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.
Our complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact Rebecca Swann, our client care partner. If the complaint is against Rebecca Swann the complaint will be passed to Erika Whitfield, who is also a partner in the firm, who will deal with the complaint as set out below. You can contact them at our St Neots office. If we have to change any of the timescales set out below, we will let you know and explain why.
Making a complaint
The client care partner is responsible for ensuring that complaints are handled effectively and in accordance with this procedure. This procedure also applies to prospective clients to whom we may have refused to provide a service, or persistently or unreasonably offered an unwanted service, but only if the complainant has evidence to show that we did not have reasonable grounds to do so.
The client care partner keeps a register of all complaints. The register includes all the required details and is signed off when the complaint has been resolved.
The client care partner reviews the complaints data and it also forms part of the firm's annual review of risk. All complaints are reviewed to determine if there are any training requirements, or changes in systems and processes required.
Client Care Partner Contact details:
Rebecca Swann
Address: 37b Market Square, St Neots PE19 2AR
Email address: rebecca@adlams.co.uk
Erika Whitfield
Address: 37b Market Square, St Neots PE19 2AR
Email address: erika.whitfield@adlams.co.uk
Investigating the complaint
- We will acknowledge the complaint within seven days.
- We will conduct a full investigation and an independent review of the matter.
- We aim to respond in full within 28 days. However, if the complaint is of a more complex nature, we may require more time, but we will let you know when you will receive a full response.
- We will reply to you, usually in writing, to tell you of our views on the complaint and how we propose to resolve it, hopefully to your satisfaction, including any appropriate redress, e.g. a reduction in fees, compensation or a goodwill gesture.
- If still unresolved at this stage, you may take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. You will have to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final response from us about your complaint and within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within a year of you realising there was a concern.
- We will record and report centrally all complaints received from clients.
- We will identify the cause of any problems of which a client has complained, offering appropriate redress and correcting any unsatisfactory procedures.
Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman is an independent and impartial complaints handling body established by the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with complaints against solicitors. The Legal Ombudsman may:
- Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a solicitor to a client.
- Investigate allegations that a solicitor has breached rules of professional conduct.
- Investigate allegations that a solicitor has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service to a prospective client.
- Investigate allegations that a solicitor has persistently or unreasonably offered a professional service that the client does not want.
Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm's internal Complaints Procedure has been exhausted. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that the firm's proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further.
The Legal Ombudsman's address is:
PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH; Telephone, 0300 555 0333
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Alternative complaints bodies, e.g. Ombudsman Services, exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this firm wish to use such a scheme. We do not agree to use such schemes on the basis that the Legal Ombudsman is an independent body which can consider your complaint, should you wish to raise your concerns with them.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
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 age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
