Complaints Procedure
Introduction
Enoch Evans LLP is a full-service law firm with three offices in Walsall, Sutton Coldfield and Cannock. We have proudly served our clients and local community for over 140 years. The Firm is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. On the rare occasion that something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. Doing so helps us to maintain our standards and gives us the chance to resolve the problem for you.
If you as a client need the help of a representative to make a complaint or communicate any concerns with us, you should let us know so that an appropriate Representative Authority Form can be provided for completion. Without appropriate authority, we will be unable to discuss your matter or engage with anyone else on your behalf.
How do I raise a complaint?
Clients can raise a complaint verbally, or in writing by letter or email. You can share concerns with any member of our team, at any point in your retainer. Sometimes, the easiest thing to do is to have a conversation with your named lawyer in the first instance. We just ask that you make it clear to us that it is your intention to complain or clearly mark any complaint correspondence in a way to ensure that it is identifiable as a complaint.
Should you raise a complaint verbally, we reserve the right to ask you to confirm your concerns in writing to ensure our understanding of your issues. Please make it clear that you are complaining at the time you make that call.
If you would like to make a formal complaint, please email Stephen Nixon, who is the Firm’s Managing Partner and retains overall responsibility for the administration of this procedure. His details are: sjn@enoch-evans.co.uk. Alternatively, you can write to him at:
Mr Stephen Nixon
Managing Partner
Enoch Evans LLP
6-9 Hatherton Road
Walsall
West Midlands
WS1 1XS
We do not charge you for investigating a formal complaint. If you are not a client of Enoch Evans LLP, then we are not obliged to investigate any complaint you may wish to bring.
What will happen next?
Upon receipt of your complaint, we will:
- Acknowledge receipt within three working days, where we can.
- Log the details of your complaint on our central register to help us monitor and progress your complaint, but also ensure we use the valuable insight complaints can give us to consider any needed service improvements.
- Confirm the identity of the person who will investigate your concerns.
- Write to you to confirm our understanding of the key complaint issues. It is important that you raise all complaints that you are aware of, at the same time.
- Give you time to explain your complaint further if you clearly tell us that we have not quite got to the heart of it for you – we want to understand and get it right for you.
- Once we have agreed your heads of complaint (or received no response to correct our understanding within seven days of asking you to confirm they are correct) we will begin our internal investigation.
- If we can give you an idea of how long that review might take, we will.
If we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves, the Legal Ombudsman can look at your complaint independently (further details below). They allow us eight weeks to review and reply to your complaint. We would like a fair chance to put things right for you, but we can’t do that if you don’t share all the relevant information and concerns that you have.
Once your complaint has been passed to the appropriate person for investigation, we will:
- Share the complaint details with the lawyer who provided the service to you.
- Share the complaint with relevant lawyer’s head of department as needed.
- Review all our records as appropriate including your electronic file.
- Treat your concerns with care and take the time we need to review them properly.
- Ask you to clarify or provide further information as needed to help us do that – that may include inviting you to meet with us in person if we think it is appropriate.
Once we have reviewed your complaints and formed our views following a thorough investigation, our final response letter will set out our findings and conclusions. This will include any appropriate resolution or remedy, where we feel one is needed.
If we have not satisfactorily resolved your complaint within eight weeks of the date it was raised with us, you can escalate it to the Legal Ombudsman if necessary.
The Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman is the independent body set up to review service complaints about legal service providers. Their service is free, as is the time this firm spends reviewing any complaints. The Legal Ombudsman will check that the complaint falls within their jurisdiction and applicable time frames. For more information about their service and your eligibility to access their service, please refer to their website.
Specifically, the Legal Ombudsman expects you to send your complaint to them within six months of the date of our final response letter. They also expect that you will raise your complaint with them no later than:
- One year from the act/omission; or
- One year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
The full contact details for the Legal Ombudsman should you need them are:
The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
0300 555 0333 (9.00am to 5.00pm)
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are our regulatory body. They can help you if you are concerned about behaviour and any issues that could be considered misconduct - this could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, disability or gender. Should you need to contact them, their details are:
Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN