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 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
If you have a complaint about our service or the fees that we have charged, please write to us with the details.
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and will let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with it. You can expect to receive our letter within two days of us receiving the complaint.
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps.
* We will pass your complaint to Mr. William Stisted, our Client Care Partner, within three days.
* He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within five days.
* He will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file and if necessary, he may also speak to them. This will take up to three days from receiving their reply and the file.
Mr. Stisted will then invite you to meet him and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within three days.
Within two days of the meeting, Mr. Stisted will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr. Stisted will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter. He will do this within five days of completing his investigation.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.
* Another Partner of the firm will review Mr. Stisted’s decision within ten days.
* We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
* We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
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. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
If you are unsatisfied with the review, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman service which has been operational since October 6th, 2010 and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that complaints are dealt with appropriately.
Normally, the Legal Ombudsman expects you to give us 8 weeks to try to resolve the matter. If after 8 weeks you are still disatisfied you can then involve the Legal Ombudsman. For more information on how the Legal Ombudsman works please visit the Legal Ombudsman website or download the Legal Ombudsman Guide to Making a Complaint (PDF).
Timescales
In normal circumstances you are required to register a complaint within one year. You must then give us 8 weeks to try to resolve your complaint before contacting the Legal Ombudsman. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must normally be made within six months of the date of the conclusion of the Firm's complaints procedure.
In summary:
- You must register your complaint with us within one year
- The Legal Ombudsman expects you to give us 8 weeks to try to resolve your complaint
- After this time, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman (but you must do so within 6 months)
