Complaints procedure

1. Introduction

Vecta Law Limited are committed to providing a high quality of service to all of our clients. However, we understand that occasionally something can go wrong so we need you to tell us about it to help us improve our standards. There will be no charge made for the time taken to investigate and resolve a complaint.

2. Making a complaint

If you have a complaint, please give the details via letter, telephone, email or in person to Simon Priestley, who is a director and also our Complaints Partner. The Complaints Partner is responsible for ensuring that any complaint is dealt with promptly and fairly. The Complaints Partner’s contact details are:

3. Acknowledging your complaint

We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 to 5 working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.

If you make an oral complaint, then our written acknowledgement will set out our understanding of your complaint.

If we have reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another firm may be solely or jointly responsible for the allegation(s) made, we will promptly forward the complaint, or the relevant part of it, to that firm. We will write to you to confirm our actions and provide contact details of the firm concerned.

4. Investigating your complaint

Following acknowledgment, we will then investigate your complaint. This will be carried out by the Complaints Partner, unless the complaint is about a matter he has dealt with. The Complaints Partner will review the matter file and speak to the fee earner/adviser involved and, will ensure the matter is investigated diligently and assessed fairly, consistently and promptly. If the complaint is regarding one of the Complaints Partner’s matters, then one of the other partners of the firm will conduct the investigation.

We may ask you to submit copies of documentation and may also request further information from you to assist us with our investigation. We will take into account any documents and/or information you may provide in relation to your complaint.

You will then be invited to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint within 14 days of us sending out the acknowledgement letter. Within three days of the meeting, the Complaints Partner will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that have been agreed.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible to arrange one within a prompt timescale, the Complaints Partner will send a detailed written reply to your complaint, including any suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of us sending out the acknowledgement letter. This letter will:

• be fair, clear and not misleading;
• provide details of our investigation and decision; and
• if relevant, include any offer of remedial action or the appropriate level of redress (or both).

At this stage, if you are still not satisfied then you should contact us again and we will arrange for another member of management at the firm, or someone unconnected with the matter, to review the decision. 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.

5. If you are still not satisfied

If after a review you are still not satisfied, you can then contact:

Please note: 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 or within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).