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.
If you have a complaint about our services or a bill, please contact us with the details.
What will happen next?
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care partner, Tiggy Clifford, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. If your matter file was handled by Tiggy Clifford, then Emma Whiting will handle the complaint and all further references to Tiggy Clifford in this document should be reviewed accordingly.
- Tiggy Clifford will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
- Within three days of the meeting, Tiggy Clifford will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
- If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Tiggy Clifford will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her 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 your complaint to be reviewed again as deemed appropriate by the firm, either by Tiggy Clifford reviewing her own decision or by someone unconnected to the matter who may be external to the firm.
- 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 been unable to settle your complaint using our internal complaints process within 8 weeks of the date you made your complaint, you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body, that deals with legal services complaints.
- The Legal Ombudsman: You have six months from the date of our final letter in which to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Their contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Further relevant timescales are available in the Scheme Rules available on the website above. Currently, 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 of you realising there was a concern.
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority: As Solicitors, we are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the SRA), so all the services we provide are regulated by the SRA. You may also make a complaint to the SRA if you are concerned about a solicitor’s behaviour. The SRA can help you, or take action, when solicitors tell lies, steal from clients, shut down without telling their clients or otherwise break the SRA’s rules (see the SRA’s rules at: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/who-we-are/sra-regulate/).
- Alternative complaints bodies (such as ProMediate (www.promediate.co.uk)) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. We will consider whether it is appropriate to consider the use of such a scheme depending upon the circumstances of your complaint.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.