Our Complaints Procedure
We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients and hope that our clients have no reason to complain about either our service or a bill of costs submitted. However, if something does go wrong, please tell us about it as soon as you can. We will try and resolve the matter fairly and quickly; we will apologise where necessary and do our best to offer you a practical solution. The firm’s Complaints Officer is Helen Bissell.
If you do have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We will then confirm receipt of your complaint within 3 working days. Our Complaints Officer will review the file of your matter and will speak with the person who acted for you on it. Within 21 days of the acknowledgment letter, the Complaints Officer will provide you with a detailed response and suggestions for resolving the matter. If you wish to have a meeting to discuss the response, which could be held either virtually or in person, then this can be arranged. If any further issues are discussed and agreed at the meeting, a supplementary letter will be sent to you detailing these, within 3 working days of the meeting.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction within eight weeks, and it concerns poor service (such as delayed or unclear communication, problems with your fees, or loss of documents), you may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. You must usually have complained to us first, or the Legal Ombudsman will not accept your complaint. Time limits for making a reference to the Legal Ombudsman apply. Details of these will be provided in our written response to your complaint and can be found on the Legal Ombudsman's website. However, these time limits can be extended if the Legal Ombudsman considers it fair and reasonable to do so.
The Legal Ombudsman is an independent and impartial body for consumers (namely individuals, micro-enterprises and charities/organisations/trusts with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million) who wish to make a complaint about a solicitor or firm who has acted for them. The Legal Ombudsman’s investigators aim to resolve cases quickly and informally by helping the complainant and the firm or lawyer to come to an agreement. If they are unable to do that, an Ombudsman will be asked to make a decision. Those decisions are legally binding and they can enforce them through the courts if necessary.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, or about their Scheme Rules, then please contact them. Their contact details are:
Visit: 
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), who are the regulatory body for solicitors, can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour, and that it may be a breach of the SRA’s Code of Conduct. Further information can be found here:
www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.
New Clients
Solicitors are entitled to reasonably refuse requests for legal assistance. Reasonable reasons to refuse to provide a service include that we are too busy, that the client is unable to fund the work required, that the matter is outside our expertise, or that the work required is not a service that we offer. We will have provided you with the reason why we cannot assist you when responding to your request for assistance. However, if you are unhappy with our response, you may contact the Complaints Officer.