Complaints Policy
Wellingtons Solicitors is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we will address the problem and your concerns. This will help us improve our standards, and we review complaints received annually for this reason.
This policy sets out how we deal with formal complaints.
If you feel your concerns might be better addressed by speaking with the solicitor of the firm acting for you, then you should contact them first. Please note that doing so does not mean raising a complaint.
If your complaint has not been resolved, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. Your letter should set out the full details of your complaint, including what you feel went wrong and what remedy you seek. You should enclose all relevant correspondence or documentation to support your complaint. We recommend using special delivery when corresponding with us about a complaint. That way, you will know when we have received your complaint.
What will happen once we have received your complaint?
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 clear working days of our receipt of the complaint, enclosing a copy of this Complaints Policy.
- We will start to investigate your complaint. This will involve passing your complaint to an appropriate person in our Compliance Manager, who will independently review your matter file and speak to the relevant individual(s), including those named in the complaint.
- Where we believe a telephone conversation could assist in resolving the complaint, our Compliance Manager will write to you within 10 working days of receiving it to arrange a telephone call to resolve it.
- Where we speak with you on the telephone and are unable to resolve your complaint by agreement or where we do not believe a resolution telephone conversation would be appropriate, then Compliance Manager will invite you to a meeting to discuss the issue and hopefully resolve your complaint within 10 clear working days of the telephone call with you.
- If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, our Compliance Manager will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter, within 14 days of the telephone call with you.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again, and we will arrange for our Managing Partner, Taras Demchuk, to review the decision.
- 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 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
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.