Complaints Policy
1 Introduction to the Policy
1.1 Couchman Hanson Solicitors (“the Company”) are a values-based company and we are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to our clients. If you feel dissatisfied with the service you have received, we would like you to tell us about it so we can improve our service and resolve your issue fully, fairly and promptly.
1.2 A complaint is defined as an “expression of dissatisfaction of service that has not been resolved and requires a resolution, that has caused you financial loss, distress, inconvenience or any other detriment”.
1.3 There are no charges payable by you for the implementation of this policy.
2 First Tier complaint
In the first instance, please raise your concerns with the person with conduct of your file. This can happen in a number of ways; either by telephone conversation between you and the person providing you with the service, through a meeting or within correspondence.
3 If you are dissatisfied with the discussions as set out in clause 2, please contact the Practice Manager, Louise Kilty, either by email at l.kilty@couchmanhanson.co.uk or by telephone for an informal discussion.
3.1 If you remain dissatisfied after the informal conversation with the Practice Manager, please put your complaint in writing to the Practice Manager, Louise Kilty. This can be by post, addressed to any of our branches, or by email to l.kilty@couchmanhanson.co.uk.
3.2 Your complaint will be acknowledged by the Practice Manager within 7 working days,
who will advise you of the following:-
i) Our understanding of your complaint;
ii) How we will investigate your complaint;
iii) The timeframe in which we will respond to you.
3.3 Your complaint will be recorded in our central register and a risk assessment will be carried out.
3.4 We will then carry out an internal investigation to your complaint, which may include the following:-
a) Discussing your matter with the person responsible for your file and their line manager;
b) Fully reviewing your file;
c) Discussions with the Legal Services Director, Daniel Couchman.
3.5 Should we require further information from you, we will request this within 2 weeks of investigating your matter.
3.6 If it has been more than 4 weeks from the date we acknowledged your complaint, we will write to you to confirm the status, including an explanation of the delays.
3.7 Once our investigations have concluded, we will write to you with the findings of our investigation and our proposals for the resolution of your complaint within4 weeks from our acknowledgement letter in accordance with paragraph above.
3.8 If, after receiving our letter, you remain dissatisfied with the outcome and you wish to discuss this further, you can request a conversation with the Legal Services Director, Daniel Couchman, within one week of receiving our final complaint response. If you are unable to comply with this timescale, do please contact Daniel Couchman at daniel@couchmanhanson.co.uk in order to agree a reasonable extension of time.
3.9 Please note that if we do not hear from you within the timescales above, we will treat your complaint as having been resolved.
3.10 In accordance with the Legal Services Act 2007, we have 8 weeks in which to resolve your complaint and if this has not been resolved, you are entitled to contact the Legal Ombudsman (as below).
4 Second tier complaint
4.1 If, following our response under paragraph 3.8, you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, or if we have not resolved your dissatisfaction within 8 weeks, you may refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. They are in independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act, who can investigate complaints about lawyers. Their contact details are as follows:-
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Tel: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
4.2 From 1 April 2023, the Legal Ombudsman changed their timeframes by which to refer your complaint. You must refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you (paragraph 3.8 above). In addition, you should contact them no more than one year from the date of act/omission, or no more than one year of you realising there was a concern.
4.3 If you are concerned about our behaviour, for example, alleged dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or any characteristic, you can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority. For more details, visit www.sra.org.uk.
5 Policy Review
5.1 We will review this policy at least annually as part of our overall risk management process. We will also review this policy if:
5.1.1 there are any major changes in the law or practice;
5.1.2 we identify or are alerted to a weakness in the policy;
5.1.3 there are changes in the nature of our business, our clients or other changes which impact on this policy.
6 Further Information
You can get further advice and guidance from the Practice Manager, Louise Kilty.