Complaints Policy and 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.

If you have a complaint, please contact the person named in the engagement letter sent to you at the start of your matter (the investigator), with the details. His/her name can be found in the final paragraph of the section headed ‘responsibility for work’. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
   
   
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the investigator reviewing your matter file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you.
   
   
3. The investigator may then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint, or will write to you, or ask the member of staff who acted for you to do so. He/she will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
   
   
4. Within three days of the meeting, if there was one, the investigator will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions He/she has agreed with you.
   
   
5. If a meeting did not take place, the investigator, or the member of staff who acted for you, will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his/her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 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 our complaints officer to review the decision.
   
   
7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint, and explaining our reasons.
   
   
8. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
   
   
9. If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

about your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a 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.

For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Alternatively you can contact one of the complaints bodies such as ProMediate which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme, on telephone number 0203 621 3908 or 07827 961764 or by email at enquiries@promediate.co.uk.

We do not agree to use ProMediate.