Legal Notice - Belfast

Belfast Legal Notice

The Belfast office of A&L Goodbody operates as a limited liability partnership (A&L Goodbody Northern Ireland LLP) regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

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 head of office. 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 Law Society of Northern Ireland for the provision of legal services in Northern Ireland 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 Law Society of Northern Ireland’s Dispute Resolution Service. The place of any mediation shall be agreed between the parties and the mediator 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, the matter may be referred to the Dispute Resolution Service to appoint a mediator.

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 Northern Ireland. Any arbitration which takes place shall be in Northern Ireland 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.

The Belfast office is also regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for the provision of legal services in England & Wales. The SRA can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Guidance on how you can raise your concerns with the SRA can be found on the SRA website. You can also contact the SRA by phone (0370 606 2555), by email (report@sra.co.uk) or by post (SRA reports, The Cube, 1999 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN).

The Legal Ombudsman may also be able to 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 later  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 have realises that  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 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH, United Kingdom.

Pricing Transparency [Will link to further draft page by MS]