Complaints and comments about the Scottish Legal Aid Board

5) What you can complain to us about

Our complaints procedure is for complaints about how we do our work. It covers, for example:

• complaints about our staff – perhaps you feel that someone you saw in our office, spoke to on the phone or who wrote to you was unhelpful or rude
• complaints about the service that we provide – perhaps you feel we were slow or inefficient, or we gave you wrong or unclear information.

It does not cover, for example, asking us to reconsider decisions about applications for legal aid, or complaints about solicitors, advocates or the courts. These can be dealt with in other ways, and we list some of these later in section 10 of this leaflet.

6) Who you can complain to

If you want to complain about the service we provide:

1. Talk first to the manager of the department you have been dealing with – they will usually be in the best position to sort out the problem on the spot. If they can’t sort it out immediately, the manager will look into it further and let you know the outcome within 28 calendar days.
   
   To find out the name of the manager, you can check on our website or ask our switchboard. Or, if you are writing to us, just address the letter to the manager of the department concerned.
   
   
2. If you’re unhappy with the outcome of this, or the way our staff handled the complaint, or if for any reason you don’t want to talk to the manager, you can complain to the director of the department concerned.
   • For a complaint to do with an application for legal aid, or if it is to do with money you have been asked to pay us, or money we owe you, contact Tom Murray, Director of Legal Services and Applications.
   • if you don’t know which director to contact, please contact the Chief Executive’s Office, who will direct you to the right person.
   
   You can just ask us to reconsider your original complaint, or add anything more that you think we ought to know. The director will look into your complaint and let you know the outcome within 28 calendar days.
   
   
3. If you’re still dissatisfied, you can ask our Chief Executive, Lindsay Montgomery, to review your complaint. It is best if you do this in writing. However, if you do it in another way, the Chief Executive will still consider it. Again, the Chief Executive will let you know the outcome within 28 calendar days of your request for a review.

If you’ve gone through all of those steps, but you’re still not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

7) How to complain

You can complain

• in writing, by telephone, fax or e-mail, or in person
• using BT Text Direct, which allows callers who are hearing or speech impaired to communicate using a text phone
• using the complaints form on our website - you can either download and complete or print a pdf version, or complete one online, or ask us to send you a copy.
• our address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address are available on the next page of this leaflet.

When you make your complaint, you can help us reply to you quickly and accurately if you give us:

• your name and address
• your legal aid reference number or numbers, if you have applied for legal aid
• if you are an opponent of an applicant, the applicant’s full name and legal aid reference number if you know it
• the name of any member of our staff with whom you have had contact about the matter, and any reference numbers we have put on correspondence
• all the relevant information about your problem, and how you think we should be dealing with it.

and write “complaint” at the top of your letter.

If you prefer, we have a form that shows what information we need from you. You can either complete our online form, or download a pdf version which you can complete and post to us. If you would like a copy, yu can also phone or write to us.

If you telephone, e-mail or fax us, or visit our office, we may have to ask you some extra questions to make sure who you are. This is to protect your confidentiality and to make sure that we do not give personal information to anyone who doesn’t have the right to it.

If you want to call into our office to complain, it helps if you phone first to make an appointment. That way, we can arrange for you to see the right person and make sure they have the right files and letters. If we can’t deal with your problem right away, you can choose whether we phone or write to you with an answer.

If you write, fax or e-mail us we will normally reply in writing.

8) If you think no-one in the board has given you a satisfactory reply

If you are not satisfied with the Chief Executive’s response, you may be able to complain to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman’s Office can consider complaints about failures by public bodies:

• in how they manage their service
• to provide a service
• in the service they provide.

They can look into a complaint only if you claim to have suffered injustice or hardship because of these failures.

You must send the Ombudsman your complaint within 12 months of first finding out about the matter you are complaining about. However, in some exceptional circumstances the Ombudsman may be willing to consider your complaint even if it is outwith those 12 months.

The Ombudsman will not normally deal with a complaint unless you have followed all the complaints procedure explained in this leaflet and, having contacted the Chief Executive, are not happy with the response.

The Ombudsman’s address is: Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, 4 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7NS. Alternatively, you can phone on 0800 377 7330, fax on 0800 377 7331, or e-mail ask@spso.org.uk. Their website is www.spso.org.uk.

9) You shouldn’t use our complaints procedure to ask us to reconsider a decision

Our complaints procedure is for complaints about how we do our work. It does not cover, for example, asking us to reconsider decisions about applications for legal aid, or complaints about solicitors, advocates or the courts. These are dealt with in other ways.

If we have refused your application for legal aid

If we refuse your application for legal aid, you can ask us to review the decision. We will do this and tell you the outcome. Your solicitor will explain this to you. You can also ask our Applications Department to give you advice about asking for a review.

We have leaflets that explain what we have to consider when we are deciding whether to grant legal aid. If you don’t have copies of these, please ask your solicitor for them or read them on our website or contact us.

You may think, after we have reviewed an application for legal aid, that our decision was illegal or unreasonable, or that we did not use the proper procedure. If so, you may be able to challenge the decision in court. This is called a “judicial review”. If the court thinks we have acted unreasonably or illegally, it may ask us to look again at our decision. You would probably need legal advice on how to do that. Your solicitor can tell you more about it.

Because the opportunity for judicial review exists, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman would only deal with a complaint about legal aid decisions in the most exceptional circumstances.

If you are making representations about someone else receiving civil legal aid

If we are considering granting, or have granted, legal aid to your opponent in a civil case and you believe there are reasons they should not get legal aid, you can write to us telling us those reasons. You can do this at any time after they have applied for legal aid or while we are still giving them legal aid. Even if you have already made representations, we will consider anything new you tell us.

We have a leaflet, “Guidance for opponents in civil legal aid cases”, that explains what you need to tell us. Please read this before you send us representations to an application or grant of legal aid. You should have been given a copy of the leaflet when we received the application for legal aid, but if you don’t have one, you can read it online or please ask us for one.