We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and our firm wishes to provide good quality legal advice and client care. If you feel you wish to complain about our service, we have devised a procedure with the aim of resolving any problems.
The person responsible for complaints handling in this firm is Katherine Melkerts, Principal, (Complaints Manager) Melkerts Solicitors, 2B Station Road, Lutterworth, Leicestershire LE17 4AP.
Telephone 01455 552378 or email: melkerts-solicitors@btconnect.com
Our complaints procedure is as follows:
If you have or wish to discuss a complaint, please contact our Complaints Manager Katherine Melkerts and provide full details of the circumstances surrounding the complaint.
What will happen next?
1) Our Complaints Manager will deal with your complaint in the first instance, she will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and ask you to confirm or explain the details. You can expect to receive this letter within three to five working days of receiving your complaint.
2) We will record your complaint within a day of receiving your complaint.
3) When we acknowledge your reply to our initial letter our Complaints Manager will confirm what will happen next.
4) We will then begin to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps;
a) If you agree, we aim to investigate your complaint within 10 working days and then send you a detailed reply and/or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter.
b) This process will involve reviewing the matter file and discussion with the fee earner concerned.
5) We will then write inviting you to meet our Complaints Manager to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint if step 4 (above) has not satisfactorily addressed matters. We aim to do this within 3 working days of having completed our investigations.
6) Within 5 working days of our meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, a detailed written reply will be provided. This will include our suggestion for resolving the matter.
7) At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, or there are matters you feel have not been addressed, you can write to our Complaints Manager again. We will then arrange to review our decision and respond within 14 working days confirming the firm’s final position in relation to your complaint.
8) If any of the above timescales are delayed for any reason we will aim to advise you in writing as soon as possible.
Other avenues if you feel the above steps have not addressed your complaint
We would always hope to resolve matter with our clients personally and to address any concerns they may have but if this is not possible after following the above process:
Legal Ombudsman
We are permitted a minimum of 8 weeks to consider your complaint. If we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then you may wish to ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint..
Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our final written response on your complaint but for further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on
0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Note that the Legal Ombudsman service cannot be used by businesses or most other organisations unless they are below certain size limits.
Further details are available from the Legal Ombudsman.
Postal address: P O Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Solicitors Regulation Authority
If someone is concerned a solicitor may be dishonest or they have concerns about their ethics or integrity they have the right to inform the regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note the SRA is unable to deal with matters of poor service (the Legal Ombudsman above deals with such matters). For further information about the role of the SRA please contact the SRA or visit www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor
