Courts and Tribunals - Too long for my phone call to be answered/return my call

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If your phone call was not answered or if the call took too long to be answered, then you can raise a complaint. Please ensure you include your case reference number if you have one, the number you were calling and the time of your phone call.

You should know

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of courts and tribunals in England and Wales. It is also responsible for non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Resolver is working with HMCTS to make it easier for consumers to raise and resolve complaints with HMCTS
This service is free and Resolver is independent of HMCTS
You can raise cases in English and Welsh. During the beta period, the service will only be available in English
Once you raise a case, it will be sent to the court, tribunal or administration centre where this issue arose
If the issue is then not addressed, you have the right to have your case independently reviewed by a senior manager
If you are still not satisfied, your case will be escalated to the Customer Investigations Team for a final assessment

You have the right to raise complaints about your case and your experiences with HMCTS. You should be aware that HMCTS is able to address issues and concerns over the administration of your case or the facilities available.

Issues HMCTS cannot assist with

HMCTS cannot assist with complaints about the outcome of a case. Judges are independent and you may want to consider independent legal advice about appealing a decision you disagree with.

Judicial behaviour

If you want to complain about the way a tribunal judge or panel member, a court judge or magistrate behaved towards you, you must make your complaint to the relevant office within three months from when this happened.

For District Judges in magistrates’ courts or judges in other courts, please see judicialconduct.judiciary.gov.uk
For magistrates contact the court for the local advisory committee details
For tribunals contact the tribunal and they will provide the right way to raise a complaint

Contact

You can raise a case with a court or tribunal by letter or using Resolver. Resolver is a free tool to help support you in raising and resolving your issue.

Submitting an issue

When you submit an issue to us about a court, tribunal or business centre, the case will be sent to that location for review. Normally, this will be carried out by staff at this location, who will assess your case. You should receive a response within 10 working days.

Reviewing the decision

If you are not satisfied with the proposed resolution, you can ask for a review. When asking for a review, please explain the reasons why you are not satisified. In the review, the outcome will be assessed by a senior manager in the local team. They will consider what your issue is and the response received. You should have a response within 10 working days.

Appeal

The final stage in the HMCTS complaints process is the Customer Investigations Team. They are a centralised team that will handle the exceptional cases that cannot be resolved. They will then have a final look at your case and will respond back within 15 working days.

Your MP

If you are still dissatisfied with the outcome, you have the right for the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman to assess your case. If you wish to do this, you will need to contact your local MP or phone 020 7219 4272. The Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman will be able to look at your case and provide an independent review. The PHSO is an independent organisation, which investigates complaints where a customer thinks they have been treated unfairly or received poor service from a government department.

If you would like more information about the work of the PHSO, you can call their office on 0345 015 4033, email phso.enquiries@ombudsman.org.uk or visit the website at www.ombudsman.org.uk

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