Complaints Procedure

Our Policy

Complaints Handling Policy

 We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need our clients to tell us about it. This will help improve our standards. Whenever possible, please raise any initial client care problems with the person acting on your case to give them the opportunity of resolving matters with you. Often, matters can be quickly resolved in this way.

If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about the bill, please contact us by post to our office at 20 Athenaeum Street, Sunderland, SR1 1DH, telephone 0191 568 9000, or email us via our website at www.peterdunn.co.uk. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

We want our complaints policy to be as accessible as possible so please contact us in the event that you are having difficulties in bringing your complaint to us and ask us how we can assist.

What will happen next?

 

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 5 working days of us receiving your complaint.

 

2. We will investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Client Care Director, Mr. Andrew Tilbury, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. If the complaint is in connection with Mr Tilbury, it will normally be investigated by Ms Chloe Conway Hind who is a Director.

 

3. You will be sent a detailed written reply to your complaint, including the suggestions for resolving the matter, within 15 working days days of sending the acknowledgement letter to you.

 

4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director within the firm to review the decision. We will write to you within 10 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

 

5. If we have to change any of the above timescales we will let you know and explain why.

The Legal Ombudsman

If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves.  Contact details are as follows:

PO Box 6806

Wolverhampton

WV1 9WJ

Tel:                  0300 555 0333

Email:             enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website:         www.legalombudsman.org.uk

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves.

Complaints about your bill

The procedure above also applies to complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the Court for assessment of that bill.

Raising concerns with our regulator

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can help you 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 information about raising your concerns with the SRA at www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.