We aim for complete satisfaction with our legal services

Allerton & Gladstone Solicitors

We are committed to provide 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 improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, write to us with the details.

What will happen next?

We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person, the Designated Complaints Handler ('DCH') who will normally be a senior partner/director/lawyer at the firm, and who will be personally dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within seven days of us receiving your complaint.

We will record your complaint in our Central Register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within seven days of receiving your complaint. We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within seven days of your reply.

This stage of the complaints process is normally expected to be completed in 14 days.

We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:

1. The DCH will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within seven days.
2. The DCH will then examine the reply and the information in your complaint file. If necessary, the DCH will speak to the staff member.
3. This will take up to seven days from receiving the reply and the file.
4. The DCH will then invite you to meet them and discuss, and we hope, resolve your complaint. They will do this within seven days of step 3 concluding.
5. Within seven days of the meeting the DCH will write to you to confirm what took place and any solution they have agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the DCH will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include their suggestions for resolving the matter. They will do this within seven days of completing their investigations.

This stage of the complaints process is normally expected to be completed in 28 days.

At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:

• Another senior partner/director/lawyer of the firm will review DCH's decision within 14 days;
• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within 14 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
• We will let you know the result of the review within seven days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  

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

We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman (LEO). If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint. The LEO will normally investigate complaints within 12 months from the act/omission complained of or 12 months from you realising the cause of your complaint. You must refer to the LEO within six months of the date of our written response to your complaint. Please be aware that the Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or date of awareness was before 6 October 2010. The LEO may consider it appropriate to refer the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The address for the Legal Ombudsman is:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH

Helpline: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombusdman.org.uk

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you 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.

You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

If you are unhappy about how the LEO or SRA have dealt with your complaint you can complain to the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO), who is responsible for dealing with complaints about legal professional bodies. The address for the Legal Services Ombudsman is:

Legal Services Ombudsman

3rd Floor Sunlight House

Quay Street

Manchester

M3 3JZ

Helpline: 0845 601 0794

Email: lso@olso.gsi.gov.uk

In addition to directing a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (LEO) you will be able to refer your dispute for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). There are three Institutions available to deal with disputes in the legal services sector, namely the Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation. If required, we will provide contact details for those mediation services.