Our complaints procedure

Mewies Solicitors 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.

Your rights

If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about the bill, you are entitled to complain.  Please direct any complaint to the person responsible for your matter.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider it.  The time limit for the Legal Ombudsman to accept a complaint is one year from the date of the act or omission, or one year from when the complainant should have known about the complaint.  Normally however you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving our final written response as the Legal Ombudsman will not accept a complaint after that time if we provide full information about the client’s rights to take a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman at that time.

You are also entitled to apply for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.  The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about the bill if you apply to the court for assessment of the bill.  Please note that if a bill is unpaid we are entitled to charge interest on all or part of it.  This will normally be at the statutory rate (which is currently 8% per annum).

Our complaints procedure

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 5 days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of these procedures.
  2. We will investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our complaints handler Adrienne Patterson who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  3. Adrienne Patterson will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
    • Within 3 days of the meeting,  Adrienne Patterson will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you OR
    • If you do not want a meeting or it is not practical in the circumstances, Adrienne Patterson will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter. She will do so within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again within 7 days.
  6. We will then arrange for a Director of the business to review Adrienne Patterson’s decision within 10 days of your contacting us (if you contact us within the 7 day period).
  7. We will let you know the result of the review within 5 days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position and that this is our final letter on your complaint and explaining our reasons.  This letter will confirm that it is our final letter about the complaint.
  8. If you do not request a review within 7 days of either option at step 4 having been completed, we will write to you confirming our final position and that the letter is our final letter about the complaint.
  9. If we have been unable to settle your complaint using our internal complaints process you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints.

Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 12 months of the act of omission being complained about and within six months of our final written response.

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email:      enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 
Website:  www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Alternative complaints bodies exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.  We agree to use the Small Claims Mediation scheme in such circumstances.  You may also visit www.gov.uk for further information, or you can contact the HM Courts & Tribunals Service Small Claims Mediation Service by telephone at 0300 123 4593 or by email at scmreferrals@justice.gov.uk.

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.  You can find further information about how you can raise concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

If we change any of the above timescales or people who will deal with your complaint we will let you know and explain why.