Complaints

Date last reviewed January 2024

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 so that we can improve our standards. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the work we have done, or the fees we have charged, please contact us with details of your complaint.

What will happen next?

1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving your letter or email. We do ask for your complaint to be put in writing so that we may understand exactly what it is that has gone wrong.

2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Group Compliance Director David Bush, or another Director, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.

3. The Director concerned will then contact you and either discuss your complaint in detail or, if appropriate, 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, we will write to you to confirm what was discussed and any solutions that were agreed with you.

5. If you do not want a meeting or if it is not possible, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our 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 our Managing Director Will Coulter, our CEO Simon David, or someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review the 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 you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman. However, the Ombudsman’s powers are limited in certain respects as they can only accept complaints from individuals and certain small businesses and organisations. Full details of the kinds of complaints which the Ombudsman will accept can be found on their website at http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/ and their contact details are: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH (email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk; telephone: 0300 555 0333). Do not send originals of anything to them.

9. If you are entitled to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, please note that you must normally do so within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint. Complaints must previously have been made within 6 years from the date of the act/omission or 3 years from when you should have known about the complaint, but both of these time limits reduced to 1 (one) year with effect from 1 April 2023. The Ombudsman has discretion to accept out-of-time complaints where it is deemed fair and reasonable to do so, but will not accept complaints where the act/omission/date of awareness was before 6 October 2010.

10. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) and you may contact them if you believe we have not acted properly in relation to your matter. Details may be found at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/ and their contact details are: Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN (also by email:  report@sra.org.uk; or telephone: 0370 606 2555).