Complaints
Our Complaints Policy
We are committed to providing a high-quality service to all our clients. This includes a commitment to putting things right when they go wrong. Your complaint might concern the way in which you have been dealt with, the quality of advice or any invoice that you have received.
Our Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact the person acting for you in the first place. He/she will try to resolve the issue within seven days by phone, in writing or at a face to face meeting. If you are still unhappy please contact our complaint handing partner Tina Virdi and make a formal complaint. You can contact her by post at our office address, or by e-mail at Tina@larkhilllaw.com It is preferable that you put your concerns in writing, but if you would prefer not to, or if you find it difficult to do so for any reason, you can contact us by phone at 0203 7451836
We have included our target times for each stage of the process. Where, for any reason, it is not possible to observe any of these limits we will let you know and explain to why.
What happens after I register a complaint?
On receipt of your complaint Mrs. Virdi will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and may invite you to a meeting to discuss your concerns. She will open a file for your complaint and examine the work we have been doing for you. We would look to acknowledge your complaint within three working days of receiving it and will complete our initial examination within fourteen days.
We may then invite you to a meeting or write to you request further information. Alternatively we may write to you setting out our views on the situation and suggesting any redress that we feel appropriate. We will aim to do this within seven days of completing our investigations.
Where we feel that we have failed in our standards we will offer appropriate redress. Such redress could include an offer of apology, an offer to make corrective action at our cost, or a payment of compensation.
If, by this stage, you are still not satisfied, we request you inform us , preferably within the next 21 days but there is no obligation on to do so. If informed we can consider a review of our decision. We generally aim to do this within ten days of hearing from you. We will usually ask another partner in this firm to review the file that we have on your complaint to see if they agree with our response. We can also ask another firm with whom we may have reciprocal arrangement to have your complaint file reviewed. If you do not wish us to ask another firm to review your complaint you must let us know at that time.
We will let you know the result of the review within seven days of the end of the review and will do so in writing confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining the reasons.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint with us directly . 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, 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 cause for complaint.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them directly. Their Contact details are:
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Complaints to the SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can also help if you are concerned about our actions. This may be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with them by contacting them directly. Their website address is sra.org.uk
We will do our best to address any dissatisfaction that you have experienced. We seek to deliver the best legal solutions to our clients in a professional and honest manner. If we fall short of these standards we will work with you to resolve matters as soon as is feasible.