Bevan Brittan LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England & Wales (number OC309219). Our registered office is at Kings Orchard, 1 Queen Street Bristol BS2 0HQ, which is the firm’s Bristol office.
Bevan Brittan LLP is a ‘recognised body’ authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and practises in accordance with the SRA’s rules, regulations and codes of practice (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page). Our SRA number is 406315. Contact information for the SRA and the independent Legal Ombudsman can be found below under ‘useful addresses’.
A list of members (all of whom are solicitors of England & Wales) is available in our offices. We use the term 'partner' to refer to a member of the LLP, or an employee or consultant who is a lawyer with equivalent standing and qualifications.
Our VAT registration number is GB 840 7231 48. Further important information about billing is printed on our invoices. Your usual contact will be happy to discuss any requirements or concerns you may have about the way we bill the work we do for you.
We have compulsory professional indemnity insurance of £3 million, each and every claim, in place and further details are available to clients from Sarah Mumford, our Best Practice partner, whose contact details are shown below under ‘useful addresses’. For the insurance year ending 30 September 2012, our policy number is LB 035/11 and is placed with Barbican Syndicate No 1955 and certain other syndicates at Lloyd's and is managed by Libra Managers Limited, 20 St Thomas Street, London, SE1 9RR. The insurance covers work from offices in England & Wales but extends to acts or omissions wherever in the world they occur.
Click here to view further details of the minimum terms for compulsory insurance.
Bevan Brittan LLP is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner under reference: Z 9665446.
Our promises
We want to provide a high quality service to all our clients which protects their interests and we want to live up to our Client Promises.
We appreciate that we may not always achieve these aims but want to know about problems and put them right if we can, promptly, fairly and effectively. We value feedback from our clients and want to learn from it.
Where do I start?
Please contact either the Supervising Partner, the Head of Department responsible for your case or your Client Relationship Partner. If you don’t know who to speak to, then please ask our partner responsible for Best Practice, Sarah Mumford (contact details below). She will either deal with the matter herself or ask another partner to take responsibility for responding to you.
What happens next?
We can’t promise to get you a complete answer quickly in every case as we want to understand every complaint fully, and this can take time. We do promise to acknowledge your complaint promptly and keep in touch with you to the extent that you want us to.
What we will do
This will depend on the nature of the problem. We will communicate with you as you choose, whether in writing, in a meeting or by telephone. We usually aim to complete investigations within two weeks, but it can take longer, especially if files have been archived or are particularly complex, in which case we aim to complete an investigation within eight weeks. If we have made an error which is negligent then we are required to refer you to another lawyer and cannot advise you further. If this is the case we will say so.
What steps can you take if you are not happy with our response?
We hope we can resolve the problem but if we are not able to, we will tell you in writing that this is the case. If you wish to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (see below) then you should do so as soon as possible and in any event within six months of our communication.
We will internally review any response to a complaint on request. If Sarah Mumford has not already been involved, please ask her to review the matter. If she has, then please contact Iain Miller, the head of our London Office and a member of the Audit Committee. Sarah or Iain will then advise you of likely timescales and other relevant information.
What happens if you are still not satisfied?
If you are still not happy with our approach you may be able to refer the matter to the independent Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman took over responsibility for certain complaints arising after 6 October 2010 from the Legal Complaints Service. The Legal Ombudsman's website is www.legalombudsman.org.uk and contains useful information including the criteria for accepting a complaint (broadly, only from individuals and small businesses, charities and similar organisations) and time limits. The Legal Ombudsman's postal address is: PO Box 15870, Birmingham B30 9EB and the telephone number is 0300 555 0333. Email enquiries should be sent to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Investments
If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice. We are legal advisers and do not give advice about the merits of an investment transaction. Because we are members of the Law Society of England & Wales, which is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, we may provide certain very limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to legal work we are already undertaking for our clients.
Insurance mediation
‘Insurance mediation activity’, is, broadly, the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. Insurance mediation activities are regulated by the FSA as is the provision of investment advice.
Bevan Brittan LLP is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority but we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on certain insurance mediation activity.
Concerns about investment or insurance mediation advice
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman is the independent complaints handling body who will consider certain types of complaints within specific timescales. If you are unhappy about investment or insurance mediation advice that you receive from us you should raise your concerns with us and, if you are still not satisfied, with either of these bodies.
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