Our Complaints policy
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we would appreciate it if you tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.
Our Complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. This can be done by letter, fax or email. If you want to complain by telephone initially, we will need you to put details of your complaint in writing. This should be addressed directly to Sarah Leonard our Practice Manager in the first instance. She can be reached by email at Sarah.Leonard@lbmw.com by fax on 020 7799 2781.
What will happen next?
- We will send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and we may request further details from you. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter or email confirmation within five working days of us receiving your complaint.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint.
- This will normally involve the following steps.
- We will obtain the relevant file.
- We will ask the member of staff who acted for you to report on the same.
- We will ask a relevant partner to start to investigate your complaint.
- We will then contact you.
- Normally we are able to complete all the steps in paragraph 3 above within a period of 15 working days from the date when we receive your complaint.
- If the reply (and the proposed action if any) are not satisfactory to you, the relevant partner will then invite you to a meeting and discuss, we hope, resolve your complaint. He will do this within five working days. You can request any other person to attend that meeting if required.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you are invited to contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision.
- If you are still unsatisfied with the results of the enquiry and the handling of your complaint you will be able to appeal against the decision by making a reference to the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is an entirely independent body operated by the Office for Legal Complaints. For more information in this respect you can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 alternatively contact us directly for further details.
Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 6 months of the date of our final decision on your complaint and no later than one year from the date of the act, or from when you should have realised there was an issue.
The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority may also be able to help you if you are concerned about any misconduct by us. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, disability or other characteristic(s).
- You can visit the SRA’s website to see how you can raise any such concerns using the following link: Solicitors Regulation Authority.