What if Something Goes Wrong?
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. If you have a Complaint, in the first instance discuss this with the person who is dealing with your matter.
If this does not resolve matters your Complaint will be escalated further and this will usually involve passing it to our external Complaints handling firm, CRCS Legal, whose contact details are as follows:
E-mail:enquiries@crcslegal.com Tel: 03302210511
If you do not feel comfortable speaking with the person who is dealing with your matter, you may contact CRCS Legal directly.
Making a Complaint will not affect how your legal matter is dealt with.
What will happen next?
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
What will it cost?
There will be no charge to you handling your Complaint. If you have a bill that is outstanding with the firm, making a Complaint will not have any effect on that. The firm may still be pursue it in accordance with their recovery procedure and interest may be charged in line with the Terms of Business.
What to do if we cannot resolve your Complaint
We have 8 weeks in which to deal with your Complaint. If we do not deal with it within this timeframe or if you still remain unhappy, you can raise your concerns with The Legal Ombudsman whose contact details are as follows:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
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 Promediate) exist which are able to deal with Complaints about legal services should both you and we wish to use such a scheme, however, the firm would not agree to using an alternative Complaint body.