Complaints procedure

1. Start with the lawyer handling your matter

Raise your concern with the lawyer responsible for your file, in writing, as soon as you can. Delay makes matters harder to put right. In most cases a discussion clarifies a misunderstanding about scope, timing or cost and no further step is needed.

If you would rather not approach that lawyer, or you have done so and the matter is unresolved, go straight to the next stage.

2. Making a formal complaint

Write to the partner responsible for professional standards, Solicitors Organisation LLP, Avenue Louise 231, box 4, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, or by email to enquiries@solicitorsorganisation.com with "Formal complaint" in the subject line. The complaint is handled by a partner who has had no involvement in your matter.

So that we can deal with it properly, please include:

• your name, the matter reference and the name of the lawyer concerned;
• what happened, with dates where you have them;
• what you believe went wrong, and the effect it had on you;
• what you would like us to do to put it right.

3. What happens and when

• Within five working days we acknowledge your complaint in writing, name the partner investigating it and confirm what we understand the complaint to be.
• Within twenty working days of the acknowledgement we send a substantive written response: what we found, whether we accept the complaint in whole or in part, and what we propose to do. Where we cannot meet that deadline — usually because a colleague is on extended leave or the file is voluminous — we write to explain why and give a new date, which will not be more than a further twenty working days.
• We offer a meeting, in person or by video, with the investigating partner before or after the written response, whichever you prefer.
• If you are not satisfied with the response, you may ask for it to be reviewed by the managing partner. A review is completed within fifteen working days.

4. Complaints about fees

If your complaint concerns the amount of an invoice, tell us which items you dispute and why. We will suspend recovery of the disputed part while the complaint is considered, and will not charge you for the time spent handling your complaint.

Where a fee dispute cannot be resolved between us, the bars to which we are admitted operate fee arbitration or assessment procedures. In Belgium, the Brussels Bar can assess a lawyer's fees on request; in the Netherlands the Geschillencommissie Advocatuur can determine fee disputes; comparable routes exist through the Luxembourg, Milan and Málaga bars. We will tell you which applies to your matter and how to use it.

5. If you remain dissatisfied

You are entitled to take the matter outside the firm at any point, and doing so does not affect your rights against us. The competent body depends on which office handled your matter:

• Brussels — the Ordre français des avocats du barreau de Bruxelles or the Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten bij de Balie te Brussel, each of which operates a complaints service and a disciplinary authority (the stafhouder / bâtonnier).
• Luxembourg — the Barreau de Luxembourg, through the Bâtonnier de l'Ordre des avocats du barreau de Luxembourg.
• Amsterdam — the local dean (deken) of the Netherlands Bar Association, and thereafter the Raad van Discipline.
• Milan — the Consiglio dell'Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano and the competent Consiglio Distrettuale di Disciplina.
• Consumer clients may also use the applicable out-of-court dispute resolution body, including Ombudsman voor de advocatuur / Ligeca in Belgium for consumer disputes with lawyers.

6. Time limits

Please complain within twelve months of becoming aware of the matter, or within twelve months of the file being closed. We will still consider a complaint made later, but evidence and recollections deteriorate, and external bodies apply their own time limits which may be shorter.

7. How we use complaints

Every complaint, upheld or not, is recorded in a register reviewed twice a year by the partners. Where a complaint reveals a weakness in how we work — a reporting interval too long, a fee estimate given too loosely — we change the practice and record that we have done so. Complaints are handled confidentially and do not affect the conduct of your matter.

Personal data provided in a complaint is processed in accordance with our privacy policy and retained for ten years, in line with our professional obligations.