Complaints Procedure
At Yates Legal, we want to give you the best possible service. We are committed to providing high-quality legal advice to our clients. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service, we have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues
If your lawyer or their manager is unable to resolve your complaint, and you remain unhappy, you can escalate your complaint in the following ways:-
- By email to reception@yateslegal.co.uk
- By telephoning 0161 929 5768 and asking to speak to the Compliance & Operations Administrator.
- By post to our Altrincham office.
To deal with your complaint correctly, it would be helpful when contacting us if you could provide the following information:
- Your name, contact details and preferred method of contact
- Our file reference number(s)
- Details of your concerns
- How you would like us to put things right
What Happens Next?
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If we are unable to resolve your query informally, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 business days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this complaint handling procedure.
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We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve assigning a Manager to deal with your complaint who will review the service we provided and talk to the member/s of staff who assisted you. The Manager may want to discuss the issues directly with you and hopefully resolve your complaint.
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The Manager will then send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement.
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At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for the Customer Service Manager or a Director to review the decision and provide our final response to you within 21 days.
Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint
If you are unhappy with our final response, you may refer the unresolved aspects of your complaint for consideration by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body which provides a free service to resolve complaints about legal services providers.
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. The Legal Ombudsman allows us a period of eight weeks from receipt of your complaint to try and resolve matters with you before you can refer your concerns to them.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.
If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:
- Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint
and
- No more than one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
- No more than one year from the date when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint.
For more information about the Legal Ombudsman contact:
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 to 17.00.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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.
Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.