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, 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 the complaint to Colin Byford who is the Principal of the firm and who is ultimately responsible for client care and who deals with any complaints issues here. He will review the matter and the file we have for you. He may need to ask you for further details and may ask for the same in writing or he may wish to see you at a meeting. He will speak to the fee earner who acted for you (if it is a matter which he has not dealt with himself personally).
- Mr Byford may invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. Any meeting will be within fourteen days of sending to you the acknowledgment letter. If there is a meeting then within three days of the meeting Mr Byford will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he may have agreed with you.
- Depending on the nature of the complaint it may be thought that a detailed written reply would be more appropriate than an initial meeting and in these circumstances within fourteen days of sending you the acknowledgment letter, Mr Byford will write to you with a detailed written reply to your complaint, including any suggestions for resolving the matter. We will also send you a detailed written reply if you do not want a meeting or it is not possible to have a meeting for any reason.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again clearly explaining the reasons why you are still not satisfied. Whilst Mr Byford will review his decision, he is at this stage unlikely to change his decision unless you present any new arguments or new evidence in support of your complaint.
- We will then write to you within fourteen days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
- If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made to the Legal Ombudsman within a year of the issue you are complaining about, or within a year of when you became aware of the issue although the Legal Ombudsman can agree to extend time in exceptional cases. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
- If you are unhappy with our behaviour, the Solicitors Regulation Authority may be able to help. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. For further information on how to raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, you can visit their website at www.www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.