We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy with the service we have provided to you or you have concerns about your bill then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you
Making a complaint to us
Initially please contact the person who is working on your matter to discuss your concerns. Alternatively you may wish to contact the person supervising their work. Details are set out in the client care letter sent to you at the start of your case. We will do our best to resolve any concerns at this stage but if you still have concerns and feel you need to make a formal complaint, our full complaints procedure is detailed in this document. Making a complaint will not affect how your case is handled.
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If something goes wrong you need to tell us about it, so that we can put matters right. It will also help us to improve our standards.
What will happen next:
- Within three days of receiving your complaint we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details which we need. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person dealing with your complaint.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:
- Within three days of receiving your complaint the person investigating your complaint will raise it with the person complained about, and where appropriate call for your file of papers.
- Within fourteen days of receiving your complaint the person dealing with your complaint will either invite you to a meeting to resolve the complaint, or send you a detailed reply, which will include suggestions for resolving the matter.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know, and your complaint will be reviewed within fourteen days by another partner in this firm.
- We will let you know the result of this review within five days of completing the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
- If you are still dissatisfied you have a right to take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints. Their contact details are set out below:
How the SRA can help you
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, disability, or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with Solicitors Regulation Authority.
What you may do if we cannot resolve your complaint
If we are unable to help you, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how your case is handled. 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 there are some time limits for taking your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
You must do so:
- Within 6 months of receiving our final response to your complaint; and
- No more than 6 years from the date of act/omission about which you are complaining; or
- No more than 3 years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman their contact details are as follows:
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
Email @email.
Call 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm.
Calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02) from both mobiles and landlines. Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.
For ‘minicom’ call 0300 555 1777.
Write to: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.
Reviewed March 2020