Our Firm
We are a firm of solicitors that specialise in serious and catastrophic injury claims with a niche focus on traumatic brain injury. ‘Coulthursts’ is a trading name of Coulthursts Ltd, we are a private limited company registered in England & Wales with company number 12217992. Our registered and main office is Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5AN. Our main telephone number is 0161 518 4242 and email address is contact@coulthursts.co.uk.
We may from time to time use the word ‘partner’ to refer to a senior staff member but this does not mean that they are necessarily a Director of the company. Furthermore, anyone referred to as a ‘Partner’ is an employee of the company. Please check our website for a full list of our Directors. Any reference to lawyer does not necessarily mean the individual is a solicitor, please check our website for full details.
Our VAT number is 343 0675 14.
Our Regulator
We are a firm of solicitors authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Our SRA number is 667102. You can find out more about the SRA and view the professional rules which apply to us on the SRA website: www.sra.org.uk. Please note that owing to our professional duties as solicitors there are some limits on what we can do to help clients achieve their goals. We cannot, for example, break the law, act in a conflict of interest, mislead the Court or act in a manner deemed ‘unethical’ by our regulator.
Complaints
We hope that you are happy with the service we provide. If at any stage you are unhappy with the service, have concerns or wish to make a complaint then firstly we would like to apologise and let you know that we will do all we can to deal with your concerns.
As a starting point we would ask that you first please tell the person handling your matter straight away about the nature of your concern. We understand that this is a difficult time for our clients and their family in having to deal with such a complete and unexpected changes to their lives on so many levels. Research has universally pointed to issues over communication as the primary underlying cause of why clients feel unhappy about legal services. This has also been our experience and we would wish to put this right as soon as possible and to understand what we can do to help support you through this time whilst we are representing you. It is for this reason that we recommend speaking to the person who is applying our claim as soon as possible and not delay as this may result in the situation worsening.
If you do not feel comfortable speaking with the individual handling your claim then you can contact our complaints manager directly to discuss your concerns. We happily invite you to do so even if you feel slightly unhappy but are not at the stage where you wish to raise a formal complaint procedure. We wish to make this as easy as possible for you. If the person handling your claim (or the complains manager) cannot promptly resolve your concerns then it will be dealt with as a formal complaint under our complaints policy (set out below). This process involves an investigation of the concerns by a senior member of our firm. We will then write to you within 8 weeks setting out our final response to the complaint and how you can pursue you concerns further if you do not agree with our proposed resolution / outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about our service you remain dissatisfied. The Ombudsman would generally expect clients to follow a firm’s internal complaints procedure first. Complaints to the Ombudsman should normally be made within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint and no more than 6 years from the date of when the problem arose (or if you were not initially aware of the problem, within 3 years of when you should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint). You can find further information about the Ombudsman on the website www.legalombudsman.org.uk. You can write to the Ombudsman at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or by email on enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or call on 0300 555 0333.
Alternative complaints and dispute resolution bodies do also exist (such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation) which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services if we both agree to use such a scheme. If we agree to use such a scheme we will inform you when notifying you of our final response to your complaint.
Please note that the Legal Ombudsman is there to deal with concerns about the level of service which a client has received. Where there are more serious concerns that a solicitor or solicitor’s firm have been involved in professional misconduct then reports can also be made to the SRA, the regulator of solicitors and solicitor firms. This could be for quite unusual and serious acts of misconduct such as dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. Obviously, we do not anticipate any such problems arising and would ask that you notify the matter supervisor straight away if you have any such concerns.
If we have made a contract with you by electronic means (website, email or electronic signature etc) you may be entitled to use an EU online dispute resolution service to assist you with any dispute you may have with us in relation to the contract. This service can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/odr
The Complaint procedure
The client complaint procedure is set out below.
We are committed to providing a quality service to our clients. We also value feedback from clients greatly because it helps us to continually improve our service. If you do not feel that you are receiving excellent client service or that something could be improved, please do tell us about it. If we have fallen short of the high standards which we have set for ourselves then we would like the opportunity to put it right.
What do I do if I have feedback or a complaint?
At first it would be helpful if you could discuss any feedback or concerns which you have about our service or how it might be improved with the lawyer dealing with your matter. If the lawyer dealing cannot resolve your concern informally, or if the issue is of such a serious nature that you do not feel comfortable raising it with your lawyer, then you may discuss this with our complaints partner as a complaint under this policy.
How do I raise a complaint under this policy?
It would help us if you could email Philip Coulthurst (Director) (philip@coulthursts.co.uk) with:
- why you feel dissatisfied with the service which you have received;
- how you would prefer to be contacted about your complaint;
- if there is anything in particular which you would like us to do to resolve your complaint.
If you would prefer not to email details of your complaint in this way then please call to discuss the best way to allow us to get an understanding of your concerns.
What happens after I have made a complaint under this policy?
We will:
- send an acknowledgement of your complaint within 7 days of receiving it;
- log your complaint on our central complaints register;
- investigate the concerns and arrange a discussion with you to try to agree how to resolve the issues within 21 days of receiving your complaint;
- write to you within 28 days of receiving your complaint to confirm the outcome of this.
In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to extend these timescales but we will try to agree any variations with you first. If you remain unsatisfied after 8 weeks at the latest we will always ensure that you are reminded at that time of how to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if you are eligible to do so.
What might the outcome of my complaint be?
We very much regret any dissatisfaction which our clients experience and will not hesitate to apologise to you where our service has fallen below our high standards. We may also agree that certain steps will be taken to improve your situation and to ensure that any problems experienced will not reoccur.
What if I remain unsatisfied?
If you remain dissatisfied you may be entitled to complain to the Legal Ombudsman about our service. This service is not available to all clients however such as large businesses. The Ombudsman would generally expect clients to follow a firm’s internal complaints procedure first. You can find further information about the Ombudsman on the website www.legalombudsman.org.uk. You can write to the Ombudsman at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or by email on enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or call on 0300 555 0333. If you wish to raise a complaint with the Ombudsman then you should not delay bringing it to their attention once our own complaints process has concluded as there are some time limits on when this must be done. For example, normally you must raise a complaint with the Ombudsman within six months of the firm’s own final decision on how to resolve your complaint.
