Complaints Procedure

1. If appropriate, as you will formally be providing instructions through one of the three firms named above (Woodstock Legal Services, Radshaw Solicitors Ltd or Setfords Law Ltd), we may consider that it is appropriate either for you to raise your complaint through that firm’s complaints procedure or for us to defer to that firm’s complaints procedure as providing a more appropriate avenue to hear your complaint and to ensure an impartial response.  Should that happen, this complaints procedure should be seen in no way as binding or limiting the complaints procedure of that respective firm.  In all other cases, we shall follow the procedure set out in the remainder of this section.
   
   
2. We will send you a letter or an email acknowledging your complaint within five working days of receiving it. If appropriate, we may ask you to clarify or explain any details. We may also suggest that a meeting is appropriate at this stage so that we can understand the details of your complaint better.
   
   
3. We will then investigate your complaint, examining the relevant file and speaking with members of staff as appropriate.
   
   
4. If appropriate, we will then invite you to meet or to speak with the Compliance Team by telephone to discuss and, we hope, resolve your complaint. We would usually expect to be able to do this no longer than fourteen days after first receiving your complaint.
   
   
5. Following that discussion, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions we have made or solutions that we have agreed with you.
   
   
6. If you would prefer not to meet or speak over the telephone, or if it is not practical or appropriate, or if we cannot arrange it within an acceptable timescale, we will write to you, setting out our views in full on the situation and any suggestions we may have to resolve it. We should be able to do this within eight weeks of receiving your complaint.
   
   
7. At this stage, if you are still dissatisfied, please contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will consider your comments. Depending on the matter, we may at this stage arrange for an independent third party to review the decision.
   
   
8. We will write to you again within fourteen days of receiving your request for a review setting out our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
   
   
9. If you are still dissatisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman by post at PO Box 6167 Slough, SL1 0EH, by telephone on 0300 555 0333, or by e-mail to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

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.

You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

Further information and guidance is available on the Legal Ombudsman’s website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.