We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the individual who is working on your case to discuss any concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can access our full complaints procedure here. Making a complaint about a service issue will not affect how we handle your case.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. 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,
- Not later than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
- Not later than one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint.
- There may be circumstances where the Legal Ombudsman has a discretion to accept out of time complaints, please refer to the Legal Ombudsman's web site for further details at www.legalombudsman.org.uk
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman please contact them:
Contact details:
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our any non-service aspect of the firm. This includes any issue that you believe should be considered by the professional regulator of solicitors.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority at www.sra.org.uk
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.
How to make a complaint
If you have a complaint, please contact Mr Malcolm Dickson, our Complaints Partner.
Means of contact are as follows:
By post: 62 High Street, Steyning, West Sussex, BN44 3RD
By email: malcolm.dickson@gwca.co.uk
By telephone: 01903 814190
We may be able to simply address your complaint by telephone but otherwise we would require you to put your complaint in writing.
What will happen next?
- We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 4 days.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint.
- We will ask you to provide (if you have not already) details of your complaint and provide any supporting documentation.
- We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will involve the following steps:
We will ask the fee earner who acted for you to respond to your complaint
We will examine the transaction file and may ask you or the fee earner to provide more information
- We will then provide you with our response to your complaint in writing. If we consider the complaint to be upheld we will include our apologies and suggestions for resolution.
- We will endeavour to achieve this within 6 weeks of receipt of your complaint, subject to having sufficient information, access to the file and relevant members of staff.
- Please note that delay may be caused by absence of relevant parties as a result of illness, training or booked leave. Your file may be inaccessible for examination for a period owing to independent auditing.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.
Mr Dickson will review his own decision within 10 days.
We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 14 days.
- We will let you know in writing, the result of the review and confirm our final position on your complaint, explaining our reasons.