We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your matter, or if you have a complaint about your bill, please speak to the solicitor dealing with your matter in the first instance.
If you are not able to resolve the issue with the solicitor directly, or if you would prefer to speak to a different person, please contact Amy Codd, our Head of Legal Services. You can write to her at:
Duncan & Toplis Legal Services Ltd
3 Castlegate
Grantham
NG31 6SF
You can also contact her by telephone on 01476 591200, or email amy.codd@duncantoplislegal.co.uk.
We will acknowledge any complaint within five business days. This will be investigated in a fair, prompt, constructive and honest manner.
The investigation will be conducted/supervised by the Head of Legal Services.
We will keep a full record of the way in which the complaint has been handled in a separate complaint file.
If following an investigation, we are of the opinion that the complaint is justified in whole or in part, we will take appropriate action to resolve the complaint.
Once we have concluded our investigation of the complaint, we will notify you in writing of the outcome within eight weeks and how, if appropriate, we intend to rectify the matter. This may lead to more discussions with you. We will make it clear to you when we have made our final response and will advise you of your right to refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman.
If we need to change any of the timescales above, we will contact you and explain why.
If the complaint is not resolved within eight weeks of receipt of the complaint (or other timescale we have advised you of), or you are not satisfied with our final response, you have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. You can write to the Legal Ombudsman at:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
You can also contact them by telephone on 0330 555 0333, or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
If you should raise the matter with the Legal Ombudsman, you should do so within six years of the act or omission, or within three years of becoming aware of the issue, in either case within six months of our final response.
This does not prevent us from continuing to try to resolve the matter with you.
We keep a central record of complaints and regularly review these and their outcome to identify whether procedures and/or systems could be introduced or modified to avoid similar complaints arising in the future.