Our Complaints Policy

 

We aim to provide you with a high-quality legal service. However, if you are concerned about that service or something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it so that we can do our best to put things right and improve our service standards.

 

Our complaints procedure

 

If you have a complaint, please set it out in writing to Mr John Wroblewski, our Complaints Director.  You can write to him at Cook & Talbot Limited, Ground Floor, The Old Courthouse, 2A Albert Road, Southport PR9 0LE or by email to john.wroblewski@cookandtalbot.co.uk.

 

Please provide as much information as possible including your full name and contact details and an explanation about the basis of your complaint.  If you have a file reference number please ensure that this is also provided.

 

What happens next

 

Following receipt of your complaint the following timetable will ordinarily be applied.  If, for any reason, we are unable to comply with that timetable, we will let you know.  We always aim to deal with any complaints as quickly as possible.

 

Action                                                                          Timescale

 

Acknowledge your complaint in                                    Within three working days.

writing, provide you with a

copy of our complaints procedure

and record your complaint in

our central register.  We will also

invite you to clarify any issues                                     

in your complaint that require

explanation.

 

Confirm receipt of any such                                          Within five working days of any

clarification to ensure that we                                       further clarification that is provided.

have all relevant details to deal

with your complaint.

 

Investigate your complaint.                                           Within the next ten working days.

 

Report the outcome of our                                            Within the next fifteen working days

investigation to you in writing.                                       of completing our investigation.

 

Conclude our review of                                                Within eight weeks of your initial

your complaint.                                                             complaint.

 

If you remain dissatisfied at the end of our complaints process, you would then be at liberty to contact the Legal Ombudsman, provided you are a) an individual;  b) a business or enterprise that was a micro-enterprise (European Union definition) when it referred the complaint to the authorised person13;   c) a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person;   d) a club/association/organisation, the affairs of which are managed by its members/a committee/a committee of its members, that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person;   e) a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1 million when it referred the complaint to the authorised person; or   f) a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of a person who, before they died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman

 

The Legal Ombudsman can investigate complaints no later than one year from the date of the problem happening or one year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.  However, if we send a final written response to your complaint within eight weeks of receiving it, the time limit for you to refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman would be six months from the date of that final response.  If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, their contact details are as follows:-

• Website – legalombudsman.org.uk
• Telephone – 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday (calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers starting 01 or 02) from both mobiles and landlines. Calls are recorded and may be used for training and monitoring purposes.
• Email – enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
• Postal address – Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH

   

Alternative complaints resolution bodies also exist and are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme at the end of our internal complaints process.  They provide Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services.  Small Claims Mediation is one such body, details of which can be found at www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk; and another is Ombudsman Services, details of which can be found at www.ombudsman-services.org.  Under the provisions of the EU Directive on

Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution, to pursue this process you would have to be a “consumer”, namely an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft  or profession.

 

If your complaint relates to a breach of the SRA Code of Conduct and/or allegations of dishonesty or discrimination, you may also make a report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) at Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN, Tel: 0370 606 2555. To obtain further information see www.sra.org.uk.

Data protection complaints

If your complaint relates to the way in which we have collected, used, stored, disclosed, retained or otherwise handled your personal data, we will treat this as a data protection complaint.

Data protection complaints will be handled under this complaints procedure, unless we tell you otherwise. We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days of receipt and will investigate and respond to you as soon as reasonably practicable. In any event, we will provide our response within eight weeks of receiving your complaint.

Where your complaint relates to personal data, we may need to ask you for further information to help us understand your concerns. We may also need to verify your identity.

Our Privacy Notice provides further information about how we handle personal data and explains your rights as a data subject, including your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability, where applicable. A copy of our Privacy Notice is available at https://capalaw.co.uk/privacy-policy/ or can be provided on request.

If you remain dissatisfied with the way we have handled a data protection complaint, you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters.

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Website: www.ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Where a complaint includes both a concern about our legal service and a concern about how we have handled personal data, you may have the right to refer the service element of your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and the data protection element to the Information Commissioner’s Office

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