Complaint Form

Completing your complaint form

The SLCC acts as a gateway for three types of complaint; service, conduct and handling.

Your complaint must be in writing and signed by you. If writing is difficult, please telephone or call in for help. Your signature is important as it confirms you wish to make a complaint and also gives us permission to obtain information - for example, from the relevant legal practitioner or professional body.

If you contact us by letter, fax, e-mail or telephone with a complaint, we will ask you to complete and sign the relevant form before taking your complaint further.

It is important that your complaint form gives us details of the complaint in your own words, how this has affected you and how you would like your complaint to be resolved.

Please complete in BLOCK CAPITALS and remember to sign the form.

The sections you need to complete are:

Section 1 - About You

Section 2 - About Your Complaint

Section 3 - Declaration

Section 4 - Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Equal Opportunities

Section 1 - About You

This should be completed by the person making the complaint and should give relevant contact details including telephone number(s) and your preferred method of contact e.g. post, email, fax or phone.

If you are complaining on behalf of someone else then you need to highlight that in this section and also complete Section 4.

Section 2 - About Your Complaint

In this section we are looking for details about the person or firm, or, in the case of a handling complaint, the professional body you are complaining about.

Here we are looking for:

What you are complaining about, what has gone wrong and when it happened. Be as precise as you can. Where possible give us the dates and times issues occurred and details of anyone else who witnessed them. If there are several issues, try to summarise them as separate points or paragraphs and send us copies of letters or documents you think will help us to understand your complaint properly.

How this has affected you. Please tell us about how the actions of the legal practitioner affected you. Tell us how you felt about what went wrong and about any costs or losses you incurred. If you had to pay for things as a result of the practitioner's actions, tell us how much you had to pay and where you have receipts, send us copies. The costs/losses should be things that you would not have had to pay for if the practitioner's actions had been different.

What would help to resolve the problem? Tell us how you would like your complaint to be resolved and why. This may include a reduction in fees, compensation, or other actions the practitioner, the Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates or Association of Commercial Attorneys might take.

We will discuss this with you shortly after you contact us and we will discuss with you what we may or may not be able to do.

Relevant reference numbers are helpful and should be provided in the appropriate boxes. Copies of correspondence are also helpful but do not worry if these are not readily available. Send your form anyway to avoid delay.

If your complaint concerns service you must tell us the date that the service ended, or if conduct, the date the conduct issue occurred, as there is a strict time limit of 12 months from this date to make your complaint. If the complaint is outside this time limit, tell us why you think we should accept it and we will consider your reasons very carefully.

If your complaint is about the way a professional body dealt with your complaint, tell us the date of the final decision letter from the Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates or Association of Commercial Attorneys and send us, with your complaint form, a copy of the professional body's final decision. You must contact the SLCC about this type of complaint within 6 months of the date you received the professional body's decision. If you contact us after this date, we cannot consider your complaint.

Section 3 - Declaration

We cannot investigate your complaint if you do not sign and date the form.

We also ask in this section whether you consent to the form being copied to the individual or professional body involved in the complaint. Without your signature we cannot make enquiries into your complaint and seek copies of documents, files or papers related to your complaint. This limits severely our ability to look into the matters you raise.

Section 4 - Complaining on Behalf of Someone Else

Only complete this section if you are complaining on behalf of someone else. Please note we will contact them to seek their agreement to pursue the complaint and we must have their signature on the form. However, if there is a problem with this, do not let this delay you sending in the form.

Equal Opportunities (detachable part of the form)

The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission wants to ensure we reach the widest possible audience and are keen to use the information in this detachable part of the form, anonymously, to improve our service. Your assistance in completing this part of the form is appreciated.

Complaint Forms

Complaint forms are available on request or you can select the relevant form and download it below:

For complaints about the conduct or service provided by a legal practitioner - use the Conduct and Service Complaint Form (Microsoft Word format, 146k).
For complaints about how one of the professional bodies dealt with your complaint to them - use the Handling Complaint Form (Microsoft Word format, 138k).
For guidance on completing the complaint form - Complaint Form Guidance (PDF 130 KB).

The complaints process is explained in more detail in the Overview of the Complaint Process (PDF 60 KB).

If you are unsure if your complaint is a service, conduct or handling complaint, you can read more about them here.

If you are unsure about any aspect of your complaint, our Gateway Team will be happy to advise you. They can be contacted by telephone: 0131-528 5111, by fax: 0131-528 5110 or email: enquiries@scottishlegalcomplaints.org.uk or you can write to us at:

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
The Stamp Office
10 - 14 Waterloo Place
EDINBURGH
EH1 3EG