Complaints Procedure

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all of 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 write to us with the details. You have been given the name of the member of our staff who is dealing with your matter and the name of the relevant Supervisor. Any complaint should be addressed initially to the named Supervisor.

What will happen next?

  1. We shall write to you acknowledging your complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure. We shall also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You may expect to receive this letter within two working days of our receiving your complaint.
  2. We shall record your complaint in our central register within 3 working days of receiving your complaint.
  3. We shall then begin to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the Solicitor with the conduct of your file who will review your file. The Solicitor will do this within 14 working days of sending you the acknowledgment of your complaint.
  4. The Solicitor will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including their suggestions for resolving the matter, within 28 working days of sending you an acknowledgment of your complaint.
  5. If you are still not satisfied at this stage you should write to us again. We shall then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:-
    • The person dealing with your complaint will review their own decision within five working days of receiving your correspondence explaining why you are still not satisfied.
    • We may ask another solicitor from another firm of solicitors to review your complaint. We shall let you know how long this process will take.
    • We shall let you know the outcome within 14 working days after the end of the review. We shall write to you at this time, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  6. If you are a member of the public, very small business, charity, club or Trust you will have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of our complaint process. The Legal Ombudsman gives a maximum of eight weeks for us to resolve your complaint. Once the eight-week period has passed the Legal Ombudsman will normally accept the complaint for investigation even if it has not been fully dealt with by us. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or by writing to Legal Ombudsman, P.O. Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ. If you want to know more about the Legal Ombudsman their website is legalombudsman.org.uk.
  7. You should note that there is no charge for instigating the complaints procedure, therefore no fees will be expected from you for raising the complaint or our handling of a complaint.

We shall let you know if we need to change any of the timescales indicated above and explain why.

In addition, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), you can also lodge a complaint with the SRA if you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about our behavior.

Examples include:

  • Shutting down their law firm without telling you.
  • Dishonesty or deliberately overcharging you.
  • Taking or losing your money.
  • Treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

The SRA deals with complaints in cases where firms they regulate have breached the SRA Principles.

If you are unsure on whether you should refer a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or to the SRA, the link below provides helpful information to help you to decide:

https://www.sra.org.uk/globalassets/documents/consumers/who-can-help.pdf?version=496527

How to complain to the SRA

In the first instance, you should contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. In most cases, you will not be able to take your complaint further, whether to the Legal Ombudsman or to the SRA if you have not already done so.

It may be that by approaching the problem informally at first, we will be able to resolve your complaint. However, if this does not work, then this document which is the firm’s official complaints procedure, allows you to the complaint to the SRA.

Should you lodge a complaint with the SRA, it is likely that the SRA will ask you to complete a ‘report form’ to help investigate your complaint, the report form can be obtained by contacting the SRA on their number as shown in the link above and you can also find relevant information by going to the following link: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/