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 firstly to clear up any mistakes or misunderstandings and secondly to improve our standards.

Initial concerns

In most cases it would be hoped that an informal chat with the member of staff responsible for your matter would help to resolve your concerns.

If this does not result in a successful resolution of your issue then you may wish to either discuss the matter further with the Client Director of the firm who is responsible for managing our relationship with you or to formalise your complaint.

What we need to know

In order to deal with your complaint properly, it would be helpful when contacting us if you could (1) address the details of your complaint to the Client Director responsible for managing our relationship with you and (2) provide the following information:

• Your name, contact details and preferred method of contact
• Your file reference number
• Details of your concerns
• How you would like us to put things right

We will have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time then you may be able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (please also see paragraph 10 below)

What will happen next?

• If you telephone us for an informal chat or to discuss the issue with the Client Director as detailed above then we will endeavour to resolve the issue in that call.
• If you email or write to us, or if your complaint cannot be resolved in a phone call, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within three days of receiving it. Our letter will include a copy of this procedure.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to one of our Complaints Handling Directors, Rohit Deepak and Chris Hill, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you in the course of conducting an investigation of your complaint.
• We will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. If you do not wish to attend or it is not possible to arrange such a meeting then our Complaints Handling Director may instead invite you to discuss the matter by telephone.
• Within three days of the meeting, or any telephone discussion we have with you instead of a meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
• If you do not wish to attend a meeting or it is not possible to arrange such a meeting or telephone discussion, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director, who is unconnected with the matter at the firm, to review the decision.
• We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
• If we have to change any of these timescales, we will let you know and we will explain why.
• If you remain unsatisfied, you are entitled to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ. Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within 6 years of the act or omission which is the subject of your complaint (or if outside this period, within three years of the time when you should reasonably have been aware of it). For further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.Please note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman.
• If a complaint cannot be resolved, you may also be able to ask for it to be referred to a process of alternative dispute resolution using a certified provider. We are not required to agree to such a request. In any case, this is not available to businesses, only consumers. We will give you more information about this right if it becomes relevant.
• You may also raise any concerns which you may have at any stage regarding our conduct with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority by contacting them at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers
  /problems /report-solicitor page.