Complaints Policy

Battens' Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all of our clients. However, if you have concerns about the service which we have provided or if you feel that something is going wrong then it is important that you let us know as soon as possible.

If matters are addressed swiftly with the person assisting you, we may be able to resolve your concerns at an early stage.

We want to give our clients the best possible service. As well as helping us deal with any complaint as quickly as possible, communicating your concerns to us promptly will also help us to improve our overall standard of client care.

Should you wish to raise any complaint, this will be dealt with in line with our policy and will not affect the way in which any ongoing work for you will be dealt with.

Battens’ Client Care Procedure

Should there be any aspect of our service, including our bill, which you are unhappy about at any point in time and which you feel unable to resolve with the person or persons dealing with your matter, please contact us in writing as follows:

As Complaints Officer, Katherine also has responsibility for this policy which is reviewed annually.

What will happen next?

  1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and, if necessary, asking you to confirm or explain the details set out in your complaint. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. We aim to acknowledge receipt of your complaint within seven working days of our receipt.
  2. We will send you a copy of this complaints policy with our acknowledgement and at any time on request.
  3. We will not charge you for handling your complaint.
  4. We will record your complaint in our central register.
  5. If under our letter at paragraph 1 above, we have asked for further details or clarification of any information in our initial response to you, then once we have received this from you, we will be able to start to investigate your complaint. If no further information has been requested from you, we will start to investigate your complaint without delay.
  6. In investigating your complaint, we will ask the member of staff who acted for you and/or their team leader to provide their comments on your complaint.
  7. We will then examine those comments and the information in your file. The relevant team leader will provide our first response to you.
  8. We will normally provide our detailed response within 3 weeks of receipt of the full details of your complaint. If we are unable to do so or any longer response period is required given the detail of your complaint, we will write to you to let you know the date by which you will receive our full response.
  9. Alternatively, if a meeting in person is considered more appropriate, we will suggest a mutually convenient meeting to discuss the matters further. Where a meeting is held, we will write to you within 5 working days of that meeting to summarise the points discussed and any proposed resolution of your complaint.
  10. Having read our initial written response or met with us, if you are still not satisfied at this stage, you may contact us again. We will consider any additional comments you may wish to make and will endeavour to respond to you in writing within fifteen working days with the firm’s final decision taking into account the comments you have raised. If a longer period is required for our final response, we will write to you to let you know the date you will receive that response.
  11. If we do not hear further from you within 28 days from the date of any letter sent under paragraphs 8 or 10 above we will consider that our response has been accepted by you as our final response and will close your complaint. Your time limit to take your matter to the Legal Ombudsman will be six months from the date of our final determination of your complaint.
  12. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final decision.
  13. The Legal Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints:
    - more than one year from the date of the act/omission being complained about;
    - more than one year from the date when the complainant should have realised there was cause for complaint; or
    - where the act or date of awareness was before 6th October 2010.
  14. We will only accept complaints under our Complaints Policy which meet the criteria for review and acceptance by the Legal Ombudsman as set out in paragraph 13 above.

Legal Ombudsman’s Contact Details
The Legal Ombudsman’s contact details are:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Website - www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Tel - 0300 555 0333
E-mail - enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
Battens are regulated by the SRA. There are seven Principles that all people and law firms regulated by the SRA must meet. This means that we must act:

  • in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice
  • in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors' profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons
  • with independence
  • with honesty
  • with integrity
  • in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
  • in the best interests of each client.

If you believe Battens has breached an SRA Principle you can report the matter to the SRA whose address is Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN.

Battens’ Commitment to our Services
Whilst we pride ourselves on delivering a high-quality legal service to our clients, we recognise that there are often ways in which improvements can be made.

It is important to us that we constantly monitor our services and seek to improve. Your feedback is important to us in doing so.

We are committed to dealing with complaints promptly and fairly. We will apply any outcome of your complaint to continue to improve our services for you and all of our clients in the future.

Our complaints policy was last updated on 7th April 2025.