We always aim to offer a service which is of the highest quality. Please let us know if we fall short of your expectations as we would want the opportunity to take appropriate corrective action. In the first instance, you should contact Simon Steen who will respond to you in writing, by email or by telephone to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. This may include arranging a meeting with you at our offices.

If this does not prove satisfactory or if you simply wish to make a formal complaint then it will be dealt with in accordance with our Complaints Procedure (see below). Please ensure that the subject line of any email sent to us under this procedure is marked ‘Formal Complaint’.

You may also wish to discuss your complaint with Claire Woodyer of this firm: claire@steenandco.co.uk who is an alternative contact at this firm for such matters.

Complaints Procedure

Following receipt of an email with the subject line ‘Formal Complaint’, or a letter to that effect, we will send an acknowledgement within a few working days.

We aim to respond within 14 working days of receipt of your complaint. This will involve us contacting you in writing, by email or by telephone to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. If appropriate, you will be invited to a meeting to discuss your complaint. Where we need to clarify anything or investigate further the process will obviously be delayed.

We will then review your complaint and work out exactly what the situation is. This will involve reviewing your file in order to find out what happened. We may ask for further information such as:

• Date of complaint
• Your file reference number (you should find this on any letters that we have sent to you)
• Your contact details, including current address, e-mail address and telephone number
• A full description of your complaint including, if possible, what you think would resolve matters
• Whether you would prefer us to communicate with you by e-mail, telephone or post?
• We will endeavour to deal with this stage within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

If you are not satisfied with the initial response you should explain why you are not happy in writing or by email. If you do this, we will send a more formal response which we will aim to do within 14 working days of receipt.

Further steps:

We aim to resolve all complaints promptly through this procedure. If you are not satisfied with our final response, you may be eligible to refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. The Ombudsman deals with complaints about legal work and about billing.

Legal Ombudsman contact details: Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WVI 9WJ Telephone: 0300 555 0333 Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

As a firm of solicitors, we are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’). Our SRA authorisation number is 362884. As above, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about legal work and bills but, in the first instance, you should put your concerns to us to give us the opportunity to resolve any issue. However, if you have a complaint about our conduct, particularly in relation to dishonesty, financial wrongdoing or discrimination, the SRA may be able to help you. They may be contacted at:

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

The Solicitors Regulation Authority website has details of how complaints may be made: SRA Website.