Complaints Procedure

McPhersons Complaints Handling Policy

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

What will happen next?

We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the Principal, Gillian Rowe], who will review your matter file and speak to the member of the firm who acted for you.

Gillian will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

Within three days of the meeting, Gillian will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions s/he has agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Gillian will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for Gillian to review her own decision or arrange for review by another local solicitor.

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.

If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the

Legal Ombudsman,
PO Box 6806,
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

about your complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it). For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

The SRA deals with cases where firms or those they regulate have breached its Codes of Conduct. If you consider that the firm or anyone regulated by the SRA has breached those Codes you can report this to the SRA:

The SRA’s contact details are as follows:

Telephone: 0870 606 2555 (UK)
Email: info.services@sra.org.uk
Address:
Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube,
199 Wharfside Street,
Birmingham,
B1 1RN

If you are not a client we will only be able to deal with your complaint if you are alleging that we have acted in breach of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) Codes of Conduct for Solicitors and Firms.

In such circumstances we will ask you to provide full details of the alleged breach before we deal with your complaint. Your complaint should be sent for the attention of Gillian Rowe as above. We will respond as soon as reasonably possible and apologise if we agree there has been a breach.