Complaints (Isle of Man)

Complaints

Keystone Law is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients.

When a complaint is raised with us, we will evaluate it and determine what we can do to address the issues it raises. Often, we are able to offer a solution to the issues raised and we are always looking to improve the services that we offer. For this reason, we review complaints received annually.

This Policy sets out how we deal with complaints.

What is a complaint?

A ‘complaint’ is any oral or written expression of concern or dissatisfaction with our provision of services.

Our objectives under the Policy

When dealing with your complaint, we will endeavour:

• To deal with all complaints promptly, fairly and without charge.
• To be honest and open with clients if things go wrong, to explain what has happened and to the extent possible, if a client suffers loss or harm, to put matters right
• To have proper regard to our legal and regulatory duties and entitlements.
• To act reasonably when dealing with your complaint.

With a view to achieving the above objectives, please note:

• Our confidentiality duties to other clients, and our duties to our professional indemnity insurers, can affect and constrain how we respond.
• Where the complaint concerns particularly complex issues or is in reality a negligence claim, then we may respond saying that you make a claim against us. The Isle of Man Law Society recognises that if you seek compensation, then this is the most appropriate avenue of redress.
• Where it is reasonable for us to do so, we may extend the timescales for our responses (and particularly where the matter is complex or we are waiting for a response from you or a third party, or for the occurrence of a relevant event).

Who can make a complaint?

This Policy is mainly for the use of our clients (i.e. those persons for whom we act).

However, a non-client can use this Policy to make their concerns known to us by contacting us as set out below. Understanding how our services affect others gives us an opportunity to improve. Accordingly, we allow anyone to bring concerns to us under this Policy.

How we respond to a non-client complaint thereafter will be for us to assess and is likely to depend on what, if any, duties we owe the complaining non-client. In some instances, we will let you know that we are not taking matters forward. This may be because doing so could involve acting otherwise than in the best interests of our clients or could involve a breach of our confidentiality duties.

To whom should you make a complaint?

It is your choice how to let us know about your concerns. Where you prefer to deal informally with the lawyer performing the services about which you are complaining, where you do not want your concerns to be treated as a formal complaint and where you seek a quick and informal resolution, then we suggest you contact the lawyer engaged in the matter about which you wish to complain. Where there are several such lawyers, we suggest you contact the most senior of them. If you have contacted the lawyer performing the services and are not happy with the resolution, if you are in any doubt as to whom to contact, and in all other cases, you should contact our central complaints function, using the contact details below. You can still contact the lawyer performing the services about which you are complaining and have us treat your complaint as a formal complaint, but if so, you should also let our central complaints function know, so we can ensure you receive a response within the required time window.

By offering you a choice of informal and formal resolution processes and by making it clear in what circumstances we will apply which process, we give you the option as to the best way to resolve things. We recognise that most of the time our clients do want to resolve things informally. We understand that raising a formal complaint can impact on the solicitor/client relationship and often that is the last thing clients wish to do.

Wherever possible, we ask that you raise your concerns with us in writing and, where you want to engage our formal complaints resolution procedure, you mark your email “formal complaint”. This affords you the ability to consider carefully what you want to raise with us and gives us both certainty of what your concerns are. If you raise your concerns with us orally, you agree to our responding orally, though if we believe a written response would be more appropriate, then we shall respond in writing.  Where you want to raise your concerns formally and to do so by telephone, then we ask you to call our main switchboard number (0333 939 8000) and provide our telephonists with the details of your complaint. Again, we ask that you make it clear that you wish for your concerns to be dealt with using our formal complaints resolution procedure.

When can you make a complaint?

You can make use of this Policy at any time.

External routes, including the Isle of Man Law Society’s Conciliation Scheme and the Advocates Disciplinary Tribunal, may have their own procedural requirements, forms and time-related rules.

Nonetheless, we would prefer that you inform us promptly if you have a complaint or are unhappy with our provision of services. That will allow us to do our best to resolve the problem swiftly.

We ask you to bring your concerns to us within one year of the matter that has given rise to them. There are time limits that can apply to the commencement and progression of complaints before the Conciliation Scheme, as explained below.

Content of a complaint

You should explain what happened and how that affected you. You may find it helpful to provide evidence to support what you say. You should ensure that everything you want us to look at is included in your complaint. Usually evidence will include documents, copies of correspondence, transcripts, photos etc.

If there is a particular remedy or change that you feel would resolve your concerns, then you should explain that to us in your complaint. This is especially important if you choose to make a complaint to the members of this firm you have engaged.

If you would like to resolve the matter through a call with our Quality Assurance Team, then you should say so and provide the number you want us to call. If we don’t agree to speak to you by telephone, we will let you know in writing.

What should you do if you have a complaint?

If you have a complaint, you should write to The Quality Assurance Team, Keystone Law, The Old Courthouse, Athol Street, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 1JD.

We recommend using the Isle of Man’s Post Office’s ‘signed for’ service when corresponding with us about a complaint. That way, you will know when we have received your complaint.

