When a bank, lender, adviser or investment firm gets it wrong, the money lost is real and the route to recovery is technical — regulated agreements, conduct rules, ombudsman deadlines and court. Connaught Law's financial services disputes lawyers act for consumers, investors and businesses across London and the UK, against institutions built to outlast complaints.
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How We Can Help
Mis-Sold Financial Products
Mis-selling is a pattern with many faces: products sold without proper explanation of risk, commissions and conflicts never disclosed, unsuitable recommendations dressed as advice. The regulatory framework — FCA conduct rules and the agreements' own statutory protections — gives mis-sold customers real remedies; the craft is matching your facts to the right one and pursuing it before time runs out.
Car & Motor Finance Claims
Motor finance commission is the current front line: undisclosed commission arrangements on car finance have produced landmark litigation and an industry-wide redress process taking shape under the FCA. If you bought a car on finance in the affected years, you may have a claim whether or not you've received any letter — our litigation team runs these alongside broader Consumer Credit Act claims, where unfair relationships and non-compliant agreements give borrowers powerful, underused rights.
Investment & Advice Claims
Negligent financial advice — unsuitable portfolios, pension transfers that should never have been recommended, risk profiles ignored — causes losses that advisers' compliance files often quietly document. We bring claims against advisers and wealth managers, and where firms have failed, through the compensation scheme that stands behind them. Loss calculations decide these cases; we build them properly.
Banking & Lending Disputes
Disputes with banks and lenders run from wrongly declined account claims and de-banking, through loan and security arguments, to enforcement pursued unfairly. Regulated lending carries its own toolkit — unfair relationship claims, agreement enforceability, secret commissions — covered across our banking guides, and deployed for borrowers who assumed the paperwork left them no options.
Ombudsman vs Court
Two routes, chosen strategically: the Financial Ombudsman Service — free, informal, binding on the firm if you accept, but capped in award and bound by its own deadlines after a final response — or court, uncapped and rigorous, with costs and limitation rules of its own. Bigger and document-heavy claims often belong in court; many consumer claims win faster at the FOS. We route each case by where it recovers most, net of everything.
Business & SME Claims
Businesses fight financial institutions too — mis-sold hedging and finance products, facility disputes, guarantees enforced beyond their terms — with fewer regulatory protections and higher stakes. These claims run as commercial litigation with a regulatory edge, which is exactly the combination our commercial litigation service exists for.
How We Work
First, the documents: the agreement, the sales file, the correspondence — because financial disputes are won in paperwork the institution assumed nobody would read. Then an honest merits and quantum view, the right forum, and a claim built to the standard that makes institutions settle: precise breaches, calculated losses, deadlines protected. Where the numbers justify it, funding options are discussed openly before you commit.
Why Connaught Law
01Institution-proof preparationBanks defend by attrition. Claims built on their own documents don't wear down.
02Forum chosen for recoveryFOS or court — picked by net outcome for you, not by habit.
03Senior attention throughoutYour claim is run by our experienced litigation team, not passed down — with direct access to the person handling it.
04Consumer and commercial fluencyFrom CCA rights to mis-sold hedging — one team across the whole financial disputes spectrum.
Fee structures and funding options are set out on our fees page — we discuss costs openly before you commit to anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have a financial mis-selling claim?
Ask three questions: were you sold something whose risks or costs weren't properly explained; would you have acted differently with full information; and have you lost out as a result. If yes, the framework — FCA rules, statutory agreement protections, adviser duties — likely gives you a route. Send us the paperwork and we'll tell you honestly which one.
Should I go to the Financial Ombudsman or to court?
The FOS is free and effective for many consumer claims but caps awards and follows its own fairness standard; court is uncapped and forensic but carries costs risk. Size of loss, strength of documents and your appetite decide it — and choosing wrong can cost either recovery or years. We route claims deliberately, case by case.
Is there a time limit on financial services claims?
Several, running in parallel: court claims generally within six years (with extensions where losses emerged later), and FOS complaints within six months of a firm's final response plus its own longstop rules. Redress schemes add their own windows. Whichever route fits, the safe assumption is that a clock is already running.
Am I affected by the car finance commission scandal?
If you bought a vehicle on finance during the affected years — particularly under discretionary commission arrangements — quite possibly, and redress is taking shape at industry scale. You don't need to have received a letter to have a claim. Bring us the agreement and we'll check where you stand.
Lost money to a financial institution?
Send us the agreement and the story. We'll tell you what the claim is, where it wins, and what it's worth — before you commit to anything.
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