Dissatisfaction

Our complaints policy

We are 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 monitor our service levels and improve our standards.

For the purposes of this policy, we define a complaint as:

”Any expression of dissatisfaction by a customer or client whether justified or not.”

This can relate to any aspect of the service which we have provided.

In the first instance, we would ask that you discuss any issues with the member of staff working on your case and we will do our utmost to resolve any issues you have.

If however, you wish to make a formal complaint please contact us with the details. You can register a complaint to us by telephone, email or in writing. Our preference would be email or in writing to ensure we can maintain an accurate audit trail.

What will happen next?

1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care partner, Greg Whyte, who will review your matter file and speak to the member(s) of staff who acted on your behalf.
3. We aim to provide you with a full response to your complaint within 14 working days. There may be reasons that we cannot provide you with a full response within the 14 day period. If this is the case, we will write to you to confirm the reasons for the delay. We will keep you updated until a final response is issued to you.
4. After we have conducted a full investigation and spoken with all relevant parties, we will reply to you in writing. We will advise you of our views on the complaint and steps we propose to take to resolve it to your satisfaction.
5. If you are not satisfied with the response, your complaint may be referred to one of the other Partners in the firm who will make further investigations as they see appropriate and inform you of their conclusion. Should you still feel the matter to be unresolved after a further response, you may refer your complaint to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) for cases in Scotland regulated by the Law Society of Scotland or the Legal Ombudsman for work cases in England and Wales regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

The SLCC handle complaints regarding; service, conduct and handling, with conduct issues often referred to the Law Society of Scotland.

The SLCC is unable to consider a complaint until the firm has been able to make reasonable attempts to resolve the issues. If the SLCC is satisfied that the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate the matter further.

For cases where Jones Whyte were instructed on or after 1 April 2017, or where the matter being complained about occurred on or after this date, there is a 3 year time limit for submitting the complaint to the SLCC. That 3 year period begins either from the last date Jones Whyte provided the service, from the date of the matter being complained about occurring or from the date the complainant became aware of the matter being complained about where it would have been impossible for them to know about it sooner. For cases prior to 1 April 2017 there is a 1 year time limit.

For more information, please refer to the SLCC website at www.scottishlegalcomplaints.com.
You can contact the SLCC at the following address:

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
10-14 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh
EH1 3EG

Or by contacting:
Tel: 0131 201 2130 or email: enquiries@scottishlegalcomplaints.org.uk

Or alternatively you can access complaint information from the Law Society of Scotland by visiting the following website: www.lawscot.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman and Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) handle complaints regarding; service, conduct and handling, breaches of SRA principles for cases in England and Wales.

The Legal Ombudsman is unable to consider a complaint until the firm has been able to make reasonable attempts to resolve the issues.

In order for the complaint to be considered by the Legal Ombudsman, this must be made to them within one year of the act or omission about your concern or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also raise the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you.

For more information, please refer to the Legal Ombudsman website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk

You can contact the Legal Ombudsman at the following address:

Legal Ombudsman
P.O. Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

Or by contacting:
Tel: 0300 555 0333 or email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

You can contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority at the following address

Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
199 Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN

Or by contacting
Tel: 0370 606 2555 or use the complaints form on the website www.sra.org.uk

Review of Policy

This Policy will be reviewed regularly by Gillian Cogan, Compliance and Risk Manager and the Senior Management Team. The next date for review is 16/02/2024