Complaints Procedure

Our 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.

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 7 working days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within 7 working days of receiving your complaint.
3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:
4. We will pass your complaint to Mr. Andrew Tilbury, our Client Care Director, within 7 working days. He will ask the member of staff who acted for you to discuss your complaint with him within 7 working days.
5. He will then examine the information in your complaint file. This will take up to 10 working days.
6. We will then send you a detailed reply to your complaint, including any suggestions for resolving your complaint. He will do this within 10 working days. If appropriate he may invite you to a meeting.
7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied please contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. Another director of the firm will review Mr. Tilbury’s decision within 10 working days.
8. 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.
9. Contact details are as follows:      Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk       Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.      Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk                                                            Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
10. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within the following timescales:

1. a) Six years from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring, or
2. b) Three years from the date you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint.

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

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 (http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page).