Reclami

Complaints Policy 

Vardags is committed to providing an excellent service to all our clients. We take any expression of dissatisfaction about the service you have received seriously. We will investigate your concerns objectively and respond promptly to any complaint. 

1. INTRODUCTION 
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all of our clients. When clients raise 
concerns or something goes wrong we really do need to be informed. This will help us to improve 
our standards going forward and rectify any issues which can be resolved during the course of our 
instruction, to provide the best possible service that we can. 

2. WHAT IS A COMPLAINT? 
We define a complaint as: 
“any issue or concern raised or reported by a client in relation to our service, the 
level of our fees, or how we have dealt with a matter”. 

3. MAKING A COMPLAINT 
You can register a complaint with the person with day-to-day conduct of your matter or with the 
Director with overall responsibility for your matter, details of which are given in your initial Client 
Engagement Letter. You can do this verbally or in writing and our preference would be the latter so 
that we have a good understanding of the issues of concern to you. 
Details of your complaint with be passed to our Complaints Officer. However, in the first instance, the person 
with day-to-day conduct of your matter and the Director with overall responsibly for your matter, 
with the assistance of our Practice Support Officer where appropriate, will try to resolve the problem 
to your satisfaction informally. 
If they are not able to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may request that the complaint 
be escalated to be dealt with by our Complaints Officer. We will ask you to provide us with a formal letter (an “Escalated Complaint Letter”) setting out: 

• the full nature of your complaint 

• the names of the parties who you believe to be responsible 

• how you propose your complaint be resolved. 

4. INVESTIGATING THE ESCALATED COMPLAINT 
Upon receipt of your Escalated Complaint Letter, our Complaints Officer will: 

• acknowledge receipt within 7 days; 

• record your complaint in our Central Complaints Register and open a separate file for your 
  complaint; 

• conduct a full investigation and an independent review of the matter; 

• aim to respond to you in full within 8 weeks. However, if your complaint is of a more complex 
  nature more time may be required and if that is the case our Complaints Offer will let you know 
  when you can expect to receive a full response. Our Complaints Officer may also invite you to 
  meet with her and the Director with overall responsibility for your matter in order to gather more 
  information and resolve the matter; and 

• reply to you in writing, to tell you of her views on the complaint and, where applicable, how she 
  proposes to resolve it, hopefully to your satisfaction. 
  If still unresolved at this stage, you may take the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, further details 
  in respect of which are given below. We will issue a final letter advising you of this. 

5. LEGAL OMBUDSMAN 
The Legal Ombudsman is the independent body established by the Office for Legal Complaints under 
the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with complaints against Solicitors. 
The Legal Ombudsman may: 

• investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a solicitor to a client; 

• investigate allegations that a solicitor has breached rules of professional conduct; 

• investigate allegations that a solicitor has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service 
  to a prospective client; and 

• investigate allegations that a solicitor has persistently or unreasonably offered a professional 
  service that the client does not want. 

Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal 
Complaints Procedure (outlined above) has been exhausted. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that 
the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further. 
You will have to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final 
response from us about your complaint and 6 years from the date of the act or omission, giving rise 
to the complaint or, alternatively, 3 years from the date you should reasonably have known there are 
grounds for complaint. 

The Legal Ombudsman’s address and contact details are: 
PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ; telephone, 0300 555 0333; website, 
www.legalombudsman.org.uk; or email [email protected] 

6. THE SOLICITORS REGULATION AUTHORITY 
The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could 
be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your 
age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation 
Authority. 

7. CONTRACTS ENTERED INTO ONLINE 
If we are unable to resolve your complaint which relates to a contract entered into online, you may 
contact the Online Dispute Resolution providers by accessing the following link 
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr