We are committed to providing a high quality legal service and to dealing with all our clients fairly.  We acknowledge that we may not always get it right so if something has gone wrong, including in relation to the bill, we need you to tell us. We have a complaints procedure are outlined below:

Stage 1

If you wish to make a complaint, you should first contact us either in writing (by letter or email) or by speaking with our Complaints Manager, Melissa Danks who you can contact as follows:-

Melissa Danks
Radcliffe House
Lode Lane
Solihull
B91 2AA
0121 249 2400

To help us to understand your complaint, and in order that we do not miss anything, please tell us:

• Your full name and contact details
• What you think we have got wrong
• What you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint, and
• Your file reference number (if you have one)

If you require any help in making your complaint, we will try to help you.

Stage 2

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, enclosing a copy of this policy and informing you of the name of the person who is dealing with your complaint.

Depending upon the nature of your complaint, we may first refer your complaint to the fee earner concerned who may be able to offer redress without further escalation.  If they are unable to resolve your complaint, they will refer your complaint to the Complaint Manager.  We will record your compliant in our central register which is reviewed by the company’s board of directors.

Stage 3

The person investigating the complaint will have full access to all the information and personnel that they require to investigate your complaint properly.  They may contact you directly to discuss and confirm your heads of complaint and request any further information from you to assist the investigation.

We will ask the person investigating the complaint to recommend the action which they believe would be recommended by the Legal Ombudsman if the complaint was referred to them.

Stage 4

The person investigating your compliant will provide you with a detailed assessment report together with their recommendations to resolve the complaint, if any.

We have 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint to fully investigate and provide our final response to you. If we need to change any of the timescales above, we will contact you to explain our reasons why.  You will not be charged for our time spent dealing with a compliant internally.

Stage 5

If you are still not satisfied, the next step is for you to contact the Legal Ombudsman by one of the following: –

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9am and 5pm

Email: [email protected]

Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

The Legal Ombudsman service is only available to members of the public, very small businesses, charities, clubs and trusts.  If you are unclear about your position, then you should contact the Legal Ombudsman direct to clarify whether or not they are able to deal with your complaint.  Alternatively please refer to the Legal Ombudsman’s scheme rules which are available here:- https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/corporate-publications/scheme-rules/

You have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of our complaint process providing you do so within 6 months of the date of our final written response.

Ordinarily you can also ask the Legal Ombudsman to investigate your complaint if you satisfy the following criteria:-

• The problem or when you found out about it, happened after 5 October 2010 and
• You are referring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within one year of the date of the problem happening or within one year of you realising there was a concern.

Complaints About Fees

If you are dissatisfied with our invoice, you have the right to apply to the High Court for an assessment of our charges by an Officer of the Court pursuant to sections 70,71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974.  We hope that before making such an application you would first use our complaints procedure as detailed above.

Complaints either regarding or about our behaviour

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.

You can visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority here:- https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/