Complaints

1. Raising a concern about Kestrel

A concern may relate to communication, delay, work quality, a bill or how you have been treated. The proposed procedure will accept complaints in writing or through another reasonable means, including an agreed oral route. It will be free. A representative can help you, subject to any needed authority checks. Tell the handler about any accessibility or communication needs.

Give your name and contact details, the company and matter reference if available, what happened, relevant dates and the outcome you seek. You do not need legal language or every document to begin. Send only relevant information using the verified contact route once it is published.

If you already have a private workspace contact, you can raise the concern with that verified person and ask for it to be recorded as a complaint. The general AI assistant and public fictional demo are not monitored complaints channels. A concern about an urgent deadline should also be brought promptly to the person responsible for the matter.

2. Proposed internal process

1. Acknowledge and identify the handler. The target is acknowledgement within three working days, confirming the issues, who will investigate and how to contact them. Working days exclude weekends and bank holidays in England and Wales.
2. Review the facts. A suitable person will consider the file, your explanation and the people involved. Where feasible, the reviewer will be someone outside the work complained about. The handler will request any necessary clarification and offer an accessible way to discuss the complaint.
3. Explain the outcome. The target is a reasoned response within four weeks. It should address each main issue, findings and any proposed remedy, such as an explanation, apology, corrective work or a fee adjustment where justified.
4. Keep you informed. If more time is needed, the handler will explain why, give an update and state the expected response date. The aim is a final response within eight weeks. Any unresolved complaint at that point must receive information about applicable external rights. An internal extension does not remove those rights.
5. Record and learn. The firm will record the complaint, response, agreed actions and relevant dates, restrict access and review recurring issues. If a final response is issued, it must explain any applicable Legal Ombudsman route and referral deadline prominently.

You can raise a concern without giving up other rights. Complaining should not itself prejudice the handling of an accepted matter. A complaint does not automatically pause a court deadline or determine whether a bill is payable; any necessary arrangement should be confirmed separately.

3. Legal Ombudsman: service and bills

The Legal Ombudsman deals with eligible complaints about the service of providers within its jurisdiction. Individuals, micro-enterprises and certain charities, clubs and trusts can qualify. Some businesses and complaints fall outside its scheme. The Ombudsman decides eligibility; its protection cannot be assumed from use of this website.

Where the scheme applies, you can generally approach the Ombudsman after the provider’s final response or once eight weeks have passed since you complained to the provider. The usual limits require referral within one year of the act or omission, or one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint, and within six months of a qualifying final response. The six-month rule depends on the final response containing the prescribed information. The Ombudsman can extend time limits where fair and reasonable.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted on 0300 555 0333, by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, or by post to Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. These details were checked against its official consumer guidance on 26 September 2026. Its contact page provides current routes. Its consumer guide explains the process, and its scheme rules set out eligibility and time limits. Do not wait for another internal review if a referral deadline is approaching.

4. SRA: professional conduct

The Solicitors Regulation Authority receives reports about serious concerns involving those it regulates, such as dishonesty, misuse of client money or breaches of professional standards. You can raise a relevant concern directly; the eight-week service-complaint period does not prevent a report to the SRA.

The SRA’s role concerns regulation and conduct. Service redress and bill complaints can fall within the Legal Ombudsman’s role where eligible. Read how to report a solicitor or firm to the SRA and its guide to problems with a legal service. Kestrel’s authorisation and regulated-person details remain to be verified.

5. Privacy and data-protection complaints

A privacy complaint concerns how personal information has been collected, used, shared, secured or retained. The operator must provide a clear monitored route. The proposed internal acknowledgement target is three working days. The statutory data-protection complaints requirement is acknowledgement within 30 days, followed by appropriate investigation, updates and an outcome without undue delay.

A request to exercise a data-protection right has its own timetable, generally one calendar month. See the privacy notice. A service complaint that also raises a privacy issue should be recorded and considered under both relevant processes.

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO explains how to raise a data-protection complaint. Its role and deadlines are separate from the Legal Ombudsman scheme.

6. Complaints against a client company

A complaint submitted through a company’s public Legal Centre is addressed to that company. Its own published procedure, contact and any applicable sector dispute-resolution scheme should explain the next steps. The complaint enters that company’s private workflow and may be reviewed by a team acting for it.

Kestrel may represent the company under a separate engagement. Submitting the complaint does not appoint Kestrel as your lawyer or guarantee a particular outcome. For a concern about Kestrel’s own conduct or data handling, use the relevant route on this page and explain the connection.

7. Keeping this procedure current

Before live onboarding, the provider must complete the contact details, appoint a handler, adopt and resource the procedure, and confirm applicable regulatory and escalation rights in its engagement documents. This page will be updated when those facts are verified. The version above identifies this working draft.