Complaints Policy

Burstalls are committed to providing you with the best possible service.

If at any point you are not satisfied with 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 at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure below. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

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. Their contact details are:

• Phone: – 0370 606 2555
• Fax: – 0121 616 1999
• Open hours 8.00 to 18.00, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 09.30 to 18.00, Tuesday.
• Address: – Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
• Website: – www.sra.org.uk

What can I 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 act/omission; or/
• No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them. Contact details

• Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
• Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm
• Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

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 improve our standards.

Step 1

If you are unhappy with our service or your bill please refer your complaint to the Solicitor dealing with your file. The Solicitor will write to you within seven working days of receiving the Complaint. If the Solicitor is on leave or unavailable at the time your complaint is received, we will acknowledge your complaint and inform you in writing when you should expect to receive a response from the acting Solicitor.

Step 2

If your complaint is not resolved by Step 1 above, please write or email Mr Rosenberg on djr@burstalls.co.uk who will investigate your complaint.

What will happen next?

• We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within five working days of us receiving your complaint.
• We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this on the same day as we acknowledge your complaint.
• We will then start to investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps.
• We will review your file with the member of staff who acted for you
• We will then write to you with an explanation to the points raised by you. This may take up to fourteen days after our acknowledgement of your complaint
• If necessary we will then invite you to meet Mr Rosenberg to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within seven days of receiving your request.
• Within two days of the meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions we have agreed with you.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways.
• Mr Rosenberg will review his own decision within seven days.
• We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within fourteen days.
• We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.

We will let you know the result of the review within seven 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 we have to change the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Legal Ombudsman who will provide a complaints redress for you. If you are still not satisfied, they can be contacted at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, or telephone 0300 555 0333 or by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Ordinarily, you can ask them to look at your complaint if it meets all three of the conditions below:

1. The problem or when you found out about it, happened after 5 October 2010; and

2. You are referring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within either of the following:
• Six years of the problem happening; or
• Three years from when you found out about it; and

3. You are referring your complaint to us within twelve months of your service provider’s final response

Call us now on 01482 621800 for an initial consultation or complete our online enquiry form.