Regulatory & Complaints
Regulatory information
White & Black Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
White & Black Limited is a limited liability company registered in England and Wales with registered number 06436665. Our SRA ID number is 534345. The term “partner” in relation to White & Black Limited is used to refer to a member, director, employee or consultant of White & Black Limited. A list of the names of the members of White & Black Limited is open to inspection at our registered office, which is at 16 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NA, England.
We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Law Society and are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (which took over the regulatory functions of the Law Society on 29th January 2007). We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any investment services you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Legal Ombudsman.
We comply with the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 by displaying the required details of our professional indemnity insurance at our office.
The professional rules applicable to White & Black Limited may be accessed at: http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page
White & Black Limited’s VAT number is GB 198 8999 93.
Diversity
Please click the link shown here for the results of our most recent published diversity survey: White & Black Diversity Report
Complaints procedure
Please let us know immediately if you have any problems with the service we provide. Our policy is to look at complaints objectively and to take a constructive approach to reaching a satisfactory conclusion. We recognise that complaints may provide us with an opportunity to check the quality of our service and to make improvements to it; indeed, whether or not you have any concerns about our service, your suggestions as to how it might be improved will always be welcome.
If you are dissatisfied with our service you are entitled to complain (and this could include a complaint about our bill). This policy explains how you may raise your concern and /or make a complaint.
1. The first thing you can do is raise any problem with the person dealing with your work (if you are not sure who this is, you can obtain their details by calling our office on +44 (0) 800 035 2656).
2. If you are not satisfied with the response of the person dealing with the matter (or if it is inappropriate to raise your concern with that person, or if the complaint is in relation to more general matters), you should call that person’s supervising partner.
3. If you are not satisfied with the response of the supervising partner, you should address your complaint to the Managing Partner, Victoria Wright. Victoria can be reached on 0345 201 3145 or you can email her at victoria.wright@wablegal.com or you can write to her at our office address below.
Alternatively, you may address your complaint to our Compliance Partner, John Allen. John can be reached on 0345 2010 3143 or at the address below or you can email him at john.allen@wablegal.com.
4. We take complaints extremely seriously and will make every effort to deal with your complaint effectively and swiftly. If you make a complaint in writing or tell us verbally that you wish to make a complaint then, as a minimum, we will write to you explaining how your complaint will be handled and detailing the timescales within which we will respond to your complaint.
We will investigate your complaint, and provide an initial response within 15 business days (of the date you first make a complaint to us). If, for any reason, we are unable to respond within this period (for example if a person is absent from the office) we will tell you the reason why and let you know when we anticipate that we will be able to reply to you in full.
We will let you have a full response as soon as we can and in any event within 4 weeks.
5. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns at any time with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
6. The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
- Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
and
- No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
- No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them:
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
7. We trust that this goes without saying but we will not charge any client for our costs in handling any complaint they make.