Client Complaint Information

Our Complaints Policy

 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.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, contact us with the details.

What Will Happen Next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.  You can expect to receive our letter within three days of us receiving your complaint.
  1. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
  1. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps.
  • We will pass your complaint to Adam Shirley, our Client Care partner, within 3 days.
  • He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 5 days.
  • He, or if more appropriate the Head of the relevant department, will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file and if necessary he may also speak to them. This will take up to three days from receiving their reply and the file.
  1. Adam Shirley or the relevant Head of Department will then write to you or invite you to a meeting and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within three days.
  1. Within two days of the meeting Adam Shirley or the relevant Head of Department will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not required Adam Shirley will or the relevant head of department will send you a detailed reply to your complaint.  This will include his suggestions for resolving the matter.  He will do this within five days of completing the investigation.

  1. At this stage if you are still not satisfied you contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision.  This will happen in one of the following ways.
  • Our Client Care Partner, Adam Shirley, or where he had investigated the complaint another partner in the firm will review the decision within 10 days.
  • We will invite you to agree to an independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  1. We will let you know the result of the review within five 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.
  1. Referral To The Legal Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with the final response from our Client Care & Resolution Team, you may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. They expect complaints to be brought to them within six years of the date of the act/omission about which you are concerned, or three years from when you reasonably should have known about a complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will usually only agree to investigate where they have been contacted within six months of our final response to the complaint. The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are as follows:

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 (international: +44 121 245 3050)

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

  1. Referral to the SRA

If you are concerned that we haven’t adhered to the SRA Rules and Regulations you can report your concerns to the SRA: Solicitors Regulation Authority,

The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN

Telephone: 0370 606 2555 inside the UK or +44 (0)121 329 6800 from overseas

Email: report@sra.org.uk

Find out more about the SRA Rules and Regulations and how to report your concerns by clicking on the link below:

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor

  1. All complaints (written or verbal) are recorded and logged centrally to enable us to detect recurring problems and trends. In recording such information we will comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1988. As necessary, we will implement corrective action in response to individual complaints and improvement measures to prevent adverse trends and correct recurring problems. In this manner, we aim to constantly improve the service we provide.
  2. If we have to change any of the time scales above, we will let you know and explain why.

For expert advice and assistance please use our contact page, call us on 01376 513 491 or email hello@bawtrees.co.uk.