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Formal Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint about Highland Law Practice, either Solicitors or Staff, we would ask you, in the first instance, to raise this directly with whoever you have been dealing with. We want you to be satisfied with our service and will try to ensure this if possible. If however you are not satisfied with your response, or otherwise consider that this matter is serious, you may use our Formal Complaints Procedure.

Our complaints procedure requires everything to be in writing, so that both you and we have copies of what has been said, agreed, or not agreed.

If you are a Client...

  1. Put your complaint in writing, stating (i) who you are complaining about, (ii) what you are complaining about, and (iii) what you think would be a suitable remedy. You may use our "Complaints and Suggestion Form", or simply send us a letter.
    Address your complaint to the Client Relations Partner, Stephen Copinger, unless your complaint is about Mr Copinger in which case you should address this to Sylvia MacLennan.
  2. We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 working days of receipt.
  3. We will investigate your complaint: if we need further information from you, we will write to you asking for this information. If we need information from someone else, we will send you a copy of our letter requesting this information.
  4. We will give a detailed response within 21 days of receiving your complaint, or where we require further information 21 days after receiving this. Our response will summarise the position as stated by you, detail any facts that we do not agree on, and make proposals to deal with your complaint.
  5. Once you receive our response, you may make further comments for us to consider, accept our proposals as satisfactory, or advise us that you are not satisfied with our proposals.
    1. If you tell us you are satisfied, or do not give any other reply within 1 month, we shall go ahead with our proposals to settle your complaint.
    2. If you make further comments, (including any changes you would want to make to our proposals to be satisfied with them) we shall respond within 14 days with our response to your comments, together with any changes to our proposals to settle your complaint.
  6. If we cannot agree suitable arrangements to satisfy you about your complaint, your options are:
    1. Raise a Court Action against us if you consider that we have caused you loss by Professional Negligence.
    2. Complain to the Law Society of Scotland, 26 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, EH3 7YR if you otherwise feel you have received inadequate or unprofessional service (whether or not you have suffered financial loss). They will advise of their complaints procedure.

If you are not a Client...

If you are not a client, but contacting us on behalf of a client, we will require proof that you are acting on their behalf - a signed letter from them, a Power of Attorney, etc. Without such authorisation, we are not permitted to discuss a client's business with anyone else other than the client.

If you are not a client, but consider that the firm, a member of staff or solicitor has acted unprofessionally, been unduly rude or offensive, or otherwise given you cause for complaint, you are welcome to complain in writing. In this case our procedure will be as above, but while we will try to keep to the stated time limits we do not bind ourselves to do so. It is also unlikely that you will have any grounds to raise a court action or complain to the Law Society of Scotland if you remain dissatisfied. This does not mean however that we will treat such complaints lightly.

Please note however that we will not entertain complaints about:

If you are a client, you should already have received a Complaints and Suggestion Form with your Terms of Business. However, you can also download a copy in PDF format by right clicking on the icon below.

PDF File Icon