COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE

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 at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide or you have concerns about your bill, then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.

Making a Complaint about our Service:

If you have any complaint about the level of service that we have provided to you, please contact us in order that we may consider and address your complaint. You can make your complaint via email to our Practice Manager Ms Vicky Kean – vicky@caddickdavies.co.uk

 What will happen next?

We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Senior Partner, Neil Davies, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.

He will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint within eight weeks after you have brought it to our attention, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.

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

We will not charge you for handling your complaint.

Making a Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints up to six years from the date of the problem happening or within three years of when you found out about the problem.  If you wish to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman this must be done within six months of our final response to your complaint.

You can find helpful information on how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman by following this link – https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/how-to-complain/

The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

• Website: legalombudsman.org.uk
• Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
• Telephone 0300 555 0333 between 8.30am to 5.30pm

Calls from both mobiles and landlines to 03 numbers cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02). Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.

• For minicom call 0300 555 1777
• In writing: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Makin a Complaint about our Behaviour:

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for concerns about dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns directly with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Here is a helpful link to the SRA – https://www.sra.org.uk/