Policy statement
We are fully committed to providing the highest standards of advice and service to our clients by working in partnership with them.
Our clients are our most valuable asset and our aim is to ensure that we deliver a client-friendly, robust, reliable and cost-effective legal service to them.
Our fee-earners have a great reputation in the legal market and we strive to build long-standing, trusted relationships with all of our clients. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and our Treating Clients Fairly Policy is designed to ensure that we consistently deliver fair outcomes to our clients; in line with the SRA’s Code of Conduct.
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.
Our services
In delivering our commitment to Treat Clients Fairly, we make every effort to ensure that our clients are totally satisfied with the legal service they receive and we endeavour to:
- make any and all possible accommodations for clients with individual needs so as that they are not at any disadvantage
- ensure that clients are able to read any documents sent to them that require their understanding. We facilitate this by proactively providing large type documents for our clients with visual impairment
- communicate with our clients in a way that they will understand, by using ‘plain’ and not ‘legalese’ language
- update our clients regularly on the progress of their matter, especially with updates as to costs, ensuring they understand any potential outlays or fees that may arise
- provide our clients with a high quality legal service by offering highly experienced advisers who are experts in their particular area of work
- work with our clients in an empathetic and personable way, particularly when the matter is emotionally delicate
- operate our Complaints Handling Procedure in an open and fair way, whereby clients are aware of their right to complain to either the firm or Legal Ombudsmen
- ensure that a client or prospective client is treated in a non-discriminatory way that respects diversity
- be flexible in our approach, explore options and be open to new ideas
- inspire and empower our clients for whom we act
- provide practical solutions explained in straightforward language and ‘jargon free’
- Passionate about what we do and the clients that we serve
- Work continually as to how we can enhance and improve our services
- Ensure timely responses and communication at every level in the organisation
- Understand the importance of the client’s matter to them
- Respect clients’ wishes and beliefs
Our approach
Our priority is to provide our clients with an excellent service underpinned by the quality of our advice. We are committed to ensuring that our clients want to use our services, stay with us and recommend us to their families, friends and colleagues.
Our service is shaped by listening to our clients’ needs and understanding what is important to them. We take responsibility for meeting the needs of our clients and always look for way to improve the quality of our service. We operate a rigorous file review system as part of our internal audit procedures as well as regularly conducting client surveys to ensure that we consistently enhance the service levels for the client.
We recognise that our employees are critical to delivering a positive client experience and ensuring our clients are treated fairly. All of our employees are fully trained in dealing with our clients and in treating them fairly.
CONCERNS AND COMPLAINTS
We seek to provide you with the highest standard of service, however, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact Dianne Steene to discuss your concerns and he will do his best to resolve any issues at this stage. If, however, you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure which sets out the steps that you will need to take. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves through our own rigorous complaint process. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
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 we have not been able to reach a resolve, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
- Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
and
- No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
- No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint
The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are:
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am and 5pm
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about any aspect of our professional behaviours, which could include discriminating against you because of your age, disability or other characteristic or not accounting to you for monies provided to us for the conduct of your matter.
This includes putting your complaints policy (updated) on the website but within the context of overall service standards.