Raising concerns or complaints with me

I am committed to providing a high-quality service in all respects. When something goes wrong, I need you to tell me about it. This will help me to improve my services.  If you have any concerns about my work for you, (including any complaint about my charges or bills) please raise them with me.   I hope most concerns can be resolved completely at this stage.  However, if I am not able to alleviate your concerns, the steps that will then be followed are set out below:

What happens with your complaint? 

• I will send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and request from you any necessary further information.  I will record your complaint in my central register and open a file for your complaint; this will take up to 3 working days.

• Review any further information provided by you and acknowledge receipt; this will take up to 5 working days.

• I will then investigate your complaint; this will take up to 15 working days..

• Following the conclusion of my investigation, I may invite you to meet with me in order to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint; this meeting will take place within 5 working days of concluding my investigation.

• Following the meeting, I will write to confirm what took place, and any suggestions I have agreed with you; this will take up to 2 working days

• If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, I will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include my suggestions for resolving the matter. This will happen within 10 working days of me completing the investigation. 

All of the above will be concluded within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint.  If however, there is a necessity to change the timescale, I will discuss this with you.

If once you receive my final response you remain dissatisfied, you may have the right to take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. You should raise your complaint with them within six months of my final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman can accept a complaint within: 

A) One year from the date of act or omission being complained about, or 

B) One year from when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint

They will not accept complaints where the act/omission or date of awareness was before 6th October 2010. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are: The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ. Call: 0300 555 0333 (calls are charged at local rate and will be recorded). If you are calling from overseas, please call +44 121 245 3050; for the minicom call 0300 555 1777. Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

As well as your right to complain about any of my bills under my complaint’s procedure, you can also apply for the bill to be assessed by the court under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974, in which case the Legal Ombudsman may not consider your complaint.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (the SRA) can also help you if you are concerned about my 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. If you have any concerns, you may raise them with the SRA at http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/