Complaints Policy

Kingston Family Law is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to maintain our high levels of client care. 

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, you should in the first instance discuss it with the person handling your matter directly.  If you feel unable to do so, or if this does not resolve your complaint, then please contact Claire Withers, a director in the firm, in the first instance.  Please set out clearly, in writing, the grounds of your complaint and how you wish the complaint to be resolved.

What will happen next?

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint, in writing, within 3 working days. Our response will detail the complaint you have raised and, where necessary, we may ask you to confirm or clarify the details. You can expect to receive our letter within three working days of receiving your complaint.

We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will do this within 2 working days of receiving your complaint.

We will start to investigate your complaint and send you her detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. We will do this within 10 working days. The complaint investigation will normally involve us examining your file and speaking with the person who acted for you, and we may also need to speak with other people who may have a bearing on the matter.  We may need some time to complete this work (for example if people to whom we need to speak to are on leave) and we will try and give you an estimate of the time this will take if it is longer than 10 working days. 

In some cases, where it seems appropriate, we may suggest a meeting with you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.  Alternatively, we may telephone you to discuss the matter with you. 

Within 5 working days of the meeting or discussion with you, Claire Withers (or the person dealing with investigating your complaint) will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or telephone discussion, or if it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestions for resolving the matter. You will receive this within 21 days of the firm acknowledging your complaint.

At this stage, if you remain dissatisfied, you can let us know. We will then arrange to review the decision. This may happen in one of the following ways:

The Investigating Officer, will review the decision personally within 5 working days; or
Another Director of the firm may be able to review your complaint.

We will let you know the result of the review within 10 working days of receiving your request for a review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

If, after 8 weeks from raising your complaint, you are still not satisfied with our decision at the conclusion of our complaints procedure, you may refer the matter to The Legal Ombudsman.  We very much hope however that this will not be necessary.  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 not later than one year from the date:

• of the act or omission being complained about; or
• when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint.

The contact details of The Legal Ombudsman are:

The Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Tel: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. 

Data Protection Complaints Policy

Our data protection complaints policy can be sent upon request.