Complaints procedure

1. We will send a written or electronic acknowledgement of a complaint within five business days of receipt, giving the name or job title of the individual handling the complaint, together with details of our internal complaints handling procedures.
2. We will, within four weeks of receiving a complaint, send you either:
   • a final response; or
   • a holding response, which will explain why we are not yet in a position to resolve the complaint and indicates when we will make further contact (which will be within eight weeks of receipt of the complaint)
3. We will, by the end of eight weeks after receipt of the complaint, send you either:
   • a final response; or
   • a response which:
     explains why we are still not in a position to make a final response, gives reasons for the further delay and indicates when we expect to be able to provide a final response; and informs you that you may refer the handling of the complaint to the Claims Management Regulator if you are dissatisfied with the delay.
4. We may decline to consider a complaint that is made more than six months after you became aware of the cause of the complaint.

1. We will send a written or electronic acknowledgement of a complaint within five business days of receipt asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive a letter within 7 days of us receiving the complaint. We will send a written or electronic acknowledgement of a complaint within five business days of receipt, giving the name and job title of the individual handling the complaint, together with details of our internal complaints handling procedures.
2. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps. We may ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within seven days. We may examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. We may then ask them for more information. This will take up to 21 days from receiving their reply and the file.
3. We will write to you within 21 days of receiving all the details we need from the member of staff who acted for you.
4. Within 7 days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is impossible we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. This will happen within 7 days of us completing our investigation.
5. 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:
   
   • Louise Fletcher will review her own decision within 14 days.
   • We will arrange for another director of the firm who not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 24 days.
   • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.
6. We will let you know the result of the review within 14 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. We will also give you the name and address of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors. If you are still not satisfied you can contact them about your complaint. If we have to change any of the timescales set out above we will let you know and explain why.