Morgan Rose Complaints Procedure

We are extremely sorry that you have found yourself in the position of needing to make a complaint.  We define complaints as any expression of dissatisfaction by client’s with any aspect of our service, including our bill.  Please follow the stages below, which set out how we will investigate and try to resolve your complaint internally.

If we cannot resolve your complaint to your satisfaction after making use of our internal procedures then you can take the matter further by contacting the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, (telephone 0300 555 0333) or via email/Web at e: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or www.legalombudsman.org.uk .    You should note though that the Legal Ombudsman recommends that client’s first direct their complaint to the firm and allow us 8 weeks to give you our Final Response letter.  If you have not been satisfied with the outcome or resolution to your complaint then the Legal Ombudsman will look into it further for you.

You should be aware of the time limits that the Legal Ombudsman service has.  These are set out in our Letter of Retainer but they are:  you should take your complaint to them within 6 years from the date of the conduct that is complained of, or 3 years from the time when you are reasonably expected to have known about it.  Of course, the sooner the better is always preferable from your perspective.

Simon Rose is the Client Care Officer for the firm and he has overall responsibility for complaints.

STEP 1

In the first instance please address your complaint to the person conducting your case giving as much information as possible about the problem.

Please refer to our Letter of Retainer, which we sent to you at the start of your case.  This will tell you which person/solicitor is primarily responsible for the conduct of your case, as well as who is supervising it.  If you have any doubt about this then let us know and we will be happy to confirm the details for you again.

If you contact us to speak with the person conducting your case but for any reason they are unavailable then please leave a message with us (preferably either with the Case Supervisor or Practice Manager) indicating clearly that you wish to make a complaint. You can do this either by email (katiegreeves@morgan-rose.com), by telephone (0207 242 2520), by fax (0207 242 2530) or by post (Morgan Rose Solicitors, Holborn Gate, 330 High Holborn, London, WC1V. 7QT) and your call or letter will be returned as soon as possible and in any event, within 2 working days.

Having spoken to you, and/or after reading your written complaint (if it is received by email/post) the person conducting your case will acknowledge your complaint in writing and attempt to resolve it to your satisfaction.

You will receive this acknowledgement and where possible, an offer of resolution to your complaint within 5 working days of our receipt and consideration of it.  If this timetable cannot be met for any reason i.e. the matter is complex and requires more investigations to be carried out than are possible in 5 working days or documents need to be recovered from archiving, then the person conducting your case will tell you in writing why s/he cannot respond within the time frame and suggest an alternative time frame to you.  Save in exceptional circumstances this will not exceed 14 days.

We hope your complaint can be resolved fully to your satisfaction at this stage.  If not then please feel free to move to the next stage – Step 2 – which is explained below.

STEP 2

If, having received a response to your complaint from your conducting solicitor but which is not to your satisfaction, then you can ask for further consideration of the matter.

At this point we ask that you refer the complaint to the Client Care Officer who is Simon Rose (simonrose@morgan-rose.com).  If the complaint is about him then you can ask that the Deputy Client Care Officer, Tim Peun (timpeun@morgan-rose.com) deals with your complaint.  If for any reason the Client Care Officer is away and unable to deal with your complaint then the other solicitor mentioned, who is independent of your case will be able to deal with it in his absence.

In either case, the person who goes on to review your complaint will endeavour to acknowledge that he has taken charge of it within 2 working days of you asking for the matter to proceed to Stage 2 and then respond to it in detail within 5 working days of being asked by you to do so.  Unless the matter is very complicated and requires more time then he will endeavour to investigate the matter and provide you with a response attempting to resolve it within 5 working days after acknowledgment of receipt of it.   If more time than 5 days is need then this will not exceed 14 days.

You will receive a Final Response letter from us after the person dealing with Stage 2 has fully investigated the complaint.

 STEP 3

If you are still not satisfied with our internal handling of the complaint after following the Steps above then please feel free to contact the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ, (telephone 0300 555 0333) or via email/Web at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or www.legalombudsman.org.uk .  Please bear in mind the time limits you have when referring complaints to the Ombudsman.  You can refer your complaint to the Ombudsman at any point of course.

We very much hope that we can resolve your complaint internally and improve our service as a result.