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 immediately. This will help us to maintain and improve our standards.

Complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact the solicitor dealing with your matter with the details in the first instance.

What will happen next?
1. They will speak to you or send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. We will also let you know who will be dealing with your complaint. As well as give you the time scale within which we will investigate your complaint and return to you. You can expect to receive this acknowledgement letter within three days of us receiving your complaint.

2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within the first week of receiving your complaint. We will investigate the complaint and come back to you within 3 weeks.

3. When we start to investigate your complaint, this may involve one or more of the following steps.

• The solicitor who acted for you will consider your complaint again. They will then send you a detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. This will be done within 10 days.
• As the principal I will supervise the process.
• I will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. I may also speak to the person who acted for you. I will do this within three days of receiving their reply and the file. After the matter has been investigated I will expect the solicitor who represented you to speak to you within three days.

4. If the matter is not resolved, I will then write inviting you to meet me and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. I will do this within 1 week of the matter not being resolved.

5. Within two days of the meeting I will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions I have agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, I will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include my suggestions for resolving the matter. I will do this within five days of completing my investigation.

6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you can let us know. I will then arrange to review my decision. This may happen in one of the following ways.

• I will review the decision myself within five days.
• I will arrange for someone who is not connected with the complaint to review my decision. I will do this within 10 days.
• I will ask my local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within 10 days. I will let you know how long this process will take.
• I will invite you to agree to independent mediation within 5 days. I will let you know how long this will take.

7. I will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time I will write to you confirming the final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. I will also give you the name and address of our Consumer Complaints Service or the Legal Ombudsman.
We have 8 weeks to try to resolve your complaint from beginning. If we fail to reach a resolution within 8 weeks then you can take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Telephone 0300 555 0333
e-mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made:
• 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.

For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman direct or refer to:
www.legalombudsman.org.uk

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behavior. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money, or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability, or other characteristics.

You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page