Complaints Handling 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. If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you or you have concerns about your bill, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.

What will happen next?

1) We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within seven days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

2) We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to a partner, Martin Shreeves or Colin Roer, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.

3) The Partner will within 28 days of the acknowledgement invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint or write to you with a detailed response to your complaint.

3.1) If we cannot give you a detailed response to your complaint within 28 days we will tell you and set an alternative timetable.

4) Within seven days of any meeting, the Partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he/she has agreed with you.

5) If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the Partner will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his/her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 28 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

6) If the complaint is not thereby resolved the firm will review the decision

7) We will write to you within 21 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

8) If we are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body, established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints.

9) You have six months from the date of this (our final) letter in which to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out about the problem. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, this must be done within six months of our final response to your complaint. contact details for which are as follows:

Address

Legal Ombudsman, 

PO Box 6806,

Wolverhampton,

WV1 9WJ

Calls from both mobiles and landlines to 03 numbers cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02). Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.

10) Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman or other complaints body. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.

11) If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

12) We will not charge you for handling your complaint.