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 to improve our standards. Our aim is to deal with clients’ complaints promptly, fairly, openly and effectively.

If you have a complaint, please contact the person dealing with the matter straight away so that any problems or concerns can be dealt with.

If, having spoken to the person dealing with the matter, you are still unhappy, the following procedure will be followed:

What will happen next?

1. Your complaint will be passed to Mr William Ransford, our Client Care Director, who will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within two days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. Mr Ransford will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
3. Mr Ransford will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within fourteen days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. Within three days of the meeting, Mr Ransford will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions He has agreed with you.
5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr Ransford will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within twenty-one days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for the decision to be reviewed by someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint, to review it.by means of external mediation.
7. We will write to you within fourteen days of receiving your request for such a review, confirming our position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
8. If you are still not satisfied, we will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will; let you know how long this process will take.
9. 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 provide you with the details of an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) approved body that is competent to deal with complaints about our legal services. The matter can be referred to them if we both agree to use the scheme. We do not agree to use the scheme but are obliged from 1^st October 2015, under European DIRECTOVE 2013/11/EU to make you aware of an ADR approved body.

Legal Ombudsman,
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Tel: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.co.uk

to consider your complaint.

For the Legal Ombudsman to deal with your complaint the problem must ordinarily have occurred after 5th October 2010.

If the problem occurred on or before 5th October 2010 or you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint, on or before that date, then the Ombudsman will not usually be able to deal with your complaint.

If you are unsure about these time limits and how they apply to your matter, please contact the Legal Ombudsman’s office, using the contact details shown above, to clarify the position.

Subject to the above Scheme Rules, and the Legal Ombudsman’s discretion to extend the time limits, you will need to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman

a) within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and,

b) no later than 1 year from when the problem (act or omission) occurred or,

c) no later than 1 years from the date, you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

Please Note

1. If your complaint is specifically about our bill, you have the right to object to it and apply for an assessment of it under part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If you should choose to exercise this right, and the court is assessing our bill, you may be unable to use the Legal Ombudsman service.

2. If you are complaining as a business client, unless you are a “micro business” (as defined by the European Union), you may not be able to use the Legal Ombudsman Scheme, and should check the guidance on the Legal Ombudsman’s website.

3. If you refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman as a trustee/personal representative (executor/administrator) or beneficiary of the estate/trust of a person who, before they died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, the period runs from when the deceased should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; and when the complainant (or the deceased) should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint will be assessed on the basis of the complainant’s (or deceased’s) own knowledge, disregarding what the complainant (or the deceased) might have been told if he/she had sought advice.

4. If the ombudsman considers there are exceptional circumstances (e.g. serious illness or you were still within the time limits when you made your initial complaint to them) then he/she may extend any of the above time limits to the extent that he/she considers fair.

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

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.