Complaints procedure

Our aim is to provide our clients with excellent levels of client service. However, we recognise that there may be times when you feel we fall short of that intention and you may wish to raise a complaint. The first port of call for your complaint should be to the relevant fee earner or client partner (or you can contact our senior partner, Caroline Green, direct) who will deal with your complaint in line with our internal complaints procedure.

A link to the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution platform can be found here. 

1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 7 days of receiving it and explain how we will deal with your complaint.
2. The next step will be to investigate your complaint. This will usually involve reviewing your file and speaking to the fee earner/partner who acted for you. It may also involve a discussion/meeting with you and if this is considered appropriate, we will advise you accordingly. 
3. We will aim to report to you with the outcome of our investigations as soon as possible. This will ordinarily be within 28 days of sending the written acknowledgement.
4. If we need to adjust any of these timescales, we will notify you accordingly.

We hope to be able to resolve all complaints internally as swiftly as possible.

What do to if we cannot resolve your complaint

If we are unable to resolve your complaint you may be able to ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint or an alternative complaints body, such as ProMediate (www.promediate.co.uk). We believe that the Legal Ombudsman’s scheme is the most suitable for legal complaints and they would be our suggestion if we were unable to resolve your complaint. 

The Legal Ombudsman 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 a final response to your complaint; and 
• No more than six years from the date of the act/omission; or
• No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them at: 

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Post: Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

The Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act/omission/date of awareness was before 6 October 2010. You should also note that the Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the court for it to be assessed.

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 directly with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Non-client complaints 

If you are not a client of this firm but you wish to complain about the conduct of the firm, or its employees, you should send details of your complaint to the Risk and Compliance team by emailing compliance@browneiacobson.com