Complaints Procedure

COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE

 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.

If you have a complaint please contact us in writing, by email or by telephone with the details. It is not essential but we do prefer it to be in writing to avoid any misunderstandings.

 What will happen next?

1. Assuming your complaint is not resolved within 5 working days of receiving it, we will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of it within 10 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

2. Our complaints officer, Steve Bradley, will then investigate your complaint by review of the matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.

3. He may then invite you (if possible and/or appropriate) to a meeting to discuss and hopefully to resolve your complaint. He will do this within 15 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

4. Within 40 working days of receiving your complaint or within 5 working days of the meeting taking place, Steve Bradley will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint including his suggestions for resolving it. 

5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for Richard Jones to review the decision.

6. Andrew Foley-Jones will write to you within 15 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position and explaining our reasons.

We have 8 weeks to consider your complaint.  If you remain dissatisfied at the end of our complaints process, you would then be at liberty to contact the Legal Ombudsman, an organisation which investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.  Provided we give a final written response to your complaint within eight weeks of receiving it, the time limit for you to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman is six months from the date of that final response.  Otherwise, the Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you should have found out about the problem. 

 If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, their contact details are as follows:-

 Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm (calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to  national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02) from both mobiles and landlines. Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.)

For minicom call 0300 555 1777

e-mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Postal address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