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OUR COMPLAINTS POLICY

I am committed to providing  high-quality legal advice and client care to all of my clients.  When something goes wrong, I need you to tell me about it.  This will help me to improve our standards.

OUR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

If you have a complaint, please telephone the office and ask for me personally.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
  1. I will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of my receiving the complaint and enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. I will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve a review of the file and my speaking to the members of staff whom you have dealt with.
  3. I will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. I will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. Within 3 days of the meeting, I will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions I have agreed with you.
  5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, I will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  6. If you  are still not satisfied, you can then contact The Legal Ombudsman, whose address is PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH (e-mail address  enquiries@legalombudsman.or.uk ) Telephone 0300 555 0333

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

 

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

 The Legal Ombudsman may be able to help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at complaints independently and accessing the Ombudsman will not affect how we handle your case. Most ‘consumer’ clients (as opposed to large businesses) will be able to make use of the Ombudsman scheme however there are restrictions for some larger clients. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will normally check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.  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 written response to your complaint.     

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them as follows: 

Visit:     www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call:       0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email:   enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Post:     Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Please note that the Ombudsman is there to deal with concerns about the level of service received.  Where there are more serious concerns that a solicitor or solicitor’s firm have been involved in professional misconduct then reports can also be made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator of solicitors and solicitor firms. This could be for quite unusual and serious acts of misconduct such as dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. We do not anticipate any such problems arising and would ask that you notify the matter supervisor straight away if you have any such concerns. You can find out more about the Solicitors Regulation Authority, including its contact details and professional conduct rules, on its website here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

 

Laura Peacock

SOLICITOR