Patch Law Complaints Handling Procedure

At Patch Law we are committed to providing a high-quality service to all our clients.  This includes a commitment to putting things right when they go wrong.  This policy explains how we will deal with any complaint that is referred to us. Your complaint might concern the way in which you have been dealt with, the quality of advice you have received or the amount of any invoice that you have received.

If you have a complaint, please contact Gillian Patch.

What will happen next?

1. 1. On receipt of your complaint Gillian will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and might invite you to have a meeting or phone call to discuss your concerns. She will examine the file on the work that Patch Law has been doing for you. She would look to acknowledge your complaint within three days of receiving it and will complete her initial examination within seven days.
   2. Gillian might then invite you to a meeting or write to you to ask for further information. Alternatively she might write to you setting out her views on the situation and proposing any redress that would seem to be appropriate. She will aim to write to you with her views and any suggestions within seven days of completing her investigations.
   3. Where Gillian feels that we have failed in our standards she may offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.
   4. If, by this stage, you are still not satisfied, please let Gillian know. It would be helpful if you could do so within the next 21 days, but there is no obligation on you to do so.  She will then arrange to review her decision in the light of any comments that you make.  She would generally aim to do this within ten days of hearing from you. 
   5. Gillian will let you know the result of the review within seven days of the end of the review and will do so by writing to you to confirm her final position on your complaint and explaining her reasons.
   6. You may, if you wish, approach the Legal Ombudsman who provides a service examining complaints against lawyers, including solicitors’ firms.  He will usually expect firms to have concluded their examination of complaints within eight weeks their being notified of them and will require complaints to be referred to him within six months of the end of our complaints handling process as set out above. The services provided by the Legal Ombudsman are limited to individuals and smaller organisations – for more details of his service see his website and the terms of business provided to you when you first instructed us. The full details of how to contact this office are as follows:
      
                Telephone: 0300 555 0333
                Minicom: 0300 555 1777
                E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
                Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
                Address:
                Legal Ombudsman
                PO Box 6806
                Wolverhampton
                WV1 9WJ

   7. You should note that you should note that the Legal Ombudsman will not be able to accept your complaint if:

      • more than six years have elapsed from the date of the alleged act or omission giving rise to your complaint;
      • more than three years have elapsed since the time that you should have known about your entitlement to make a complaint if later than above; or
      • the date of the alleged act or omission giving rise to the complaint was before the 6^th October 2010.
        
   8. Where, for any reason, it is not possible to observe the target timescales for each stage indicated above Gillian will let you know and explain why.

We will do our best to address any dissatisfaction that you have experienced in using the services of this practice. Our primary objective is to put things right.

This procedure was last reviewed in December 2018.