Client Complaints Procedure

Internal Complaints Procedure

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If you believe something has gone wrong, tell us about it.

In the first instance, please raise any complaint you may have with the person acting on your case, as they may not be aware of your concerns, and able to allay them. Matters can usually be resolved more quickly this way.

If matters aren’t resolved, a formal complaint can be made in person, by telephone, email or letter. Whilst we treat all complaints equally, however they are made, it is best if you are able to put the reason for your dissatisfaction in writing as this gives us a clearer idea of what has caused the complaint.

You can contact us at:

Alpha House, 2 Coop Place, Bradford BD5 8JX

or by email to: [email protected]

or telephone us on: : Freephone: 08009961807

All complaints are dealt with as follows:

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure, seeking any clarification as to the grounds of your complaint which would assist. Under the Legal Ombudsman’s rules (see below), we have a period of 8 weeks to resolve the complaint.
2. The complaint will be passed to one of our Directors (who was not involved in the matter) for independent investigation, who will review your file and speak to the member(s) of staff involved, and anyone else who may be able to shed light on what has happened.
3. They may invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint where they believe that could usefully assist, and will always do so where the matter is relatively serious, usually within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. Within 3 days of any meeting they will write further to you to, unless additional investigations are merited, confirm what took place and any solutions that were explored at the meeting or agreed with you.
4. If they do not feel that a meeting is necessary or you do not want a meeting, you will be sent a detailed written reply to your complaint, including the suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement latter.
5. Where the complaint is relatively complicated, the investigation may take a little longer than the above timeframes. Where that is the case, we shall let you know how long investigations are expected to take.
6. As soon as we are in a position to do so, we shall respond setting out our findings, and any proposals we have to make in respect of resolution of your complaint.
7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied with our response, you may reply appealing our findings, stating your grounds for doing so, and we shall refer the matter to another member of the local Law Society of England & Wales who shall reconsider your complaint, and within 14 days of your appeal, confirming our final position on your complaint, and explaining our reasons.
   
   

Complaints in relation to bills

The procedure above also applies to complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the Court for assessment of that bill.

Complaint of Professional Negligence

       Where your complaint concerns allegations of professional negligence it cannot be dealt with either under our internal complaints procedures or by the Legal Ombudsman.

       Where you allege that we have been negligent we shall notify our insurer, and signpost you to another firm of solicitors we will be able to independently advise you on the matter.

The Legal Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves.

The Ombudsman can be contacted at:

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH

0300 555 0333

[email protected]

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

You must refer your concerns to  the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you. Complaints must ordinary be made within one year of the date of the act or omission or should have been reasonably aware that you had cause to complain.

Raising concerns with our regulator

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you 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 find information about raising your concerns with the SRA at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor