We value your business and do not wish you to have any reason to be unhappy with us. We are confident of providing a high-quality service. It is therefore important that you raise any concerns you may have with us immediately so that we may address them. This will help us to improve our standards.
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 (or if you would rather not contact the person dealing with your matter about your concerns you can contact one of our Directors whose contact details are on Our People page. 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.
In most cases an informal chat with the person handling your matter will resolve your concerns. If it does not and you remain dissatisfied, you can speak to another Director about your concerns or if you wish to formalise your complaint you can contact our Complaints Director Stacey Pocock on 01246 956442 or at stacey.pocock@cmp.legal A copy of this Complaints Handling Policy may be provided to you at this stage.
Our procedures for handling any formal complaints are:
Stage 1 –
If you have previously spoken with the Complaints Director, she may have asked you to detail your complaint in writing but in any event, you should write to our Complaints Director; and clearly mark your letter “formal complaint”. Alternatively, we can provide you with a ‘Client Complaint Form’. Please outline the cause of your dissatisfaction and if possible, the action you would like us to take to remedy that dissatisfaction. Please also confirm the file reference number (if you have it) and your contact details (email, address, telephone number).
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 (if it is anyone other than the Complaints Director). We will record your complaint in our central register which is reviewed regularly by the firm. We will also provide you with a copy of this Complaints Handling Policy of we have not done so already.
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 or request any further information from you to assist the investigation. They may ask to meet you to discuss your complaint and although you are not obliged to agree to any request to meet, it may be helpful in establishing the facts and finding an acceptable solution for you.
Stage 4 –
The person investigating your complaint will provide you with a report of their findings together with any recommendations to resolve the complaint, within 20 working days of receipt of your complaint (where we have not requested further information from you) or 20 working days from receipt of any further information we have asked you to supply.
We have 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint to fully investigate and provide our final response to you.
If we must 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.
If at any point you are unhappy with how your complaint is being handled or the time frame, we have set out for you then please contact us immediately.
Stage 5 –
Whilst we will try our best to deal with any complaints to your satisfaction, if you remain unhappy you can ask us to review our decision. Any request for a review should be made to the person dealing with your complaint however the review will be undertaken by a Director who has not previously been involved in your complaint. We would aim to deal with any review and notify you of the outcome within 14 days of receipt of your request for a review.
Stage 6 –
If we have been unable to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction or if we have not dealt with it within 8 weeks, you can refer the matter the to the Legal Ombudsman by one of the following methods:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Overseas: +44 12 245 3050
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
In writing: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
The Ombudsman service is only available to members of the public, very small businesses, charities, clubs and trusts. If you are unclear about your position, then you should contact the Legal Ombudsman direct to clarify whether they can deal with your complaint. Alternatively, please refer to the Legal Ombudsman’s scheme rules which are available by clicking on the following link:
http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/downloads/documents/publications/Scheme-Rules.pdf
You have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of our complaints process providing you do so within 6 months of the date of our final written response.
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.
Complaints About Fees
If you are dissatisfied with our bill, you also 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. There are strict time limits for making any application. We hope that before making such an application you would first use our complaints procedure explained above. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have already applied to the Court for an assessment of that bill.
Complaints about misconduct
If you have any concerns about any misconduct or breach of our professional obligations 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
Website: http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page