Complaints

Definitions

In this Complaints Policy the following expressions have the following meanings:

Purpose of this Complaints Policy

DLS welcomes and encourages feedback of all kinds from our clients.

If you have a Complaint about our goods or services, our client care, or about our Members of Staff, not only do we want to resolve it to your satisfaction, but we also want to learn from it in order to improve our business and client experience in the future.

It is our policy to resolve Complaints quickly and fairly, where possible without recourse to formal investigations or external bodies. In particular, the aims of this Complaints Policy are:

To provide a clear and fair procedure for any clients who wish to make a Complaint about DLS, our goods or services, our client care, or about our Members of Staff.

To ensure that everyone working for or with DLS knows how to handle Complaints made by our clients.

To ensure that all Complaints are handled equally and in a fair and timely fashion.

To ensure that important information is gathered from Complaints and used in the future to avoid such a situation arising again.

What this Complaints Policy Covers

This Complaints Policy applies to the sale of goods and provision of services by DLS, to our client care, and to our Members of Staff.

For the purposes of this Complaints Policy, any reference to DLS also includes our Members of Staff.

Complaints may relate to any of our activities and may include (but not be limited to):

The quality of client care you have received from DLS;

The behaviour and/or professional competence of our Members of Staff;

Delays, defects or other problems associated with the sale of goods by DLS;

Delays, defects, poor workmanship or other problems associated with the provision of services by DLS.

The following are not considered to be Complaints and should therefore be directed to the appropriate person or department:

General questions about our goods or services;

Returns of damaged, faulty, incorrect or unwanted goods where there is no further complaint;

Matters concerning contractual or other legal disputes;

Formal requests for the disclosure of information, for example, under applicable legislation.

Making a Complaint

All Complaints, whether they concern our goods or services, our client care, or our Members of Staff, should be made in one of the following ways:

In writing by post to your file handler at Diligent Law Solicitors, Suite 2, 20 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4YU;

In writing by email to your file handler at info@diligentlaw.co.uk;

When making a Complaint, you will be required to provide the following information in as much detail as is reasonably possible, to ensure that your Complaint is dealt with quickly:

Your name, address, telephone number and email address. (We will use your preferred contact method when dealing with your Complaint);

If you are making a Complaint on behalf of someone else, that person’s name and contact details as well as your own. (Please ensure we have signed written authority from our client permitting us to discuss the Complaint with you);

If you are making a Complaint about a particular transaction, the reference number, invoice number or other identifying information;

If you are making a Complaint about a particular Member of Staff, their name and, where appropriate, their position within the firm;

Further details of your Complaint including, as appropriate, all times, dates, events, and people involved;

Details of any documents or other evidence you wish to rely on in support of your Complaint;

Details of what you would like DLS to do to resolve your Complaint and to put things right.

Please note that whilst we will make every reasonable effort to resolve your Complaint to your satisfaction, we are not bound to take any action beyond that which we may be contractually or otherwise legally obliged to take. In accordance with your Client Care Letter and our Terms of Business, we are also entitled to be paid for any work that you have instructed us to complete for you.

How We Handle Your Complaint

DLS operates a two-stage complaints handling procedure.

Following our Complaints Procedure, our aim is to always resolve Complaints to your satisfaction at Level One without further recourse to Level Two.

If you are not satisfied at the end of Level One, you may escalate your Complaint to Level Two.

If you are still not satisfied at the end of Level Two, Complaints may progress to External Resolution as detailed below.

Level One

Upon receipt of your Complaint, your file handler will log the Complaint on our electronic Complaints Log and will acknowledge receipt of it in writing within 10 working days, giving you a Complaint Reference.

When we acknowledge receipt of your Complaint, we will also provide details of your Complaint Handler. This may be the same person to whom your original Complaint was directed (as above) or your Complaint may be assigned to another appropriate member of our team.

If your Complaint relates to a specific Member of Staff, that person will be informed of your Complaint and given a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond.

