We hope that you will never have reason to complain about our service to you or a bill of costs that we send to you. However, if something does go wrong or the bill appears to be incorrect, please bring it to our attention as soon as you can. Do not be embarrassed to raise any concerns with either Partner of the firm. It may be that all that is needed is further explanation but we are fair-minded and would be grateful for the opportunity to hear your concerns.
There is an independent body called the Legal Ombudsman that handles complaints about legal services. Its address is: The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ. Its telephone 0300 555 0333, email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk and website https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
You can ask the Legal Ombudsman to become involved at the end of our internal complaints procedure, if you are unhappy with the outcome. The Legal Ombudsman has a helpline if you need to speak to them about how to make a complaint. Calls are charged at a local rate and will be recorded. There is no charge for the Ombudsman’s services.
The Legal Ombudsman has produced three helpful booklets to guide you if you have a complaint. You can find them on the Legal Ombudsman’s website. They are called “Here to Help”; “How to Complain to your Service Provider”; and “Our Approach to Putting Things Right”.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour and that it may be in breach of the SRA’s Code of Conduct. You can find information on how and when to raise a concern with the SRA on the SRA website https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/.
We much prefer that substantial or complicated complaints are dealt with in writing – we do not have any set forms that we use for this purpose. However, we realise that not all clients may be able to formulate a detailed letter. In such cases, a telephone call will do, during which we will make a note of the issues and then send that to you for comment. This document will then form the basis of the complaint.
If the case is being run by a Partner another Partner will be named in your client care letter to deal with any complaint.
• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the Partner who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
• The investigating Partner will then write to you with their findings within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. However, if the complaint is complicated further time may be needed. If so, the investigating Partner will write and tell you and set another time limit.
• The investigating Partner will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will review your comments and the decision. In some cases, an appropriate alternative at this stage might be mediation to review the decision.
• We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
• If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response on your complaint but for further information, you should email or call the Legal Ombudsman using the details above.
The Ombudsman will allow us a period of eight weeks to resolve your complaint. The Ombudsman asks that you come to it as soon as you can and within six months of your last contact with us.
Ordinarily, you must make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within a year of the matter giving rise to the complaint or a year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint without taking advice from a third party, whichever is later. The Legal Ombudsman can increase any time limit in exceptional circumstances e.g. if there is serious illness.
There are special rules about your right to apply for a remuneration certificate. You have either one month from the date of the bill to apply in writing where the information appears on the back of our bill, or where you have not been told of your right to apply for a certificate, three months from the date of the bill.