Emmersons Solicitors - Complaints Handling Procedure

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients and to deal with suppliers and other third parties in a professional, appropriate way. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us improve our standards. When we receive a complaint in writing or otherwise, we shall acknowledge it as a complaint and deal with it accordingly. Each written complaint and each oral complaint will be responded to within 14 working days of the complaint being received by a Letter of Acknowledgement which will acknowledge that a complaint has been made. Where a formal oral complaint is received, we should summarise what we believe to be the nature of the complaint in the Letter of Acknowledgement to the client/person who has complained.

Our Complaints Procedure

Please send any complaint in writing to the office addressed either to your case worker or to Michael Robinson. Michael.robinson@emmersons-solicitors.co.uk or enquiries@emmersons-solicitors.co.uk

Thereafter:

1. We will within 14 days acknowledge your complaint. This will also normally involve initially a review of the complaint and the case by the relevant Fee Earner..
2. The Fee Earner/Head of Department/Director will then write to you within 2 weeks of the acknowledgement with our response to your complaint. However, it may take us longer than this if staff are absent from the office due to holiday, illness or some other reason or if the matter is complicated and requires a longer period of time to investigate fully. In that case we would aim to fully respond to your complaint within 35 working days of us acknowledging your complaint.
3. At this stage, if you are not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for Michael Robinson to review the Fee Earner's/Head of Department/Director's decision unless they have already been involved in reviewing and responding to your complaint.
4. We will then aim to write to you within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming how long it will take for us to respond (no more than 8 weeks) with our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. If you are still not satisfied you can contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint on 0300 555 0333 or via email enguiries@leqalombudsman.orq.uk The Legal Ombudsman website offers useful advice on how to complain. www.legalombudsman.org.uk

You cannot complain to the Legal Ombudsman about a bill IF you have asked for our bill to be assessed by the Court.

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:

No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or

No more than one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint;

and

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint.

Contact details:
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
Call 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm.
Relay UK: 18001 0300 555 0333
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO BOX 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH