If you are a Watershed client and have any problem with our service, the level of our fees, or with the way in which we have dealt with any job, please first contact the person dealing with the matter, and they will do their best to resolve the issue.
If you do not wish to raise it with them directly or they have not been able to assist, then please contact Victoria Young vyoung@watershed.law. Alternatively, please contact Mandy Collinson on +44 161 703 5611, who can provide you with the appropriate contact details.
If you are a third party (non-client) and want to raise a complaint, please contact Victoria Young vyoung@watershed.law, setting out the nature of your complaint. We are willing to consider complaints from all sources and take any complaints about the firm’s conduct seriously. However, our response to third party complaints may be limited on account of the professional obligations we owe our clients. Amongst other obligations, we owe our clients duties of confidentiality and to act in their best interests.
We treat complaints very seriously and make every effort to deal with them effectively. We will investigate your complaint and respond as soon as possible. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within three working days from the date of receipt and send a response within 20 working days. If, for any reason, we are unable to respond fully within 20 working days, we will tell you why, and when we expect to be able to reply.
We aim to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible and in any event within eight weeks from the date of receipt.
If we are unable to resolve your difficulty in this way, you will be offered the opportunity of an internal review. This will usually be handled by Ben Collinson.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may be able to use the service provided by the Legal Ombudsman. However, please note that the service provided by the Legal Ombudsman is only available to certain types of clients/organisations. More details of those eligible for the service can be found on the Legal Ombudsman’s website. Alternatively, you should contact the Ombudsman on the helpline number which is 0300 555 0333, or in writing to the Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. If you are calling from overseas, the contact telephone number is +44 121 245 3050. You can e-mail the Legal Ombudsman on enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
A six-month time limit from the date of our final response normally applies to complaints to the Legal Ombudsman. Since 1st April 2023, the Legal Ombudsman will expect complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining or within a year of when you should reasonably have realised there was cause for complaint. More information can be found on its website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
If you genuinely believe that the business or one of our solicitors has breached the professional standards set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), you can complain to it directly through its website at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/. The applicable professional standards are described on the SRA website: www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations
