however, we may extend by up to two months if the SAR is complex and/or numerous requests are made. If such additional time is required, you shall be informed.

All SARs received shall be handled by the Firm’s Data Protection Officer/Data Compliance Manager.

The Firm does not charge a fee for the handling of normal SARs. However, we reserve the right to charge reasonable fees for additional copies of information that has already been supplied to you, and for requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly where such requests are repetitive.

21. Rectification of Personal Data

You have the right to require us to rectify any of your personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

The Firm shall rectify the personal data in question, and inform you of that rectification, within one month of you informing the Firm of the issue. The period can be extended by up to two months in the case of complex requests. If such additional time is required, you shall be informed.

In the event that any affected personal data has been disclosed to third parties, those parties shall be informed of any rectification that must be made to that personal data.

22. Erasure of Personal Data

You have the right to request that the Firm erases the personal data it holds about you in the following circumstances:

It is no longer necessary for the Firm to hold your personal data with respect to the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected or processed;
You wish to withdraw your consent to the Firm holding and processing your personal data;
You object to the Firm holding and processing your personal data (and there is no overriding legitimate interest to allow the Firm to continue doing so);
The personal data has been processed unlawfully;
The personal data needs to be erased in order for the Firm to comply with a particular legal obligation.

Unless the Firm has reasonable grounds to refuse to erase personal data, all requests for erasure shall be complied with, and you will be informed of the erasure, within one month of receipt of your request. The period can be extended by up to two months in the case of complex requests. If such additional time is required, you shall be informed.

In the event that any personal data that is to be erased in response to your request has been disclosed to third parties, those parties shall be informed of the erasure (unless it is impossible or would require disproportionate effort to do so).

23. Restriction of Personal Data Processing

You may request that the Firm ceases processing the personal data it holds about you. If you make such a request, the Firm shall retain only the amount of personal data concerning you (if any) that is necessary to ensure that the personal data in question is not processed further.

In the event that any affected personal data has been disclosed to third parties, those parties shall be informed of the applicable restrictions on processing it (unless it is impossible or would require disproportionate effort to do so).

24. Objections to Personal Data Processing

You have the right to object to the Firm processing your personal data based on legitimate interests and direct marketing (including profiling).

Where you object to the Firm processing your personal data based on its legitimate interests, the Firm shall cease such processing immediately, unless it can be demonstrated that the Firm’s legitimate grounds for such processing override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or that the processing is necessary for the conduct of legal claims.

Where you object to the Firm processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes, the Firm shall cease such processing immediately.

25. Withdrawing Consent

If you have provided us with a consent to use your personal data you have a right to withdraw that consent easily at any time.

You may withdraw consents by [contacting our Data Protection Officer/Date Compliance Manager by email or by post Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL or by telephone: 0207 129 1424.

Withdrawing a consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn.

26. More Information on How to Exercise Your Rights

To find more information on how you may exercise your rights as a Data Subject, please see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

27. Keeping Your Personal Data Secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your personal data will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

28. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and GDPR

We may, from time to time use Artificial Intelligence technology to assist with the delivery of our services. All AI technology used will be vetted and approved by the Firm. The Firm will not use Open Source AI (freely available for anyone to use, study, modify, and share, promoting transparency, community collaboration ) a solution which relies on but will only use Closed Source AI (where the source code, algorithms, and often the training data are kept private by the developing company).

Some AI technology providers support with tasks only (as opposed to analysis) and any data shared with such providers will not be retained or shared by the technology provider or allow them to use data provided by us by them.

29. How to Complain

Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns about our use of your personal data (see below ‘How to Contact Us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office may be contacted using the details at https://ico.org.uk/make-a complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

30. Changes to this Notice

We may change this notice from time to time. If we do, we will inform you.

31. How to Contact Us

You can contact us and/or our Data Protection Officer/Date Compliance Manager by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this notice or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.

The contact details are:-

Address: Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL

Email:

Telephone number: 020 7129 1424

Regulatory & SRA Information

Red Bar Law LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC371205. Its registered office is Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL. Red Bar Law LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a licensed body (Alternative Business Structure). Our SRA authorisation number is 569849. You can verify the firm’s status at www.sra.org.uk.

Regulatory Compliance

The firm's designated compliance officers are:

Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP): Enis Rifat
Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA): Hatti Suvari

Complaints Procedure

1. Our Policy

You have the right to complain to us.

You will not be charged for any time spent handling your complaint.

You can request a copy of this Complaint Procedure at any time.

We issue all clients with a copy of this Complaint Procedure:

On instruction of our Firm.
When you raise a complaint.

We shall aim to deal with any complaint that we may receive promptly, fairly, openly, and effectively.

2. Making a Complaint

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns, and we will do our best to resolve any issues at that stage. If you do not feel able to discuss your concerns with them, please contact the person responsible for the overall supervision of your matter, who will be named in the client care letter we sent you at the beginning of your matter.

If you do not feel able to raise your concerns with either the fee earner or their supervisor, or if you have raised your issues with the fee earner and you are still not satisfied with the response, you can refer the matter to the Firm’s Complaints Manager, who is Hatti Suvari, by emailing or writing to Red Bar Law, Central Court, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

If you need to make a complaint, you should:

Complain as soon as possible.
Provide your full name and contact details.
Provide us with your file reference number if you have it.

Be clear on what the issue is and how you would like it to be resolved.

Allow us up to eight weeks to resolve your complaint.

If you require any help in making your complaint, we will try to help you.

3. Handling and Resolving a Complaint

We will write to you within five working days acknowledging your complaint, enclosing a copy of this policy.

We will investigate your complaint. This will usually involve:

Reviewing your complaint.
Reviewing your file(s) and other relevant documents.
Liaising with the person who dealt with your matter.

We may also need to ask you for further information or documents. If so, we will ask you to provide the information within a specific period of time.

We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.

We may also, if appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. You do not have to attend if you do not wish to or if you are unable to. We will be happy to discuss the matter with you by telephone [or video conference].

We will provide you with a written outcome following an investigation into your complaint to tell you what we have done and what we propose to do to resolve your complaint.

Our aim is to resolve all complaints within eight weeks from the date of receipt.

Where possible, we will aim to do this within [21] days of the date of our letter of acknowledgement. If you are not happy with our outcome or we have not provided you with an outcome within eight weeks, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman.

If we cannot resolve your complaint, you can speak directly to the Legal Ombudsman, provided that you fit one of the following categories:

an individual.
a business or enterprise that was a micro-enterprise (European Union definition) when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
a club/association/organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members/a committee/a committee of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before he/she died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case. The Legal Ombudsman’s service is free of charge and can investigate complaints about the legal service you have received from us.

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

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year from when you should have known about the complaint. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman will only extend these time limits if they determine it to be fair and reasonable to do so.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them as follows:

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Phone Number: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email:

Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

For complaints that relate specifically to an alleged breach of the SRA Standards and Regulations including the SRA Accounts Rules, you should refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This could be for things like general misconduct, losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. The SRA will not investigate complaints about services provided by the Firm. They will refer such matters to the Legal Ombudsman.

Website: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/

Phone Number: 0370 606 2555 between 8am to 5pm. Except Tuesday 9:30am to 5pm.

Contact page: https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/