Fraud Blocker Our Complaints Policy | Divorce Solicitors Liverpool | Family Law Solicitors Liverpool

Our Complaints Policy 

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we 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 person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure 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.

What do to 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 six years from the date of act/omission; or
  • No more than three years 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.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, contact us with the details by writing to Berkson Family Law Solicitors, Granite Building, 6 Stanley Street, Liverpool, L1 6AF, or alternatively e-mail Carole Pattinson, Practice Manager at c.pattinson@berksonglobe.com

 

What will happen next? 

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will deal with your complaint.   You can expect to receive our letter within two days of us receiving your complaint.
  2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
  3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps: –
  • We will pass your complaint to Adele Schofield, our Client Care Manager within five days. If the complaint is made by the Client Care Manager’s own client, the complaint will be passed to Hazel Roberts.  She will then ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to your complaint within ten days.
  • She will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. If necessary, she may also speak to them. This will take up to ten days from receiving their reply and the file.
  1. Adele Schofield will then respond in writing and, if required, provide an option of you being invited to discuss your issues with her.

If you are still not satisfied you may contact us again. This must be done within ten working days of receiving our correspondence. We will then arrange to review our decision.  This will happen in one of the following ways.

  • Another Director of the firm will review Adele Schofield’s decision within 10 days.
  • We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  1. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.  If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.  There details are as follows: –

 

LEGAL OMBUDSMAN

Address: PO BOX 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

You should write to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of your last contact with us.

If we must change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

Alternative complaints bodies such as The Ombudsman Service (https://www.ombudsman-services.org) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.

We do not, however, agree to adopt an ADR process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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