Complaints procedure

Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you feel able to, you should speak or write to the person dealing with your matter to raise your concern. If you feel that the individual concerned has not been able to resolve matters to your satisfaction, or if you would prefer your complaint to be considered by someone unconnected with the matter, then please follow our complaints procedure which is set out below.

Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint or if you are concerned in any way about the service or costs which Ashley Alexander is providing or has provided to you, please contact Matthew Lloyd or David Macey, whose contact details are set out below.

Ashley Alexander Limited
Grosvenor House
Central Park
Telford
TF2 9TW
Telephone: 01952 299454
E-mail: m.lloyd@aalegal.co.uk ;or
d.macey@aalegal.co.uk

What will happen next?

  1. A letter acknowledging your complaint and confirming who will be dealing with it will be sent to you within 3 working days. At this stage you may be asked to confirm the nature of the complaint or explain it in more detail.
  2. If a response is required from you to this initial letter, we will acknowledge your response within 5 working days of receiving it.
  3. The investigation of your complaint will begin and will normally involve the following steps:-
    1. The Director or member of staff who acted for you may be asked to provide further information on your matter within 7 working days.
    2. If further information from the Director or member of staff involved in your matter is requested, this will be examined along with any information you have provided. This will take up to 5 days from receiving their reply and the file.
  4. At this point, you may be invited to meet the Director dealing with your complaint or you may be contacted by telephone to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We will do this within 14 working days of receiving the complaint.
  5. Within 3 working days of the meeting or discussion, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.
  6. If you do not want a meeting; it is not possible to arrange a meeting; or subject to the investigation determining a meeting is not necessary, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint including our suggestions for resolving the matter within 21 working days of sending you the acknowledgement letter..
  7. If you are still not satisfied with the treatment of your complaint you can contact us again and we will then arrange for our investigation and response to be reviewed.

    This will happen in one of the following ways:-
    1. The Director dealing with the complaint will review his/her own decision within 5 working days of receipt of your appeal, or
    2. We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it. They will do this within 10 working days, or
    3. A Director, will review your complaint within 10 working days, or
    4. We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.
  8. We will let you know the result of the review within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final decision on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  9. If we are unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. 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. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by post at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or by telephone on 0800 555 0333 or via their website at www.legalombudsman.org.uk
  10. If we have to change any of the timescales above we will let you know and explain why.