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Complaints 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. 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?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our complaints handling partner, Nigel Hanan, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. Mr Hanan will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. Within three days of the meeting, Mr Hanan will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
  5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr Hanan will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner or someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review her decision.
  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 within eight weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.

The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out about the problem.  If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman this must be done within six months of our final response to your complaint. The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

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.

  1. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
  2. For some types of complaints about solicitors, you may contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA). SRA is the regulatory body which authorises and regulates UK law firms.
  3. You must always complain to us first and, in most cases, you will not be able to take your complaint any further if you have not done so.
  4. More information about how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman or the SRA can be found on the SRA website. http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page