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.

If you have a complaint, i.e. if you have any concerns about the service we have provided or the way we have dealt with your case, please contact us with details.

What will Happen Next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and enclosing a copy of this policy. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. In matters where Carol Seddon is the solicitor dealing with it, then Clare Thomson will deal with any complaints. In matters where Clare Thomson is the solicitor dealing with it, then Carol Seddon will deal with any complaints. You can expect to receive our letter within 7 days of us receiving your complaint.
  2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint.
  3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the client care partner reviewing your file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you.
  4. The client care partner will then either write to you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint and/or invite you to a meeting with her. The client care partner will do this within 14 days of the response from the member of staff.
  5. Within 7 days of any meeting the client care partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. The client care partner will then arrange to review her own decision.
  7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for review confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  8. If after following the review process you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint, you may contact directly the Legal Ombudsman to ask them to consider the complaint further:
    Tel no: 0300 555 0333
    Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
    Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
    Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJUnless it agrees there are good reasons not to do so, the Legal Ombudsman will expect you to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above in the first instance. You can refer your complaint up to 6 months after you have received our final written response to your complaint. You can also use the Ombudsman service if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks of us receiving it. A complaint can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman up to six years from the date of the act or omission or up to 3 years after discovering a problem. The ombudsman deals with service-related complaints; any conduct-related complaints will be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

    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. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

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