COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. 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 person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you remain unhappy about the service we have provided then you make a complaint by following the procedure below. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact Mr Gerald Thorne, who is a Solicitor and Senior Consultant of the firm and who is the person responsible for dealing with complaints. You can contact him by post at Lich Gates, Wolverhampton, WV1 1UA, or via email at geraldthorne@thornessolicitors.co.uk.

What will happen next?

We will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint, within 14 days of receipt enclosing a copy of this procedure.

We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve reviewing your file and speaking to the member of staff who acted for you. If your complaint relates to a matter where the file has been closed we may need to obtain your file from our archive storage facility, which may take 1-2 days.Gerald Thorne will send you a detailed reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 28 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

 At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for a partner/director who has not had any dealings with your matter to review the initial 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 we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO BOX 6168, Slough, SL1 0EL, telephone 0300 555 0333 email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk website www.legalombudsman.org.uk

 The LeO will not normally deal with complaints unless our complaints procedure has been exhausted and allows us to do this within eight weeks. The LeO asks that you contact his office within six months of your last contact with the firm. Please note that the LeO will not handle complaints from large businesses (see the LeO website – www.legalombudsman.org.uk).

 Currently, the LeO can only deal with matters brought to their attention no more than six years from the date of act/omission; or no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for concern.

the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made within 6 months of the date of our final written response to you in relation to your complaint.

Objecting to our bill(s)

You may have the right to object to our bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Non-payment to our bill(s)

You should be aware that the firm may be entitled to charge interest if all or part of our Bill(s) remains unpaid.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (known as SRA) can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise any concerns about the above direct with the SRA by following this link https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

The Directors
Thornes

Last Updated: May 2024

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