Complaints

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients.  If 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, contact us with the details.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details you have in writing, if you have not already done so.  We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.  You can expect to receive our acknowledgement letter within 5 working days of us receiving your complaint

2. We will record your complaint and open a separate file for your complaint.  We will do this within 2 days of receiving your complaint.

3. We will then start to investigate your complaint.  This will normally involve the following steps:-

• We will pass your complaint to Matthew Bradley, our client care director, within 3 working days of your written details of complaint. At this point Matthew Bradley may need to clarify the details of your complaint before progressing the process.
• He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to initially reply to him in response to your complaint within 10 working days.
• He will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. If necessary, he may also speak to them.  This will take up to 5 working days from receiving their reply in the file.

4. Matthew Bradley will then invite you to a meeting to initially discuss your complaint, ensure that we have a full understanding of its extent and agree this with you. He will also explore the need to obtain any comments or evidence from third parties to progress your complaint. Hopefully it may be possible to resolve your complaint at this early stage. He will do this within a further 5 working days.

5. Within 5 working days of the meeting Matthew Bradley will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions or further actions or investigations he has agreed with you.

 If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Matthew Bradley will send you a detailed reply to your complaint.  This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter. He will do this within five working days of completing the investigation.

Investigations will be progressed as quickly as possible, but the time involved in this will depend on the complexity of the original matter, the extent of the complaint and, the availability of any additional evidence required.

6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied please contact us again.  We will then arrange to review our decision.  This will happen in one of the following ways:- 

• Another director of the firm will endeavour to review Matthew Bradley’s decision within ten working days of receipt of your written request for review and the basis for your dissatisfaction with our original decision and in any event will endeavour to keep you informed as to the progress of the review; or
• We will ask another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint. We will make this request within five working days.  We will let you know how long this process is likely to take; or
• We will invite you to agree to an independent mediation within five working days.  We will let you know how long this process is likely to take.

7. We will let you know the results of the review within five working days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explain our reasons. 

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

If you are not satisfied after the above procedures have been exhausted, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ about your complaint. 

As of 01 April 2023 the time periods for reporting a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman is no longer than:

• Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint

and

• No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
• No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

but for further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on telephone 0300 555 0333 or refer to www.legalombudsman.org.uk. 

In addition, if your dispute relates to a potential breach of SRA Principles, you may also contact the SRA at The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN. If you require further information on the SRA's complaints process, you should contact the SRA on 0370 606 2555 or refer to SRA | Reporting an individual or firm | Solicitors Regulation Authority.