Last updated: September 2026
We aim to provide clear advice, responsive support and a professional service. If something falls short, we want to understand what happened and have the opportunity to put it right.
This procedure explains how to complain to Harrington Raine Ltd, how we will investigate and the options available if you remain dissatisfied.
You can use this procedure to raise concerns about our services, advice, communication, fees or the conduct of someone working on our behalf.
It is available to current and former clients and their authorised representatives. We will also consider concerns from prospective clients or others affected by our services, although confidentiality obligations may limit what we can disclose.
This procedure is not a substitute for an employee raising a grievance with their employer. If your concern relates to your employment with one of our clients, you should normally follow your employer’s own procedure.
Please submit your complaint in writing by email or post. This helps us keep an accurate record and understand the issues you want us to investigate.
Email: info@harringtonraine.com
Suggested subject line: Complaint – [your business name]
By post:
James Rowland, Managing Director
Harrington Raine Ltd
Office 20, Bank Farm Buildings
Chester Road
Aldford
Chester
CH3 6HJ
Please include:
Your name, business name and contact details.
The service or matter your complaint concerns.
What happened and why you are dissatisfied.
Relevant dates and the names of anyone involved.
Copies of relevant correspondence or documents.
What you would like us to do to resolve the matter.
You do not need to provide every document before contacting us. We will ask for any further information needed.
You may raise a concern with your usual advisor first, but you do not have to do so before making a formal complaint. Complaints received by another member of our team will be passed to the appropriate person.
Complaints are normally handled by James Rowland, Managing Director.
If your complaint concerns James Rowland, it will be handled by Samantha Burns Cooke, Finance Director. Please use the same email or postal address and mark your complaint for her attention.
Where the usual complaint handler has another conflict of interest, we will arrange for an appropriate alternative person to review the matter. We will tell you who is responsible for handling your complaint.
If a disability, health condition or other accessibility need makes it difficult to complain in writing, please let us know, or ask someone to contact us on your behalf. We will discuss reasonable adjustments, which may include helping you record your complaint or using an alternative communication method.
You may appoint a representative to deal with us. We may need your permission before sharing confidential information with them.
Where applicable professional requirements recognise an oral complaint, we will record and handle it appropriately rather than insist that you resubmit it in writing.
We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days of receiving it.
Our acknowledgement will confirm who is handling the complaint, outline the next steps and identify any initial information we need from you.
For this procedure, working days are Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays in England and Wales.
We will investigate your concerns fairly and consider the relevant evidence. This may include reviewing your agreement, advice records, correspondence and other documents, and obtaining information from the people involved.
We may contact you to clarify a point or request additional information. Where technical advice is disputed, we may seek an appropriately qualified person’s assessment.
We aim to provide a substantive written response within 15 working days of receiving your complaint.
Our response will explain:
The issues we investigated.
Our findings and the reasons for them.
Whether we uphold your complaint in full, in part or not at all.
Any action we propose to put matters right.
Any further options available to you.
Where appropriate, action may include an explanation, an apology, correcting work, providing further support, reviewing a charge or another proportionate remedy.
If we cannot respond fully within 15 working days, we will explain why, update you on progress and provide a revised response date.
We aim to conclude our investigation within eight weeks of receiving your complaint. If the matter remains unresolved at that point, we will explain the position and any applicable external escalation rights.
Requests for further information or an internal review do not restart the eight-week period.
Please write to the person handling your complaint, explaining which findings you disagree with and providing any relevant information we have not already considered.
We will consider whether further investigation or a review by another appropriate person is needed and confirm how we will respond.
We will make clear when our response is final. You do not have to request a further internal review before using an external complaints route that is available to you.
Harrington Raine Ltd is a regulatory consultancy. It is not a firm of solicitors and is not authorised or regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
Where an SRA-regulated solicitor provides services through Harrington Raine, their individual professional obligations continue to apply. Depending on the service and your eligibility, external complaints routes may be available.
Complaints about legal services provided by an SRA-regulated solicitor through Harrington Raine may fall within the Legal Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply, including limits on which businesses and organisations can complain. The Ombudsman determines eligibility.
Eligible complainants can normally approach the Ombudsman after our final response or once eight weeks have elapsed without resolution.
A complaint must ordinarily be referred:
Within one year of the act or omission, or of when you should reasonably have known there was cause to complain; and
Within six months of our final response, where it contains the required referral information.
The Ombudsman may extend these limits where fair and reasonable.
Details of eligibility and how to complain are available through the Legal Ombudsman’s complaints guidance.
Where applicable, our final response will provide full contact details and explain the relevant referral deadline.
The SRA deals with concerns about serious professional misconduct by solicitors, such as dishonesty or serious breaches of professional obligations. Its role is separate from resolving service complaints or disputes about fees.
You can report relevant conduct concerns directly to the SRA without waiting for our complaints process to finish.
Visit the SRA’s guidance on reporting a solicitor for details.
The Legal Ombudsman does not automatically have jurisdiction over our HR consultancy, health and safety services or work undertaken by professionals who are not within its remit.
We will still investigate complaints about those services under this procedure. Where another relevant external complaints route is available, we will explain it in our response.
Concerns about our handling of personal information can also be raised using the contact details above. Our Privacy Notice provides further information about your data protection rights.
We do not charge for investigating or responding to a complaint.
Making a complaint will not, by itself, result in you receiving less favourable treatment. We will discuss any practical steps needed to protect ongoing work while the complaint is considered.
A complaint does not suspend court, Tribunal or other legal deadlines. Please continue to raise urgent instructions and time-sensitive matters through your usual service contact.
We handle complaints sensitively and limit access to information to those who need it to investigate, respond or meet legal and professional obligations. This may include relevant employees, professional advisors, insurers or external complaints bodies where appropriate.
We retain complaint records in accordance with our data protection and retention arrangements. We also review complaints to identify improvements to our services and procedures.
This procedure does not restrict any legal rights or external complaints routes available to you. Using it does not automatically extend any deadline for bringing a legal claim or referring a complaint to an external body.
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