Complaints Procedure

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1. How do I make a complaint?

We ask that you please raise any issue that you have with both the person dealing with your matter and their Head of Department. This information and their details will have been provided to within your terms of business letter. The Head of Department will be responsible for investigating and responding to your complaint.

All complaints will need to be made in writing and we accept letter, email and fax.

So that we can be sure that we are fully aware of your issues, can you please let us know the following within your correspondence;

1. Your full name and contact details
2. Your full explanation of why you are making a complaint
3. What would be your desired outcome from raising this issue
4. Your file reference number (this will be at the top of any communication we have sent to you)

If you would prefer to not raise the issue with the Head of Department, or the complaint is about the Head of Department, then please contact the Managing Partner, Kate Hallin (1 Liverpool Gardens, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1TF |Telephone: 01903 229927 | Email: KLH@bennett-griffin.co.uk).

What to do if you are unhappy with our conduct

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. SRA | Reporting an individual or firm | Solicitors Regulation Authority

What will happen next?

1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within 3 working days of receiving it, and provide you with a copy of this Complaints Resolution Procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. We will review your file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you, and liaise with you, as may be required, for any clarification. We may ask you to set out your concerns in writing so that we are certain that we know exactly what needs to be responded to.
3. If appropriate, we will contact you to discuss matters further with the aim of resolving your complaint. This can be by email, a meeting or over the telephone.
4. Within 10 working days of the acknowledgement, we will write to you with a detailed reply  to  your  complaint  to  confirm  what we have done and what we propose to do to resolve your complaint. If you feel that your complaint remains unresolved and / or you are not happy with the proposals suggested, the matter will be passed to the Managing Partner, who will review and investigate further.
5. The Managing Partner will contact you direct to discuss and if this is our final written response on the matter, we will make that clear.
6. If we have to change any of these timescales we will let you know and explain why, and agree a revised timetable with you. We will do what we can to abide by the timescales above, however we confirm that our investigation and final response will not take longer than 6 weeks.
7. If you are still unhappy, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH, about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within 6 months of the date of our final written response of your complaint, but for further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on Telephone: 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations unless they are below certain size limits. Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman whose website is legalombudsman.org.uk.
8. Please be aware that there is a limitation on when you can pass this matter to the Legal Ombudsman. From the 1st April 2023, it is 1 year from the date of the act that you feel caused your complaint, or 1 year from when you should have reasonably known there is cause for complaint.
9. Alternative Dispute Resolution bodies do exist which can deal with matters if necessary. However, this firm has chosen not to adopt the ADR process and instead we ask that you contact the Legal Ombudsman if you wish to take your complaint further.
10. We confirm that there is no charge for any work we need to undertake to review and investigate your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman service is also free.