enquiries@174familylaw.co.uk

  The Lauries, 142 Claughton Rd, Birkenhead, CH41 6EY

      

 

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Complaints Policy

 

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

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 14 days of us receiving your complaint.

2. We will then record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.

3. If appropriate we will then invite you to meet Robin Kendall to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 28 days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, Robin Kendall will write fully to you setting out his views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.

4. Within 7 days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you. In appropriate cases we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received. Where such a meeting does not take place we will write to you with our response within 42 days of receiving your complaint.

5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 7 days.

This will happen in one of the following ways:

  • Robin Kendall will review his own decision.
  • We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
  • We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.

6. We will let you know the result of the review within 7 days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We have eight weeks in all to consider and respond to your complaint.

7. If you remain dissatisfied at the end of our complaints procedure, you would then be at liberty to contact the legal ombudsman, provided you are an individual, a personal representative of a deceased person, a “micro-enterprise” (having fewer than 10 employees and annual income of less than £1 million, or trustee of a trust with assets of less than £1 million. The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints no later than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint. If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman , this must be done within 6 months of our final response to your complaint. 

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, their contact details are as follows:-

  • Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk
  • Call 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm (calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02) from both mobiles and landlines. Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.)
  • For minicom call 0300 555 1777
  • e-mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
  • Postal address: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Alternative complaints resolution bodies also exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme at the end of our internal complaints process. They provide Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services. Small Claims Mediation is one such body, details of which can be found at www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk; and another is Ombudsman Services, details of which ca be found at www.ombudsman-services.org. Under the provisions of the EU Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution, to pursue this process you would have to be a “consumer”, namely an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession.