174 Family Law and Family Mediation Solutions (HLP Legal Limited)
We aim to give every client a high-quality service. If something goes wrong, please tell us. We will try to put it right, and it helps us improve.
Making a complaint is free. We will not charge you for dealing with it.
How to complain
Contact Helen Pittard, Director:
- Email: hpittard@174familylaw.co.uk
- Phone: 0151 8323253
- Post: 174 Family Law, The Lauries, 142 Claughton Road, Birkenhead CH41 6EY
If your complaint is about Helen, contact Melissa Quayle at mquayle@174familylaw.co.uk instead.
You can complain in writing, by phone or in person. If you need help to make a complaint, or need us to communicate with you in a particular way, please tell us and we will make reasonable adjustments.
If your complaint is about how we use your personal data, please see our data protection complaints procedure at Complaints Policy (Data Protection and Information Rights)
What happens next
| Step | What we do | When |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | We acknowledge your complaint, tell you who is dealing with it, and ask for any details we need | Within 7 days |
| 2 | We look into your complaint, including the file. If it would help, we offer you a meeting or call | Meeting within 28 days |
| 3 | We write to you with our full response, our reasons and what we propose to put things right | Within 6 weeks |
| 4 | If you are still unhappy, tell us and we will arrange a review | Review completed within 8 weeks of your complaint |
If we meet, we will write to you within 7 days to confirm what was discussed and agreed. Where appropriate, we may offer an apology, a reduction in our bill, a refund or another remedy.
If we need longer at any stage, we will tell you why and when you can expect to hear from us.
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint.
The review
The review will be carried out by one of the following:
- someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint
- an independent solicitor outside the firm
- an independent mediator, if you agree
We will then write to you with our final response and our reasons.
The Legal Ombudsman
If we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks, or you are unhappy with our final response, you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman. You do not have to wait for our process to finish once 8 weeks have passed.
You must contact the Legal Ombudsman:
- within 6 months of our final response, and
- within one year of the problem happening, or within one year of when you should reasonably have realised there was a problem.
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if you are an individual, or one of the following:
- a small business with fewer than 10 employees and a turnover or balance sheet of no more than €2 million
- a charity, club or association with an annual income under £1 million
- a trustee of a trust with assets under £1 million
- a personal representative or beneficiary of a deceased person’s estate
Legal Ombudsman contact details:
- Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
- Phone: 0300 555 0333 (8.30am to 5.30pm). Calls cost no more than a call to an 01 or 02 number.
- Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
- Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints about our service. If you are concerned about our professional conduct – for example dishonesty, misuse of your money or discrimination – you can report this to our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
- Online: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
- Phone: 0370 606 2555
- Email: report@sra.org.uk
- Post: Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
Alternative dispute resolution
Independent alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes can deal with complaints about legal services. We do not currently use an ADR scheme, but your right to go to the Legal Ombudsman is not affected.
Review October 2026