Any communication between you and the Member of Staff in question should take place only via the Complaint Handler and we respectfully ask that you do not contact the Member of Staff directly concerning the Complaint while we are working to resolve it.

If we require any further information or evidence from you, the Complaint Handler will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it.

We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply any such information or evidence quickly in order to avoid delaying the complaints handling process.

If you are for any reason unable to provide such information or evidence, we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it. However, please be aware that we will not ask for further information or evidence unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your Complaint.

We aim to resolve Level One Complaints within 4 weeks of the date that we received full details of the Complaint.

However, in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible. If this is not possible for any reason you will be informed of the delay, the likely length of the delay and the reasons for it.

At the conclusion of the Level One complaints procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from that investigation, and any action taken as a result.

You will also be reminded of your right to appeal our decision and escalate the complaint to Level Two in the form of an Appeal.

Level Two

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint at Level One, you may appeal the decision within 20 Business Days, and have the complaint escalated to Level Two.

Appeals are handled by Director level members of our team.

Appeals, quoting your original Complaint Reference, should be directed to your original Complaint Handler who will forward the request to an appropriate Appeal Handler.

Receipt of Appeals will be acknowledged in writing within 10 working days and when we acknowledge receipt of your Appeal, we will also provide details of your Appeal Handler.

If your Complaint relates to a specific Member of Staff, that person will be informed of your Appeal and given a further opportunity to respond.

Any communication between you and the Member of Staff in question should take place only via the Appeal Handler and we respectfully ask that you do not contact the Member of Staff directly concerning the Complaint while we are working to resolve it.

If we require any further information or evidence from you, the Appeal Handler will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it.

We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply any such information or evidence to us quickly in order to avoid delaying the complaints handling process.

If you are for any reason unable to provide such information or evidence, we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it. However, please be aware that we will not ask for further information or evidence unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your Complaint.

We aim to resolve Level Two Complaints within 8 weeks of the date that we received full details of the Complaint.

However, in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible. If this is not possible for any reason you will be informed of the delay, the likely length of the delay and the reasons for it.

At the conclusion of the Level Two procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from that investigation, and any action taken as a result.

Our decision at this stage is final, although you do then have the right to seek External Resolution of your Complaint (please see below) if you are not satisfied with the outcome of your Level Two Complaint.

External Resolution

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your Complaint at Level Two, you may seek External Resolution of your Complaint from the Legal Ombudsman, whose details are:

• Legal Ombudsman

• PO Box 6806

• Wolverhampton

• WV1 9WJ

• Tel: 0300 555 0333

• Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Please note that you will normally need to contact the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of the date that you receive our final written response to your Complaint.

Complaints About Misconduct

If your concern relates to professional misconduct (for example, dishonesty or breaches of the SRA Standards and Regulations), you can also raise this with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

• Website: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems
• Phone: 0370 606 2555
• Post: SRA, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All Complaints and information relating thereto are treated with the utmost confidence. Such information will only be shared with those Members of Staff who need to know in order to handle your Complaint.

We may ask for your permission to use details of your Complaint (with your personal details removed) for internal training and quality improvement purposes. If you have given such permission, you may revoke it at any time by contacting Sean Burton, Managing Director, in writing.

All personal information that we may collect (including, but not limited to, your name and address) will be collected, used and held in accordance with the provisions of UK data protection law (including but not limited to the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003) and your rights thereunder, as set out in our GDPR Privacy Notice, sent to you with our Terms of Business.

Questions and Further Information

If you have any questions or require further information about any aspect of this Complaints Policy or about our Complaints Procedure, please contact Sean Burton, Managing Director, by post at Diligent Law Solicitors, Suite 2, 20 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4YU, or by email to info@diligentlaw.co.uk.

Policy Responsibility and Review

Overall responsibility for this Complaints Policy within DLS and the implementation thereof lies with Sean Burton, Managing Director.