Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-qualify 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, contact us with the details.

What Will Happen Next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within five days of us receiving your complaint.
  2. 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.
  3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:-
  1. We will pass your complaint to Matthew Moore, our Client Care partner.
  2. He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to him in respect of your complaint. He will also discuss the complaint with the member of staff as may be appropriate.
  3. He will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file.
  1. Matthew Moore will then write to you in respect of your complaint and, if appropriate, will then invite you to a meeting and discuss, and hopefully resolve, your complaint. He will do this within twenty-eight days of acknowledging your complaint.
  2. If there is such a meeting, within three days of the meeting, Matthew Moore 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, Matthew Moore will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter if not already dealt with in the letter to you as above. He will do this within seven days of completing the investigation.
  3. If at any stage it is considered that a telephone conversation may assist in resolving your complaint, he may call you.
  4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:-
  1. Another partner of the firm will review Matthew Moore’s decision within ten days.
  2. We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of Solicitors to review your complaint within seven days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  3. We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within seven days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  1. We will let you know the result of the review within seven 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.
  2. Depending upon the type of complaint or the person about whom you are complaining your complaint may be dealt with by Sarah England (who is a partner) but that will be confirmed to you at the time of receipt of your complaint.

Legal Ombudsman

If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman expect complaints to be made to them within 1 year of the date of the act or ommision about which you are concered or within 1 year of you realising there was such a concern.You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you.

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

0300 555 0333 Monday to Friday 9 – 5pm

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Solicitors Regulation Authority

www.sra.org.uk

0370 606 2555 Monday – Friday 9 – 5pm

The Cube
99 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN