You should raise with the person dealing with your matter straight away any concerns you have about our service, the work we are doing for you or our charges.
Our Complaints Procedure
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.
If you have a complaint please contact us with the details in writing. We define a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction resulting in a formal complaint, whether oral or written and whether justified or not, from or on behalf of an eligible complainant about the firm’s provision of, or failure to provide, a legal service we have offered.
Normally we shall not consider a complaint if it is made out of time, that is, if it is made more than six years after the cause for the complaint arose or three years after you should have reasonably known that there was cause for complaint, whichever is the later.
Who you should complain to
You should first contact the Supervising Partner of the person you are complaining about in accordance with the Client Care Letter which we sent to you at the start of your matter.
If you wish to pursue your complaint further or if your complaint is against a Supervising Partner, you may contact our Client Care Partner, Juliet Schalker. You can write with full details of your complaint to Ms Schalker at Ivy House, 107 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 3EW or email her at ComplaintsReportGroup@DebenhamsOttaway.onmicrosoft.com. As Client Care Partner, Ms Schalker has overall responsibility for the complaints procedure at Debenhams Ottaway.
What will happen next?
- After you contact the Supervising Partner, s/he will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- We shall then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the Supervising Partner reviewing your matter file and discussing your complaint with the person who acted for you.
- The Supervising Partner will then send you a detailed written response to your complaint, including his/her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 10 working days of sending you the acknowledgment letter.
- Alternatively, the Supervising Partner may decide to invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint and this invitation will occur within 10 working days of sending you the acknowledgment letter. Within 5 working days of any meeting, the Supervising Partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solution he/she has agreed with you.
- If you wish to pursue your complaint further or if your complaint is against a Supervising Partner, you should contact Ms Schalker in writing with details of your complaint. She will investigate and provide her written response within 10 working days.
- If we have to change any of the timescales above for dealing with your complaint, we shall let you know and explain why.
- We have eight weeks to consider your complaint and provide you with a final response. If we have not done this or if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the investigation of your complaint, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman.
- A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made:
- within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint, and
- no more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
- no more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
- You can contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH or by telephone on 0300 555 0333 or by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Solicitors Regulation Authority
If you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, which could include taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic, you also have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman). For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit its website.
Code of Conduct
The Solicitors Regulation Code of Conduct can be found on their website.