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Complaints Policy

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.  You can find information about raising your concerns with the STA at www.sra.org.uk in the ‘For the public’ section.

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need our clients to tell us about it. This will help improve our standards. Whenever possible, please raise any initial client care problems with the person acting on your case to give them the opportunity of resolving matters with you. Often, matters can be quickly resolved in this way.

If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about the bill, please contact Clare Usher, our Client Care Director. Alternatively, if your complaint is in respect of Miss Usher, please direct your complaint to Amir Assadi.

Contact

Hindle Campbell Law
8 Northumberland Square
North Shields
NE30 1QQ

0191 296 1777

clare.usher@hindle-campbell.co.uk
amir.assadi@hindle-campbell.co.uk

We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints as follows:

Our Procedures

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint within five working days enclosing a copy of this procedure and ask you to confirm or explain any details.
  2. We will then record your complaint in our central register and investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file. This may then be reviewed with the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. If appropriate we will then invite you to meet us to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint
  4. Within three days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you.
  5. If you do not wish to meet or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director within the firm to review the decision. We would generally aim to do this within 14 days.
  1. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  2. If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Contact details are as follows:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH

0300 555 0333

enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within the following timescales:

  1. Six years from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring, or
  2. Three years from the date you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint (if the act/omission took place before 6th October 2010 or was more than six years ago), and
  3. Within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

In relation to a) and b) the act/omission, or when the complainant should reasonably known there was cause for complaint must have been after 5th October 2010.

We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves. If this is not the case however, we would be happy to provide you with the necessary information to make such a complaint.

If we have to change any of the above timescales we will let you know and explain why.

The complaints procedure also includes complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; and that if all, or part, of a bill remains unpaid, the firm may be entitled to charge interest.

Anita Swift

Posted on

Writing your own Will – is it valid?

When you think about a Will or estate planning, people often assume it’s something only the elderly consider.  The recently reported case of ‘The Wanted’ singer Max George (‘Max’) has again highlighted that everyone should consider if their affairs are in order regardless of their age.  Max was aged just 36 when he opened up about his fear of his own mortality, having been admitted to hospital for heart surgery to fit a pacemaker in December 2024. During January 2025, social media was buzzing with reports, including the BBC[1] and Sky News[2], that the singer had made a Will on his phone. This fear and panic spurred him into action but it raises the question: would Max’s mobile phone Will have been legally valid?

The criteria for the valid execution of a Will are defined in Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837[3]. There is more than one way in which this can be achieved, but generally, the Will must be in writing, made by a person over the age of 18 (the ‘Testator’) intending this document to amount to a Will; it must be signed by the Testator (or an agent on their behalf); that signature must be made or acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time, and that each of those witnesses must also have signed the Will. Though some flexibility was temporarily added during the COVID-19 pandemic for Wills executed before 31 January 2024, these fundamental principles surrounding the valid execution of a Will still stand.

Therefore, would Max’s phone Will have been legally valid? Thankfully, it never came to pass but if a Will does not meet the legal requirements outlined by law, it will not be valid. This means that the Testator’s wishes will not be honoured and their intentions, no matter how well meaning, will be void, leaving the chosen beneficiaries potentially very disappointed.  This could result in potentially costly and arduous legal disputes involving disgruntled family members and others.

We recommend that you consult and instruct a Solicitor to prepare a suitable Will that validly gives effect to your wishes. As part of this process, you can also be advised upon protections for blended families, underage or disabled beneficiaries, care home fees and Inheritance Tax. To discuss making or updating your Will, please contact our team on 0191 296 1777 or email us at advice@hindle-campbell.co.uk

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgrnd38ryeo

[2] https://news.sky.com/story/the-wanted-star-max-george-recalls-moment-he-wrote-will-from-hospital-bed-before-heart-surgery-13287692

[3] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Will4and1Vict/7/26/section/9