Complaints and Queries

Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. We hope that you will be pleased with the work we do for you. If you do have a complaint about the way in which the firm has handled your matter, or in relation to a bill, then you are asked to raise it as soon as possible with the solicitor or legal assistant with whom you have been dealing.

If that person is unable to handle your complaint to your satisfaction, then you are invited to use the following procedure.

1. Please write to or email our Senior Partner, Gary Baker ( gary.baker@hmg-law.co.uk ). We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

2. Mr Baker will then investigate your complaint.

3. Mr Baker will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

4. Within three days of the meeting, Mr Baker will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.

5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Mr Baker will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another partner 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 we are unable to settle your complaint using our internal complaints process you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of the date of our letter to you advising that we have been unable to settle your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted on 0300 555 0333 or at PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ or via legalombudsman.org.uk or email – enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk .

Alternative complaints bodies (such as Ombudsman Services – www.ombudsman-services.org) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and this firm wish to use such a scheme.

9. Where there is a complaint about a bill, you may have the right to object by making a complaint to the Legal Complaints Service, and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part lll of the Solicitors Act 1974

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.  Mr Baker will reserve the right to appoint another partner to act as his deputy where he thinks it appropriate.