If the Member of staff and Supervisor are not able to resolve the problem and you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We would normally expect this to be made in writing marked for the attention of the Client Care Manager.
What will happen next?
We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint. We may either at that point or subsequently ask you to clarify the details contained within your letter of complaint. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. This will usually be our Client Care Manager. You can expect to receive our letter within five working days of us receiving your complaint.
We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:
- The member of staff who acted for you will be asked for their comments on your complaint.
- Those comments and the information in your file will then be considered and if appropriate the matter will be discussed with the member of staff.
We will send you a reply to your complaint which will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. We aim to do this within six weeks of receipt of your initial letter, unless the matter is particularly complex, in which case we will advise you and provide a revised timetable for our reply.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again in writing. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:
- A meeting with you may be arranged.
- Another senior member of the firm will review our decision within fifteen working days of receipt of your letter.
We will let you know the outcome of the review within five working days of this being completed. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position regarding your complaint.
If you are still not satisfied or if the matter is not resolved following eight weeks of raising any official complaint with us you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at Edward House, Quay Place, Birmingham B1 2RA. They will look at your complaint independently, and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.
Any complaint to the Ombudsman about our service must be within six months of receiving a final response from us to your complaint, and no more than 6 years from the date of the act or omission you are complaining about, or no more than 3 years from when you should have reasonably known there was cause for complaint. For further information you should contact the Ombudsman (helpline number 0300 555 0333) between 9am and 5pm, enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or refer to their website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, disability or other characteristics. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/). You can also call the Solicitors regulation Authority on : 0370 606 2555.If the member of staff who acted for you or their Supervisor are not able to resolve the problem and you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We would normally expect this to be made in writing marked for the attention of the Client Care Manager.