How Do I Complain?
We at Taylor Fawcett 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.
Our complaints handling procedure
If you have a concern or a complaint, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed. In the first instance please contact our Finance and Compliance Manager Jon Moody on telephone number 01423 538111 or e-mail jon@taylorfawcett.co.uk or by post to our office at 14 Albert Street, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 1JT.
What will happen next?
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 5 working days of us receiving your complaint.
We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.
We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to hear from us within 5 days of your reply.
We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps.
- We will pass your complaint to Mrs Sarah E Taylor, our Client Care Director, within 5 days.
- She will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to the complaint within 5 days.
- She will then examine their reply and the information in your complaint file. And, if necessary, she may also speak to them. This will take up to 5 days from receiving their reply and the file.
Mrs Taylor will then invite you to meet her and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 5 days.
Within 2 days of the meeting Mrs Taylor will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mrs Taylor will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include her suggestions for resolving the matter. She will do this within 5 days of completing her investigation.
At this stage if you are still not satisfied you can write to us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways:
- We will arrange for someone who is not connected with the complaint to review the decision. This is likely to be a Director,
or
- We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within 10 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
or
- We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within 10 days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
We will let you know the result of the review within 5 days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman, P O Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, about your complaint ( www.legalombudsman.co.uk )
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.
If you have a complaint about a Chartered Legal Executive, you have the right to complain to CILEx Regulation ( www.cilexregulation.org.uk/consumers/complaints ).
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
How the SRA can help you
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 other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
