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.

If you have any concerns about our service, our work, or our charges, you should discuss these first with the individual who has day-to-day control of your matter. If this person cannot satisfactorily address your concerns you may raise a complaint with us.

All complaints are normally passed to our client care manager Paula Felton.

ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR COMPLAINT

Within 3 working days of receiving your complaint it will be recorded in our Complaints Register and a separate file will be opened in which we will store any correspondence and other documents relating to your complaint.  Within 3 working days we will also send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and confirming who will be reviewing your complaint.

INVESTIGATING YOUR COMPLAINT

Within 10 working days of receiving your complaint, we will review your file(s) and any other relevant documentation and send you a letter telling you how we propose to deal with your complaint. Examples of what we might say in this letter are as follows:

  • If your complaint is straightforward we might make suggestions as to how we can put things right or we may offer you some form of redress;
  • If your complaint is more complicated we might ask you to confirm, explain or clarify any issues;

We may ask to meet with you to discuss things face-to-face and we would hope to be in a position to meet with you no longer than 14 working days after first receiving your complaint.

If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write to you fully setting out our views on the situation and making suggestions as to how we can put things right, or asking you to confirm, explain or clarify any issues. Within 3 working days of any meeting, we will write to you again to confirm what took place and to confirm any offer of redress that we have made.

Whichever form our investigation takes, we will aim to give you our final decision within eight weeks of receiving your complaint (or sooner if possible).

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

APPEALING AGAINST OUR FINAL DECISION

If you are not satisfied with our final decision, please let us know and we will arrange for another director in the firm to review the decision. We will let you know the result of any review within 14 days of receiving your appeal and will then confirm your options in writing. If you remain dissatisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. We will also advise you whether we are prepared to engage in alternative methods of mediation.

THE LEGAL OMBUDSMAN

You may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman provided you do so within 6 months of the end of our Complaints Handling Procedure.

In addition, there are also time limits that apply to the date you first became aware or should have become aware of the problem causing your complaint. The relevant time limits are set out in the version of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules in force from time to time which can be accessed at How To Complain | Legal Ombudsman or by contacting the Legal Ombudsman using the contact details provided below) and may only be extended by the Legal Ombudsman in exceptional circumstances. you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

– Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint; and

– No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or

– No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint

Ordinarily, you cannot use the Legal Ombudsman unless you have first attempted to resolve your complaint using our Complaints Handling Procedure, but you will be able to contact the Legal Ombudsman if:

  • The complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction within 8 weeks of first making the complaint to us; or
  • The Legal Ombudsman decides that there are exceptional reasons why the Legal Ombudsman should consider your complaint sooner, or without you having to use our internal Complaints Handling Procedure first; or
  • The Legal Ombudsman considers that your complaint cannot be resolved using our internal Complaints Handling Procedure because the relationship between you and us has broken down irretrievably.

If you wish to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must be one of the following:

  • An individual;
  • A micro-enterprise as defined in European Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 (broadly, an enterprise with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover or balance sheet value not exceeding €2 million);
  • A charity with an annual income of less than £1 million;
  • A club, association or society with an annual income less than £1 million;
  • A trustee of a trust with a net asset value less than £1 million; or
  • A personal representative or the residuary beneficiaries of an estate where a person with a complaint died before referring it to the Legal Ombudsman.

If you are not, you should be aware that you can only obtain redress by using our Complaints Handling Procedure or by mediation or arbitration, or by taking action through the Courts.

Legal Ombudsman Contact Details:

Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Our regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) 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, a disability or other characteristic.

We are bound by various professional rules of conduct (contained within the SRA Handbook) which can be viewed at www.sra.org.uk/handbook. You can also see more information about the help the SRA can give to you here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Solicitors Regulation Authority Contact Details:

Address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
Telephone: The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s contact centre’s number is 0370 606 2555
Email: report@sra.org.uk
 Website: www.sra.org.uk