Published April 2024
You may have asked for our complaints procedure or you may be receiving this because you have experienced a problem with our service.
If you have experienced a problem, thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We will do our best to address any dissatisfaction that you have experienced in using the services of this firm. Our primary objective is to put things right.
We are committed to providing a high-quality service to our clients. This includes a commitment to putting things right when they go wrong. This policy explains how we will deal with any complaint.
Our complaints partner is Steve Foster. You can contact him by post at this office, or by e-mail at steve.foster@fosterandcoleman.com. It is helpful if you put your concerns into writing, but if you would prefer not to, or if you would find it difficult to do so, he can be contacted by phone at (0)208 138 1575.
If you have special needs which we should take into account due to language or disability, please let us know.
To explain to you how long our process might take we have included our target times for each stage of the process. Where, for any reason, it is not possible to observe any of these limits we will let you know and explain why.
If you do not agree with the outcome of our complaints process, or we fail to investigate it within 8 weeks, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of our final response to your complaint.
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.
The address is Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH, telephone 0300 555 0333 or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
You may alternatively contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) if you have concerns as to whether we have breached any of their professional rules for solicitors or 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.
Details will be found at www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/principles and the SRA can be contacted at The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN, or by email to contactcentre@sra.org.uk.
| Action | Timescale |
|---|---|
| Acknowledge the complaint in writing and send a copy of the complaints procedure | Within two working days |
| Invite you to a meeting or to discuss the issues by telephone | Within two working days |
| Confirm the outcome of the meeting or telephone conversation in writing | Within three working days of the meeting/telephone conversation |
| Investigate the issues | Within 14 days of receiving the complaint |
| If a meeting/telephone discussion is not possible or required: Investigate the issues and write to you with the outcome |
Within 21 days |
| Review and close the complaint | Within 8 weeks of receiving the complaint |