Complaints Handling

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients.  If something goes wrong or you are not happy with an aspect of the service, we want you to inform us and we want to put things right.  This will also help us to improve our standards.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a concern or complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed.  To avoid any misunderstanding, it will be best (but it is not essential) if you could put your complaint in writing, either in a letter or an e-mail.  This should be addressed to Samantha Travella, the Firm’s Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, but if you address it to someone else within the Firm, please send a copy to Samantha Travella.

What will Happen Next?

·         We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 days of our receiving it and will send you a copy of this procedure.

·         We will then investigate your complaint fully.  The Compliance Officer will oversee a full investigation of your complaint or, if appropriate, investigate the complaint herself.  You can contact Samantha Travella on 01264 325830 at any time in relation to the investigation of your complaint.

·         A Head of Department or the Compliance Officer will not investigate any complaint against themselves.  A complaint about the Compliance Officer will be investigated by a Partner and a complaint about a Head of Department will be investigated by the Compliance Officer or a Partner. 

·         We aim to contact you within 28 days of receiving your original complaint, with our findings and any proposals for resolving your complaint.  It is our policy to make sure that complaints are dealt with speedily and effectively in all cases.

·         If you are not satisfied with our findings, please let us know and explain why and we will review your comments.  If appropriate the Complaints Partner may ask another Partner to review our decision.

·         We will contact you within 21 days of your asking us to review our original decision, confirming our position and explaining the reasons.

·         We have 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint to resolve it.  If we have not done so within that time, or if after that you are not satisfied with our final response, you should contact The Legal Ombudsman at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 0EH, General Enquiries Team telephone no. 0300 555 0333, NGT Lite 18001 0300 555 0333, Minicom text phone 18002 0300 555 0333, e-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.  Ordinarily, the complainant must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than:

   - one year from the act/omission; or

   - one year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

You must also refer your concerns to The Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.  The Legal Ombudsman provides further guidance and information on its services at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

If we have to change any of the timescales referred to above, we will let you know in advance and explain why.

Alternative complaints bodies exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our Firm wish to use such a scheme.  We have, however, chosen not to adopt an ADR process.  If, therefore, you wish to complain further, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman, whose details are set out above.

You are entitled to complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) if you consider that we have breached the SRA’s Regulatory Arrangements or Codes of Conduct.  This might include concerns about dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.  Details of how to raise matters with the SRA can be found on their website at www.sra.org.uk.

We will ensure that any appropriate redress is offered to you.

You may also have a right to object to a bill by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under the Solicitors Act 1974 (as amended).

We would like to know how satisfied you are with the way we have handled your complaint.  Please will you let us know your view of our Complaints Procedure, particularly if you think we could improve this in any way.

7 January 2025