Complaints

OUR COMPLAINTS POLICY

Bendall & Sons is committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients.  When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it.  This will help us to improve our standards.

Definition of a ‘Complaint’

Bendall & Sons will consider the following to be a complaint:-

A written or spoken statement of discontent; disappointment or fault

regarding the work carried out by Bendall and Sons and its Employees

Recording Data & Review

Andrew Geddes, Solicitor, Partner shall ensure a record is kept of all complaints and relevant response(s) and outcome.  This information shall be reviewed annually by Mr Geddes to ensure the practice is maintaining the high standards expected by clients of the firm.

OUR COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

If you have a concern or a complaint that has not been dealt with to your satisfaction by the person handling your case or their supervising partner, please contact us as soon as you are aware of the problem so this can be addressed.

Please Contact:           Andrew Geddes, Solicitor, Partner, or

                                    Anthony Scott Solicitor, Partner

                                    Bendall & Sons

                                    23 High Street, Newmarket,

                                    Suffolk, CB8 8LY

                                   Tel: 01638 661116

                                    Andrew Geddes:        geddes@bendallandsons.co.uk

                                    Anthony Scott:   Anthony.scott@bendallandsons.co.uk

What will happen next?

  • We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within five days of our receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure. If you require this information to be given to you in an alterative form, for example you need the information read to you, please contact us to arrange the same.
  • We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care partner, Anthony Scott/Andrew Geddes, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
  • Anthony Scott/Andrew Geddes will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint. He/she will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  • Within three days of the meeting,Anthony Scott/Andrew Geddes will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he/she has agreed with you.
  • If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Anthony Scott/Andrew Geddes will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his/her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
  • At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter we may at this stage arrange for another Partner (if possible) to review the decision.
  • We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  • If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body, to consider the complaint.

    • Alternative complaints bodies (such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.

    We do not agree to use any scheme other than the Legal Ombudsman.

    The Legal Ombudsman (an independent complaints body which investigates complaints from consumers about their legal service providers in England and Wales) is introducing updated Scheme Rules, effective from 1st April 2023.

    A key change relates to the timescale to refer complaints to the Legal Ombudsman - this is reducing to within 1 year from the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within 1 year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

    The requirement to refer complaints to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final response from the firm about a complaint will remain the same under the new Rules.
    The Legal Ombudsman will have discretion to extend the timescale beyond 1 year where it considers it would be fair and reasonable to do so, however this will not be a given and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

    For more information, please refer to our internal Complaints Procedure. To view the Rules in full, please see the Scheme Rules on the Legal Ombudsman's website.

    The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH ; telephone: 0300 555 0333; website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

    1. You also have the right to object to the bill and apply for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not deal with a complaint about the bill if you have applied to the court for an assessment of the bill.

     

    If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

     

    Contact

    Contact Us

    Location:

    Newmarket:
    23 High Street Newmarket Suffolk, CB8 8LY

    Midlenhall:
    Ashton House Mill Street Mildenhall Suffolk, IP28 7DW

    Call:

    Newmarket:
    01638 661116

    Mildenhall:
    01638 712243

    images