Complaints

How a complaint will be dealt with:

Step 1

Clients are notified in our client care letter of their right to complain and they are told that the matter will be considered in the initial instance by the person they have been dealing with and if the matter remains unresolved or, if the client prefers, by the Client Care Director, Jo Morris to whom will be passed a copy of all relevant correspondence. If the complaint is about Jo Morris the matter will be considered by the Deputy Client Care Director Grant McCall.  If Jo Morris is absent or unavailable any complaint will be considered by her Deputy Grant McCall.

Step 2

All complaints, oral or written, will be discussed with the department head/supervisor and should also be notified to the Client Care Director in any event.                           

Step 3

If the complaint refers to a fee earner, the initial response will be drafted by that fee earner usually after discussion with their Department Head and/ or Jo Morris.

Step 4

At Step 3 the draft letter, and if she requests it, the file itself (if the complaint relates to a client matter) must be shown to Jo Morris.  If the matter is not resolved at Stage 3, the file must be passed as soon as possible to Jo Morris. She will contact the client as soon as possible either by telephone or letter identifying herself as the Client Care Director acknowledging the complaint and stating a timescale within which the complaint will be dealt with (which will not exceed a period of 8 weeks except with the consent or at the request of the client) and the action it is proposed to take.  Usually she will ask the client his or her preferred mode of progressing the matter, whether in writing or by meeting. If a meeting takes place the client will be asked whether they also wish to receive a subsequent letter of response/ detailing agreed outcome.  At Step 4 copies of all correspondence/ notes of meetings relating to the complaint will be kept centrally.

Step 5

The matter will be discussed with the member of staff about whom the complaint has been made. If the matter is an ongoing matter at this stage the Client Care Director will give both client and fee earner opportunity to elect for the matter to be taken over and completed by another fee earner within the department. 

Step 6

Once the cause of any problem of which a client has complained has been identified, the client care director will endeavour to offer and agree appropriate redress. The objective is to ensure that the client is satisfied that the complaint is being dealt with seriously, has received a prompt response, is assured that the matter is being fairly reviewed and is notified as soon as possible of the outcome.

Step 7

If we have been unable to settle your complaint using our internal complaints process, you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body that deals with legal services complaints.

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission concerned or within a year of the client realising there was a concern. The client must also refer their concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the firm’s final response.

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Alternative complaints bodies such as Small Claims Mediation (small-claims-mediation.co.uk) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.  We will provide further details should we not be able to settle your complaint.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and we are bound the SRA Standards and Regulations. These can be accessed at www.sra.org.uk. In certain circumstances clients and others may also have the right to report us to the SRA if you are concerned about our behaviour. For example, if you think a solicitor might be dishonest, deliberately overcharging you, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.