Karen O'Neill - Family Law Solicitors, Newton Abbot

Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it.

You may be satisfied with the level of service and advice received, but unhappy about our charges. In such cases, the same procedure applies as for a complaint about service.

Below we have set out the Firm’s procedure for dealing with complaints. Each case will of course be slightly different and some stages may not be appropriate in every case

Our complaints procedure

If you have a complaint, please write to Karen O'Neill with the details.

What will happen next?

We will write to you to acknowledge receipt of your complaint and to let you know who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 7 days of your letter of complaint.

We will then investigate your complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps: -
If Karen acted for you, she will consider your complaint. If another fee-earner acted for you, Karen will discuss your complaint with him/her.
Karen will then either send you a detailed letter in response, or invite you to a meeting to discuss the complaint. She will do this within 10 working days of our initial letter of acknowledgment.
After a meeting, Karen will write to confirm the outcome within 5 working days of the meeting.
You will need to respond to Karen’s letter within a reasonable time, after which, if you still wish to pursue your complaint, we can arrange for a referral to an independent mediation service. We will write to you within 5 working days of your request, to let you know what the options are and how long each might take. Karen will write to you within 5 working days of receipt of a written report, with her proposals for resolving the complaint.
If you are still not satisfied with the outcome, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman, at The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, telephone 0300 5550333; online at www.legalombudsman.org.uk; or e-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman can relate to an act or omission for up to six years, or three years from when you could reasonably have known about the act/omission, AND within six months of the end of our complaints procedure.

Alternative complaints bodies such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation exist, which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should we agree to use such a scheme.

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