We are fully committed to offering high quality legal advice to all our clients. In the event that something were to go wrong or you are left unhappy with the service that you feel that you have received then we want to know about it so that we can fully investigate your concerns and try to put the matter right for you.
We would ask that you inform as soon as reasonably practicable for you after the cause for the complaint arises so that matters can be dealt with as soon as possible.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you wish to make a formal complaint then our full complaints procedure is detailed below.
Alternatively you can outline your complaint to our complaints partner, Natalie Board, in writing either by letter or by email – nboard@rhsolicitors.co.uk
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help 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 raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority:
Visit: http://sra.org.uk
When doing so and, in order to assist us with the nature of your complaint, we would ask that you:
- Provide us with your full name and contact details
- Outline to us where you think we have got matters wrong for you
- Outline to us where you think matters should have gone for you
- Your file reference number
In the event that you feel that you require some help in making your complaint we will do our best to assist you
How will we deal with your complaint
- Natalie Board, or if she is unable to deal with the complaint personally another partner in the firm will acknowledge your complaint within 7 working days of receipt by us and will enclose a copy of this policy for you.
- The complaints partner will open a new file in order to ensure that your complaint is dealt with as a matter in its own right.
- There will then follow a full review of your complaint which would include a review of your original matter file, reviewing any other documents relevant to your matter and an interview with the fee earner who originally dealt with it. We may have to ask you to provide us with further documentation if necessary and if we do would request that those documents be provided within a set time frame.
- The fee earner responsible for the matter that gave rise to your complaint will not review the matter in order to ensure impartiality.
- We will seek to respond in full to your complaint within 28 days of the date upon which the complaint was received at our office. When we do so we will outline our findings in respect to the complaint and, if necessary, provide some proposals to you for putting matters right.
- If after receiving the outcome in relation to your complaint you are still unhappy then you are at liberty to request that the process be reviewed. If the Complaints Partner feels it appropriate to do so a request can be made to another partner to further review the matter for you.
- After such a request for a further review we would aim to respond to you within 21 days with our response.
- If after a further review you are still unsatisfied with the outcome you can refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman for them to review your case. You must make the reference to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final determination of your complaint and within 6 years of the act or omission complained of or within 3 years from when you should have reasonably known that you had grounds for a complaint. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted as follows:
By post: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
By telephone: 0300 555 0333
By email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Alternative complaints bodies do exist with a view to mediating your complaint but we have chosen not to adopt an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process and as such you would need to refer your matter to the Legal Ombudsman.
Please not that there are no charges to be levied for the handling of your complaint and equally the Legal Ombudsman service is free of charge.
