Complaints Policy

We always try to deliver a high quality service. However, If you are unhappy with any aspect of the service which is being provided to you, we will need to know.

We will investigate all complaints or an expression of dissatisfaction. Initially, if possible, we would ask that any concerns are made known to the person who has conduct of your matter, but if you feel that is not possible or you have done so and it remains unresolved, then your complaint should be addressed to the Client Care Partner, whose details are set out below. You can make your complaint by telephone, email or letter, although we may ask you to confirm the details of your complaint in writing if made initially by telephone.

Client Care Partner: Roy Rollings – telephone number: 01509 232611 and email reception@bwslaw.co.uk.

Once we have received your complaint this will be acknowledged by letter or email within 5 working days. We will confirm who is investigating your complaint (if it is someone other than the Client Care Partner). We may also ask for any additional information which might assist in our investigation of your complaint.

Whenever possible your complaint will be investigated by our Client Care Partner unless it is not practicable for him to do so (for example, due to absence from the office, or where he may be the subject of your complaint). We will always seek to have your complaint investigated by someone who has not had any involvement in the matter giving rise to your complaint.

We will aim to complete our investigation of your complaint and respond to it within 4 weeks of receipt of your complaint. We will then do one of the following:

• Provide you with our final response to your complaint in writing; or
• Write to you to explain that further time is required to complete our investigation and explain why that is necessary.

By no later than 6 weeks after the receipt of your complaint, we will do one of the following:

• Send you our final response; or
• Confirm that we are not in a position to let you have our final response, but we will invite your comments and also confirm what other remedies you may have if you are not in agreement to the additional time requested to complete our investigation.

When we provide you with our final response, this will be made in writing which will confirm the following:

• The outcome of the investigation; and
• Any proposal we may have to offer compensation if appropriate; or
• Any explanation as to why we are not making any offer;
• What further remedies there may be available to you.

We would ask you to respond to our final letter within 21 days. If we do not hear from you we shall assume that your complaint has been satisfactorily resolved.

If at the conclusion of our Complaints Procedure you remain dissatisfied, then you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (which is an independent complaints body) who will deal with your complaint.

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman will ask whether you have tried to resolve your complaint through our internal Complaints Procedure set out above.

You must make any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no more than 1 year from the date of any act or omission of which you complain, or no more than 1 year from when you should have reasonably known that there was cause for complaint.

Details of the Legal Ombudsman, who can be contacted by post, email or telephone, are as follows:

Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH., telephone 0300 555 0333, email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

There are certain types of complaint which the Legal Ombudsman does not have the power to deal with and details of those can be found at https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

Please note that if you consider that there has been professional misconduct or a regulatory breach then those matters should be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, whose details are set out below.

If you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity or that they have breached professional rules, you also have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit:

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

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN, telephone: 0370 606 2555, email: report@sra.org.uk.