Hayman Solicitors’ Complaints Procedure

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to maintain and improve our standards and restore goodwill.

If you have a complaint, contact us with the details in writing setting out the basis of your complaint clearly. We will provide you with a copy of our complaints procedure, if we have not already done so.

What will happen next?

1. We will acknowledge your complaint and invite you to meet with the fee earner who acted for you, to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
    
2. If you remain dissatisfied your complaint will be investigated by another fee earner in the practice. They will acknowledge your complaint and ask you to provide full details of your complaint, if you have not already done so.
    
3. Your complaint will be recorded in our central register and a separate file for your complaint will be opened.
    
4. You will be invited to a meeting, if you do not wish to attend or a meeting is not possible, we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details.

We will also let you know who will be dealing with your complaint.

You can expect to receive our letter within 10 days of receiving your complaint.

5. Once we receive your response, we will acknowledge your reply and confirm what will happen next.

You can expect to hear from us within 10 days of your reply.

6. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve one or more of the following steps:

• The fee earner assigned will consider your complaint again. We will then send you a detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. We will do this within 10 days
• Or, we may ask you to provide further information.

7. Within 5 working days of the meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions, which have agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint, this will include our suggestions for resolving the matter.

8. We have 8 weeks to consider your complaint. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us within that timeframe, then you may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. 

   Please be aware that any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 6 months of you having received a final written response from us about your complaint. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 1 year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring, or within 1 year from when you should have known about or become aware that there were further grounds for complaint.

   If in doubt, please refer to their website www.legalombudsman.org.uk or contact them on 0300 555 0333. They can also be contacted by email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Complaints about a bill

You may have the right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.If all or part of the bill remains unpaid the firm is entitled to charge interest and late payment charges for each communication sent chasing the settlement of the bill at £32.00 plus VAT.

Please note that this procedure is conducted free of charge.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, I will let you know and explain why.

HAYMAN SOLICITORS