38/42 Lowther Street, Whitehaven | 15 New Oxford Street, Workington

Care & Complaints

Your Satisfaction is Our Priority

At H.F.T Gough & Co Solicitors, we are committed to providing exceptional service and expert legal guidance. If you have any concerns about our service, we encourage you to reach out so we can address them promptly and fairly. Your feedback helps us improve, and we’re here to resolve any issues professionally and efficiently.

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

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure below.  Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

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.

What do to if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

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, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

  • Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint

    and

  • No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or

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

    If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

    Contact details

    Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

    Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

    Email: [email protected]

    Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

Complaints Procedure

Our complaints policy

H.F.T. Gough & Co is committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards and our service to you.

Client Complaints definition

‘any negative feedback from a Client in relation to services provided, advice given, time taken, fees charged and the quality and standard of work’

Complaints Procedure

If you have not been able to resolve your problem with the person dealing with your matter, please contact our Practice Manager with the details, either verbally or in writing if you prefer.

What will happen next?

  1. We shall send you a letter acknowledging your complaint; we may need to ask you at this point to clarify, confirm or explain some of the details given. In this letter, we shall  let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive this letter within two days of our receiving your complaint.
  2. We shall record your complaint in our central    register and open a separate file for your complaint.
  3. If, in our acknowledgement letter, we have asked for any clarification, on receipt of this, we shall write to you and explain what will happen next. We shall do this by return of post.
  4. We shall then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps:-
    1. We shall pass your complaint to the Departmental Director;
    2. He/she will ask the member of the firm who acted for you to reply to him/her about your complaint within 5 days;               
    3. He/she will then examine the reply and the information in your file, and, if necessary,  may also speak to the member of the firm concerned.  This may take a few days.
    4. The Departmental Director may invite you to a meeting to discuss and we hope resolve your complaint.  If so, within two days of the meeting the Departmental Director will write to you to confirm what took place and any resolution agreed with you.
    5. If you do not want a meeting, or it is not appropriate, the Departmental Director will send a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include  suggestions for resolving the matter.
    6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied you should contact the Practice Manager,  Who  will refer the matter to the Client Care Director.  The Client Care Director of the firm will review the decision within ten days. If he thinks it appropriate, he will arrange to meet you to discuss the issues.
    7. We shall let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we shall write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We shall also give you the name and address of the Office for the Legal Services Ombudsman. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact that office about your complaint.

If we have to change any of the timescales above, we shall write to you and let you know.