We want you always to be entirely happy with the service we provide you. We’re committed to providing a high quality legal service and to dealing with all our clients fairly.

We acknowledge that we may not always get it right so if something has gone wrong, or you’re in any way unhappy or concerned, we’d like you to tell us straightaway so that we can do our very best to put it right.

At first it may be helpful to contact the person who’s working on your case to discuss your concerns and we’ll do our best to resolve any issues at this stage.

If you’d still like to make a formal complaint, then please contact us in writing (letter or email) as set out below. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

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.

 

Written Complaints Procedure

You can contact us in writing (by letter, fax or email) or by speaking with our complaints partners, whose contact details are:

London Office

Mark Thomson, Thomson Heath Jenkins & Associates, 3 Fleet St, EC4Y 1AU

Email: mark@thomsonheath.com

Telephone: 0207 836 9300

If, for any reason, you would prefer that someone other than Mark Thomson handles your complaint, please contact James Heath at the London Office address and telephone number as above.

To help us to understand your complaint, and so that we don’t miss anything, please tell us:

• your full name and contact details
• what you think we’ve got wrong
• what you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint, and
• your file reference number (if you have it)

If you require any help in making your complaint we’ll do our very best to help you.

 

How will we deal with your complaint? 

We’ll record your complaint centrally.

We’ll aim to write to you within 5 working days acknowledging your complaint, enclosing a copy of this policy.

We’ll investigate your complaint. This will usually involve:

• reviewing your complaint
• reviewing your file(s) and other relevant documents, and
• speaking with the person who dealt with your matter

We may also need to ask you for further information or documents. If so, we’ll ask you to provide the information within a specific period of time.

We may also, if appropriate, invite you to a meeting to discuss your complaint. You don’t have to attend if you don’t wish to or if you’re unable to. We’ll be happy to discuss the matter with you on the telephone.<

We’ll update you on the progress of your complaint at appropriate times.

We’ll write to you at the end of our investigation to tell you what we’ve done and what we propose to do to resolve your complaint. We’ll aim to do this within 14 days of the date of our letter of acknowledgement.

 

What if you’re not satisfied with the outcome?

If you’re unhappy with the outcome of our complaints handling procedure, please first let us know and we’ll review the matter.

 

Legal Ombudsman

If we’re unable to resolve the problem and you’re still unhappy you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to look into your complaint.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you’ve tried to resolve your complaint with us first.

They’ll look at your complaint independently and it won’t affect our continuing handling of your case. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman as follows:

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

You must usually refer your complaint:

• within six months of our final written response to your complaint; and
• within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring; or
• within three years from when youshould reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

Further details are available at: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

 

What will it cost? 

We won’t charge you for handling your complaint.

Please note that if we have issued a bill for work done on the matter, and all or some of the bill is unpaid, we may be entitled to charge interest on the amount outstanding.

The Legal Ombudsman service is free of charge.