Complaints Policy & Procedure

Newnham & Jordan Solicitors Ltd aims to provide high quality services to its clients and it acknowledges that client feedback is a vital part of that process. Compliments and congratulations are important indicators of the performance and should be recognised and recorded as such.

However, complaints and criticisms are also an important measure of performance, as they may highlight a shortfall in service provision and therefore need to be dealt with swiftly and thoroughly to ensure that appropriate action is taken.

The need for a formal procedure for recording client complaints is as follows:-

  • To ensure that complaints are dealt with in a fair and consistent way
  • To ensure that actions are recorded from the start, in case the situation develops further
  • To ensure that continuous improvement is achieved
  • To determine whether procedure or service changes are required
  • To ensure compliance with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority / Law Society Code of Practice and guidance notes

Procedure

This procedure should be used whenever a client makes a complaint about any part of the service provision.

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. If it is a matter which we are not able to resolve via a short telephone conversation or meeting then the complaint should be put in writing.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care Director, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. The client care Director will then write to you setting out our findings together with copies and any relevant documents for you to review and if it is considered that your complaint was valid offer a proposal as to how the matter can be resolved. It is our aim to provide you with this substantive response within 14 – 21 working days of our initial acknowledgement letter. In the event that we are unable to achieve this timescale (eg volume of documents that need to be reviewed) we will advise you and update you with an anticipated timescale for a substantive response to be sent to you.
  4. Once you have reviewed the findings and any relevant documents, if you are still dissatisfied or do not understand any of the response, we would invite you to arrange a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. If you require a meeting, we would ask you to request a meeting within 14 days of receipt of the substantive response referred to at 3 above.
  5. Within three days of the meeting taking place, the client care Director will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions s/he has agreed with you.
  6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for the client care Director to review his/her own decision or if appropriate arrange for an alternative, such as review by another local solicitor or mediation to review the decision.
  7. We will write to you within 14 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:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response on your complaint but for further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

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

NB. As a deterrent against vexatious complaints (those without merit) the Legal Ombudsman has the ability to make a costs award against the complainant.