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 can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the individual who is working on your case to discuss any concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, please see our Complaints Procedure below. Making a complaint about a service issue will not affect how we handle your case.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our any non-service aspect of the firm. This includes any issue that you believe should be considered by the professional regulator of solicitors.
You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority at www.sra.org.uk
Complaints Procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact David Small our Client Care Director. You can contact him at Chichester Business Park, Unit 3, City Fields Way, Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex PO20 2FT, telephone number 01243 532777, email davidsmall@owenkenny.co.uk
Our Client Care Director, David Small, will pass your complaint to the Director in charge of the department involved in your complaint.
What Will Happen Next?
We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We would also let you know the name of the person who would be dealing with your complaint.
We will record your complaint in our central register.
We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps:
i) We may ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within 21 days.
ii) We may examine their reply and the information in your complaint letter. We may then ask them for more information. This will take up to 14 days from receiving their reply.
Please note that if it is a case where we need information from a third party, i.e. a Barrister, we may need to wait until a response is received from that third party and this may delay the resolution of your complaint.
We will invite you to meet the Director in charge of the department involved in your complaint to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within 28 days of receiving all the details we need from the member of staff who acted for you.
Within 7 days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that we have agreed with you.
If you do not require a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. This will happen within 7 days of us completing our investigation.
At this stage if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.
i) The Director in charge of the department involved in your complaint will review his or her own decision within five days; or
ii) We will arrange for a Director in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 10 days; or
iii) David Small, our Managing Director, will review your complaint within 10 days.
We will let you know the result of the review within 5 days at the end of the review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman.
Before accepting any 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,
Not later than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or;
Not later than one year from the date when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint.
There may be circumstances where the Legal Ombudsman has a discretion to accept out of time complaints, please refer to the Legal Ombudsman’s website for further details at www.legalombudsman.org.uk
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
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 the 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
Call 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH