Our complaints 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.

Our complaints procedure
If you have a complaint please let us have the details, preferably in writing.

What will happen next?
  1. We will send you a first letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to explain the details. We will also let you know the name of the partner who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 4 working days of us receiving your complaint.

  2. We will record your complaint in our central complaints file at the same time as we write our first letter.

  3. We will acknowledge your response to our first letter and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within 3 working days of your reply.

  4. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care partner, Roger Margand. Roger will ask the member of staff who acted for you to comment on your complaint and will then examine those comments, all available information in the light of your complaint.

  5. Roger will then invite you to meet him to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 10 working days of starting his investigation.

  6. Within 2 working days of the meeting Roger will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or are not able to attend one he will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include suggestions for resolving the matter. He will do this within 5 working days of knowing that a meeting will not take place.

  7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again within 10 working days of receiving our reply. We will then arrange to review our decision. Another partner of the firm will review Rogers’ decision within a further 10 working days.

  8. We will let you know the result of the review within 5 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. The two bodies overseeing complaints are the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) and the Legal Services Ombudsman (‘LEO’). If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint. The contact details for the SRA are:
    Solicitors Regulation Authority, Ipsley Court, Berrington Close, Redditch, B98 0TD (tel: 0870 606 2555).

    The contact details for LEO are:

    PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ (tel: 0300555033, e mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk).

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

HVA
29.02.2012