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.

Complaints should be addressed to one of our Client Care Officers. If you have a complaint regarding a matter which is being handled by a member of our team, you should direct your complaint to Nazia Zubair, at Edward House, Uttoxeter Road, Longton, Stoke on Trent, ST3 1NZ, telephone 033 33 582 582. Whilst you can call our offices on 0333 358 2582, we would ask that you write to us at Edward House, Uttoxeter Road, Longton, Stoke on Trent, ST3 1NZ.

What will happen next?

We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within one working day of receiving your complaint.
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out if necessary. You can expect to receive our letter within seven working days of us receiving your complaint.
We will then investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps:
1. Asking the person who acted for you to respond to your complaint.
2. Examining the response and the information in your complaint file.
3. Asking the person who acted for you for more information.
4. Reviewing all the information.
5. This may take up to 14 working days.
Where possible we will invite you to meet our Client Care Officer to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint.
Within seven days of the meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions we have agreed with you.
If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter and any appropriate redress. This will happen within seven days of us completing the investigation.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange for another partner of the firm to review our decision.
We will let you know the result of the review within seven working days of receipt of your letter. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

We very much hope that we can resolve your complaint internally and improve our service as a result.

If we are unable to resolve the complaint with you then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates problems about poor service from lawyers.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint

and

Six years from the date of act/omission: or
Three years from when you should have reasonably known there was cause for complaint (only if the act took place more than six years ago).

The act or omission, or when you should have reasonably known there was cause for complaint, must have been after 5 October 2010.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman please contact them either by way of telephone, email, letter or livechat

Contact details:-

Visit: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm Mon-Fri.

Minicom text phone users: 08002 0300 555 0333

NGT Lite users: 18001 0300 555 0333

From Overseas: +44 121 245 0350

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.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Postal Address:

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806

Wolverhampton

WV1 9WJ

Livechat: accessible via the main Legal Ombudsman website shown above

If you require information from the Legal Ombudsman in another language or in a different format, i.e. large print, braille or audio CD please contact them by telephone or email as follows:

Telephone: 0121 245 301

Email: Publications@legalombudsman.org.uk

Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents sent to them to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.

All Solicitors Regulation Authority regulated business are subject or rules and Principles of Professional Conduct, the Principles being that law firms and their people must act:

in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice
in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors’ profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons
1. with independence
2. with honesty
3. with integrity
in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
in the best interests of each client.

The Code of Conduct can be accessed via the link of: www.sra.org-uk/solicitors/standards-regulations but if this is not available online the link of www.sra.org.uk can be accessed to obtain details of how to access the Code which all regulated firms must follow.

Should you feel that there has been a breach of the Code of Conduct in relation to the above Principles you may complain directly to the SRA and the following link provides details of how you can report your concerns: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems

Alternatively, the SRA can be contacted by telephone:

0370 6062555 – Inside the UK

+44 (0) 121 329 6800 – International Callers

Or by Post at:

Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN

Or by DX – DX720293 BIRMINGHAM 47