Complaints Policy

If you have a complaint, please contact Janet Keating, our Client Relationship Director.

You can contact her at: Aegis Legal, George House, Mallory Yard, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 7GY. Telephone: 01565 872220. Email: janet@aegislegal.co.uk

What will happen next?

1. We will acknowledge your complaint and ask you to confirm or explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.

2. We will then record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.

3. If appropriate we will then invite you to meet Janet Keating to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, Janet Keating will write fully to you setting out her views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.

4. Within two days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you. In appropriate cases we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.

5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would generally aim to do this within 10 days. This will happen in one of the following ways.

– Janet Keating will review her own decision.
– We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it.
– The Managing Partner will review your complaint within 10 days.
– We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint. We will let you know how long this process will take.
– We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.

6. We will let you know the result of the review within five 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.

7. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman. Their contact details are: Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ. You can email them at: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or telephone 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm. Their website is www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

8. 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 one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern.

9. 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.

10. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their contact details are: Telephone: 0370 606 2555. Address: Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN