Legal and Regulatory Information

Complaints

COMPLAINTS POLICY


1. 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. 


Our Complaints Procedure

2. If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. Please mark your letter or e-mail with the word ‘Complaint’.


What Will Happen Next? 

3. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

 
4. We will then investigate your complaint.  This will normally involve passing your complaint to a Partner, Kate Scammell, who will review your file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.  If the complaint is about Kate Scammell, the complaint will be passed to Mark Eyles.  In some cases, we will refer your case to our external complaints handling firm, CRCS Legal, whose contact details are as follows:


E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: 0330 2210511
Address: PO Box 6588, Southam CV47 4DE. 

   
5. In the event we deal with your complaint internally:

a. Kate Scammell will either provide you with a written response to your complaint or invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.  She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. 
b. Within three days of any meeting, Kate Scammell, will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you. b. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will refer your complaint to CRCS Legal to review the decision. 


6. In the event of a referral to CRCS Legal they will take the following steps:

a. A Complaint Manager from CRCS Legal will contact you either in writing, e-mail or telephone to acknowledge your concerns within 5 working days of initial contact.  

b. Following an initial acknowledgement, you will be contacted and an understanding of your concerns will be set out to you.  These two steps may be combined in that you may receive an acknowledgement which also sets out the understanding of your complaint.  You may be asked to provide any further comments, or further information, and you will be asked to confirm that the understanding is correct.  You will also be asked how you would like to resolve your complaint.  This will happen within 5 working days of the initial acknowledgement of the complaint.  If you do not confirm that the understanding is correct within 7 days, it will be assumed that the summary is correct, and the Complaint Manager will move to the next stage. 

c. The Complaint Manager may speak with the person involved, if it is necessary to address your concerns and a review of your file will be undertaken.  This action will  take place within 21 working days of your providing further information or clarification that the summary is correct.  

d. The Complaint Manager will then write to you setting out their view of your complaint and making any proposal for resolution, within 7 working days of completing the review.  You will be asked to provide any further comments and to consider any resolution that is being proposed.

e. If you provide any further comments, these will be addressed within 7 working days of receipt of those further comments.  

• NB The timescales are subject to the Complaint Manager’s availability, for example they may have to change to allow for holiday or absence from the office.  If the timescale has to change you will be advised accordingly.  

7. If you are still remain unhappy, you can raise your concerns with The Legal Ombudsman whose contact details are as follows: 

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6806

Wolverhampton

WV1 9WJ

A referral must be made to The Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of the date of the letter confirming the investigation has come to an end and your file is closed in relation to the complaint that has been dealt with.  In any event you must raise the formal complaint within 6 years of the incident giving rise to the complaint: this timescale being applicable after 6 October 2010.  If your complaint relates to an incident prior to this date you must raise the issues within 3 years of when you reasonably should have known you had a complaint.


Alternative complaints bodies (such as Ombudsman Services) exist which are able to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and we wish to use such a scheme, however, we would prefer that complaints that we cannot resolve are dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman.  You may also be able to seek redress from the firm’s regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority.