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.

 

If you have a complaint, contact Mr Gurdeep Gill who is the designated complaints officer. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

 

What will happen next?

 

1. Mr Gill will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure. We will ask you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. Therefore if our Mr Gill acted for you and you do not want him to investigate your complaint, he will ask Mr Delay of Newton Law Practice to investigate the complaint. He then will handle your complaint from the outset and carry out all the procedures detailed below.

 

1. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a working day of receiving your complaint.

 

1. We will acknowledge your reply and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within a working day of your reply.

 

1. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps:-

 

(a)    If Mr Gill acted for you, Mr Delay of Newton Law Practice will consider your complaint again. He will then send a detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. He will do this within 10 working days.

 

(b)    If someone else acted for you, Mr Gill will ask them to give me their reply to your complaint within five working days. He will do this within a working day.

 

(c)    Mr Gill will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. Mr Gill may also speak to the person who acted for you. He will do this within three working days of receiving their reply and the file.

 

(d)    Mr Gill will ask another independent local solicitor to investigate your complaint and report to him. He will do this within three working days.

 

 

1. We will then write inviting you to meet with us; discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within ten working days.

 

1. Within two working days of the meeting Mr Gill will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.

 

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, I will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include any suggestions for resolving the matter. We will do this within fifteen working days of completing the investigation.

 

1. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you can write to Mr Gill again. We will then arrange to review the decision. This may happen in one of the following ways.

 

• Mr Gill will review the decision within fiveworkingdays.

• We will arrange for someone who is not connected with the complaint to review the decision. We will do this within 10 working days.

• We will ask my local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within 10 working days. We will let you know how long this process will take.

• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within 5 working days. We will let you know how long this will take.

 

1. We will let you know the result of the review within five working days. At this time we will write to you confirming my final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.

 

Legal Ombudsman,

PO Box 6167,

Slough,
SL1 0EH.

 

about your complaint. Please note that Legal Ombudsman will normally only deal with a complaint once we have been given 8 weeks to resolve the matter through our complaints procedure.

Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (www.legalombudsman.org.uk.) within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or you becoming aware of it). For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333  or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

However, please note that from 1 April 2023 these time limits are changing.  From the 1 April the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern.  The requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you remains the same.

 

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

 

Alternative complaints bodies such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services where there is an agreement to do this between a client and their solicitor. We do not agree to use an alternative complaints body because complaints about law firms can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you 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 at:

The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
0370 606 2555
https://www.sra.org.uk/contact-us/