Complaints Procedure – Our Promise to Resolve Issues Fairly and Promptly

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality 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, please contact us in writing, addressed to the attention of the Complaints Handling Officer. We will deal with your complaint promptly, fairly, openly and effectively.

What Will Happen Next?

We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. 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 7 days of us receiving your complaint. We will record your complaint in our Central Register at the same time.

We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:

• We will pass your complaint to Tim Wixted, the Principal of the Firm and Complaints Handling Officer, within 3 days. Mr Wixted will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 28 days of the initial complaint being received at the latest. He may alternatively reply.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, do contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. We will invite you to discuss your complaint by telephone or in person, should you prefer.
• We will let you know the results of the review within 14 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 involved, we will let you know and explain why.
• If we are unable to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks, you can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman. 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. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within a year of you realising there was a concern.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

• Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 am to 5.00 pm
• For minicom: call 0300 555 1777
• In writing: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help 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, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority if this applies.

By way of information, the Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about any Bill of Costs if a client has applied to the Court for an assessment of it. The client also has the right to apply to the Court for an assessment of any Bill of Costs rendered under the Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. A client may also use a firm’s Complaints Procedure in relation to any Bill of Costs sent to them.