October 2023

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

If you have a complaint, please contact Tim Langford, our Client Care Manager with the details. You can write to him at 4 Drury Lane, Solihull, West Midlands B91 3BD.

So that we can understand your complaint, please ensure that you include details of the following:

• Your full name and contact details
• What you believe to have gone wrong
• What you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint
• Your file reference number (if you have it)

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

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure and record your complaint on an SRA approved database.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. Tim Langford will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. If we require any more information from you to understand the complaint, we will contact you and ask you to reply within a specific period of time.
3. If he believes that this will assist the investigation and resolution of your complaint, Tim Langford may then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. If he considers this to be beneficial, he will do this within fourteen days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. Within five working days of the meeting or completing the review, Tim Langford will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
5. If a meeting is in his opinion unlikely to assist or if you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Tim Langford will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within twenty-one days of sending you the acknowledgement letter or receiving any clarification or further information from you, whichever is the later.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.

• Tim Langford will review his own decision.
• Another director in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint will be asked to review it.
• We will ask another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint.
• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation.

7. We will write to you within fourteen days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
8. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response on your complaint and the Legal Ombudsman can only investigate complaints up to one year from the date of the act or mission being complained about or the date you found out about the problem.
9. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or at:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

10. We will not charge you for handling your complaint. Please note however that that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding. The Legal Ombudsman Service is free of charge.

11. If you have concerns about the way you have been treated which fall outside of the scope of the Legal Ombudsman service you can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their website will show you how to raise any concerns Solicitors Regulation Authority.