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 enable us to look into the matter and do our best to resolve things satisfactorily. It will also help us to improve our standards.
Our complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact Joan Marie Mitchell, our Complaints Manager. You can write to her at Clifton Solicitors, LU.122 The Light Bulb, 1 Filament Walk, Wandsworth, London, SW18 4GQ. If we have to change any of the people responsible or any of the timescales set out below, we will let you know and explain why.
What will happen next?
- Upon receipt of your complaint, we will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. Within three days of receiving your complaint, we will send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and confirming the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. We may also ask you to kindly clarify any unclear details and where necessary, provide further information. If it seems appropriate, we may suggest a meeting at this early stage.
- We will then proceed to investigate your complaint further by examining any associated client matter you have with us and where appropriate, speaking with anyone who might be able to assist with our investigation.
- If appropriate (and you have not already done so), we will then invite you to meet our complaints manager (or the person dealing with your complaint) to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this meeting within a reasonable timescale, we will write to you setting out our views on the situation and any redress that we feel to be appropriate.
- If a meeting does take place, then within three days of the meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions or actions that we have agreed with you. Our letter will also set out our views on the complaint and any redress that we feel to be appropriate.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We will aim to do this within ten further days, and this review will usually happen in one of the following ways.
- The Complaint Manager (or person in charge of your complaint) will review their own decision.
- We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
- Once our review has been completed, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the contact details of the Legal Ombudsman (LeO).
The Legal Ombudsman provides that once you have made a complaint, we have up to eight weeks to respond to you. If you are not happy with our final response, or we have not responded within the eight weeks, you can then ask the LeO to look into the complaint for you.
Generally, you can ask the LeO to look at your complaint if you are referring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within either:
- Six years of the problem happening; or
- Three years from when you found out about it (if it took place more than six years ago).
You need to bring your complaint to the LeO within six months of our final response. If your complaint does not meet these time limits, the LeO may not be able to investigate it. A final response is when we have nothing further to say about your complaint and or we tell you that if you are still unhappy, you can proceed to contact the Legal Ombudsman in accordance with the deadlines set out above.
