Our 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 write to us with the details.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five 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 our administrative and compliance officer, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. He or she will contract you via the telephone and try and resolve the matter with you.

3. If you are still not happy they will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint with the person working on your file. They will do this within 14 days of you stating you are still not happy.

4. Within three days of the meeting, they will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.

5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his/her 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 make arrangements to review the whole decision again.

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 you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
tel: 0300 555 0333 (inside the UK), or visit https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will try and let you know and explain why.

When you should complain to the SRA?

The SRA deals with cases where firms or those regulated by the SRA have breached the SRA Principles. If your complaint about our firm is about poor service, then it should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of the SRA’s Principles, they will refer your case directly to the SRA. Likewise, if you report us to the SRA for poor service, they will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman; read the SRA’s  Memorandum of understanding (PDF 5 pages, 143K) . The SRA do not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees.

In summary you are entitled to report us to the SRA if you think we have breached an SRA Principle.