Complaints policy
We value your business and do not wish you to have any reason to be unhappy with us. We are
confident of providing a high quality service. It is therefore important that you raise any concerns
you may have with us immediately so that we may address them. This will help us to improve our
standards.
Our complaints procedure
If you are dissatisfied with the service received or if you are dissatisfied with regard to a charge on a
bill received, please first contact the member of staff who is dealing with your matter and they will
try to resolve your concerns informally. Our aim will always be to deal with your concerns as quickly
as possible and without recourse to any formal complaints procedure, if that is possible.
If it is clear that you remain dissatisfied, the member of staff will inform you of the existence of our
formal complaints procedure by sending you a copy of this procedure.
This procedure will also apply to prospective clients who we have refused to provide a service to or
persistently or unreasonably offered an unwanted service to but only if the complainant has
evidence to show that we did not have reasonable grounds to do so.
Stage 1
You should write to Leila Blackett our Complaints Partner; and by email to:
lblackett@pcblawyers.com or post and clearly mark your letter “formal complaint”. Please outline
the cause of your dissatisfaction and if possible, the action you would like us to take in order to
remedy that dissatisfaction.
Stage 2
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within five working days and inform you of the name
of the person who is dealing with your complaint. In order to obtain an independent and objective
view, we may outsource stage 2 to an independent complaints handler. Your complaint will be
acknowledged by them within 5 working days of receipt and a thorough investigation undertaken
within 28 days of identifying and agreeing your heads of complaints with you. The timescale may
change if the matter is complex or due to sickness or other absences, but we will keep you updated.
We will record your complaint in our central register which is reviewed regularly by the firm.
Stage 3
The person investigating the complaint will have full access to all the information and personnel that
they require to investigate your complaint properly. They may contact you directly to discuss and
confirm your heads of complaints and request any further information from you to assist the
investigation.
We will ask the person investigating the complaint to recommend the action which they believe
would be recommended by the Legal Ombudsman if the complaint was referred to their office.
Stage 4
The person investigating your complaint will provide you with a detailed assessment report together
with their recommendations to resolve the complaint, if any, a copy of which will be first forwarded
to our Partner for review. If the complaint is outsourced, we will generally follow their
recommendations made but if we think they are not appropriate we will explain our reasons to you.
We have 8 weeks from the date we receive your complaint to fully investigate and provide our final
response to you.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will contact you to explain why.
You will not be charged for our time spent dealing with a complaint internally.
Stage 5
If you are still not satisfied, the next step is for you to contact the Legal Ombudsman by one of the
following methods:
Telephone : 0300 555 0333
Overseas: +44 12 245 3050
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
In writing : PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
www.legalombudsman.org.uk
The Ombudsman service is only available to members of the public, very small businesses, charities,
clubs and trusts. If you are unclear about your position, then you should contact the Legal
Ombudsman direct to clarify whether or not they can deal with your complaint. Alternatively, please
refer to the Legal Ombudsman’s scheme rules which are available by clicking on the following link:
https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/corporate-publications/scheme-rules/
You have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of our complaints process
providing you do so within 6 months of the date of our final written response.
The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the
act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a
concern.
Alternative complaints bodies such as ProMediate (http://www.promediate.co.uk/) exist, which are
competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use
such a scheme. PCB Lawyers does not agree to use ProMediate as we prefer the Legal Ombudsman’s
clear adjudication process.
Complaints About Fees
If you are dissatisfied with our bill, you have the right to apply to the High Court for an assessment of
our charges by an Officer of the Court under ss. 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974. We hope
that before making such an application you would first use our complaints procedure explained
above.
Complaints about misconduct
If you have any concerns about any misconduct or breach of the SRA Code of Conduct by our firm
such as taking or losing your money, dishonesty or discrimination, you can also report the matter to
our regulatory body, the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their details are:
The Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Cube
Wharfside Street
Birmingham
B1 1RN
0370 606 2555
http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page