The Firm is 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 at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you or you have concerns about your bill, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.
If you have a complaint, 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 Marrianne Allen who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
- Marrianne Allen 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.
- If you do not accept the outcome detailed in our final response within eight weeks, you can refer complaints relating to the service we have provided to the Legal Ombudsman, subject to certain restriction detailed below.
- If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
- We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints by consumers and small businesses. This means some clients may not have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, e.g., charities or clubs with an annual income of more than £1m, trustees of trusts with asset value of more than £1m and most businesses (unless they are defined as micro-enterprises). This does not prevent such clients from making a complaint directly to us.
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.
Any complaint must also be brought within a year of the occurrence of the act or omission about which you are complaining (or if outside of this period, within one year of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).
The Legal Ombudsman can also dismiss a case in the following circumstances:
- if they were satisfied that the complainant has not suffered “significant” loss, distress, inconvenience or detriment.
- where the size or complexity of the complaint, or the behaviour of the complainant, results in the complaint requiring a “disproportionate” use of resources;
- where there has been “undue delay” in bringing a complaint; or
- where the service provider has made a reasonable offer to resolve the matter that has been accepted by the complainant before they refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
- Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm
Calls from both mobiles and landlines to 03 numbers cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02). Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.
- For minicom call 0300 555 1777
- In writing: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167 Slough. SL1 0EH.
Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.
As the Firm is authorised and regulated by CILEx, if your complaint relates to the misconduct of a CILEx Approved Manager, CILEx member or CILEx Practitioner, you can refer your complaint free of charge to CILEx Regulation for them to investigate. Misconduct is defined as any breach of the CILEx Code of Conduct: 2.-Code-of-Conduct-2019.pdf (cilexregulation.org.uk)
Misconduct complaints must be made within 12 months of the act or omission that gave rise to the complaint or within 12 months of the complainant having knowledge of the act or omission that gave rise to the complaint, whichever is the greater. CILEx Regulation can be contacted by:
- Telephone: 01234 845770
- Email on [email protected]
- Website: https://cilexregulation.org.uk
- Post: Room 301, Endeavour House, Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire, MK45 4HS.
Complaints can also be raised with Alternative Dispute Resolution under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015 who have been approved to deal with legal complaints. However, the firm does not have to agree to the use of such a service. It should also be remembered that complaints handled by an ADR provider can still be referred to the Legal Ombudsman should the complainant still be dissatisfied by the outcome of the ADR process.
Guidance on ADR can be found here: ADR-Guidance.pdf (cilexregulation.org.uk) and a list of ADR providers can be found here:
https://www.tradingstandards.uk/consumer-help/adr-approved-bodies
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies such as ProMediate of Brow Farm, Top Road, Frodsham WA6 6SP,
www.prometiate.co.uk exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this Firm wish to use such a scheme. Currently we do not agree to using an ADR scheme as we believe our own in-house investigation supported where necessary by that provided by the Legal Ombudsman and CILEx Regulation is sufficient.