Complaints Procedure

We take great pride in building relationships with our clients and in the trust that is placed in us when we are engaged to work for you.  We are committed to providing high-quality legal advice that meets your expectations and hope you will never feel the need to use our complaints procedure. 

However, we understand that on rare occasions you may have concerns or complaints about our services. We take this very seriously and have set out the below procedure to help you, and us, address and resolve any issues that have come up as quickly and painlessly as possible. 

First: when you first become aware of an issue you would like to raise please contact Katharine Ryder Richardson by email or phone to arrange an informal chat.  Katharine will personally do all she can to assist you and to help resolve any concerns. 

Second: if you continue to have unresolved concerns or if you would find it difficult to speak to Katharine about them in person, you have the option to send in a formal written complaint.  This should be sent by email to Katharine. If you wish to make a written complaint please set out your specific concerns in your email and explain how you would like the matter to be resolved.   

We will respond to you as quickly as possible to confirm we have received your complaint and that we will look into your concerns.  A genuine effort will be made to address your concerns and we will communicate with you throughout the complaints process. 

Third: a formal complaint should be resolved within 8 weeks of us receiving it, and we very much hope this will always be the case.  However, if this has not happened and you feel that the issues you have raised remain unresolved, you have the option to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.  Making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman would not affect how we handle your case. 

The Legal Ombudsman is an independent organisation that handles complaints about legal services provided.   

They can be contacted at: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, telephone 0300 555 0333, email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.   

Generally, 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 done this you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of your receiving a final written response from us and 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 reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint. 

We do recommend that you attempt to resolve your concerns using our internal complaints procedure before contacting the Legal Ombudsman. 

Complaints about behaviour 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) 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 SRA at: 

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page.