Phil Solicitors is your local law firm, driven to achieve the best possible results for our clients. This drive inspires our team in their quest to serve clients. At Phil Solicitors, we offer a broad range of legal services to individuals and businesses with the support and dedication of our experienced and well-trained team. Our team are from diverse backgrounds and can understand our clients’ needs both from a legal and cultural aspect. We understand that your matter is sensitive in nature and can assure you that everything you say to us would be handled in the strictest confidence.

 

OUR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

We are committed to provide you with the best possible service. However, in the event you are not satisfied or unhappy with the service we have provided to you, please bring this to our attention to enable us address your concerns. In the first instance, we encourage you to raise your concerns with the person dealing with the matter who should do his or her best to address any issues of concern. In the event that the person dealing with your case did not address and resolve your concerns to your satisfaction, you may wish to make a formal complaint.

Our Procedures:

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 working days of receiving it (acknowledgment letter).
  2. We will investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to the senior partner Ms Phyllis Egole, who will review your file and speak to the member of staff who represented you. Subsequently, it may be necessary to seek further information or clarification from you in order to progress our investigation into your complaint and enable us to move to the next stage.
  3. Ms Egole will then invite you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending the acknowledgement letter.
  4. Within 5 working days of discussing the matter with our Ms Egole, she will write to you and confirm what took place and any solutions.
  5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Partner within the firm to review the decision. The reviewing partner may request additional information from either you and/or the lawyer who is dealing with your matter.
  6. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, providing our final position on your complaint and the reasons for this.
  7. If we have to change any of the above timescales, we will let you know and explain why.
  8. If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.

Referral to the Legal Ombudsman:

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. The Legal Ombudsman’s objective is, in the first instance, to reconcile complaints and to assist clients and their solicitors to come to a mutual understanding.

In order to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must do so:

  • 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 have realised that there was cause for complaint;

  and

  • Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint from us.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman please contact them:

Contact details:

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Contact Number: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Postal Address: Legal Ombudsman PO BOX 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

THE SOLICITORS REGULATION AUTHORITY (SRA)

In the event you have concerns about our behaviour, such as acting dishonestly, acting without integrity or behaving in a way that undermines the public trust and confidence in our profession and in legal services, you can bring the above concerns to the attention of our regulatory body (Solicitors Regulation Authority) who will investigate your concerns. More information can be found on the SRA webpage www.sra.org.uk/report.