Complaints
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 to improve our standards.
Our Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint contact us with the details by telephone, in person or in writing. Where appropriate your complaint may be dealt with informally which will involve your lawyer or their supervisor calling you within 2 working days of your complaint to try to resolve your concerns. Any complaints raised even if dealt with informally are recorded and brought to the attention of a Supervisor/Director and the Practice Manager.
The aim of the informal stage of our complaints procedure is to resolve your concerns quickly and agree solutions with you.
If it is not appropriate for your complaint to be dealt with in this way or you prefer for you complaint to be dealt with formally the procedure below will be followed:
What will happen next
- We will send you correspondence acknowledging your complaint and we may ask you to confirm, explain or set out the details of your complaint either in writing or by telephone. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive this letter within two working days of us receiving your complaint.
- We will record your complaint in our central register with the Practice Manager. We will do this within 3 working days of receipt.
- We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve one of the following steps:
- Your lawyer will consider your complaint and discuss this with his or her supervisor. This may involve a full review of your file by the supervisor, and you will receive a response to your complaint from your lawyer or his or her supervisor within the timescales advised.
- Your lawyer may invite you to a meeting to discuss and resolve your complaint. At such a meeting, their supervisor may be present, and we will confirm in writing what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
- Alternatively, the supervisor may decide to refer the matter to the Client Care Director. They will examine the file, discuss the nature of your complaint with the Lawyer concerned and respond to you either verbally (at a meeting or by telephone) or in writing.
Please Note:
- If your Solicitor is a Director of the firm then they will consult with another Director.
- We will respond to your complaint within the 8 weeks that the Legal Ombudsman allows for a complaint to be dealt with
- We will try to resolve your concerns with you in the most effective way we consider possible, and this may be arranging a meeting, by speaking to you on the telephone. After any pre-arranged meeting or conversation, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions they have agreed with you.
- If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible or appropriate, then we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include suggestions for resolving the matter.
- If after considering our reply to your complaint you are still not satisfied then you should contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. Another Director of the firm will review the decision within 10 working days.
Alternatively you can at this stage contact the Legal Ombudsman
Please Note:
If you ask for a review by another Director but it is not possible for that to occur, for instance if the other Director in the firm has been involved in your case or complaint then we will say that our complaints procedure is concluded and advise you to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
If we have to change, any timescales above we will let you know and explain why.
Asking us to review our decision does not prevent you from referring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman during the second review or after our second response to your complaint.
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.
The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are: -
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Minicom: 0300 555 1777
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
