Complaints Procedure

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we are providing please let us know and we will do our best to resolve the concern.

Our complaints procedure- In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the Lawyer who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and they will do their best to resolve any issues at this stage.  If the problem cannot be satisfactorily resolved with the Lawyer, please contact the Partner with overall responsibility for your case.  His or her name will be detailed in the original Client Care letter.  If matters still have not been resolved to your satisfaction, please contact Chris Detheridge, our Client Care Officer by:

email clientcare@wmlaw.co.uk or

write to Sequoia House, Anchorage Avenue, Shrewsbury Business Park, Shrewsbury, SY2 6FG

What Will happen next?

1. 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.

 

1. We will investigate your complaint, which will normally involve Mr. Detheridge speaking to the member of staff who acted for you and fully appraising the file.

 

1. Mr. Detheridge will make best endeavours to undertake a full review of the file and once the investigation is complete he will provide a written response to your complaint.  In most circumstances, and wherever possible this will be within 8 weeks of sending the acknowledgement letter (and often much sooner). However, in some circumstances we may ask you to agree to an extended timescale to ensure that complaints are dealt with fairly and with sufficient consideration.

 

1. Wace Morgan will deal with your complaint promptly, fairly and free of charge.

 

In the event of Mr. Detheridge’s absence from the office for any reason your complaint may initially be referred to a Director.

 

If you are not satisfied with the proposed solution or decision then you may refer your complaint to:-

 

Legal Ombudsman,

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH

 

Tel: 0300 555 0333

Minicom text phone user:

18002 0300 555 0333

 

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Email:   enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

 

1. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman will usually allow at least eight weeks for Wace Morgan to resolve the complaint.

 

2. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern.

 

3. There is also a requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or omission or date of awareness was before 6^th October 2010.

 

More information can be found at www.legalombudsman.org.uk

 

4. You can also raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and further guidance is available on the following SRA webpage:-

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems /report-solicitor.page

 

5. The Legal Ombudsman can only deal with complaints from individuals and small businesses, charities, clubs, societies, associations and trusts with a turnover of less than £1million. Clients with a turnover of over £1million still have a right to complain to us about our service and object to their bill using the above process.

 

6. Alternative bodies (such as ProMediate – website: promediate.co.uk) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not agree to use ProMediate, or other alternative bodies, as we are satisfied that the Legal Ombudsman is the appropriate referral body.