Complaints Procedure

You have the right to complain to us.             

You will not be charged for any time spent handling your complaint.             

You can request a copy of this Complaint Procedure at any time.             

We issue all clients with a copy of this Complaint Procedure:

• On instruction of our firm      
• When you raise a complaint‍

We shall aim to deal with any complaint that we may receive promptly, fairly, openly, and effectively.

Making a Complaint

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at that stage.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

If you need to make a complaint, you should:

• complain as soon as possible
• be clear on what the issue is and how you would like it to be resolved
• give us up to eight weeks to resolve your complaint

Handling and Resolving a Complaint

We will provide you with a written outcome following an investigation into your complaint.  If you are not happy with our outcome or we have not provided you with an outcome within 8 weeks you can contact the Legal Ombudsman.

If we cannot resolve your complaint, you can speak directly to the Legal Ombudsman, provided that you fit one of the following categories:-

• an individual
• a business or enterprise that was a micro-enterprise (European Union definition) when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
• a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
• a club/association/organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members/a committee/a committee of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
• a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person.
• a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before he/she died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case. The Legal Ombudsman’s service is free of charge and can investigate complaints about the legal service you have received from us. 

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

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year from when you should have known about the complaint. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman will only extend these time limits if they determine it to be fair and reasonable to do so.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them as follows: 

• Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
• Phone Number: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm
• Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
• Address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

‍For complaints that relate specifically to an alleged breach of the SRA Standards and Regulations including the SRA Accounts Rules, you should refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This could be for things like general misconduct, losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. The SRA will not investigate complaints about services provided by the firm. They will refer such matters to the Legal Ombudsman.