Winston Solicitors complaints

Complaints

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy with the service we have provided to you or you have concerns about our charges then you should inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you.

Dissatisfied with our service?

Initially please contact the person who is handling your matter to discuss your concerns. Alternatively, or if your concerns are not resolved by the person handling your matter please contact the person supervising their work. The name of the supervisor is set out in the client care letter sent to you at the start of your case.

We will do our best to resolve any concerns at this stage but if you still have concerns and feel you need to make a formal complaint, our full complaints procedure is detailed in this document. Making a complaint will not affect how your case is handled.

Making a formal complaint

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If something goes wrong you need to tell us about it, so that we can put matters right. It will also help us to improve our standards.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your concerns having raised them to the person handling your matter and their supervisor, you should make a formal complaint which will be handled by our Complaints Handling Partner.

What will happen next

  1. Within three days of receiving your complaint we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint, let you know the name of the person handling your complaint and request you to confirm or explain any details which we require to investigate your complaint. If it seems that it would assist to resolve your complaint we will suggest a meeting with you.
  2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a separate file for your complaint.
  3. The timetable/actions for investigating your complaint are likely to be as follows:
    • Within three days of receiving your complaint the person investigating your complaint will raise it with the person complained about, and where appropriate call for your file of papers.
    • Within fourteen days of receiving your complaint the person dealing with your complaint will either invite you to a meeting to resolve the complaint, or send you a detailed reply, which will include suggestions for resolving the matter.
  4. If you are still not satisfied that your complaint has been resolved, please let us know, and your complaint will be reviewed within fourteen days of you notifying us by another partner in this firm.
  5. We will let you know the result of this review within five days of completing the review and we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
  6. If you remain dissatisfied you have a right to take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints. Their contact details are set out below.

What you may do if we cannot resolve your complaint

If we are unable to help you, then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how your case is handled. Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have there are some time limits for taking your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

You should do so:

  • Within 6 months of receiving our final response to your complaint

and

  • No more than 1 year from the date of act/omission about which you are complaining,

or

  • No more than 1 year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman their contact details are:

How the SRA can help you

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, disability, or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Our commitment to you

We are pleased that we very rarely have to use our complaints procedure – and if any client is dissatisfied with our service, and wishes to use it, we will do our utmost to resolve the complaint to our client’s satisfaction.

Client feedback

We couldn’t recommend Samantha Robertson-Strong enough. She made the whole process of buying our first property so much easier and would recommend her to people I know.Thanks Again Samantha and the Winstons team!
Mr Atherton
Joe and Amr were good at keeping contact and answering my questions as a first time buyer. The solicitor on the other side of the purchase was not always responsive, though Joe/Amr made sure to keep chasing which I appreciated. Overall smooth process and would recommend.
Amber
Absolutely incredible! Exceeded all expectations, very professional.
Michael
It is probably 45+ years since I last bought a house so it was a real re-learning process. Michelle was helpful and pateint throughout. She kept me fully informed of the prgress being made and all the responses from her enquiries to the other party were detailed. Both sides were under pressure to complete before April when further tax increases loomed. It was also the pressure that I would be heading to France to oversee the sale of my property. The only 'blip' that I saw was the query of my funding. It was simply the transfer of the funds from the sale of my home in France to cover the sale in Leeds. This was accepted. I had requested Sterling and not Euros and perhaps that did raise an eyebrow or two. I would have no rpblem in recommending Winstons.
Roger
Outstanding from start to finish. Leasa was fabulous, professional and thorough throughout. Would highly recommend to anyone. We honestly cannot Thankyou enough for getting us into our family home.
Natalie
Winston solicitors are experts at what they do. They go above and beyond the normal service to provide you with the best interest for you. I cannot thank Emily for her commitment and resilience on answering every question i had asked. She is a great assest ti Winston solicitors and a credit to her team. I would love to work with Emily again in the furture if required to do so. Would not hesiste to reccommend winston solicitors to everyone.
Ishtiaq
Amazing service from Sidraa with support from Tom. Timely communication, easy to deal with and thorough. Sidraa went over and above to meet our deadlines and was so personable to deal with. Would 100% recommend.
Sophie
Both Samantha and Michelle at Winstons Solicitors have been brilliant keeping us informed with the selling and buying of our houses. If there were any problems they explained what was happening and also put our minds at rest.... as moving is stressful enough.will definitley use again in the future as we were impressed with the company and service.
Craig
Contact Jonathan