At Cooper & Co Solicitors, we aim to provide all our clients with a high standard of service. However, we recognise that there may be occasions when a client is dissatisfied with the service provided or with our charges.

We take all complaints seriously and welcome the opportunity to investigate concerns, put matters right where appropriate, and improve our service.

Our complaints procedure is straightforward, free of charge and consists of three stages:

1. The Complaint

2. The Decision

3. The Review

1. The Complaint

If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service or our charges, please let us know.  Complaints should be emailed to trevor@doglaw.co.uk or by letter to ‘Trevor Cooper, Cooper & Co, 19 Palace Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT13 9EU’.

Please let us know why you are disatisfied and what you would like us to do to resolve the matter.

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing, normally within three working days of receiving it, and record it in our central Complaints Register.

2. The Decision

One of our Solicitors will investigate your complaint and consider the issues you have raised.  We aim to provide you with a written Decision within two weeks of acknowledging your complaint.  Our Decision will explain our findings and, where appropriate, what we propose to do to resolve the matter.

If we need longer to investigate your complaint, we will let you know and explain why.

3. The Review

If you are dissatisfied with our Decision, you may ask us to review it.

Please let us know why you remain dissatisfied, preferably in writing.

We will arrange for your complaint to be reconsidered, either by the Solicitor who made the original Decision or, where practicable, by another Solicitor who has not previously been involved.

If the original Solicitor undertakes the Review, we aim to complete it within one week. If another Solicitor undertakes the Review, we aim to complete it within two weeks.

We will write to you with the outcome of the Review and explain our conclusions.

4. The Legal Ombudsman

If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may be entitled to refer it to the Legal Ombudsman, which is an independent organisation responsible for investigating complaints about legal services.

You may generally refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if:

• You have received our final written response and remain dissatisfied; or

• Eight weeks have passed since you first made your complaint and it has not been resolved to your satisfaction.

You do not have to wait for the completion of our internal Review if eight weeks have elapsed.

The Legal Ombudsman normally expects complaints to be referred:

• Within six months of receiving our final written response;

• Within one year of the act or omission complained about; or

• Within one year of when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

The Legal Ombudsman has discretion to extend these time limits in certain circumstances.

The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at:

Legal Ombudsman

PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ

Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

5. Complaints about Professional Conduct

If your concern relates to a possible breach of professional rules or misconduct by a Solicitor, you may also raise the matter with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The SRA can be contacted through its website at www.sra.org.uk.

6. General

There is no charge for making a complaint or for our investigation and consideration of it.

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

We will endeavour to resolve all complaints promptly, fairly and within eight weeks of receiving them.