Complaints Policy and Procedure

Our Complaints Policy and Procedure

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.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have any concerns or complaints about the handling of your matter, please speak with the fee
earner handling your matter or their supervisor as detailed in your Terms of Engagement in the first
instance.

If you are not satisfied with any response received as above or wish to submit a formal complaint,
please contact our Complaints Manager in any of the following ways:

• By email to complaints@newtons.co.uk

• By phone to 01423 789050.

• By post to our main office address, Attention Complaints Manager, Newtons Solicitors, St
James Business Park, 5 Grimbald Crag Court, Knaresborough HG5 8BQ.

If we need to change any of the responsibilities or time scales set out below, we will let you know and
explain why.

What will happen next?

1. Within one working week we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint enclosing a
copy of this Complaints Policy and Procedure. We may ask you to explain or confirm any of
the details.

2. We will register your complaint which will be referred to an appropriate senior manager or
director dependent upon the nature of the complaint who will fully investigate your complaint
by examining the relevant file.

3. We will write to you setting out our detailed response to your complaint within 8 weeks of
receipt of your complaint, where appropriate offering redress.

4. Dependent on the type of complaint made it may take longer than 8 weeks for us to respond
due to the size or complexity of your matter or the availability of staff to answer questions as
part of our investigation. We will advise you if the complaint is taking longer to resolve and
provide you with a revised timescale.

5. Where we can, we will look at a range of remedies, from a sincere apology to a reduction in
any bill and/or reimbursement of money sent to us.

6. If, after receiving our written response any issues remain unresolved for you, please let us
know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We will aim to do this within 10 working
days of you contacting us again. This review will happen in one of the following ways:

• The person who has dealt with your complaint will review their decision with a
director; or

• We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint
to review it.

7. We will let you know the result of the review within 5 working days of the end of that review.
At this time, we will write to you setting out our final response and explain our reasons.

8. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, 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.

9. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted as follows:

• By phone on 0300 5550333

• Online at http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk

• By post to The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

10. Please note, we do not put our credit control process on hold for non-payment of invoices in
connection with any complaints referred to the Legal Ombudsman.