complaints

Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing high quality legal services to all clients. When something goes wrong, which despite best efforts it sometimes does, we need you to tell us about it as soon as possible. This will help us to deal with your concerns and enable us to improve our standards. We take all feedback and complaints very seriously. Every effort will be made to resolve any concerns promptly and effectively.

talk to us first

In the first instance we encourage you to discuss your complaint with the lawyer dealing with your case. We prefer to put things right before following the Complaints Procedure set out below.

If you would rather not discuss your complaint with your lawyer you can speak to our Complaints Officer: ellie.rowley@didlaw.com.

If your complaint is in relation to your bill you should raise this either with your lawyer, with our Complaints Officer or with a member of our Business Team. We ask that you do so as soon as possible but at least within three months of discovering any issue.

If after raising your issue no resolution can be found and you remain unsatisfied you should follow the Complaints Procedure set out below.

complaints procedure

You should refer your complaint to our Complaints Officer so that an investigation into your concerns can be undertaken. We can accept details of your complaint over the phone or by email but may wish to clarify with you in email the extent of your concerns. This is to ensure that we have correctly understood the issue. Please also include an explanation of what you propose we might do to resolve matters.

Our procedure will then apply as follows (there may be additional steps):

1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of receipt.

2. A full review of your file will be undertaken by our Complaints Officer including an assessment of what has happened in chronological order

3. In most instances an invitation will be sent to you to attend a video meeting or a conference call to discuss your complaint and seek to resolve it.

4. Any call or meeting will be followed up in writing within 5 working days confirming what took place in the call/meeting and confirming the solution that we have agreed with you.

5. If you do not wish to speak with or meet us in response to your complaint our formal written response will be sent no later than 8 weeks from receipt of your complaint under this process. This will ensure compliance with the mandatory timescales set by the Legal Ombudsman but we hope to be able to respond and resolve matters sooner than 8 weeks. We will in our response, if appropriate, suggest how the complaint might be resolved.

6. After our call/meeting and/or our formal written response you remain unhappy you may contact us again in a final attempt to resolve matters.

7. If we are unable to resolve your complaint you can raise a complaint either with the Legal Ombudsman or the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO)

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) can deal with complaints about service and billing. It can investigate complaints up to one year from the date of the problem occurring or within one year of when you found out about the problem. Any complaint to LeO by you must be made within 6 months of our final response to your complaint.

You can call LeO on 0300 555 0333 or

Email them at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.

You can also write to them at PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) does not deal with complaints about service. They can review matters where it is alleged that a breach of the SRA Standards and Regulations 2019 has occurred. This is unlikely to apply to your complaint but we are obliged to inform you of this. Complaints about service are dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman.

You can contact the SRA by calling 0370 606 2555 or email them at contactcentre@sra.org.uk. You can write to them at The Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside, Birmingham B1 1RN. 

Further information is available on the SRA website which is www.sra.org.uk.

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the information contained on this page you can download it here