SHB Solicitors Limited trading as SALUSBURY HARDING & BARLOW COMPLAINTS POLICY/PROCEDURE
Our complaints policy
We are committed to providing quality legal services and advice 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, please provide us with the details and tell us how you would prefer to be contacted, both to acknowledge receipt of your complaint and to respond more fully to it. For example this could be by telephone, letter or email.
We will not charge you for investigating your complaint.
Our complaints partner
Our complaints partner is Mr Steven McCallister.
In the event that a complaint is made against Mr McCallister the complaint will be investigated by one of the other partners.
What will happen next?
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We will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within two working days of receiving it and we will provide you with a copy of our complaints policy/procedure.
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We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to, Mr Clive Cook, who will review the relevant file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
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Mr Cook may send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 20 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
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Alternatively Mr Cook may telephone you or invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 16 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
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After any such telephone call or meeting, Mr Cook will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that he has agreed with you.
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At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should let our Mr Cook know and we will arrange for another partner in the firm to review his decision.
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We will write to you within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
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If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
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If you are still not satisfied, at the end of our complaints procedure, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ about your complaint.
A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made:
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Within 6 months of receiving our final response to your complaint
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and
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No more than 1 year from the date of the act or omission being complained about
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or
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No more than 1 year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint
The Legal Ombudsman’s service is only available to certain types of client, and details about this can be found on their website or by making an enquiry with the service.
For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman whose details are:
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm.
Relay UK: 18001 0300 555 0333
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO BOX 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Complaints in relation to bills:
The complaints procedure above also applies to complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of that bill.
If you suspect professional misconduct or a regulatory breach:
If your complaint is about behaviour that you believe falls into the above categories, you may have a right to complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This could be about actions such as dishonesty, financial loss and money mismanagement or discrimination.
For further information in such cases you should contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority at The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN, or on 0370 606 2555 or at report@sra.org.uk .