Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. We are proud that we hold the accreditations Lexcel and our clients are of first importance to us. We hope that you will be pleased with the work we do for you.
If you have any problem with the service we have provided for you then please let us know, this could include a complaint about the firm’s bill. We aim to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaint’s handling system to help to resolve the problem between ourselves. Please raise your concern in the first place with the person handling your case. If you still have queries or concerns, Carol Bragg is the Complaints’ Manager to whom any difficulty can be reported. She can be contacted on 01704 532890 or by e-mail info@breensonline.co.uk. She is based at 30 Hoghton Street Southport PR9 OPA.
In the first instance you must try to resolve your complaint through our complaints handling process. If you are unhappy with the outcome, or if we have failed to resolve your complaint within eight weeks, and we acted for you as an: individual; a small business; charity; club; or trust, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman, whose address is P O Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH (www.legalombudsman.org.uk), telephone 0300 555 0333, email enquiries@legalombudsman, to become involved.
- A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made:- Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and- No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or- No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman will retain the ability to exercise discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific clients if, on the evidence, it is fair and reasonable to do so.
These rules also apply to prospective clients who could reasonably have expected to receive a service or who were unreasonably offered a service they did not want.
If you would like a copy of our written complaint’s procedure, please let us know and we will send it to you.
In addition to your right to object to our bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you may also have a right to apply to the court for an assessment of our bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman may not deal with your complaint regarding your bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of that bill.
If the services we have provided relate to proceedings in a Court or tribunal, you may additionally be entitled to have the amount of our fees checked or assessed under Rules of Court and regulations applying to the particular proceedings, or under the inherent jurisdiction of the tribunal before which the proceedings have taken, or are taking, place.
If all or part of our bill remains unpaid whilst you dispute it, the firm may be entitled to charge interest.
Complaints about online services
If you have a complaint about a service you bought online, you can submit your complaint to complaints@breensonline.co.uk. Go to the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform for more details.
When to report a solicitor to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The SRA deal with cases where firms or those they regulate have breached an SRA Principle. You can find out more here.
Data Protection
If you wish to make a complaint about how we handled your data, you can do so via our Data Protection Complaints Procedure
Data Protection Complaints Procedure
This procedure outlines how you raise a complaint about the way in which your personal data has been handled, and how we will manage your complaint in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, UK GDPR and The Data Use and Access Act 2025.
Examples of a complaint include:
- Failure to respond to your Subject Access Request
- Failure to keep your data safe, i.e. a data breach due to a failure of our security systems
- How we have collected or used your personal information
- How long we have kept your personal information
To whom the procedure applies
This procedure applies to all individuals whose personal data we process, (collectively known as Data Subjects) and applies to all processing activities involving your personal data.
How to complain
If you believe we have mishandled your personal data, failed to uphold your data protection rights, or not responded appropriately to a data protection request, you may submit a complaint using one of the following methods:
Write to:
Stephen Breen
Data Protection Officer
Breens Solicitors Ltd
30 Hoghton Street
SOUTHPORT
PR9 0PA
Email: js.breen@breensonline.co.uk
Information we will need
When writing to us, please include your full name, contact information, case or file reference number (if applicable) and a description of your complaint.
We will ask you to prove your identity before we engage with your complaint. If dealing with a complaint on behalf of someone else, we will ask for proof of authority to act.
What happens next
Once we have received your complaint, we will write to you within 30 days to acknowledge your complaint. This will enable us to carry out a thorough review of your complaint, undertake a full investigation. After this, we will write to you with a full response without undue delay.
If you are not happy with our response
If you remain dissatisfied with our handling of your complaint, you may contact directly the Information Commission (IC) to ask them to consider the complaint further.
Their contact details are:
The Information Commission
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk
You can also make a complaint through their live chat facility on their website.
The IC will expect that you have allowed us to consider and respond to your complaint in the first instance.