Complaints policy

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legalservice 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, 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 detail set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within two days of us receiving your complaint.
  2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
  3. We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within a day of your reply.

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

    • We will pass your complaint to Richard Max, our Client Care partner, within three days.
    • He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 5 days. If it was Richard Max himself who is the subject of your complaint then all aspects set out in this procedure will be handled by David Warman and this procedure should be read accordingly.
    • He will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. And, if necessary, he may also speak to them. This will take up to three days from receiving their reply and the file.
  5. Richard Max will then invite you to a meeting and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within three days.

  6. Within two days of the meeting Richard Max will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.

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

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

    • Another partner of the firm will review Richard Max’s decision within 10 days.
    • We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
    • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  8. We will let you know the result of any review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  9. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

  1. The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

  2. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

    Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint

    and

    No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or

    No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

  3. If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

    Contact details

    Visit: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

    Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.

    Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

    Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

  1. The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. 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.
  2. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
  3. In addition to your right to complain, if you are not satisfied with the amount of our fees, you have the right to apply to the Court for an Assessment. Please see Section 7.14 of our Terms of Business.

April 2021

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