Complaints Procedure

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality service to our clients and we pride ourselves on our thorough and professional approach to our work.

While we rarely receive complaints, we believe that it is important to have procedures in place to help you in the unlikely event of your wishing to make a complaint.

The following procedure is intended to inform you of the way in which we handle complaints and help you to decide the best approach to take. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it.

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. If we are unable to do so and you would like to make a formal complaint, our complaints procedure is set out below.

Our Complaints Procedure

The person with overall responsibility for managing complaints is Trish Hassell.

We prefer that you communicate your complaint to us in writing setting out your concerns. This helps us to understand your complaint and respond to it. However, you may also communicate your complaint to us verbally, either by telephone or in person.

You may raise your complaint directly with our Complaints Manager, Trish Hassell using the following contact details: -

Email: thassell@sarahbentleysolicitors.co.uk
Post: The Complaints Manager, Sarah Bentley Solicitors, 1 Mead Way, Ribble Court, Padiham, BB12 7NG
Telephone: 01282 792808

Or alternatively you may raise your complaint with the person with conduct of your matter and request your complaint be forwarded to Trish Hassell to be dealt with under this procedure.

What Will Happen Next?
  1. We will send to you an acknowledgement of your complaint within three working days of receipt and enclose a copy of this procedure. We will at that stage decide who is best placed to respond to your complaint. This may be the head of department. We will also record your complaint in our central register.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This may involve inviting you to a meeting to discuss your concerns.
  3. We will send you a reply to your complaint within 28 working days of receipt. If we are unable to respond to you within that time, we will inform you.
  4. The majority of matters are resolved at this stage. However, if you remain unhappy you are free to contact us again to set out your concerns. We will then arrange for someone unconnected with the matter at the company or, for an appropriate alternative, such as another solicitor, to review the decision.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction within eight weeks of it having been made to us, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.

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 our final response to your complaint and
  • No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
  • No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.

For more information about the Legal Ombudsman contact: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH.

What to Do if You are Unhappy With Our Behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Where we are unable to resolve your complaint, you also have the option of contacting an alternative complaints body competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.

We will inform you at the end of the complaints procedure whether we agree to the use of an alternative complaints body.

We are of course always glad to receive your comments on our service and to hear how we can help to improve it. Any complaint is always taken very seriously and if you do find cause for complaint you can be assured that it will be investigated thoroughly.