Complaints Procedure

How to make a complaint

If you have any queries or concerns about our work for you, or about our bill of costs, please contact the solicitor or fee earner you've been dealing with in the first instance. You'll have received their full contact details in our initial client care letter at the outset of your matter.

If you're unhappy with their response, or you'd like your concern formally investigated, please put your complaint in writing to our Complaints Officer, Claire Myatt.

If for any reason Claire Myatt is unable to deal with your complaint, Andrew Nelson or another member of staff will be appointed to deal with it in her absence.

If your complaint relates to costs, you also have the right to apply to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 — details are on the reverse of any invoice we send you. Please note the Legal Ombudsman may decide not to consider a costs complaint if it has already been referred to the court for assessment.

Once we've received your complaint

Our Complaints Officer will:

• Acknowledge receipt within 3 working days, enclosing a copy of this Complaints Procedure
• Carry out a full investigation, including reviewing your file and speaking to everyone on our team involved in your matter — we aim to complete this within 14 days of receiving your written complaint
• Where appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint further, and write afterwards to confirm what was discussed and agreed
• If a meeting isn't appropriate or possible, send a detailed written reply within 21 days of our initial acknowledgment

We'll stick to these timescales wherever we can — but if for any reason we can't, we'll write to explain why and give you new ones.

If you're not satisfied with our response

You may appeal our decision within 7 days of receiving our investigation findings. Wherever possible, a different member of the management team will reconsider the complaint, any further evidence you provide, and the original investigation findings — then write to you within 14 days of receiving your appeal request with the firm's final position.

Other options — the Legal Ombudsman

Under our professional regulations, we have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If it isn't resolved within that time, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to look into it.

The Legal Ombudsman accepts complaints from individuals, small businesses, charities and associations. You'll normally need to bring your complaint to them within six months of our final written response. Otherwise, the time limit is six years from the act or omission you're complaining about, or three years from when you should reasonably have known about it.

You must always try complaining to us first — in most cases you won't be able to take your complaint further, to either the Legal Ombudsman or the Solicitors Regulation Authority, if you haven't already done so.

SRA or Legal Ombudsman?

As a firm, we believe strong communication at every stage of your matter helps avoid the need for concerns or complaints in the first place. If anything is worrying you — however small it might seem — please talk to us. We're here to help.