Complaints Policy and Procedure

Our Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients.  When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it.  This will help us to put matters right where appropriate and improve our standards.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact Stephen Soper the Partner responsible for client care. Unless the complaint concerns Stephen Soper in which case contact the alternative client care Partner, Paul Addison. You can contact either one at 7-13 Oxford Street, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, BS23 1TE telephone 01934 623501 or e-mail soper@powellslaw.com / addison@powellslaw.com. If you have any special needs (such as e.g. requiring correspondence to be produced in a large size print) please advise us so that we can so far as possible accommodate them. If we have to change any of the timescales set out below, we will let you know and explain why. In any event we would normally be expected to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks.

What will happen next?

1. 1. We will acknowledge your complaint within two working days of receiving it. If it seems appropriate, we may ask you to clarify or explain any details, and/or suggest a meeting at this stage.
   2. Stephen Soper / Paul Addison will then investigate your complaint, examining the relevant file and speaking with members of staff as appropriate.
   3. If appropriate, Stephen Soper / Paul Addison will then invite you to meet or to speak with him over the telephone to discuss and, we hope, resolve your complaint.
   4. Within two days of that meeting/discussion he will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions we have made or solutions that he has agreed with you.
   5. If you would prefer not to meet, or if it is not practical or appropriate, or if we cannot arrange it within an acceptable timescale, Stephen Soper will write fully to you setting out his views on the situation and any suggestions we may have to resolve it.
   6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let Stephen Soper / Paul Addison know. We will then arrange for another Partner in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to impartially review our handling of it and whether different suggestions or solutions would be more appropriate.
   7. We will contact you again for a review. We will set out our final position on your complaint and explain our reasons.

   8. If we cannot resolve your complaint, and we very much hope this will not be the case, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman within one year of the date of the service or charge about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. However, you must refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

      For further information, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333; via email at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, via their website https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/how-to-complain/ or by post to P.O. Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH.

      If your complaint concerns dishonesty, taking or losing your money or discrimination you can raise these issues with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Please see their website and go to their consumer/problems report-solicitor page https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

      For further information, you can contact The Solicitors Regulation Authority on 0370 606 2555, via email at report@sra.org.uk, via their website www.sra.org.uk or by post to The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN.