BM Nyman & Co

COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE

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 improve our standards.

Our Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
  2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will be handled by our Complaints Handling Officer, Bernie Nyman, who will review your matter in the first place.
  3. Depending on the nature of the complaint Bernie Nyman may invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint, if it is considered that such a meeting is in the best interests of both parties, and will facilitate a resolution. If appropriate, he will invite you to attend a meeting within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  4. If a meeting takes place, then within 7 days of the meeting, Bernie Nyman will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
  5. If a meeting is not considered appropriate, then we will explain why we do not believe a meeting is necessary. In these circumstances we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including 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 an independent solicitor at another law firm to review the decision.
  7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving the written findings of the independent solicitor’s review, confirming our final position on your complaint in the light of the independent solicitor’s review, and explaining our reasons.
  8. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why. You will not incur any fees for any time spent in dealing with your complaint.
  9. If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made within six months of you receiving a final response from us. The time limits for the Legal Ombudsman accepting a complaint have increased to six years from the date of act/omission, and three years from the date the complainant should reasonably have known that there were grounds for complaint. If you do not comply with these timeframes, the Legal Ombudsman may not be able to investigate your complaint. For further information you should contact The Legal Ombudsman on telephone number, 0300 555 0333 or at – https://legalombudsman.org.uk.
  10. As an alternative to making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you may ask us to agree to invite an independent person to mediate between you and us in an attempt to resolve the issues of your complaint, if our own internal process has not resolved your complaint to your satisfaction.

We agree to use the services of ProMediate (https://www.promediate.co.uk) if both you and the firm agree that this is an appropriate course of action to take.

  1. Where any complaint relates to our bill then you may also have a right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under the Solicitors Act 1974. However, the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about our bill if you have applied to the Court for an assessment.

Updated January 2023