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We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. However, we recognise that occasionally things go wrong and you may feel dissatisfied. When this happens we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards and to allow us the opportunity to restore your confidence in us.
If a situation occurs where you are dissatisfied please contact us as follows:
First stage
1. Please contact either the fee earner with day to day conduct of your matter, or their supervising partner (details of which will have been provided to you at the outset of your file) and set out the details of your complaint in writing, either by email or letter.
2. The fee earner or supervising partner will consider your complaint and will contact you within seven days of receiving your letter or email to discuss a resolution of the complaint; this might be by telephone or in writing.
3. If it is not possible to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction at that stage you may ask that your concerns be escalated to the second stage.
Second stage
4. If you ask for your complaint to be escalated to the second stage, details will then be passed to the Risk & Compliance department led by Chief Risk Officer who is the partner responsible for monitoring all complaints received by the firm. Within seven days of your request we will acknowledge your complaint and provide details of the person who will be investigating the matter. This individual will not have had any previous involvement in the matter leading to the complaint. This letter will also set out the timescale not exceeding a maximum of eight weeks within which we expect to complete our investigation and provide you with a substantive response.
5. The Risk & Compliance department may contact you during the course of their investigation to clarify any aspect of your complaint or to seek any additional information which may assist in fully understanding your concerns. If for any reason it becomes clear that it will not be possible to conclude the investigation within the timescale originally advised, you will be contacted in advance of this deadline with a proposed new date and an explanation of why the additional time is required.
6. Finally you will receive a written response to your complaint. This will explain whether your complaint has been upheld whether in whole or in part and the reasons for the decision based on the evidence available. Where your complaint is upheld we will set out our suggestions for resolving the issues involved. This may include one or more of the following options:
- an apology from the firm;
- an explanation of what went wrong and a strategy for resolution;
- a reduction, cancellation or wavier of fees;
- a payment of compensation.
Final stage
7. At this point if you remain dissatisfied you have the right to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are an individual, small business, charity, club, society, association or trust.
8. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman should be made within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and no more than one year from the date of act or omission or not more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint and should include the following information:
- The name and address of the lawyer;
- The date you told the lawyer about your complaint;
- Details of the response you received.
The relevant contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9 am - 5 pm
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Further guidance can be found at www.legalombudsman.org.uk
9. If you have concerns about our behaviour whether you are a client or not, the Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you. This might involve issues of dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority whose contact details are:
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN