Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint about our service or a bill that we have rendered or both, please contact us with the details.

The persons to contact are Sandra Blaxall, Office Manager who can be reached at:

5 Warner House,
Harrovian Business Village,
Bessborough Road,
Harrow HA1 3EX

Tel: 0208 423 3525
Email: Sandra.blaxall@goodwinsfamilylaw.co.uk

What will happen next?
1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to Goodwins who will review your file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
3. Goodwins will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 14 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. If you wish Goodwins will invite you to a meeting or telecon to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. This will be done within 14 working days of sending you the letter.
5. Within 5 working days of the meeting or telecon, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for Raymond Barda to review the decision.
7. We will write to you within 7 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
8. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
9. If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at:

Legal Ombudsman
Edward House
Quay Place
Birmingham
B1 2RA

Tel: 0300 555 0333 or 0121 245 3050
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

There are time limits within which complaints must be made to the Legal Ombudsman, as indicated below.

Generally speaking, your complaint should be made to the Ombudsman no later than 12 months from when the problem occurred or from when you should reasonably have become aware of the problem.

Additionally, you should make your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final response from us following the complaint that you have made to us.

Normally, your complaint needs to fall inside both rules if the Ombudsman is going to investigate it.

Complaints Information

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 an 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 would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case. We are telling you about this procedure because we are required to do so by the Solicitors Regulation Authority not because we expect our clients to complain. Indeed, as a firm we pride ourselves on the quality of service we offer and the significant number of satisfied clients we have.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority 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 ae, a disability or other characteristic.

You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor

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
No more than one year from the date of act/omission; or
No more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Contact details

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
All: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman
Edward House
Quay Place
Birmingham
B1 2RA

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