Complaints Policy

Background

This Complaints Policy is intended to implement FINLAW’s policies to enhance the quality of service to FINLAW clients and the reputation of FINLAW as well as to ensure compliance with applicable laws and best practice.

FINLAW is committed to ensuring it has in place, maintains and follows appropriate policies to fulfil its obligations under all relevant law and all members of staff have a role to play in developing a compliance culture in establishing the procedures that aid in the development of this culture.

One of the overriding principles for the conduct of our business is to treat customers fairly and the way in which FINLAW deals with complaints is an element of that.

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Policy

It ensures a consistent and systematic response to complaints so that all complaints are formally logged by Lawrie Kearns (“Complaints Officer”), each incident is to be properly and thoroughly investigated and resolved in a satisfactory manner.

The complaint handling system is intended to be:

  • Comprehensive so that all complaints that are received are acknowledged;
  • Impartial, fair and consistent in providing redress;
  • Flexible, simple and prompt;
  • Clearly communicated; and
  • Transparent to the degree possible which maintains client confidentiality.

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The Purpose of the Complaints Policy

This policy is designed to achieve an effective method for the handling of complaints which will assist FINLAW in improving communications and in dealing with issues that arise.

The policy will also help FINLAW identify business processes which require improvement and to implement corrective measures to reduce future complaints.

It will improve the corporate culture of FINLAW and enhance the quality of service that FINLAW provides.

This policy also aims to:

  • improve FINLAW’s response time to complainants;
  • promote a consistent level of professionalism within FINLAW;
  • improve FINLAW s customer and other business relationships; and
  • provide a mechanism for reviewing recurring or significant failures in service delivery.


On receiving the Complaints Policy and initial training, members of staff will within one month be required to confirm that they have read and understood its contents and that they are able to follow them and apply them to their activities within FINLAW.  Thereafter confirmation of reviewing and understanding this Complaints Policy and any updates or revisions will be required as part of each employees annual performance development review.  


Complaints

A “complaint” is any expression of dissatisfaction, whether oral or written and whether justified or not, from or on behalf of a complainant about FINLAW ‘s provision of or failure to provide a service.

Responsibility for dealing with all complaints lies with FINLAW’s Complaints Officer

Complainants have a number of different options for lodging complaints which include but are not limited to:

  • telephone call to the Complaints Officer or any member of staff; and
  • in writing (by email or other means) directly to the Complaints Officer or to any member of staff; or by email

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Complaint Handling Procedure

Where a complaint is received by a member of staff, that member of staff must immediately notify and forward details of such complaint to the Complaints Officer. Lawrie Kearns is the Firms Complaint Officer.

The Complaints Officer will, upon receipt of a complaint, log the complaint in the Complaints Register.

Once the complaint has been logged in the Complaints Register, the Complaints Officer will review the nature of complaint and, where possible, appoint an independent member of staff to investigate the matter.

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Next steps

  1. The appointed individual will provide the complainant with written acknowledgement of the complaint within five (5) business days of receipt of the complaint, along with his or her name, job title, contact details and confirmation that he/she will be the person responsible for handling the complaint.
  2. Your complaint should set out what you think has gone wrong, with times, dates and copy documents if possible/necessary. You should also set out how, in your opinion, the problem can be addressed and resolved.
  3. We will consider the details of your letter and write back with our initial conclusions. We may ask for further information or explanation of any details you set out. We will also offer a physical or virtual meeting to discuss further.
  4. If a meeting is not wanted or possible, we will follow up with a detailed written reply to your complaint, with our suggestions for resolving it, within thirty (30) business days of receiving your indication that a meeting is not wanted or possible (“Detailed Response”).
  5. If a meeting is accepted, we will attempt to resolve the complaint there.
  6. If the complaint cannot be resolved during a meeting, or if a meeting is declined and you remain dissatisfied with our Detailed Response, you should write to us again explaining why this is the case (“Complaint Review”). We have an arrangement with an independent Manx law firm to act on Complaint Reviews. Upon receipt of a Complaint Review, we will arrange for this law firm to review your complaint and our responses.
  7. This law firm will then contact you within thirty (30) business days of receiving the Complaint Review, confirming a final position of your complaint, with reasons (“Final Response”).
  8. If you remain dissatisfied with the Final Response, you should contact the Isle of Man Law Society at 13 Mount Havelock, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2QG or call 01624 662910 about your complaint.
  9. Any complaint to the Law Society must usually be made within six months of your receiving the Final Response from us about your complaint.
  10. The Law Society will then review your complaint. We will let you know how long this process may take.
  11. If we must change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

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Monitoring

The Complaints Officer will monitor the complaints received and action taken to ensure that issues are being resolved in a timely manner.

The Complaints Officer will provide a monitoring report to the Directors for review.  Information to be reported will include:

  • The full name, company (if applicable) and contact details of the complainant.
  • Date of receipt of the complaint.
  • Details of the nature and substance of the complaint.
  • Date of acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint.
  • Confirmation that the appropriate Team Leader was notified of the particulars of the complaint.
  • Details of the investigation into the circumstances and claims of the complaint.
  • Action taken to resolve the complaint.
  • Complainant’s satisfaction with the resolution of the issue.
  • Whether repeat problems are being identified and ultimately corrected.  
  • Details and particulars of any correspondence internal or external with regard to the complaint.
  • Whether the type and/or nature of the complaint may place FINLAW under an obligation to notify our insurers.

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Record Keeping

FINLAW will record and retain a central record of all complaints received for a period of five (5) years from the date of the resolution of the complaint. The record will include:

  • Copies of any correspondence between FINLAW and the complainant.
  • Details of any resolution, including any redress offered by FINLAW; and
  • Whether any changes in internal policies or procedures were introduced or effected as a result of a complaint.

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Published Complaints

FINLAW have received zero complaints which were required to be resolved under our Complaint Procedure during the year 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024.

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