Complaints

Our complaints policy

Taylor Lewis Solicitors 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 improve our standards.

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 at this stage. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a concern or a complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so that it can be addressed. Please address your concerns to Alan Lewis at Bingham House, Pendre, Cardigan SA43 1JU, or email alan.lewis@taylor-lewis.co.uk.

What will happen next?

• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure. If you have special requirements due to a disability, please let us know and we shall do our best to accommodate any alternative arrangements you may require.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our complaints handling partner, Alan Lewis, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
• He will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• Within 7 days of the meeting, Alan Lewis will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
• If you do not want a meeting, or it is not possible, Alan Lewis will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response, and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter, we may at this stage arrange for another partner to review the decision.
• We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
• If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman using the details below.
• If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority 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 another characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently, and it will not affect how we handle your case.

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 a final response to your complaint, and
• no more than six years from the date of the act or omission, or
• no more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

Legal Ombudsman
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333, between 9am and 5pm
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ

Please note, before contacting the Legal Ombudsman

• If your complaint is specifically about our bill, you have the right to object to it and apply for an assessment of it under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If you choose to exercise this right, and the court is assessing our bill, you may be unable to use the Legal Ombudsman service.
• If you are complaining as a business client, unless you are a “micro business” (as defined by the European Union), you may not be able to use the Legal Ombudsman scheme, and should check the guidance on the Legal Ombudsman’s website.
• If you refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman as a trustee or personal representative (executor or administrator), or beneficiary of the estate or trust of a person who, before they died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, the period runs from when the deceased should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; and when the complainant (or the deceased) should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint will be assessed on the basis of the complainant’s (or deceased’s) own knowledge, disregarding what the complainant (or the deceased) might have been told if they had sought advice.
• If the Ombudsman considers there are exceptional circumstances (for example, serious illness, or you were still within the time limits when you made your initial complaint to them), they may extend any of the above time limits to the extent that they consider fair.