Complaints

We hope of course that, once you become a client of the firm, everything will be carried out to your satisfaction.  However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are unhappy, please refer it firstly to the solicitor or other legal professional who is dealing with your matter.  Thereafter, if you are not satisfied, please refer any issue to the Head of the relevant Department, whose name and contact details you will find in this website’s “Your Advisors” section.  If for any reason you are still dissatisfied, then please contact our Complaints Director, Caroline Batko (cab@wdavies.com).

Our Complaint’s procedure is as follows:-

1. We will send to you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving your complaint and we will enclose a copy of this procedure. The complaint need not be made in writing.
2. Then we will investigate your complaint. Initially, the complaint will be referred to the solicitor in charge of the Department which is dealing with your matter, who will review the file and speak to the solicitor or other legal professional who is dealing with your matter.
3. We will write to you within 14 days* of the acknowledgement letter reporting to you on the complaint and inviting you to attend a meeting to resolve the matter, if you wish so to do. You will receive a letter within 3 working days of any such meeting stating the outcome of any meeting – or if no meeting takes place, setting out our conclusions on the complaint.
4. If you are not happy with the response of the solicitor in charge of the Department, or if your complaint is about that solicitor, then you may contact our Complaints Director.  Again, your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days and you will receive a report within 14 days* and be invited to a meeting to resolve the complaint.  You will receive a letter within 3 days of any such meeting stating outcome of any meeting and our final conclusions in relation to the complaint.
5. If you remain unsatisfied, then you may, within 6 months of our final decision, contact one of the following about your complaint:

1. The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ (as guidance: in most cases, complaints about any law firm are in connection with   poor service – so these should be referred to the Legal Ombudsman); or
2. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (as guidance: the SRA deals with cases in which law firms they regulate have breached the SRA Principles).

*Where any matter is particularly complicated it may be necessary to take more than 14 days to answer the complaint in detail. In all such cases you will be told in the acknowledgement letter at any stage, when you can expect a response.