Complaints Handling Procedure

We are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of our service or bill, please contact Rehan Waqar so that we can do our best to resolve the problem. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact Waqas Sabir who is the client care partner to whom any final issues can be reported.

We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through them and the Legal Ombudsman.

All law firms are obliged to attempt to resolve problems that clients may have with the service provided. It is therefore important that you immediately raise your concerns with us.

If we are unable to resolve any such concerns to your satisfaction within eight weeks you are entitled to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman: www.legalombudsman.org.uk or PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ.

The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about legal services. They expect complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

The Legal Ombudsman may consider complaints made after these deadlines if it is fair and reasonable for them to do so. They may decide not to pursue a complaint if:

•  there was no significant loss, distress, inconvenience, or detriment;
•  the size or complexity of the complaint, or your behaviour, results in the complaint requiring a disproportionate use of resources;
•  there has been undue delay in bringing the complaint;
•  you have already accepted a reasonable offer we made.

Complaints about a client’s rights under the General Data Protection Regulation must be submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk.

Any disputes or legal issues arising from our Client Care and Terms of Business will be determined by the laws of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.

Our Policy

We are committed to providing the very highest quality of legal service to all of our clients. If something goes wrong, we want you to tell us about it so that we can address the issue with you and resolve the matter to your satisfaction.

How to make a complaint

If you are unhappy with the service which you have received or the costs which you have been charged, you can raise your concerns, initially, with the person who has had conduct of your matter. You were supplied with their contact details in the client care letter when you first instructed us. However, we understand that you may wish your concerns to be more formally investigated – particularly if your complaint relates to the file-handler or you are unhappy with any response you have already received. If you want your complaint to be formally investigated, please set out your complaint in writing including:

•  Your full name and contact details;
•  Details of where you feel RNW Solicitors Ltd failed to act appropriately;
•  What you hope to achieve as a result of your complaint; and
•  The file reference number connected to the conduct which has caused your complaint.

All complaints should be sent to Waqas Sabir, (Director), RNW Solicitors, 6a St Marks Street, Bolton, BL3 6NR or by email to ws@rnwsolicitors.com.

A copy of our formal complaint’s procedure will be made available to you upon request.

What will happen next?

We will send you a written acknowledgement of your complaint within 10 days of receiving it.

•  Responsibility for investigating your complaint will be assigned to the member of the firm best placed to carry out the investigation. He/she will normally review the file and speak to those who carried out the work.
•  If appropriate, you may be invited to a meeting to discuss, and hopefully resolve, your complaint. If we propose a meeting, you will be contacted within 21 days of the sending of the acknowledgement letter.
•  If a meeting takes place, we will write to you within seven days after it takes place confirming what took place and setting out any solutions which were agreed with you.
•  Once our investigation is complete, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint setting out any suggestions for resolving the matter. We would normally expect to send this reply within 28 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. If we are not able to send you a full reply within that period, we will update you and tell you when we expect to be able to write to you again.

If the response does not resolve your complaint, you can refer it to the Legal Ombudsman.

The Legal Ombudsman

You have six months from the date of our final letter in which to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Their contact details are:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6167

Slough

SL1 0EH

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Further relevant timescales are available in the Scheme Rules available on the website above. Currently, the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority:

As Solicitors, we are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the SRA), so all the services we provide are regulated by the SRA. You may also make a complaint to the SRA if you are concerned about a solicitor’s behaviour. The SRA can help you, or take action, when solicitors tell lies, steal from clients, shut down without telling their clients or otherwise break the SRA’s rules (see the SRA’s rules at: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/who-we-are/sra-regulate/).