Client Complaint Procedure

In the first instance, all concerns and complaints will be dealt with at a department level by the supervising solicitor who will be named on your letter of instruction.

Only if that does not resolve the issues to your satisfaction will you be referred to our complaints member, Jennifer Wilson, who is based in our Coventry office at 17a Queens Road Coventry CV1 3DH.

Our objective

We will deal with any complaint fairly, without prejudice or discrimination and in a reasonable and proportionate manner. We aim to resolve complaints within 6 weeks of referral to our complaints member.

Timetable

Once our complaints member receives your complaint, we aim to follow this timetable:

1. Our complaints member will write or email you within 7 days from the date of your complaint. We will summarise our understanding of your complaint and ask you to confirm within 7 days that this is correct.
2. If we require additional information, we will ask for it at this stage.
3. Once all required information is received, we will begin our internal investigation and aim to report to you within 14 days. If we require further time to investigate, we will let you know and offer an estimated timescale.
4. If we think that a meeting would be useful in assisting to resolve your complaint, we will invite you to a meeting at a mutually convenient time and will report to you within 14 days of that meeting.
5. Our response to your complaint will include:
   1. Informing you of the conclusion we have reached;
   2. Giving an explanation as to the reasons for our conclusion;
   3. Offering you an apology if one is appropriate;
   4. Offering redress if we consider that is appropriate.
6. We will invite you to respond to any offer of redress and with any comments within 14 days.

Legal Ombudsman

If you remain dissatisfied after we have completed our internal complaints process, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about the service provided by regulated legal service providers. They will look at issues such as delay, poor communication, or mistakes, but they cannot determine complaints about professional negligence, contractual disputes, or matters that relate solely to legal advice rather than service.

You must give us the opportunity to resolve your complaint before contacting the Legal Ombudsman.

Time limits for referring a complaint to Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Ombudsman will normally accept a complaint only if it is made:

• within six months of receiving our final written response to your complaint, and
• within one year of the act or omission you are concerned about, or
• within one year of the date when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman has discretion to accept complaints outside these time limits if they consider it fair and reasonable to do so.

Contact details for Legal Ombudsman

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Postal address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Other matters

If your complaint is in respect of your bill then you have a right to object to the bill by applying to the Court for an assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Whilst this complaint procedure is intended to be used in respect of complaints by clients of the firm there is a limited class of people who are entitled to complain to the Legal Services Ombudsman about the service we have provided even though they are not a client.  In these circumstances we would intend to deal with such a complaint fairly and in line with the procedure for client complaints.  The complainant will be advised at the outset however that information we hold is likely to be confidential to our client and that we cannot answer questions or provide information without the consent of our client.  This may mean that we are not able to respond to their complaint.

You may also complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) if you think we have breached an SRA principle or have acted with dishonesty or discrimination. Their telephone number is 0370 606 2555 and postal address is The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN . The email address is report@sra.org.uk.