Legal Aid

Legal aid experts

If you require legal aid, you can contact the experts at Rutherford Solicitors in Portsmouth.

The introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) in April 2013, had a huge impact on who is entitled to legal aid in a civil case. However, legal aid is still available to those who are financially eligible and have suffered some form of abuse in their relationship or whose children have suffered from abuse.

Rutherford Solicitors were first awarded the Specialist Quality Mark (SQM) in 2012 and since then have been recently been awarded the SQM for a further 3 years. This award has helped secure our legal aid contract with the Legal Aid Agency and the award reflects the high quality and seamless service that Rutherford Solicitors provides to its clients. We will always establish whether you are or you aren't eligible for legal aid at the outset of every case .

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Complaints handling procedure

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we/I have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here(link to your process) Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

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 with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page)

Download our complaints procedure HERE

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

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 Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.