Eddowes Waldron Complaints Policy

Our Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. 

Client feedback

We value feedback from clients because it helps us continually to improve our service. If you have a comment or suggestion to improve our service, it would be helpful if you would mention this to the person dealing with your matter.

Complaints

We understand that being involved in any legal process can be stressful and that good communication is the best way of avoiding unnecessary frustration.

Our aim is to sort out any concerns you may have about the quality of service you are receiving at as early a stage as possible, and to that end we have a three stage procedure as follows:

1.   Concerns about Poor Service

2.   Expressions of Dissatisfaction

3.   Formal Complaints

We will aim to deal with complaints promptly, fairly and free of charge.

Concerns about Poor Service

If you feel you are receiving poor service at any time, please raise this as soon as possible with the person dealing with your case.

Alternatively, and particularly if your concern arises from poor communication, such as failure to return telephone calls or to write a letter when promised, or you feel more comfortable talking to them, please feel free to raise it with our reception staff. They are part of our Client Care team and will do their best to ensure that your concern is resolved at the earliest opportunity.

Expressions of Dissatisfaction

If you do not feel your concern has been addressed satisfactorily, you should ask the person dealing with your case to bring the situation to the attention of his/her supervisor (or, if the person dealing with your case is a supervisor, to the attention of another supervisor). If you wish to express your dissatisfaction in writing you may do so, but this is not essential. You may also communicate your expression of dissatisfaction to our reception staff. The supervisor will try to resolve the situation at the earliest opportunity. Your dissatisfaction will be recorded and monitored regularly for management purposes.

Formal Complaints

If you wish to make a formal complaint, please address this to Christopher Gabb who is ultimately responsible for Client Care and handling complaints. It would help us if you would write to us or email us with:

-      why you feel dissatisfied with the service you have received;

-      how you would prefer to be contacted about your complaint;

-      if there is anything in particular which you would like us to do to resolve your complaint.

We ask for formal complaints to be made in writing if possible, although if this causes you particular difficulty it may be appropriate for you to outline your complaint verbally to one of our staff, who will pass it on.

Any unresolved expression of dissatisfaction will be treated as a formal complaint. 

If you have not previously attempted to resolve the matter as described above, we may in suitable cases refer your complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction to the partner responsible for the department involved, with a view to achieving a speedy resolution. If however this proves unsuccessful we will proceed as described below.

Complaints about Bills

Complaints about bills will be handled in accordance with this Policy and should in the first instance be raised with the person dealing with your case.

You may also have the right to apply for Court assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

We may be able to charge interest on all, or part of, the bill if it is unpaid.

Complaints by Prospective Customers

We will normally respond to complaints that we have unreasonably refused a service by providing a short explanation of why we could not act. Only if there is evidence to show that we could have acted in the matter or have unreasonably offered a service that was not wanted, will the full procedures set out in this Policy be followed.

Formal Complaints - What will happen next?

1.   We will open a file for your complaint.

2.   We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and, if necessary, 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. This will usually be Christopher Gabb but might be another partner. You can expect to receive our letter within one week of us receiving your complaint.

3.   We will then consider your complaint. Our aim is to provide a full response within 21 days. If we are unable to meet this time limit we will write to report on progress and to let you know when we anticipate being able to respond in full.

4.   Our detailed response will normally be in writing and will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. Alternatively, we may invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. 

5.   In any event, if we write to you and you are not happy with our suggestions for resolving the matter, you are entitled to ask for a meeting.

6.   Within five working days of a meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.

7.   At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This may happen in one of the following ways:

-      Christopher Gabb, as complaints handling partner, will review your complaint within 10 working days;

-      We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it, within 10 working days; or

-      In appropriate cases we will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.

8.   We will let you know the result of the review within five working days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. 

9.   If, within eight weeks following the making of a complaint, it has not been resolved, we will inform you in writing:

a.   of any right you have to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, the time frame for doing so (usually within six months and within one year of when you should have realised there was cause for complaint) and full details of how to contact the Legal Ombudsman (see below); and 

b.   if a complaint has been brought and our complaints procedure has been exhausted:

i)             that we cannot settle the complaint; 

ii)            of the name and website address of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) approved body which would be competent to deal with the complaint; and

iii)          whether we agree to use the scheme operated by that body.

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

What might the outcome of my complaint be?

We very much regret any dissatisfaction which our clients experience and will apologise to you where our service has fallen below our high standards. We may also agree that certain steps will be taken to improve your situation and to ensure that any problems experienced will not reoccur.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

LEGAL OMBUDSMAN

Our aim is to resolve complaints within the scope of our policy as set out above. If however you are not satisfied with the handling of your complaint, or with its final outcome, the Legal Ombudsman might be able to help you. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

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 our final response to your complaint

and

-   no more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about or

-       no more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

A complainant must also be an individual client or an entity set out in the ‘Who can complain’ section of the Legal Ombudsman Scheme Rules. Further information can be found on the Legal Ombudsman’s website.

The Legal Ombudsman is an independent service and deals with complaints about poor service against solicitors registered in England and Wales. Contact details are:

Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ[1]

Telephone        0300 555 0333  between 9.00 and 17.00

Email                 enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 

Website            www.legalombudsman.org.uk

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to whom you can complain if you have concerns about the behaviour of our firm or an individual within it. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other protected characteristic. Their website is: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/  

             Eddowes Waldron Solicitors                      26/09/2023

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