We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to sort out any mistakes or misunderstandings, and to improve our standards.
Initial concerns
In most cases, an informal chat with the lawyer responsible for your matter will resolve your concerns.
If it does not, you can formalise your complaint or speak to someone other than the lawyer responsible for your matter. Our complaints partner J.N. Richards can record everything you are unhappy about and recommend the best solution for you. You can contact J.N. Richards at joanne.turner@rthlaw.co.uk and/or tracey.messenger@rthlaw.co.uk .
What we need to know
To deal with your complaint correctly, it would be helpful when contacting us if you could provide the following information:
Your name, contact details and preferred contact method
File reference number
Details of your concerns
How you would like us to put things right.
What will happen next?
If you telephone us, we will endeavour to resolve the issue in that call.
If you email or write to us, or if your complaint cannot be resolved in a phone call, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within two days of receiving it.
We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve our complaints partner reviewing your file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you.
Within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter our complaints partner will invite you to a meeting to discuss and resolve your complaint. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, our complaints partner may instead offer you a chance to discuss the matter by telephone.
Within three days of the meeting, or any telephone conversation we have with you instead of a meeting, our complaints partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
In any case he will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including [his/her] suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the written acknowledgement of your complaint referred to above.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner to review the decision.
We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
If we have to change any of these timescales, we will let you know and explain why.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
If you have exhausted our internal escalation process yet remain dissatisfied, or a period of eight weeks has expired since we acknowledged your complaint without our final response being received, you are entitled to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman will look at the complaint independently and any investigation by them will not affect how we handle your case. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve the complaint with us in the first instance. We will always be happy to discuss your issues further, prior to you going down this route, if you wish to do so.
For complaints about our service, including billing issues, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman via one of the methods below:
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
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.
Note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman.
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) can help 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.
If a complaint cannot be resolved, you may also be able to ask for it to be referred to a process of alternative dispute resolution using a certified provider. We are not required to agree to such a request. In any case this is not available to businesses, only consumers. We will give you more information about that right if it becomes relevant.