Our firm

learmond criqui sokel Solicitors are trading standards for LCS Practice Limited, Company No. 10127043. The partners are Jessica Learmond-Criqui and Jeremy Sokel. We use the word ‘partner’ to refer to a director of the company. Our VAT number is 877484464.

Complaints

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If at any stage you are not happy with the work that we are doing for you or about the Company’s costs then you should raise this in the first instance with Jessica Learmond-Criqui. If your complaint is not dealt with to your satisfaction, then you should write to another partner of the Company, setting out the details of your complaint. That person is Jeremy Sokel. A copy of our full complaints procedure is available on request.

If, for any reason, we are unable to resolve the matter between us then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority which also provides a complaints and redress scheme. You are entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of the complaints process with us. Its address is:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

Generally the complaint should be brought to the Ombudsman no later than twelve months after you found there was the problem with our service and within six months of you receiving a final response from us about your complaint. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.co.uk.

Nothing said in this Terms of Business letter removes your rights to challenge our costs by way of assessment proceedings for an assessment of our costs under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974, s.70.

If you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, you have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#report

Solicitors Regulation Authority

learmond criqui sokel’s services are provided by solicitors of England and Wales. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Our SRA number is 632856. We are subject to the SRA’s Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct can be found at https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/

Barristers

In cases where we instruct a barrister to advise or represent, if you are dissatisfied with the service provided you can complain direct to the barrister’s chambers. We will assist you to obtain a copy of their complaints policy if this has not already been supplied.

Data Protection

LCS Practice Ltd is registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We may collect personal information from you in the course of our business, including through your use of our website or when you contact or request information from us, when you engage our legal services or as a result of your relationship with our staff and clients.

The information that we process includes:

• Basic information, such as your name, the organisation you work for, and your relationship to a person.
• Contact information.
• Information you provide to us in the course of our services to our clients, which may include special categories of data.

We use that information to provide and improve our services to our clients, to promote our services, and to fulfil our legal, regulatory and risk management obligations. We do so in order to perform our contracts with our clients; to establish and defend legal claims or proceedings; to comply with legal and regulatory obligations; and for legitimate business purposes.

Your personal information will be held securely and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 (and, prior to that, the Data Protection Act 1998). It will be retained for as necessary to provide relevant legal services and for a period appropriate to the category of data it relates to, usually no more than 12 months, after which it will be deleted. Where it relates to our work for a client then it will be retained for a period up to six years after the conclusion of our work for that client, in accordance with our legal/regulatory obligations. In special categories of case, such as cases for persons under 18 years of age or those who lack mental capacity, it may be retained for longer.

We may also share your personal information with certain trusted third parties. Where appropriate this may include clients; litigation opponents; barristers; experts; interpreters and other service providers who assist us in our work. In doing so we will always take care to ensure that your information remains confidential and safe.

We may also share your personal information with legal and regulatory bodies including the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (the statutory body that regulates solicitors), the Legal Ombudsman and others.

You have the right to be informed about what data we hold about you along with other rights set out in the legislation. You also have the right to correct any incorrect data held about you or to seek the erasure of your data. If you believe that the information we hold is wrong or out of date, please let us know and we will update it. The partner with responsibility for data protection matters is Jeremy Sokel (js@lawlcs.com).

We will retain your contact details on our database and may send you information about services we offer and legal comments on matters of interest from time to time. You may request in writing at any time that we cease to send you such material or delete you from our database. The database has usual legal client confidentiality and your details will not be disclosed unless you authorise us or in the normal course of the services we are providing for you or if we are required or authorised by law to do so.

We may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you in order that we may discharge the services agreed under the engagement and for other related purposes including analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance.

Further information about your rights under the data protection legislation can be found at www.ico.org.uk.