9. COMPLAINTS AND CLAIMS
a) We hope that we will meet your expectations of us. However, should you have concerns about any aspect of our service, please raise them in the first instance with the person who is dealing with the matter. If you still have queries or concerns after doing so, or would prefer to discuss them with someone else, please contact, CHARLES CULSHAW at our Wells office (telephone 01458 442433 or e-mail c.culshaw@gouldandswayne.co.uk) or, in his absence or if he is dealing with the matter, Gian Floris (telephone 01749 390082
or e-mail g.floris@gouldandswayne.co.uk).
b) We will not charge for dealing with a complaint.
c) You have the right to challenge or complain about our bill interim or final. If you wish to do so, please note the following points:
- Such a complaint will be dealt with in the same way as other complaints.
- If we have not already done so, we will provide you with a detailed narrative so that you can easily understand how the costs were incurred.
- If you apply to the court for assessment of a bill, the Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about that bill.
- If you do not pay a bill, or part of a bill, which is subsequently agreed or found to be properly payable within our normal payment terms, we reserve the right to charge
- interest in accordance with our Terms of Business.
d) If we are unable to resolve any concerns immediately, we have a complaints procedure that will be sent to you on request or if that you make a complaint about our service. You must follow our complaints procedure if you wish to take matters further.
e) If eight weeks after you have initiated our complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman unless you are:
- a business which is bigger than a micro enterprise
- a charity or club with an annual income of more than £1m, or
- trustees of a trust with asset value of more than £1m.
f) There is information about how to complain to the Legal Ombudsman on his website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk/consumer/index.html.
You can also contact the Legal Ombudsman by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, by telephone on 0300 555 0333, or
by post at PO Box 6806,Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ.
Please note that there are time limits for complaining to the Legal Ombudsman. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within 6 years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period within 3 years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).
g) We hold professional indemnity insurance, details of which can be provided on request.
B. What we ask of you
It is important, to ensure that we are acting in your best interests and to ensure that your matter proceeds as smoothly as possible, that you:
a) explain to us all your objectives and expectations, major and minor, associated with the matter on which you are instructing us.
b) provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions.
c) read carefully everything that we send you, and tell us if there is anything you do not understand or want to know more about.
d) provide all the information and documentation required to deal with the matter in a timely manner.
e) deal promptly with anything we ask you to do.
f) meet all requests for payment of expenses or bills promptly.
g) inform us of any change in circumstances that may affect what we are doing for you, including any change of address or if you are going away for more than a week.
h) do not give us any untrue or misleading information.
i) if appropriate attend as necessary any expert or at any court hearing and preserve documents relevant to your case even where harmful to it.
If you do not do as requested above, it may hold your matter up, we may have to increase our estimate of the likely overall cost of the matter, and in some circumstances we may have to stop acting for you. We will tell you if this becomes a possibility. Please see the section in our Terms of Business for more information about ending our instructions.