Our Complaints Procedure
If you are dissatisfied with the service received or if you are dissatisfied with regard to a charge on a bill received, please first contact the member of staff who is dealing with your matter and they will try to resolve your concerns informally. Our aim will always be to deal with your concerns as quickly as possible and without recourse to any formal complaints procedure, if that is possible.
If it is clear that you remain dissatisfied, the member of staff will inform you of the existence of our formal complaints procedure by sending you a copy of this procedure.
Stage 1
You should write to Shah Jahir Ali our Complaints Partner; and by email to s.ali@wslegal.co.uk or post and clearly mark your letter “formal complaint”. Please outline the cause of your dissatisfaction and if possible, the action you would like us to take in order to remedy that dissatisfaction.
Stage 2
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five working days and inform you of the name of the person who is dealing with your complaint. In order to obtain an independent and objective view, we may outsource stage 2 to an independent complaints handler. Your complaint will be acknowledged by them within 5 working days of receipt and a thorough investigation undertaken within 14 days of identifying and agreeing your heads of complaints with you. We will record your complaint in our central register which is reviewed regularly by the firm.
Stage 3
The person investigating the complaint will have full access to all the information and personnel that they require to investigate your complaint properly. They may contact you directly to discuss and confirm your heads of complaints and request any further information from you to assist the investigation.
We will ask the person investigating the complaint to recommend the action which they believe would be recommended by the Legal Ombudsman if the complaint was referred to their office.
Stage 4
The person investigating your complaint will provide you with a detailed assessment report together with their recommendations to resolve the complaint, if any, a copy of which will be first forwarded to our Partner for review. If the complaint is outsourced, we will generally follow their recommendations made but if we think they are not appropriate we will explain our reasons to you.
We have 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint to fully investigate and provide our final response to you.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will contact you to explain why.
You will not be charged for our time spent dealing with a complaint internally.
Stage 5 — the Legal Ombudsman
If you are still not satisfied once our complaints process has finished, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to look at your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman is independent of this firm and its service is free. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by any of the following methods:
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
In writing: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
The Legal Ombudsman’s service is only available to members of the public, very small businesses, charities, clubs and trusts. If you are unclear about your position, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman direct to clarify whether or not they can deal with your complaint.
You have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of our complaints process. The Legal Ombudsman’s time limits for accepting a complaint are:
- within six months of receiving our final written response to your complaint; and
- 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 reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
Alternative complaints bodies such as ProMediate (www.promediate.co.uk) exist, which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. Waterstone Legal does not agree to use ProMediate, as we prefer the Legal Ombudsman’s clear adjudication process.
Complaints About Fees
If you are dissatisfied with our bill, you have the right to apply to the High Court for an assessment of our charges by an Officer of the Court under ss. 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974. We hope that before making such an application you would first use our complaints procedure explained above.
Complaints About Misconduct
If you have any concerns about any misconduct or breach of the SRA Code of Conduct by our firm such as taking or losing your money, dishonesty or discrimination, you can also report the matter to our regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their details are:
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
Telephone: 0370 606 2555
Online: Reporting a solicitor or firm to the SRA
How to contact us about a complaint
Telephone (London): +44 (0)20 7063 9040
Telephone (Leicester): +44 (0)116 393 0334
Email: enquiries@wslegal.co.uk
In writing, London: 2nd Floor, 2–5 Minories, London EC3N 1BJ
In writing, Leicester: 3rd Floor, St George’s House, 6 St George’s Way, Leicester LE1 1QZ