Complaints Procedure

1. Within 7 days we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. If it seems appropriate we will suggest a meeting at this stage. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.

2. We will then record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will also investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.

3. The latest date which a complete answer will be given to your complaint will be no more than 28 days after we have received your complaint.

4. If appropriate and at our discretion we may then invite you to meet us to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 10 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 fully to you setting out our views on the situation and any redress that we would feel to be appropriate.

5. In the alternative we may write to you with our findings without a meeting.

6. The assessment of your complaint will be based upon a thorough and fair investigation. We will explain in writing our findings and where the complaint is upheld we will offer remdial action or redress promptly.

6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, please let us know. We will then arrange to review our decision unless paragraph 7 below applies. We would generally aim to do this within 10 working days. This will happen in one of the following ways.

• The person dealing with your complaint will review his/her own decision; or
• We will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it; or
• Mr Lansdell will review your complaint; or
• We may invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know how long this process will take.

7. We will let you know the result of the review within 28 days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and address of the Legal Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint. We very much hope that this will not be necessary.

8. In the event that the nature of the complaint(s) is found to be such that the continued relationship of lawyer and client is untenable then we shall write to you and explain such and invite you to take over the conduct of your matter or pass it to another lawyer. That does not of course mean that we will not deal with your complaint but to make this decision there would have been a review of the matter by at least two senior personnel within our company and prior to making the decision. If you are not content with the findings you may then contact the Legal Ombudsman. Their address is:-

 PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

Tel: 0300 555 0333

E-Mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

www.officeforlegalcomplaints.org.uk

www.legalombudsman.org.uk

9. Unless it agrees there are good reasons not to do so, the Legal Ombudsman will expect you to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above, before they will consider it. You can refer your complaint up to 6 months after you have receievd our final written response to your complaint. You can also use the Ombudsmand service if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks of receiving it. A complaint can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman up to six years from the date or act or omission or up to 3 years after discovering the problem. The Ombudsman deals with service related complaints; any conduct-related complaints will be referred to the Council for Licensed Conveyanyers.

10. If you make a valid claim against us for a loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the Compensation Fund administered by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (from whom details can be obtained)

Evolve Law is regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) under Practice License Number 3158 and who are located at We Work, 131 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC2A 1NT