COMPLAINTS HANDLING POLICY

Date Updated: 7 April 2021

 

Our Complaints Handling Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality service to all of our clients.  When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it.  This will help us to improve our standards. 

We encourage you in the first instance to speak to the relevant fee earner or partner dealing with or supervising your matter to discuss why you are unhappy with the service provided.

If matters are not resolved to your satisfaction or you simply prefer to use our internal complaint’s procedure, then please explain what your complaint is and send this to our client care partner, Michael Cotterhill michael.cotterhill@cotterhillhitchman.co.uk. 

 

What will happen next? 

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1.We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within seven working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this policy.

 

2.We will then investigate your complaint. 

 

3.We will then write to you within 14 days of sending the acknowledgement letter with a view to resolving your complaint. In some cases, we will invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. Within three days of any meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.

 

4.At this stage you will be asked to confirm whether any additional information needs to be considered or whether any additional clarification is required.

 

5.We will write to you within 14 days of receiving any further information or requests for further clarification confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

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

 

If your complaint relates to work undertaken by us, and you are not satisfied on written receipt of our final position, you can contact: 

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Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

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Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of receiving our final written response to your complaint and no more than six years from the date of act/omission; or no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. 

 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be 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 directly with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.