What will happen once we receive your complaint?

1. We will consider whether your complaint is covered by this policy and what, if any obligation we have to respond to you. Where we conclude we have no obligation to respond to you, we may elect not to respond.
2. Where we conclude that we have an obligation to respond or where we conclude that we do not have an obligation to respond, but we elect to respond then we will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five clear working days of our receipt of the complaint, enclosing a copy of this Policy. (At Christmas time, we extend this to ten clear working days.)
3. We will start to investigate your complaint. This will involve passing your complaint to an appropriate person in our Quality Assurance Team, who will independently review your matter file and speak to the relevant individual(s), including any colleagues named in your complaint.

You should provide all information and evidence on which you wish to rely when you first make your complaint. This is important because we are required to investigate and respond to complaints within applicable regulatory timescales and we are entitled to a reasonable opportunity to consider the complaint and the material relied upon in support of it.

If, after receiving your complaint, we consider that we need further information from you in order to investigate it, we may ask you to provide that information. Where we do so, we will ordinarily give you seven days to provide it. During that period, we may pause our investigation to give you the opportunity to provide the requested information. This does not pause or extend the overall eight-week period referred to in this Policy, but it allows you a fair opportunity to provide the information that we have requested.

If you do not provide the requested information within that period, we may proceed to investigate and determine your complaint on the basis of the information available to us. In those circumstances, we may treat you as having chosen not to take the opportunity to provide the requested information within the time allowed.

If you provide information or evidence after the expiry of any period we have given you for doing so, or if you provide further information or evidence without having been asked to do so, we will consider whether it is reasonable to take that material into account before we issue our final response, having regard to the time remaining to us to complete our investigation, how far progressed our complaint response is and the scale, nature and relevance  of the information provided .

If we do not consider that we can reasonably take further material into account within the existing timetable, we will let you know. If you want that material to be considered as part of the complaint, you may agree an extension of time with us. If an extension cannot be agreed, then, provided we have not yet issued our final response, it is open to you to withdraw your complaint and resubmit it with the further material.

Where further information or evidence raises new issues, new allegations, or a materially expanded complaint, we may treat those matters as a new or separate complaint.

4. Where we believe a telephone conversation could assist in resolving the complaint, then, within eight working days of acknowledging your complaint, we will write to you to arrange a resolution telephone call.
5. Where we speak with you on the telephone and are unable to resolve your complaint by agreement or where we do not believe a resolution telephone conversation would be appropriate, then within eight weeks of receiving your complaint, we will write to you with our findings, which may include a suggested solution, where appropriate.
6. We will endeavour to provide our final response letter within eight weeks of receiving your complaint to us. It can take longer to respond to complex complaints.

As noted above, and provided it is reasonable to do so, we may extend some of the above timescales.

If we do so, we will inform you in writing of our reasons.

Our final response letter, and after

We want to deal with your complaint in a manner that achieves our objectives (see above). Our final response letter will reflect those objectives.

In the event that you are not satisfied with our final response letter, or if we do not resolve your complaint within eight weeks of your contacting us you can put the matter to the Isle of Man Law Society’s Conciliation Scheme. You can find full details of your rights and remedies over and above those set out in the Policy at: www.iomlawsociety.co.im/rules-complaints/complaints.

The Isle of Man Law Society’s Conciliation Scheme

The Conciliation Scheme affords both parties (Advocate and Client) the opportunity to discuss the complaint and hopefully agree a resolution. This process is voluntary for Advocates and free to complainants. This scheme is delivered on behalf of the Isle of Man Law Society by Ian Cochrane, who is engaged by the Society but independent of it. Note that the Isle of Man Law Society cannot make a finding against an Advocate or award you compensation. You can access that programme by completing a Conciliation Form. See: https://iomlawsociety.co.im/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Interactive-Conciliation-Form-2026.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

Complaints and our professional obligations

If you make a complaint whilst we are still acting for you, then we will try to ensure that it does not affect our ongoing provision of services to you.

In some instances, however, a complaint can engage our professional conduct obligations. For example, we may need to cease to act if the complaint gives rise to a conflict of interest.

Other options

This document is concerned solely with raising informal concerns, our Complaints Policy and aspects of the Conciliation Scheme.

The Isle of Man Law Society gives further details of other options at this link: https://iomlawsociety.co.im/complaints/

Where appropriate you may also wish to contact the Advocates Disciplinary Tribunal which deals with formal complaints about an Advocate’s professional conduct and may impose a penalty on an Advocate, but note that it cannot award compensation, or generally deal with negligence/ breach of contract matters. If you seek compensation from an Advocate or an Advocate’s firm, the Law Society states that you will need to pursue a claim for damages in the High Court.

We cannot advise you as to any rights and remedies you may have against us.

You should also note that we are usually entitled to charge interest on our bills while they are outstanding.

Complaints Record

During the year 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, we have received the following complaints which were required to be resolved under our Complaints Procedure: