complaints procedure

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.

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 details 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 then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:
   • We will pass your complaint to Brian Whitworth, our Client Care Partner (or David Brooks, our Senior Solicitor Consultant, in the event the complaint concerns Brian Whitworth), within three days
   • He will ask the partner or member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 5 days
   • 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
4. Brian Whitworth (or David Brooks in the circumstances outlined above) will then invite you to a meeting and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within three days.
5. Within two days of the meeting Brian Whitworth (or David Brooks in the circumstances outlined above) 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, Brian Whitworth (or David Brooks in the circumstances outlined above) 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.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:
   • Another partner in the firm will review Brian Whitworth's (or David Brooks') 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
7. We will let you know the result of the 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. We will also give you the name and address of our Consumer Complaints Service. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.

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