Legal & regulatory
It is important to us that we provide services of the highest quality to all of our clients. If you feel that in dealing with your matter, we have fallen short, please say it, and we will listen. Although this will be treated as a complaint, it will also be for us an opportunity to show that we care. We aim to ensure that any complaints that clients may have are identified and dealt with promptly in accordance with this procedure.
What happens next?
If you make a complaint, your case will not be prejudiced by you raising concerns about the service. We hope you will not have any reason to complain, but in case you do, you should follow the procedure below.
The time limits for bringing a complaint to our attention are within six months of the end of the matter on which you instructed us, or within three months of you becoming aware of the circumstances giving rise to your complaint, whichever is the later. If you wish to complain about our service after the expiry of these time limits, you may still be able to make a complaint directly to the Legal Ombudsman, but we will not be obliged in those circumstances to consider your complaint under this procedure and you should contact the Legal Ombudsman to establish whether your complaint falls within the time limits of the Ombudsman’s scheme.
First stage
In the first instance, please raise your concerns directly with the person dealing with your case, preferably by email or post.
If you feel that it is too delicate for you to raise this directly with them, or they have not addressed all your concerns to your satisfaction, then your complaint will reach the second stage. You may simply ask your Caseworker for their Complaint manager’s name or just ring us to request that information.
Second stage
You may progress your complaint to Mr Marius Seaka, The Complaint Manager whose name is normally stated in our Client Care letter to you, sent at the beginning of your case.
We prefer to receive your complaint by post or email as we can then make sure we reply to all the points you raise:
Marius Seaka , Complaint Manager
Principal
Calices Solicitors
32 Commercial Road, London, E1 1LN
DX: 130989 LONDON CITY
t: 0207 680 1880
f: 0207 481 9081
e: mseaka@csolicitors.com
w: www.csolicitors.com
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint as soon as possible, normally within five working days.
We will tell you how long it will take us to investigate your complaint. This normally is around three or four weeks but it could be less or more (either due to the circumstances of your complaint, illness or holidays). In any event it should never be more than eight weeks after acknowledging receipt of your complaint.
We will review your file and if necessary talk to the person dealing with your case.
We will send you the result of our investigation by email or post, depending on how you contacted us in the first place or any preference you may have. We may also offer to meet with you to discuss your complaint and resolve it.
If we agree with you and we find the service you received was not as we would have like it to be, we will work with you to try to find a way to resolve your complaint.
If we find that your complaint does not support a finding of poor service we will let you know the reasons why. We will let you know what to do if you are unhappy with our decision
Third Stage
If you remain unhappy, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent and impartial body, but you must do so within 6 months of our final letter to you, which we will always make clear when sending our final letter The Ombudsman’s contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
