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 a complaint, please contact our client care partner, Mr Greg Cloke. You can contact him at our office at 1 The Square Barnstaple Devon EX32 8LS, greg.cloke@bhrlaw.co.uk and 01271 340669.
What will happen next?
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will send you a letter within 5 working days acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details. We will also let you know the name of the person dealing with the complaint. We will investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file and discussing it with the staff involved in your matter. We will write to you with our detailed findings. In appropriate cases we would offer an apology, compensation, a reduction of any bill or repayment in relation to any payment received.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 10 working days. This will happen in one of the following ways.
- Our client care partner will review the decision.
- We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
We will let you know the result within 5 working days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on the complaint and explaining our reasons. If we have to change any of the timescales set out above we will let you know and explain why.
If we are unable to resolve the complaint with you then you can have the complaint independently looked at by 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 may take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint. Please bear in mind that you only have six months from the end of our complaints procedure to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
In most cases, we seek to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks. Generally, if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks, you may take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. However, in exceptional circumstances the complaints investigation may take longer than 8 weeks however, if this is the case you will be advised accordingly. If this is relevant, then you will have to wait until the end of our formal response before complaining to the Legal Ombudsman within six months from the date you have received that final response.
If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman please contact them:
Contact details
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Call 03005550333 between 9am to 5pm.
Email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Please note, from 1 April 2023 the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be not later than:
- 1 year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
- 1 year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint.
This is subject to the fact that the Legal Ombudsman has a discretion to extend the one year time limit for specific customers if, on the evidence, it is fair and reasonable to do so.
Alternative complaints bodies also exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and we wish to use them. If we are unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint through our internal complaints procedure, we will give you the name and website address of an alternative complaints body and let you know whether we agree to use them.