Complaints Procedure & Legal Ombudsman

Tuesday 3rd November 2020

HOWARD & OVER LLP 

Complaints Procedure

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.

If you have a complaint, please raise the problem with the lawyer responsible for your matter, or if you prefer our complaints partner Tim Quinn.

What will happen next?

1.           We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within threedays of receiving it.

2.           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.

3.           Within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter our complaints partner will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter writing and offer 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.

4.           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.

5.           At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner or someone unconnected with the matter at the firm to review the decision.

7.           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.

8.           If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ about your complaint.

Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within one year from either the date of the act being complained about or when you realised there was a complaint but for further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333  or at [email protected]

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.

9.           If we have to change any of these timescales we will let you know and explainwhy.