We are committed to providing a high-quality service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

In many cases, misunderstandings or complaints of a minor nature can be dealt with informally over the telephone or via email.  In the first instance, therefore, we ask that you raise the complaint directly with the person handling your work.

 

Usually, if your complaint cannot be resolved by the person who is the subject of your complaint or if you are not happy dealing with them directly over the complaint, we will ask you to put your complaint in writing.

 

To do so, please write to:

 

Jonathan Clegg
Client Care Partner
Cleveland Scott York LLP

 

5 Norwich Street
London
EC4A 1DR
United Kingdom

 

Or send an email to

clientcare@csy-ip.com

 

If Jonathan Clegg is unavailable to act as Client Care Partner or is not appropriate in the circumstances of the case, an alternative Client Care Partner will be designated.

 

 

What will happen next?

 

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint.  The Client Care Partner will review the complaint and speak to the relevant person at Cleveland Scott York who acted for you.
  3. Within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter, the Client Care Partner will write back to you outlining how the firm proposes to deal with the complaint.
    1. Where practical, we may invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
    2. Where a face to face meeting is not practical, we may propose a telephone or video call as an alternative.
    3. In some cases we may be able to reply to your complaint in more detail within this timeframe, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, but we will always offer you the opportunity for a meeting or telephone/video call.
  4. Where we hold a meeting or telephone/video call the Client Care Partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any agreed solutions within three days of the meeting,
  5. However we proceed to deal with your complaint, we will aim to resolve it within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter, subject of course to your availability for any meeting you may wish to attend.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us and we will arrange for another partner or someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review the matter again.
  7. We will write to you within 21 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

 

 

If you wish to take the complaint further

 

If after our investigation and response you are still not satisfied with the quality of service offered, the Legal Services Act has made provisions for the Legal Ombudsman to deal with complaints of poor service.  Please note, however, that the Legal Ombudsman generally handles complaints only by individuals, very small businesses, charities, trusts, clubs and associations.

 

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within 12 months of you realising there was a concern and within 6 months of your last contact with our firm.  The Legal Ombudsman will usually only consider a complaint about our service if our internal complaints procedure has been exhausted or until 8 weeks have passed since the date when you first made your complaint.

 

Alternatively, if your complaint concerns a matter of professional misconduct you can contact our regulator IPReg (the Intellectual Property Regulation Board), or in some cases the Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office (EPi).  Any complaint to IPReg must usually be made within twelve months of the date of the professional misconduct alleged or your discovery of it.

 

 

Contact Information

 

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6806,
Wolverhampton,
West Midlands
WV1 9WJ

 

Tel (from the UK): 0300 555 0333
Tel (from overseas): +44 121 245 3050
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

 

 

IPReg

20 Little Britain
London
EC1A 7DH

 

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7440 9371
Fax: +44 (020 7440 9374
Website: www.ipreg.org.uk
Email: ipreg@ipreg.org.uk

 

 

EPi

Institute of Professional Representatives
before the European Patent Office
Bayerstrasse 83
80335 Munich
Germany

 

Tel +49 89 242052 0
Fax +49 89 242052 20
Website: www.patentepi.com
Email: info@patentepi.com