enquiries@forsterdean.co.uk
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Complaints Policy

FORSTER DEAN LIMITED
COMPLAINTS POLICY & PROCEDURE

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. Our aim is to provide the highest standards of client care at all times. The majority of our clients never have a cause for complaint and are very pleased with the service we provide. However, we are not complacent and would always wish to know if you are unhappy with any aspect of our services. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

Our complaints procedure

If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, 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 can not be resolved to your liking then please contact the relevant Director/Manager of this firm as follows;

For all Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Family and Employment cases, contact Mr Daniel Thompson;
Email – DanielThompson@forsterdean.co.uk or
Telephone – 0151 203 1480

For all Conveyancing matters contact Conveyancing Manager, Mrs Marie Oates;
Email – MarieOates@forsterdean.co.uk or
Telephone – 01928 241362

For all Wills/Probate matters contact Mr William Betts;
Email – WilliamBetts@forsterdean.co.uk or
Telephone – 0151 203 1484

Alternatively you can write to either Mr Daniel Thompson, Mrs Marie Oates or Mr William Betts at our head office address at;
Forster Dean Solicitors

60 Devonshire Place

Runcorn

Cheshire WA7 1AW 

 

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 working days of us receiving the formal complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. Either Mr Daniel Thompson, Mrs Marie Oates or Mr William Betts will review your file which may include speaking with the member/s 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 7 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  3. Within 3 working days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
  4. If you do not want a meeting or if it is not possible, we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 7 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for our Financial Director, Mr. Gareth Casey to review this decision.
  6. We will write to you within 7 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  7. If, following our investigation of your complaint, you remain unhappy with the service provided by the Company, then you may contact the Legal Ombudsman. Their details are:
    Legal OmbudsmanPO Box 6167SloughSL1 0EH
    www.legalombudsman.org.uk
    Telephone: 0300 5550333
    E mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.    The Legal Ombudsman accepts complaints from individuals and small businesses, charities or associations. 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. It will not normally consider complaints that are more than six years old, or where it is three years since the complainant ought to have been aware of the problem. However, this limit is being introduced gradually, and the matter being complained about must have happened on or after 6 October 2010. If the problem happened earlier than this date, you must not have been aware of it before 6 October 2010. You also have the right to complain about or challenge the 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.
  8. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you if you are concerned about the firm’s or any member of it’s staff’s behaviour. The SRA investigate concerns such as dishonesty, unfair treatment due to age, disability or other characteristics. You can raise concerns with the SRA at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page
  9. If we consider the firm or any member of our staff has been guilty of serious misconduct then we shall report such conduct to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in any event.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

Conclusion

This may all sound daunting so 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. We will use the outcome of any complaints to review our processes and improve our service where possible.