Complaints handling procedure

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.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact us and tell us why you are not satisfied.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter or e mail acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five working days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to one of the partners namely, Mr Luke M Hill or Mr Mark J Verdin, who will review your case file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
3. Mr Luke M Hill or Mr Mark J Verdin will either provide a written response to your complaint or if more appropriate invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do either of these within 28 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter unless we both agree to a different course of action.
4. Within five working days of any meeting, will write to you to confirm what took place and set out any solutions we have agreed with you.
5. If you do not want a meeting when we offer one, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter unless we have already sent you a written response.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner to review the matter.
7. 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.
8. If we are unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. 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. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, their contact details are as follows

 

Website

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Email

enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Telephone

0300 555 0333

Postal Address

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Alternative complaints resolution bodies also exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme at the end of our internal complaints process. They provide Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. Small Claims Mediation is one such body details of which can be found at www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk and another is Ombudsman Services details of which can be found at www.ombudsman-services.org

Under the provisions of the EU Directive on consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution, to pursue this process you would have to be a “consumer”, namely an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside your trade business craft or profession.

If you have any concerns about the behaviour of this firm or any members of its staff you can contact our regulator which is the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Further details are available at www.sra.org.uk