Complaints Procedure:

1. Martin Shepherd Solicitors LLP 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 improve our standards.

2. Our Complaints Procedure

• 2.1 If you have a concern or a complaint that has not been dealt with to your satisfaction by the person handling your case or their supervising Partner, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed. The client care Partner is Antoinette Doyle at the Enfield office telephone 020 8367 3230 email acd@martinshepherd.co.uk.

3. What Will Happen Next?

• 3.1 We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of our receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
• 3.2 We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care Partner, Antoinette Doyle who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
• 3.3 Antoinette Doyle will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 28 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• 3.6 At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter we may at this stage arrange for another Partner to review the decision.
• 3.7 We will write to you within 21 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

4. What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk  or call 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm about your complaint.

They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

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:

within six months of your receiving a final written response from us regarding your complaint. Within a year from the date of the act/omission: or within a year of you realising there was a concern.

The Legal Ombudsman has provided further guidance on its service at www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

• 4.1 If we are unable to resolve your complaint, and it relates to a contract we entered into online or by other electronic means, you may also be able to submit your complaint to a certified alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider in the UK via the EU ‘ODR platform’.

The ODR platform is an interactive website offering a single point of entry for disputes between consumers and traders relating to online contracts. The ODR platform is available to consumer clients only, ie where you have instructed us for purposes outside your trade, business, craft or profession.

The website address for the ODR platform is: http://ec.europa.eu/odr.

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

5. 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.