Complaints and Dispute Resolution
If you are dissatisfied with our work, or wish to make a complaint, you should raise it with the partner responsible for the work in the first instance. If your complaint relates to that partner, or remains unresolved after discussion with that partner, you should contact our managing partner. We will make every effort to deal with any complaint as quickly as possible. In the unlikely event that your complaint remains unresolved, the firm is regulated by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority which operates its own complaints procedure in relation to the firms it regulates.
If any dispute arises out of our Terms of Business or our retainer (other than a dispute in relation to the amount or payment of our fees) the parties shall attempt to resolve that dispute by mediation in accordance with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution ("CEDR") Model Mediation Procedure. The place of any mediation shall be Dublin, Ireland and the language to be used in the mediation shall be English. Unless otherwise agreed between us, the mediator will be agreed by the parties and in default of agreement within 28 days of the dispute arising, nominated by the President of the Law Society of Ireland.
If mediation is not successful, any dispute between you and us shall, at our election, be referred to arbitration by a sole arbitrator to be appointed by agreement or in default of agreement within 28 days of us electing to refer the dispute to arbitration, by the President of the Law Society of Ireland. Any arbitration which takes place shall be in Dublin and the arbitration proceedings shall be private and confidential. Any such arbitration will be conducted by the arbitrator in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules in force when the dispute is notified to the arbitrator, unless otherwise agreed.
In the UK the firm is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) which can assist with a concern you may have. The Legal Ombudsman can also help you to resolve a complaint. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint and no more than six years from the date of the act/omission, or no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman the contact details are: www.legalombudsman.org.uk, phone: 0300 555 0333, enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ.
If you have a query about an invoice please raise the matter with the relevant partner. If you wish to dispute an invoice, you must notify us in writing setting out the nature of the dispute within 21 days of that invoice being provided. Where a dispute is notified, we will endeavour to resolve that dispute by informal means, including mediation. You may also refer any such dispute to mediation. You may also make an application to the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators for adjudication of legal costs. The contact details for that office are 1st Floor, Merchants House, 27-30 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, phone: (01) 8886301. If an invoice or bill of costs is reduced by less than 15 per cent, you shall be responsible for paying the costs of adjudication. We may also apply to the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators for an invoice to be adjudicated upon after the expiry of 30 days from, and within 12 months of, the date of issue of the invoice, if that invoice or part thereof remains unpaid.