Complaints

For the procedure in Northern Ireland, please click here 

For the procedure in Scotland, please click here  

For the procedure in any other jurisdiction outside England and Wales, please contact the Location Head

At DAC Beachcroft, we aim to provide the highest standards of service to our clients and to operate our business to the same high professional standards.

Dealing effectively with any concerns is part of that service. If you believe our service has fallen below these standards, we want you to raise the matter so it can be thoroughly investigated and any necessary action taken to resolve it to your satisfaction.

Complaints procedure for clients

In the first instance, please raise any concerns with the person responsible for the day-to-day conduct of the matter. Please provide us with full details of your concerns either in writing, on the telephone or, if you would prefer, at a meeting. (If we are claims handling for your Insurer before proceedings are issued, we will advise you of further procedures which apply in your case.)

We will do all we can to resolve the matter to your satisfaction. If we do not, you may make a complaint to Richard Chatterton, our Head of Complaints.

We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days, and provide a substantive response within 14 working days. We may ask to meet with you if it appears that this may help to resolve your concerns.

We will do our best to:

• investigate your concerns thoroughly;
• keep you informed of the progress and the outcome of our investigation; and
• ensure that any necessary remedial action is taken as quickly as possible.

We will record on a database the nature of your complaint, our investigation of it and the remedial action taken. You may be asked to confirm in writing whether the complaint has been satisfactorily resolved.

Legal Ombudsman

You may wish to contact the Legal Ombudsman. They will look at your complaint independently, and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, however, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first.

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.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Address: PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Phone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help if you are concerned about our behaviour.

Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with them: www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

Address: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN
Phone: 0870 606 2555
Email: report@sra.org.uk

Complaints by non-clients

If you are not a client, we will only be able to deal with your complaint if you allege that we have acted in breach of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Standards and Regulations.

Any such complaint should be marked for the attention of Richard Chatterton, Head of Complaints. If the breach appears self-evident, we will not need to seek further clarification.  In all other cases, we may ask you to specify the alleged breach before we deal with your complaint.

If we agree there has been a breach, we will tell you as soon as reasonably possible and apologise. This does not affect your right to report the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (see Solicitors Regulation Authority above).