How to make a complaint

In the first instance, you should try contacting the person dealing with your claim so they can discuss and try to resolve your concerns for you. You can find the name and number of the person dealing with your claim on correspondence sent by us.

To help us respond as effectively and promptly as possible, we would ask that you please provide the following information when making us aware of your complaint:

·       Your name and contact details,

·       Reference number,

·       Details of your concerns,

·       Your preferred method of contact, and

·       What resolution, if any, you are seeking

Professional guidelines allow us up to eight weeks to resolve your complaint, however it is our aim to provide a response and resolve your complaint as promptly as possible. 

We will respond as follows:

1            All complaints not capable of resolution by the person dealing with your claim will be referred to their Supervisor, who will contact you via your preferred method of contact within 3 working days to acknowledge and discuss your complaint, they will also take steps to ensure that your complaint is recorded on our central register.

2            If the Supervisor is unable to address the matters raised to your satisfaction your complaint will be referred to our Quality Assurance Team. This is a team independent of the operational teams who have day to day responsibility for handling claims. A member of this team will acknowledge receipt of your complaint via your preferred method of contact and provide you with a timeframe detailing when you should expect to receive their substantive response.  In some circumstances, if the nature of the complaint is unclear or if your claim is particularly complex or has a long history, we may ask you to set out your concerns to us in writing, if you have not already done so.

3            After their investigation, the Quality Assurance Team will write to you with their substantive response to your complaint and will follow up via your preferred method of contact, if required. This will include suggestions for resolving the matter.

What happens if you do not agree with our conclusion about your complaint?

4          Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) bodies exist, which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme. In our experience we are usually able to resolve the limited number of complaints we receive without an ADR process. If we are unable to do so the Legal Ombudsman is available (see paragraph 5 below). Accordingly, we are not generally prepared to agree to the use of an ADR process.

5            If you wish to complain further, you may be able to refer your complaint to the independent Legal Ombudsman. You should do so as soon as possible after our final communication to you about your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman generally expects consumers to exhaust the law firm’s complaints process before referring a complaint to it.

They can investigate complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you.

The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Minicom: 0300 555 1777

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk 
Email: [email protected]

6            If you require any help in making your complaint or require any clarification regarding this complaints procedure then please contact the Complaints Manager.

The Complaints Manager contact details are as follows:

The Complaints Manager

DLG Legal Services Limited

PO Box 1195, Churchill Court,

Westmoreland Road,

Bromley, Kent.

BR1 9YG

Data protection regulations

Any personal data you have provided or will provide to us in the course of a complaint to enable us to effectively investigate the matter will be processed in compliance with the legal requirements of current data protection regulations and legislation including the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR requirements.

Complaints from third parties

Third parties are defined as ‘persons, including solicitors, who are not clients of the Firm’.  This may include your insurance company if we are acting for you on a claim funded by legal expenses insurance. Each complaint from a third party will be individually reviewed and appropriately responded to.  When dealing with third parties, our duty of confidentiality to our clients will remain of the utmost importance.