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 the service we offer to you and to our other clients.
Clients often have concerns which may, if not dealt with, result in a complaint.
If you have a concern, we ask you first to raise that with the person having day-to-day control of your file. If he or she is unable to resolve your query, then we ask that you contact either their named supervisor or their head of department.
If your complaint relates to someone other than one of our lawyers, then would you please contact our Practice Manager Nick James.
If you are still not satisfied then please contact Peter Lewis, our Client Care and Complaints Partner. At this stage, we will regard any such contact as a complaint which will be dealt with under this procedure.
Your complaint may relate to a bill. You have a right to challenge or complain about our bill and may do so by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (see below) and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
Within 7 days of us receiving your complaint we will acknowledge it and ask you to confirm or explain the details set out. If someone other than Mr. Lewis will be dealing with the complaint, then we will let you know the name of that person.
We will record your complaint in our central register. If we require any further information from you then we will acknowledge receipt of any letter you send within three days and we will then start to investigate your complaint.
The investigation may take the form of one or more of the following steps: –
(a) Consideration of the file to which your complaint relates
(b) Interviews and discussions with the relevant members of staff and/or head of department
(c) Requesting further information from you
(d) Asking you to attend an informal meeting
It is hoped that the above methods of investigation will enable us to resolve your complaint satisfactorily. We will notify you within five working days of the conclusion of our investigation as to our proposals for resolving your complaint.
If you are not satisfied with our proposal, then you can ask us to review the decision. If you do so then that review will be carried out by a Partner other than the Client Care and Complaints Partner and will be undertaken within 10 working days of your making that request.
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Their contact details are;
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
0300 555 0333
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
[email protected]
Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.
Call us on 01803 403403
We’re here to help with your personal legal issue, however sensitive.