We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need our clients to tell us about it. This will help improve our standards. Whenever possible, please raise any initial client care problems with the person acting on your case to give them the opportunity of resolving matters with you. Often, matters can be quickly resolved in this way. We regard a formal complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction which alleges you have suffered loss, distress, inconvenience or other detriment.
If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about the bill, please contact the firm by telephone on 01670 351 251, by post to our office at Arms Evertyne House, Quay Road, Blyth, Northumberland NE24 2AS or by email to hello@carrandcosolicitors.com. Our policy aims to ensure that your complaint is dealt with promptly, fairly and free of charge. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
If you are still not satisfied with our handling of your complaint, or if we have not resolved it within eight weeks, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. We would hope that this does not become necessary and that we can resolve matters between ourselves. Contact details are as follows:
The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
The complaints procedure also includes complaints arising concerning our bill. There may also be a right to object to the bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974; and that if all, or part, of a bill remains unpaid, the firm may be entitled to charge interest.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) 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 find information about raising your concerns with the SRA at: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor
Please note: Our Gosforth office has now closed. This is not sad news as we have expanded our presence in our offices we have in the Northumberland area. Our office addresses and contact details for Blyth and Morpeth are on our contact us page. We look forward to seeing you at our Northumberland offices soon.
