Our complaints procedure
Stevens Machi Solicitors is committed to providing the best possible legal service to all our clients. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided to you then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.
In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can follow our full complaints procedure below. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
Our complaints procedure
If you have a complaint, please contact our complaints partner, Joanna Stevens.
You can write to her at 44 Marsala Road, London, SE13 7AD. You can also call and ask to speak to her on 020 83187768 if you have any queries regarding the procedure.
What will happen next?
- Within three working days of receiving your complaint, we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. Your file(s) and any other documentation relevant to your complaint will be reviewed.
- Your complaint will be recorded in our central register and a file opened for your complaint.
- If it seems appropriate, we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 14 working days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write to you fully setting out our views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.
- Within three working days of any meeting, we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that we have agreed with you.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then review the decision again.
- We will let you know the result of the review within five working days of the end of the review. At this time, we will write to you confirming our final response to your complaint and explaining our reasons.
- If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint:
The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with solicitors and some other professionals. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. Any complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be made within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint.
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 that there was a concern. Please note that 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:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough SL1 0EH
