Complaints

WHAT IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY

1. There may be circumstances where you may have a right to object to your bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part lll of the Solicitors Act 1974.
2. You can ask us to cease acting for you at any time, if you do you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated on the hourly basis as set out in the client care agreement and these terms and conditions of business.

OUR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

1. At CAM Legal Services Limited we are committed to providing you with the very best legal service but we recognise that, on occasion, things may go wrong and are here to assure you that we take your complaint very seriously and have a set out the enclosed procedure which we follow when considering your complaint.
2. We consider a complaint as a significant oral or written expression of dissatisfaction about the manner in which the claim is being dealt with.
3. You may complain to the fee earner in charge of your matter or direct to the complaints handling manager, Darren Draper.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

1. We will take steps to investigate your complaint. This will involve our complaints handling manager reviewing your file and speaking to any members of staff involved with your matter or mentioned in your complaint;
2. You will be contacted, by your stated preferred method (i.e. phone, e-mail or letter) within 7 days with details of the results of the investigation and a suggested remedy;
3. You can either respond by your preferred method or call our office and arrange a convenient appointment time when our complaints handling manager can telephone you to discuss your complaint and try and reach a resolution;
4. Within seven days of the discussion, Darren Draper will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you;
5. If you did not request a discussion but you responded to the investigation letter then Darren Draper will send you a response within 7 days of receiving your response;
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for one of the other Directors or an independent Arbitrator to review the decision;
7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons;
8. If you are still dissatisfied after exhausting our complaints procedure you may contact the Legal Ombudsman at  PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or on telephone number 0300 555 0333 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Their website is http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Before you make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it is a requirement that you have raised the complaint with us first and we have had 8 weeks to deal with your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our reply after the 8 weeks has expired you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman. The time limit for taking the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman is 6 months from the date when you received your final written response from us or within 12 months from when the problem occurred or from when you should have become aware of the problem. If you complain to the Legal Ombudsman after 12 months it is possible they may refuse to look at your complaint. For further information you should contact the Legal Ombudsman or refer to their website at www.legalombudsman.co.uk.
9. If we have to change any of the above timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
10. Please note that you can also make a complaint by contacting the Solicitors regulation Authority (SRA)  and their website is: www.sra.org.uk, you may find the following link helpful: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems.page