Should you have a complaint about any aspect of the way your case has been handled, the following procedures are available to you.

1. You should make the complaint to the Fee Earner who is managing your file.

2. The Fee Earner shall make contact with you within 24 hours to arrange an interview with you within seven days of making contact, and to record the details of the complaint. They shall, with your consent, try to resolve your complaint informally and to your satisfaction.

3. Should you decide not to accept this informal way of dealing with your complaint you may at stage 2 ask to be referred to the Principal Bibi Gadwah. She will then:

• Review your file and the complaint;
• Make contact with you within three days;
• Arrange an interview with you within seven days of making contact;
• Investigate the complaint;
• Respond to you with his recommendations for resolution, attaching any written information received from you within twenty-eight days of his first contact with you.

4. At this stage, if you do not feel the complaint is resolved the Principal may:

• Seek further detail from you and/or the Fee Earner against whom the complaint is made, to respond to you within five days with his recommendations for resolution;
• Within five days, ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint. We will let you know how long this process will take.

5. Once you have exhausted the complaints procedure, you are also entitled to seek a review of your complaint by the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made:

• within 6 months of receiving a final response from us to your complaint; and
• within 6 years of the date that the issue about which you are complaining arose; or no more than 3 years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

6. The contact details of the Legal Ombudsman are:

Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ;

Tel – 0300 555 0333;

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk;

E-mail – enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

7. All solicitors must attempt to resolve problems that may arise with their services. It is therefore important that you immediately raise any concerns that you may have with us.  We value you and would not wish to think that you have any reasons to be unhappy with us.

8. In accordance with our written complaints procedure, you have a right to complain about a bill to our Client Care Department. If your matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors’ Act 1974, s.70, s.71 and s.72.

9. If you are unhappy about the way we manage your personal information, you have a right to object to the Information Commissioner: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Chesire SK9 5AF; telephone: 0303 123 1113; https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/