We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our Clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it immediately. This will help us to improve our standards and service.

In most cases, an informal chat with our client care director, Joanne du Plessis, can resolve any concerns.

Joanne can be contacted either by phone (01594 545660) or in writing (Shires Law (Gloucester) Ltd, The Carlson Suite, Building 8, Floor 4, Vantage Point Business Village, Mitcheldean, GL17 0DD)

How will attempt to resolve your complaint

1. If you telephone us, we’ll attempt to address and resolve your concerns during the call.

2. If you write to us, or if you contact us via telephone and we cannot resolve your concerns during the call, we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within two days of us receiving your complaint.

3. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint. We will do this within a day of receiving your complaint.

4. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:-

4a. We will pass your complaint to Joanne du Plessis, our client care director, within three days.

4b. She will ask the member of staff who acted for you to reply to the complaint within 5 days.

4c. She will then examine their reply and the information in their complaint file. And, if necessary, she may also speak to them. This will take up to three days from receiving their reply and the file.

5. Joanne du Plessis will then invite you to a meeting and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within three days.

6. Within two days of the meeting Joanne du Plessis will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Joanne du Plessis will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include her suggestions for resolving the matter. She will do this within five days of completing the investigation.

7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you can contact us again. We will then arrange to review our decision. This will happen in one of the following ways. Another partner of the firm will review Joanne du Plessis’ decision within 10 days.

We will ask our local Law Society or another local firm of solicitors to review your complaint within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take. We will invite you to agree to independent mediation within five days. We will let you know how long this process will take.

8. We will let you know the result of the review within five 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.

If you are unhappy with our handling of your complaint, you can raise your concerns with The Solicitors Regulation Authority at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

If you are not satisfied by the response of the Solicitors Regulation Authority or your concerns are not covered within the Solicitors Regulation Guidelines, you may refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman.

You can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 5550333, by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, or via post at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ, to consider the complaint. The Legal Ombudsman is the independent complaints-handling arm of the Law Society.

If your unresolved complaint is in relation to an insurance policy covering your case, you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service either via telephone on 0800 0234567, by email at complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk or post at Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR

Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint, or within 6 years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within 3 years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

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

Shires Law (Gloucester) Ltd

The Carlson Suite,
Building 8, Floor 4,
Vantage Point Business Village
Mitcheldean
GL17 0DD