In the first instance, it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case and you will not be charged for time spent handling your complaint.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is when you tell us you are not happy about the service we have provided.  It can be about anything and could include:

• when we have not done what you asked us to do
• when we have involved you in unreasonable delays
• when we have given you inaccruate or incomplete information
• when we have failed to reply to your phone calls or letters, or have not kept you informed about what is going on
• a compliant about our firm's bill
• a complaint about the way we have handled your personal data

How to make a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint you should contact our Complaints Handling Partner, Simon Robinson, by any reasonable methods.  

By email at:     simon@baldwinandrobinson.co.uk

In writing to:    Simon Robinson, 4 Oxted Chambers, 185-187 Station Road East, Oxted, Surrey RH8 0QE

By phone:       01883 708155 or 01883 21200

How we will deal with your complaint

For general complaints:

We will record your complaint centrally in our database. We will write to you within 3 working days acknowledging your complaint, enclosing a copy of this policy.

We will investigate your complaint which will include reviewing your complaint, reviewing your file and any other related documentation and speaking with the person involved with your file.

We may also need to ask you questions and communicate with you for further information or documentation.  

We will write to you at the end of our investigation to advise you of the outcome of our investigation and what we have done or propose to do to resolve your complaint, where appropriate.  Where possible, we will endeavor to do this within 14 working days of our initial acknowledgement letter to you.

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to extend these timescales but we will try to agree any variations with you first.

If you remain dissatisfied after 8 weeks at the latest we will always ensure that you are reminded at that time of how to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are eligible to do so.

For data protection complaints:

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 30 days of receiving it at the latest and will endeavour to do so within 10 days of receipt.

Where necessary, we will request proof of your identity and/ or authority to make the complaint if it is made on behalf of someone else.

We will provide you with a copy of our privacy notice if you have not already seen it, which can also be accessed on our website here – 

https://www.baldwinandrobinson.co.uk/privacy-policy/

We will log your complaint on our central complaints register;

We will take appropriate steps to respond to your complaint, including making appropriate enquiries and keeping you informed, without undue delay once the complaint has been received.

We will where necessary, arrange a discussion with you to obtain further information and/ or try to agree how to resolve the issues without undue delay.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the investigation without undue delay, particularly if it becomes necessary to extend any timescales provided at the outset.

We will confirm the outcome of our investigation into your complaint without unjustifiable or excessive delay. 

We will explain what we have done to resolve your complaint and, where appropriate, any actions we have taken as a result

If you are still unhappy:
If you remain dissatisfied you may be entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about our service, including our charges. This service is not available to all clients however such as large businesses. The Ombudsman would generally expect clients to follow a firm’s internal complaints procedure first.  

You would usually need to contact them within 6 months of receiving a final response from us regarding your complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman also expects complaints to be made to them within 1 year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within 1 year of you realising there was a concern.

The address of the Legal Ombudsman is:

PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH; telephone, 0300 555 0333;

or view their website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk, email enquiries to: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

Please note that the Ombudsman is there to deal with concerns about the level of service received.  Where there are more serious concerns that a solicitor or solicitor’s firm have been involved in professional misconduct then reports can also be made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator of solicitors and solicitor firms. This could be for quite unusual and serious acts of misconduct such as dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Obviously we do not anticipate any such problems arising and would ask that you notify the matter supervisor straight away if you have any such concerns.  

You can find out more about the Solicitors Regulation Authority including their contact details and professional conduct rules on their website:

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

If your complaint relates to how your personal data has been used/ handled which we have not been able to address to your satisfaction pursuant to this policy, you may be able to make a complaint to the Information Commission (IC) directly. You can learn more about the IC and personal data rights at: www.ico.org.uk and specifically about complaints in relation to the use of your personal data at:

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/