Complaints Handling Procedure
We are committed to providing you with the very best legal service but we recognise that, on occasion, things may go wrong and we assure you that we take any complaint very seriously and have a set procedure which we will follow when considering your complaint.
The set procedure is as follows:-
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
We are committed to providing you with the very best legal service but we recognise that, on occasion, things may go wrong and we assure you that we take any complaint very seriously and have a set procedure which we will follow when considering your complaint.
The set procedure is as follows:-
- We will investigate your complaint. This will involve reviewing your file.
- We will contact you, by your stated preferred method (i.e phone, e-mail or letter) within 3 days of your receiving this Complaints Handling Procedure with details of the results of the review and a suggested remedy.
- You can either respond by your preferred method or call us and we will arrange a convenient appointment time when we can meet to discuss your complaint and try and reach a resolution.
- Within three days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed upon.
- If you did not request a meeting but you responded to our letter, then we will send you a response within 3 days of receiving your response.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact me again and we will arrange for a review by a barrister or by another local solicitor with experience of this type of case, at no expense to you, to review the decision.
- 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.
- If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman at: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or by calling 0300 555 0333 or by e-mailing enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk about your complaint. Before you make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it is a requirement that you have raised your complaint with us first and we have had 8 weeks to deal with your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our reply after the 8 weeks has expired, you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman. The time limit for taking your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman is 6 months from the date when you received your final written response from us or within 12 months from when the problem occurred or from when you should have become aware of the problem. If you complain to the Legal Ombudsman after 12 months, it is possible they may refuse to look at your complaint. For further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman or refer to the Legal Ombudsman’s website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.