Complaints Procedure

If you have made a complaint under our formal Complaints Procedure (.pdf available), but for any reason you are not satisfied with our attempt to resolve the issue, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint further. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by writing to them at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, or by an email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, or by telephone 0300 555 0333). The Legal Ombudsman may refer your complaint to the Bar Standards Board if they are not the correct body to conduct the investigation, as the Legal Ombudsman’s services are only available to certain types of clients and in certain circumstances. Click here for full details.

You will usually need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within twelve months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or, if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

If you have a complaint in relation to our invoices, you should follow our standard Complaints Procedure and you may be entitled to apply to the court for an assessment of our invoices under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

If you have instructed OTI as an individual to act for you in your personal capacity (not in any business or professional capacity), under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you have a fourteen day cooling-off period during which you may decide to cancel your contract with us. If you expect us to provide advice and services during that fourteen day period but also wish to cancel your contract during that period, you agree that you will be liable for any fees or expenses chargeable for legal advice and services incurred up to and including the date of cancellation.

Our policy is to account to our clients for a sum in lieu of interest on a fair and reasonable basis. If the total amount of interest calculated over the course of a matter is less than £20 no payment in lieu of interest will be paid. Client monies will be deposited in a general escrow account operated by BARCO. It is unlikely that a client will receive as much interest as might have been obtained had the funds been invested by the client itself.