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Complaints Policy

We are confident of providing you with a high quality service. If however you are unhappy with our services, you are entitled to complain.

Under this policy, we aim to handle complaints promptly, fairly and effectively. We will tell you how the complaint will be handled and the applicable timescales. We suggest you first raise any concerns with the partner with primary responsibility for your matter.

Procedure

1. We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days of receipt and send you a copy of this policy and procedure.

2. We will investigate your complaint.

3. The responsible partner will invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. They will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement.

4. Within three days of the meeting, the responsible partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.

5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the responsible partner will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including their suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement.

6. If that does not resolve the problem to your satisfaction then you should contact our managing partner, Ms Cindy Dorrington (email: cdorrington@bivonas.com, telephone: 0207 337 2600), who will review the decision or arrange for another local solicitor to review the decision.

NB: If your complaint concerns Cindy Dorrington or it is otherwise inappropriate for her to deal with your complaint, it will be allocated to another partner.

7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

We will endeavour to deal with your complaint within the period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of your complaint.

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your complaint then, for work undertaken by our offices in England, you may be entitled to ask the Legal Ombudsman of England and Wales to consider your complaint. A complaint must normally be made to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the conclusion of our complaints procedures. For more information about timing and eligibility to make complaints, and about the procedures generally, see section 2 of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules. These are available on the Legal Ombudsman’s website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk). The Legal Ombudsman’s postal address is PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ and its telephone number is 0300 555 0333.

If you have any concerns about a bill, you may be entitled to apply to court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. You can also make a complaint to us about your bill and you may be able to make a complaint about a bill to the Legal Ombudsman.

The SRA provides further information about making complaints, and other means of redress, on its website at www.sra.org.uk. The SRA’s postal address is The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN and its telephone number is 0870 606 2555.