We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need our clients to tell us about it. This will help improve our standards. Whenever possible, please raise any initial client care problems with the person acting on your case to give them the opportunity of resolving matters with you. Often, matters can be quickly resolved in this way.

If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about the bill, please contact Kirsten Collings, Director, by post to our office at 15 BERNARD STREET, GLOSSOP, SK13 7AA, telephone 01457 859 123 or email enquiries@bakers-solicitors.com. Kirsten Collings is the Complaints Officer and will deal with all complaints in the first instance. It may be necessary to have your complaint investigated by a Director, depending upon the nature of your complaint. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints as follows:

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

2. We will investigate your complaint and determine who is best placed to investigate it based on the nature of the complaint. For example, if this is a complaint relating to a Criminal Defence matter then this will normally involve passing your complaint to our Kirsten Collings, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you. If your complaint directly relates to Kirsten Collings then your complaint will be investigated by another Director.

3. We will then write to you outlining our findings, outcome of our investigation and any suggestions which will hopefully resolve your complaint. Our standard procedure is that we will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. In circumstances where the Complaints Officer is out of the office on a period of leave, the 14 days will run from the date of their return. The timescales will be confirmed in your acknowledgement letter.

4. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Director within the firm to review the decision.

5. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

6. If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves. Contact details are as follows:

PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

0300 555 0333
enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 
www.legalombudsman.org.uk 

Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within the following timescales:

a) Six years from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring, or
b) Three years from the date you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint.
c) The Legal Ombudsman will not accept complaints where the act or date of awareness was before 6th October 2010.

7. If we have to change any of the above timescales we will let you know and explain why. Alternative complaints bodies (such as ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm consent to use such a scheme. In the event that you wish to use an alternative complaint body you should advise us and we will then state if we agree.

The procedure above also applies to complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have applied to the Court for assessment of that bill.