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.

Our complaints procedure

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

What will happen next?

Step 1
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out.
We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within two working days of us receiving your complaint.

Step 2
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within one working day of receiving your complaint.

Step 3
We will then start to investigate your complaint.  This will normally involve the following steps.

• we will pass your complaint to our Client Care Partner (the ‘CCP’), within three working days. If the complaint concerns our Client Care Partner, then it will be passed to another designated Member of the firm
• The CCP will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 5 working days.
• The CCP will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. And, if necessary, he may also speak to them. This will take up to three working days from receiving their reply and the file.

Step 4
The CCP will then invite you to a meeting and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within three working days.

Step 5
Within two working days of the meeting the CCP will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the CCP will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter. He will do this within five working days of completing the investigation.

Step 6
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.

• Another Member of the firm can review the CCP’s decision within 10 working days.
• We can ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five working days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
• We can invite you to agree to independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.

Step 7
We will let you know the result of the review within five working days of the end of the review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also remind you of the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.

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

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

• Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and

• No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
• No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our 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.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.