Disclaimer, Legal & Complaints

The materials appearing on this website do not constitute legal advice and are provided for general information purposes only. No warranty, whether express or implied is given in relation to such materials. We shall not be liable for any technical, editorial, typographical or other errors or omissions within the information provided on this website, nor shall we be responsible for the content of any web images or information linked to this website.

Every care has been taken to ensure that the content of this website is accurate and that legislation and case law used is current at the time of writing. However, no responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any statement in, or omission from, this work can be accepted by Elite Law Solicitors.

The provision on this website of a link to another website does not constitute any authorisation to access material held at that location. Links to sites are provided for informational purposes only and no responsibility is accepted for the quality of resources to be found on such websites.

The contents and material made available on linked sites are completely outside our control and as such no liability is accepted for any damages resulting from accessing or failing to access these sites. No endorsement is expressed or implied by the presence of a link on this website.

The contents of a linked-to website may change without our knowledge and as a result, links may break or may terminate on pages, which were not the original targets of a link.

No responsibility or liability for the privacy of personal information is accepted for linked to websites, as these are beyond our control.

Service of Legal Proceedings

In the event that you wish to issue legal proceedings against Elite Law Solicitors, please note that our correct legal title is Elite Law Solicitors Limited. Service of proceedings is only accepted at Chalfont Court, 5 Hill Avenue, Amesham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 5BD. Service is NOT accepted by email or fax.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

We hold professional indemnity insurance cover, details of which are available on request.

Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, including in relation to your bill, then you should telephone, email or write to our firm’s Director, Laura Everitt, who is based in our Leighton Buzzard office. You can contact her by email on leveritt@elitelawsolicitors.co.uk; phone her on 0800 086 2929 or write to her at Unit 7 Leck House, 2-4 Lake Street, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 1TQ.

To help us understand your complaint and in order that we do not miss anything, please tell us: your full name and contact details, the person who has been acting for you and the file reference number, what you think we have got wrong and what you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint.

What Will Happen Next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 3 days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within 3 days of receiving your complaint.
3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps:
   • We may ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 7 days.
   • We may examine their reply and the information in your complaint file.
   • We may then ask them for more information. This will take up to 5 days from receiving their reply and the file.
4. We may also need to ask you for further information or documents. If so, we will ask you to provide the information within a specific period of time.
5. We will update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
6. We may also invite you to meet the member of staff who acted for you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. If you are unable to attend, we can do this by telephone instead.
7. Within 3 days of any meeting or phone discussion we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
   If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. This will usually happen within 21 days of the date of our letter of acknowledgement.
8. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH; on 0300 555 0333 minicom 0300 555 1777 (calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring) or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service form lawyers and their service is free of charge. Their website is at www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Please do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman as they will scan any documents you send them to make computer copies and destroy the originals.
9. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and must usually be made within one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about or one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint. However, for further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman directly.
10. If we are unable to settle your complaint under our internal complaint processes, we will agree to use Pro Mediate who are an approved organisation for this purpose. Pro Mediate can be contacted via enquiries@promediate.co.uk or 020 3621 3908. This information will also be available on our website. Please note that the time limits for contacting an ADR approved body will be different from the time limits for contacting the Legal Ombudsman. We shall remind you of this at the time we write to you if we have been unable to directly resolve any complaint.
11. You are also free to make a complaint directly to the SRA. For further information please visit https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
12. We will not charge you for handling your complaint.

Equality and Diversity – Elite Law Solicitors’ Statement of Principle

“We are committed to a policy of treating all our employees, workers and job applicants equally. No employee or potential employee will receive less favourable treatment because of any ‘protected characteristic’, namely:

• Age (or perceived age).
• Disability (past or present)
• Gender reassignment.
• Marriage or civil partnership status.
• Race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins.
• Religion or belief.
• Sex.
• Sexual orientation.
• Part-time or fixed term status.

No employee or potential employee will be disadvantaged by any conditions of employment that cannot be justified as necessary on operational grounds.

