Complaints Procedure
We will always strive to deliver excellent service to all of our clients and have strict training, policies and procedures in place to help us to achieve these standards. However, we accept that occasionally our clients may not feel happy about an aspect of the service we have provided. Very often any concerns you have can be resolved by speaking to the lawyer who is working on your case and they will be only too happy to explain what they are doing or resolve any issue you have.
In those cases where you remain concerned, I would urge you to follow our complaints procedure as set out below.
Our Procedure
1. Please contact our Compliance Team in the first instance. They can be contacted:
a. by letter to Guild Chambers, 4 Winckley Square, Preston PR1 3JJ;
b. by email to compliance@vslaw.co.uk; or
c. by telephone on the main office number 01772 555176.
2. We will record your complaint on our central register and allocate it to our Compliance Team who will acknowledge your complaint within two days of receipt.
3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve:
a. The relevant head of department reviewing your file and meeting with their team member to get an understanding of the facts of your case; and / or
b. A letter or phone call from the head of department to you requesting clarification of any points you have made.
4. You should receive a full response to your complaint from the Compliance Team within 28 days, except where we consider an urgent response is required to enable progression of your case or if further investigations are required in which case we will advise you of the revised timescale when it becomes clear and explain the reasons for those timescales to you.
5. Once we have responded to your complaint, if appropriate, we will arrange a meeting with our Compliance Team to discuss our findings and, it is hoped, to resolve your complaint.
6. If a meeting is held we will write to you within 5 days of the meeting to confirm what took place and any suggestions we have agreed with you.
7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to me requesting that I review our Compliance Team’s decision.
8. If you make such a request I will write to you within 21 days with my decision and if appropriate, invite you to a meeting with me to discuss my findings.
9. If you remain unhappy with the outcome you can write to me to request independent mediation. We will let you know what this entails and how long this process will take.
10. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Tel: 0300 555 0333
E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of our final written response or within six months of the act or omission about which you are complaining (or if outside this period) within 1 year of when you should reasonably have become aware of it.
11. We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. If you think that Vincents Solicitors or any individual within the firm has breached any of the SRA Principles then you may report the issue directly to our regulator and you can find more details on how and when to report an issue to them on their website www.sra.org.uk.
12. The SRA does not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees. If your report relates to these issues you will be signposted back to the Legal Ombudsman.
Phillip Gilmore
Managing Director