Complaints Policy
We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care and aim to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service. However, if our clients would like to discuss how the service to them could be improved, the level of their bill, or should there be any aspect of our service with which they are not satisfied, we ask them to please contact the person in our firm responsible for complaints Handling: Fahad Ansari, Director on 020 3488 4545 or by email to fahad@riverwaylaw.com or by post to Riverway Law, Unit 30, 1 Empire Mews, London SW16 2BF
We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care and are keen to resolve any concerns as soon as possible. We appreciate that problems can arise in any working relationship and will do our best to resolve these promptly and informally without the need to escalate the matter to a formal complaint. We will aim to speak with you about your concerns within one week of your raising it and send you a follow up letter of email within two weeks.
If you wish to make a formal complaint, the procedure is as follows:
Step One:
If they have not already done so, we ask you to let us know the full nature of the problem either orally or in writing.
Step Two:
Our Complaints Handling Representative will write to you acknowledging your complaint within five working days. In this letter, we shall confirm what happens next.
Step Three:
Our complaints Handling Representative shall then investigate the matter by reviewing the matter file and speaking to the member of staff concerned within five working days of acknowledging receipt of the complaint. If, for some reason, the matter cannot be investigated in this timeframe, then we will write to you notifying you of this together with the reason why and giving a revised timescale.
Once the investigation has been completed, our Complaints Handling Representative shall invite you to a meeting to discuss the issue(s) they have raised and hopefully resolve the complaint. This meeting will take place within fourteen days of sending the acknowledgement letter to you. Following the meeting, our Complaints Handling Representative shall write to you within five working days of the meeting to confirm the discussion and the solution agreed upon.
If you do not want to or are unable to attend such a meeting (or the meeting is not necessary), we will be happy to send you a detailed, written response, including the proposed solution, within fourteen working days of sending the letter acknowledging receipt of the complaint.
Step Four:
If you are satisfied with our response following the above steps, that will be the end of the matter. However, if you are not satisfied, you will be invited to contact our Complaints Handling Representative again and he will arrange for another senior member of staff who is unconnected with the matter to review the decision. He will write to the client within fourteen days of receiving the request with confirmation of the firm’s final position in relation to the complaint, outlining the reasons and any final redress that is offered.
Step Five: Other avenues
We ask client to always try complaining to us first. In most cases you will not be able to take your complaint further without allowing us the opportunity to put things right.
Legal Ombudsman
We are permitted a minimum of eight weeks to consider the complaint. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us within that time-frame, then you are advised that you may ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.
You are free to refer any complaint about our work, fees or level of service but there are some conditions and time limits. Please be aware that any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six months of your having received a final written response from us about your complaint. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman must usually be made within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring; or within three years from when you should have known about or become aware that there were grounds for complaint. The Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or date of awareness was before 6 October 2010.
For further information, please contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman may be contacted at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Solicitors Regulation Authority
If you think a solicitor might be dishonest or you have concerns about their ethics or integrity, you have the right to notify our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There are no time limits for making a report but there are limits on what the SRA will consider. Please note that the SRA is not able to deal with issues of poor service (complaints of this nature should instead be referred to the Legal Ombudsman).
For further information about the SRA’s role, please contact the SRA or visit:
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#report
EU Regulation No. 524/2013
If we enter into a contract with you and/or you become a client of our firm by electronic means (such as by e-mail or online) then, in addition to any rights of redress you may have through the Legal Ombudsman, you may be entitled to use an EU online dispute resolution platform to assist with any complaint or dispute you may have about our services. This online platform can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/odr
Further Information
For further information about our complaints handling procedures, please do not hesitate to contact Fahad Ansari, Director on 020 3488 4545 or by email to fahad@riverwaylaw.com or by post to Riverway Law, Unit 30, 1 Empire Mews, London SW16 2BF
