Awan Legal Associates Complaints Procedure

The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purposes
of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but responsibility for regulation and
complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative function.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society.

The Legal Ombudsman is the independent body who deals with complaints against
solicitors. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should
raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

Awan Legal Associates Ltd is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you
are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please
contact Ms. Nargis Awan on 07867723472 or nargis@awanlegal.co.uk or by post to our
office. We have a procedure in place, which details how we handle complaints, which is
available at our office. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint.

If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman. You
may first put your complaint in writing to us and we will respond as soon as reasonable or
aim to respond within 14 days at the latest but this can take up to eight weeks to fully
investigate.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal
Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ (Tel: 0300 555 0333; website –
www.legalombudsman.org.uk; email – enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk) to consider the
complaint. The time limits for the Ombudsman accepting a complaint are:

“Ordinarily:
1) The act or omission, or when the complainant should reasonably have
known there was cause for complaint, must have been after 5 October
2010; and
2) The complainant must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman
no later than:
3) Six years from the act/omission; or
4) Three years from when the complainant should reasonably have
known there was cause for complaint.”

•In exceptional circumstances the Ombudsman may consider extending these
time limits.

The time limit for a client to complain to the Legal Ombudsman remains six months from
the end of our complaints process.

Please note that we are not obliged to follow the dispute resolution process (complaints
process) if:
1) The firm seeks an order restraining the client from committing an act
or compelling the client to do an act;
2) A judgment or award for a liquid sum where there is no arguable
defence;
3) The enforcement of an agreement, order or award.

There may be a right to object to any of our invoices by making a complaint to the Legal
Ombudsman whose contact details are set out above and/or by applying to the Court for
an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitor’s Act 1974 but you should be
aware that the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about our invoice if you
have applied to the court for assessment of the invoice.