Miss R had a dispute with her neighbour. She instructed a firm to help her pursue legal action, but she lost the court case. Miss R paid the firm’s fees in full although she was unhappy.
Following this, Miss R complained about several aspects of the firm’s service including their lack of updates, their failure to give advice, and the bill exceeding the initial estimate.
In their final response, the firm apologised and offered a 50% refund on the basis this was a final settlement offer. The firm told Miss R that she could bring her complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if she was not happy with the offer.
Miss R accepted the remedy and then cashed the cheque sent to her by the firm.
Five months later, Miss R brought her complaint to the Legal Ombudsman as she wanted additional compensation.
We did not investigate Miss R’s complaint.
The firm provided Miss R with options of how she could proceed in their final response. The firm’s offer of a 50% refund was clearly intended to bring the complaint to a close. Miss R agreed to this and chose to accept the refund. For this reason, we dismissed Miss R’s complaint.
