We may ask you to enter personal details such as your name, address, telephone number or email address if you choose to contact us. You may choose to enter other information relevant to customer surveys, enquires or services. Our Websites may collect technical data, such as IP addresses; however such information does not identify individuals and is used for statistical purposes only.

It will be entered into our database. We will not supply your details to a third party except in the course of providing our services to you, to meet legal or regulatory requirements or, where you have chosen to receive such information, to provide you with information which may be of interest to you, including details about the services we offer, newsletters, legal updates and invitations to events.

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

1. Internal record keeping.
2. We may use the information to improve our products and services.
3. We may periodically send promotional emails about new services, events, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. We will only do this where you have chosen to receive such information.
4. From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We will only do this where you have chosen to be contacted in this way.
5. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests.

Under The Data Protection Act 1998, you may request details of personal information that we hold about you. A fee of £10.00 is payable. If you want to make a request, please e-mail our Quality & Compliance Partner, Alisa Willows or write to her at Wolferstans, Deptford Chambers, 60-66 North Hill, Plymouth, PL4 8EP. We will need to receive your request in writing and establish your identity before we can comply with your request.

All contact information that you provide to us via email or Our Websites is stored in a secure database.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Our Websites and any transmission is at your own risk.

1. Within three working days we will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain any details. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. This will usually be the Head of the Department which dealt with the matter.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. When appropriate we will investigate your complaint by examining the relevant file.
3. If appropriate we will then invite you to meet Alisa Willows to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. We would hope to be in a position to meet with you in this way no longer than 21 working days after first receiving your complaint. If you would prefer not to meet, or if we cannot arrange this within an agreeable timescale, we will write fully to you setting out our views on the situation and any redress that we feel would be appropriate.
4. Within three working days of any meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any suggestions that we have agreed with you. In appropriate cases we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.
5. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied or we are unable to resolve your complaint, you can request that your complaint is reviewed by a member of our Management Board. We would generally aim to do this within 10 working days of referal to them. This will usually happen by the Management Board member reviewing the decision of Roger Sands, however in appropriate cases we may deal with the review in one of the following ways;
   • We may arrange for someone else in the firm who has not been involved in your complaint to review it, for instance if it is necessary for the reviewer to have specialist knowledge in a certain area of law. If this is appropriate we will let you know the name of the person who will be reviewing the decision.
   • We will invite you to agree to independent mediation. We will let you know more details about this and how long this process will take, if this is an appropriate option.

6. We will let you know the result of the review within five working days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
7. If you object to a bill, you have the right to apply to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about a bill if you have already applied to the court for assessment of the bill.
8. If, after following our internal complaints procedure, you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) about your complaint. The LeO has time limits for dealing with complaints. You should contact them:-
• After eight weeks of referring your complaint to us, if it has not been resolved to your satisfaction.
• Within six year from the act or omission that your complain of or three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

Their contact details are:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333 from 8:30am to 5:30pm
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

9. We hope that this will not be necessary and aim to work with you to resolve the matter before that stage.