Customer service, complaints and procedure

You can view and read our full Customer Service Policy (PDF).

You can also view our Unacceptable behaviour policy, which sets out standards of behaviour that we expect from customers in relation to our staff, and our Vulnerable customer policy, which sets out what our customers can expect when they disclose vulnerability to us.

The above policy documents are all available on our Policy and procedure publications page.

There is also further details on our access to information pages and you can also view our quarterly performance reports.

We aim to provide a high level of service to all our customers. Our commitment to you is that:

• we will deal with all matters relating to legal aid applications and accounts timeously, accurately and fairly
• we will always treat you with courtesy and respect your right to confidentiality.

We value complaints and use information from complaints to help us improve. Please tell us if something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with our service.

What our complaints procedure covers

We are a decision making body. For that reason, it is important to note that our complaints procedure is intended to cover circumstances where we have failed to do something. For example, instances of maladministration.

It does not cover disagreement with a decision where another procedure to resolve the matter exists. For example:

• a review of a decision to refuse legal aid
• a review of the level of contribution assessed
• disagreement about the application of the law.

In these situations there are other procedures to resolve matters.

This does not mean that these disagreements are less important to us, simply that there are other processes, some statutory and some not, that exist for people to have the issue considered and resolved.

Our Complaints Handling Procedure follows the requirements of the Model Complaints Handling Procedure published by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

Child Friendly Complaints Procedure

Children and young people have rights under the United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

We follow the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Guidance set out by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

Please let us know if you are:

1. under 18 and have a complaint
2. complaining on behalf of someone who is under 18
3. complaining about a matter affecting someone under 18.

Complaint statistics

We publish information on the numbers of complaints that we receive and the time it takes us to respond. These can be found on our Board and committee papers page.

Surveying your views

We have an ongoing research programme to survey the views of our customers. Periodically, we undertake major surveys of applicants and opponents and of solicitors. Read more about our current customer research work.