D &N Solicitors is committed to providing a high quality legal advice and client care. Occasionally however things can go wrong. If something does go wrong we need you to tell us about it? This will help us to improve our standards. A copy of complaints handling procedure is set out below.
OUR COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE
If you have a concern or a complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed. Initially it would be preferable to address your complaint to the fee earner who dealt with your matter, but otherwise you may address your complaint to the Client Care Partner, Mr Sanjay Nena on 01902 954755 and s.nena@dn-solicitors.co.uk or by post to our office at 15 King Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1ST.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- 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.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve Mr. Nena, reviewing your file and speaking with the member of staff who acted for you.
- Alternatively, we may outsource the complaint to an independent complaints handler for an objective view.The person investigating your complaint will send you a detailed written reply to your compliant, including their suggestions for resolving the matter, within 28 days of confirming and agreeing on your heads of complaints with you. Please note that if we have to change any of the timescales set out above, we will let you know and explain why.
WHAT TO DO IF WE CANNOT RESOLVE YOUR COMPLAINT
If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at P.O. Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH: telephone : 0300 555 0333; email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
The Legal Ombudsman may be able to help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at complaints independently and accessing the Ombudsman will not affect how we handle your case. Most ‘consumer’ clients (as oppose to large businesses) will be able to make use of the Ombudsman scheme however there are restrictions for some larger clients. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will normally check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
- ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTIONAlternative complaints bodies, such as ProMediate UK Ltd (www.promediate.co.uk) exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and the firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not usually agree to use schemes such as those operated by ProMediate UK Ltd as we believe the Legal Ombudsman is better equipped to resolve complaints against legal firms.
Note: If we entered into a contract for the provision of services with you online you may also be entitled to use the EU Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform at http://ec.europa.eu/odr to assist in resolving matters. The Platform will direct you to various Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) specialists who are competent to deal with complaints about legal service [e.g. www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk] however we should point out that this firm does not ordinarily use such schemes and relies upon the services of the Legal Ombudsman to resolve such matters.
- Objecting to our bill(s) You may have the right to object to our bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
- Non-payment to our bill(s) You should be aware that the firm may be entitled to charge interest if all or part of our bill(s) remains unpaid.
- 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 any concerns about the above direct with the Solicitors Regulation Authority by following this link https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/
