What if Something Goes Wrong?

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 you have a complaint, in the first instance discuss this with the person who is dealing with you matter.

If this does not resolve matters your Complaint will be escalated further and this will usually involve passing it to our complaints handling Director, Hilda Wright, who can be contacted by e-mail: hilda.wright@hwlegal.co.uk or by calling 020 7031 5462.

Making a Complaint will not affect how your legal matter is dealt with.

What will happen next?

 

1. You will be contacted either in writing, e-mail or telephone to acknowledge your concerns within 5 working days of your complaint being received.

2. Following an initial acknowledgement, you will be contacted and an understanding of your concerns will be set out to you. These two steps may be combined in that you may receive an acknowledgement which also sets out the understanding of your Complaint. You may be asked to provide any further comments, or further information, and you will be asked to confirm that the understanding is correct. You will also be asked how you would like to resolve your Complaint. This will happen within 5 working days of the initial acknowledgement of the Complaint. If you do not confirm that the understanding is correct within 7 days, it will be assumed that the summary is correct, and the complaint will move to the next stage.

3. The person involved may be spoken with, if it is necessary to address your concerns and a review of your file will be undertaken. This action will take place within 21 working days of your providing further information or clarification that the summary is correct.

4. You will then be written to, setting out the view of your Complaint and making any proposal for resolution, within 7 working days of completing the review. You will be asked to provide any further comments and to consider any resolution that is being proposed.

5. If you provide any further comments, these will be addressed within 7 working days of receipt of those further comments.

​

• NB The timescales are subject to the availability of people dealing with the matter, for example they may have to change to allow for holiday or absence from the office. If the timescale has to change you will be advised accordingly.

​

What will it cost?

There will be no charge to you handling your Complaint. If you have a bill that is outstanding with the firm, making a Complaint will not have any effect on that. The firm may still be pursue it in accordance with their recovery procedure and interest may be charged in line with the Terms of Business.

 

What to do if we cannot resolve your Complaint
We have 8 weeks in which to deal with your Complaint. If we do not deal with it within this timeframe or at the conclusion of the complaint procedure, you still remain unhappy, you can raise your concerns with The Legal Ombudsman whose contact details are as follows:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Website: www.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

 

A referral must be made to The Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of the date of the letter confirming the investigation has come to an end. In any event you must raise the formal complaint within 1 year of the incident giving rise to the complaint or within 1 year of when you reasonably should have known you had a complaint.

 

Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour rather than advice or service complaints. 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

 

SRA | Contact us | Solicitors Regulation Authority