Complaints Procedure

Our complaints procedure

We want to give you the best possible service, however if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided then you should inform us immediately so that we can do out best to resolve the problem. In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint , then you can read our full complaints procedure below. 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 unfair due to age, disability or other characteristics. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. 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 :

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman who is responsible for investigating complaints about service issues with law firms.

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

Address :PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH

Telephone : 0300 555 0333

Website : www.legalombudsman.org.uk

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about a solicitor’s 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 find information about raising your concerns with the SRA at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, write to us with the details.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. Our complaints partner is Chris Hunt. It will therefore normally be he who will deal with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within three days of us receiving your complaint.
  2. We will record your complaint in our central register. We will endeavour to do this within two days of receiving your complaint.
  3. We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within three days of your reply.
  4. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:
    • we will pass your complaint to Chris Hunt, our client care partner, within three days.
    • he will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within five days;
    • he will then examine the reply and the information in your complaint file. If necessary, he may also speak to them. This will take up to three days from receiving the reply and the file.
  5. Chris Hunt will then invite you to meet him and discuss and, we hope, resolve your complaint. He will do this within three days.
  6. Within seven days of the meeting Chris Hunt will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, he will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter. He will do this within five days of completing his investigation.
  7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in the following way - another partner of the firm will review Chris Hunt's decision within 21 days;
  8. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and the address of the Legal Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

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