We aim to encourage, value and manage diversity and are committed to equality for our entire staff. We wish to attain a workforce that is representative of the communities from which it is drawn and that is drawn from the widest pool of talent.

These principles of equality and diversity also apply to the manner in which we treat clients, our business partners and visitors.

We will put our commitment into action by:

• Leading from the top.  The Equity Directors will take an active role in maintaining equality and diversity in all areas of work.
• Equality impact assessing our new and existing procedures, projects, and services.
• Monitoring and reviewing our data and regularly analysing what and how we could improve.
• Sharing good practice and creating community partnerships and alliances.

For further information on our firm’s equality and diversity policy, ethos or responsibility, please contact our Chief Executive Officer on 01494 722 326.

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING BOGUS LAW FIRMS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP PREVENT LAWYER IDENTITY FRAUD

Elite Law Solicitors take positive and preventative action against likely areas of fraud to best protect our clients’ interests.  One of the most common types of financial fraud is setting up fake offices in the name of a real solicitor or fake telephone numbers or fake email addresses. To ensure you are dealing with us and not a fraudulent fake solicitor or office, please take at least the following steps:

• Review our list of offices on this website and understand that any office purporting to be Elite Law Solicitors’ that is not featured here may be fraudulent.
• When dealing with any Elite Law Solicitors office for the first time make your own independent enquiries about contact information, such as through directory enquiries.  Never use a number or email address you are given, use one you have located independently.
• When dealing with any Elite Law Solicitors office for the first time refer to Elite Law Solicitors head office to ensure this is an appropriate office, using the above steps.

If you are making a financial payment to Elite Law Solicitors assume that a fraudulent transaction is likely until proven otherwise, not that the fraud is unlikely. Start with a suspicious attitude. Remember, if you are phoning us after we have apparently phoned you that the phone line might still be in use by the fraudster. Phone us back on a different phone line or wait 15 minutes.

Be suspicious – if it is really us, we will not be offended by your action.

AVOID FRAUD, PROTECT YOURSELF, ASSUME YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE DEFRAUDED.

It is a criminal offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor or act as a solicitor if they are not on the roll of solicitors.

We call these people “bogus solicitors” and the SRA may prosecute them. The SRA publish regular alerts about bogus solicitors.  Check the website if you are in any doubt about the identity of an individual or a firm.

All genuine solicitors are on the roll of solicitors, which the SRA administers, and a solicitor will be able to give you their roll number (sometimes described as their “SRA ID number”) on request. The firm’s ID number should also appear on their letterheads and notepaper.

You can check if someone is a solicitor by searching Find a solicitor, the Law Society’s online directory of solicitors. This is not however always accurate or up to date. It can also be subject to fraud.
http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/?gclid=CNzSvqmM8MECFaoEwwod5icAkQ

This directory contains details of almost all of the solicitors that the SRA regulate but the SRA do not guarantee it is accurate. It is just a sensible starting point.

You can also call our Chief Executive Officer if you have any concerns that a person purporting to be a solicitor or other qualified lawyer at Elite Law Solicitors is who they say they are.

If you would like to check that a solicitor is genuine, or if you think you are dealing with a bogus solicitor, you should contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority immediately (www.sra.org.uk).

If you have any cause to doubt that letters, emails or other contact that seem to be from a genuine solicitor is really from them, you should take reasonable steps to protect yourself and your property, by contacting the law firm or individual solicitor directly—through reliable and established means.

The SRA can tell you whether an individual or firm is regulated and authorised to practice. The SRA can also confirm a regulated and authorised individual’s or firm’s genuine contact information and other practising details. In all cases, you should check other public records (e.g. telephone directories and company records), too.

You can also read the SRA’s own guidance for solicitors on bogus law firms and identity theft by following this link http://www.sra.org.uk/identitytheft/

Our clients’ financial security is very important to us and these steps will make it considerably more difficult for you to become the subject of fraud.