Fair Treatment Policy – Keeping Things Respectful and Professional

1. Aggressive or Abusive Behaviour

We understand that sometimes people can get upset when they feel their concerns aren’t addressed as they’d like. However, when this frustration turns into aggression towards our team, it’s not okay.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of aggression or abuse directed towards our team that may cause them to feel afraid, threatened or abused. This includes:

• Using threatening or abusive language, whether spoken or written.
• Making personal verbal attacks, derogatory remarks, or being rude.
• The use of offensive language, whether written or spoken.
• Making inflammatory statements or using racial or discriminatory language.
• Repeatedly making unsubstantiated allegations.

2. Unreasonable Demands

We are here to help, but we also need to be fair to all our constituents. Demands become unreasonable when they start to excessively impact our team’s work or when they unreasonably and unnecessarily take up too much of our team’s time, disadvantaging other equally important work and clients. This includes:

• Repeatedly demanding quick responses, especially when a reasonable timeframe for responding would suffice or has already been given.
• Asking for responses from multiple team members on the same issue.
• Insisting on speaking to a specific team member when it’s not feasible or possible.
• Changing the subject of an enquiry or query repeatedly.
• Repeatedly asking the same question after receiving a clear answer.

3. Unreasonable Levels of Contact

Sometimes, the volume and duration of contact with our team by one person can become problematic. This may happen when someone:

• Repeatedly makes long phone calls.
• Floods our inbox with emails.
• Sends us copies of information that have already been shared or are unrelated to their concern.

We consider the contact to be unreasonable when it affects our ability to address the matter at hand or our responsibilities to other clients.

How We Address Abusive or Aggressive Behaviour

Any team member who encounters aggressive or abusive behaviour from a client or member of the public has the authority to address it immediately in a way they find suitable for the situation and in line with this policy.

Team members may end phone calls if they deem the caller’s behaviour to be aggressive, abusive, or offensive. Our team can inform the caller that such behaviour is unacceptable and end the call if it continues.

If the inappropriate behaviour persists in future correspondence, we will inform the person in writing that we cannot permit further contact from them. In serious cases, we will discontinue our representation in the client’s matter.

How We Handle Other Forms of Unreasonable Behaviour

When clients or members of the public frequently contact our offices, raise the same issue repeatedly, or send numerous documents with unclear relevance, we may take various actions, including:

• Limiting contact to set times and days.
• Assigning a specific team member to handle future calls or correspondence.
• Scheduling meetings by appointment only.
• Restricting contact to written correspondence.
• Refusing to address further correspondence and returning documents, or in extreme cases.
• Advising the person that irrelevant documentation may be destroyed.
• Taking any other action we consider appropriate to the circumstances.

If we find that someone’s correspondence on multiple issues is excessive, we may inform them that only a certain number of issues will be considered within a specific period and ask them to focus their requests accordingly.

When someone repeatedly requests a response on an issue for which they have already received a clear answer, we may choose not to respond to further inquiries from that individual.

Wherever possible, we aim to inform the person in writing about the action we are taking and the reasons behind our decision.