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 and you can raise your concerns with them. 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. If you need to contact them, their address is The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN or contactcentre@sra.org.uk

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 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

Complaints Handling Policy for Bennett Oakley Limited

Our complaints policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.

What will happen next?

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to a senior Lawyer, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
3. We will then send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for someone unconnected with the matter to review the decision.
5. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
6. If you are still not satisfied about your complaint, you can contact:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

If we are unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. 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.

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