Our Regulators

Joseph James (LS) Limited Trading as My Medical Claim is Authorised and Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Number 628597).

Though we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, we are included on the registered maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website – www.fca.org.uk

Insurance

Joseph James Law has Professional Indemnity Insurance within England & Wales as is required by The Solicitors Regulation Authority of England & Wales. It is a fundamental term of our accepting instructions from you that our liability to you is limited to £3 million. Should you require us to have a greater liability than this please contact us. in the absence of any express agreement in writing between us for a higher amount we will not be responsible to you for any liability incurred in excess of that amount. Our current insurers are:

• 100% Endurance International Insurance Co Ltd.
• Reference: PI18END1353

Complaints

Should you wish to make a complaint regarding our service, please see the below process:

You can register your complaint with the person dealing with your matter or Mr Andrew Settle, Director and appointed Complaints Handler. Mr Settle will ensure complaints are handled effectively and in accordance with this procedure.

1. Your complaint will be acknowledged within seven days.
2. We will conduct a full investigation and an independent review of your matter.
3. We aim to respond to all complaints within 28 days, however, if your complaint is of a more complex nature, we will require more time; we will inform you of when you will receive a full response.
4. We will reply to you, usually in writing, to tell you our views on your complaint and how we propose to resolve it, hopefully to your satisfaction.
5. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome, or the way your complaint has been handled, you may request that your file is independently reviewed by an external solicitor who will make such further investigations as are necessary.
6. The external solicitor will inform you of the conclusions and any alternative proposals to resolve your complaint, usually within 28 days of this being referred to them. Under no circumstances will the above investigation take longer than 8 weeks.
7. You may take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of the expiry of the 8-week period or our definitive response in the meantime.

Legal Ombudsman:
Is an independent organisation, which is ultimately responsible to Parliament. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints about the legal profession. You must make any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within a certain period of time of the act or omission in the work which gave cause to the complaint arising. We refer you to their contact details:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton

Telephone – 0300 555 0333
Website – www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Email – enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

There are restrictions upon who may make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. Individuals and certain enterprises may do so, however, are therefore referred to the Legal Ombudsman’s website, as above, for clarification.

Before it will consider a complaint, the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal Complaints Procedure has been exhausted. If it is necessary to involve the Legal Ombudsman it may take up to six months from the end of the firm’s procedure; this can be checked at www.legalombudsman.org.uk or by telephoning 0300 555 0333. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further.

There are also two additional relevant time limits; the Legal Ombudsman will accept complaints up to six years from the date of act/omission, or three years from when you should have known about the complaint. However, this new limit will be introduced gradually, as at present, the problem must have happened on or after 6th October 2010, or if the problem happened earlier than that, you must not have been aware of it before 6th October 2010.

The Legal Ombudsman may:

• Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a solicitor to a client
• Investigate allegations that a solicitor has breached rules of professional conduct
• Express a view on whether a solicitor’s charges are fair and reasonable
• Ensure that a solicitor has handled a complaint correctly

The Legal Ombudsman will not:

• Determine whether a solicitor has been negligent
• Give legal advice or tell a solicitor how to handle a case
• Review the outcome of a court case