Complaints Procedure
Your partner in every legal step
At Thomson & Bancks Solicitors our aim is to provide the highest standards of client care.
A substantial majority of our clients have no complaint and are very pleased with the service we provide. However, we are not complacent and always wish to know if you are unhappy with any aspect of our services.
On this page:
If You Have a Complaint
If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about our charges, the first step is to speak to the person who has been dealing with your matter. Most issues can be resolved quickly and amicably at this stage.
If the issue cannot be resolved to your liking or you wish to deal with someone else, please contact Paul Johnson, Managing Partner, on 01684 299633 or by post to our office address 34 Church Street, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, GL20 5SN.
What will happen next?
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 2 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure (unless the information has already been provided to you). We will then have 8 weeks to resolve your complaint.
We will investigate your complaint. Paul Johnson will review your file which might include speaking to any other members of staff who have been involved in your matter.
The investigation might also involve inviting you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. We will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. Within three days of any meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that were agreed with you.
If you do not want a meeting or where we feel that a written response would be most helpful to you, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
Appealing the decision to another Partner at Thomson & Bancks Solicitors
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our investigation, you may contact us again and we will arrange for a Partner unconnected with the matter to review the decision.
We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint, and explaining our reasons.
Timescales
If it is not possible to deal with your complaint in this timeframe, we will inform you of the delay and the reasons. However, we will do our best to resolve the matter as soon as practicable.
Charges
Please be assured there are no charges for the conduct of a complaints investigation.
The Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman is an independent ombudsman scheme that resolves complaints about lawyers. The Legal Ombudsman accepts complaints from individuals and small businesses, charities, or associations. The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
BT NGT Lite: 18001 0300 555 0333
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
TIME LIMITS
Complain to Thomson & Bancks Solicitors first. We will have 8 weeks to resolve your complaint. If you are not satisfied you will have 6 months from our final response within which to complain to the Ombudsman. You will need to contact the Legal Ombudsman within 1 year of the issue you are complaining about or, if it was longer ago, within 1 year of you finding out about the issue.
The Legal Ombudsman will retain an exceptional discretion to extend the 1-year time limit but only where it is fair and reasonable to do so. The Legal Ombudsman has a discretion to exclude new issues from being added to an ongoing investigation if they were known at the time the investigation began but were not included in the complaint at that time. The circumstances in which a discretion can be exercised will be decided by the Legal Ombudsman.
Information Commissioner’s Office
The Information Commissioner’s Office deals with complaints regarding privacy or mis-use and handling of personal data. You can complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s office, the contact details are:
Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk
Other Options
You may have the right to complain about or challenge a bill by applying for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 but please note that the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about the bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of the bill.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. For example, if you are concerned that our treatment of you has broken the law. The SRA can help clients, or take action itself, when solicitors tell lies, steal, shut down without notice or break SRA rules. The SRA web site contains guidance as to how to report a Solicitor. You can also report a firm or someone regulated by the SRA for non-payment of professional fees (such as agent or expert fees) if you have a County Court judgment in respect of the fee, and the judgment relates to the practice in connection with providing a legal service. There are some issues the SRA do not investigate. However, the SRA will always consider allegations of dishonesty or discrimination. For guidance on the complaints process, call the SRA contact centre.
Telephone: 0370 606 2555
Website: www.sra.org.uk
Post: SRA at The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN.
Conclusion
If you have any questions about our complaints procedure, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please rest assured we take your concerns seriously and we will seek to resolve any problems as quickly and openly as we can.