As part of our ongoing commitment to treat our clients fairly and in an entirely transparent manner, we will inform you of our complaints procedure as follows:-

• at the outset of your matter included in our client care letter, terms and conditions of business
• at various stages during your matter and;
• if we become aware that you may have raised concerns or expressed dissatisfaction with our service. 

If you have a complaint about your case, please contact us as soon as you feel there is something wrong.  A Complaint may be raised with us, either informally or formally.  All complaints will be handled in accordance with this procedure. We will respond to any concerns you raise quickly and efficiently.

How to make a complaint

Your complaint must in the first instance be addressed to Patricia White either by letter to Tower House Business Centre, Fishergate, York, YO104UA, email to patriciaw@pw-la.co.uk , or telephone call to 01904 217184.  If by letter or email this should marked ‘Complaint’.

Due to the regulation of legal services, in the first instance you should make your complaint to us within 6 months of the date at which it comes to your attention that you have concerns about our services, this may be from the date of the last correspondence you receive from us or 1 year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurred. However, if you become aware after the expiry of 6 months that there are circumstances arising about the service that we have provided you, which you wish to complain to us about please contact us.

If you have any special needs to enable you to bring your complaint to us, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate them.

To help us make sure we have understood your complaint, and not miss anything, please tell us:

• your full name, contact details and any reference number you may have for your case.
• what you think we have done wrong; and
• what do you think we should do to put things right.

How we will deal with your complaint

We will handle complaint fairly, transparently and in a timely manner, keeping you informed of progress throughout the process. 

We have up to 8 weeks to consider your complaint and will deal with it as quickly as possible. We will not charge you for handling your complaint but please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is not paid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding.   

Our Investigation Process

Stage 1

1.  We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 working days from the date we receive your communication, and it will be recorded in our central register.   All complaints, will be recorded in our central register, and a file will be opened.
2.  We will provide you with a copy of this complaints procedure which explains how your complaint will be handled. If you have any questions about the procedure please do not hesitate to ask.

3. Patricia White will fully investigate your complaint and will provide a substantive response within 28 working days from the date of our letter of acknowledgement. 4. If your complaint is particularly complex, we may have to change the standard timescales.  We will explain the reason for this and provide you with an updated timescale.

5. We may be able to deal with the matter in a phone call, or we may need to carry out a detailed review of your case.   We may also request documents from you and want to arrange a meeting with you to discuss the complaint.  Where further information is required, we will explain what is needed and keep you informed of the progress.

6. In all cases we will write to you with a detailed reply to your complaint to tell you about the outcome within 4 working days of completion of our investigation, setting out our decision, the reason for it and any remedies or next steps.   

 Stage 2

7. Upon completion of the Stage 1 above, if you remain dissatisfied, we will give you the opportunity to have your complaint reviewed.  When contacting us please explain why you continue to be dissatisfied.   We will also invite you to discuss the matter with us if it appears that this may resolve your concerns. We will explain the scope of the review and how it will be conducted.

8. Within 5 working days of a meeting, where one is held, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.

9. Within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review, (where a meeting has been held, within 14 working days of that meeting) we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. 

How we will learn from complaints 

We will record, review and analyse complaints to identify trends, improve our service and inform training to reduce the recurrence.

 Alternative Dispute Resolution

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies such as ProMediate of Brow Farm, Top Road, Frodsham WA6 6SP, www.prometiate.co.uk exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. Currently we do not agree to using an ADR scheme as we believe our own in-house investigation supported where necessary by that provided independently by the Legal Ombudsman and CILEx Regulation is sufficient.

 What happens if your complaint is not resolved by us?

Legal Ombudsman

If we have not resolved it, within 8 weeks you may be able to have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman.  The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints relating to poor service, but before accepting a complaint for investigation the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, and you are not satisfied with the outcome, then you can take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

• Within six months of receiving a final response from us to your complaint and
• No more than one year from the date of the act / omission that gave rise to the complaint; or
• No more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman please contact them:

Contact details:

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

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Other types of complaints

Complaints about a client’s rights under the General Data Protection Regulation must be submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk.

Any disputes or legal issues arising from our Client Care and Terms of Business will be determined by the laws of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.