Complaints Procedure

  • We will take great care to ensure you receive an exceptionally high standard of service. If you are dissatisfied with our service you have the right to make a complaint which in first instance should be referred to one of the partners. Your complaint will be thoroughly investigated and you will receive a response as soon as possible. You should not feel obliged to use this formal complaints procedure and can tell us about a problem informally and we will do our best to put things right. If you do need to make a formal complaint, then please follow the steps below.

  • You can make a complaint either in writing or on the telephone by contacting the following people: Domenico Malatesta (dmalatesta@gm-lcs.com) or Malcolm Goodwin (mgoodwin@gm-lcs.com) or by writing to us at:

Goodwin Malatesta Legal Costs Services Ltd, 141 High Street, Epping, CM16 4BD

Or by telephone on 01992 574 846.

  • Please tell us what the complaint is about and when the problem happened or when the problem started, if it is still ongoing and how you would like us to communicate with you (by telephone, letter or email).

  • We will formally acknowledge your complaint in writing and will endeavor to do this within 2 business days.

  • We will look into the details of your complaint and consider what we may need to do to put things right if required and once a full investigation has been undertaken we will reply to you in writing within eight weeks from when you first made the complaint.

  • If we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks, then your complaint can be looked at independently by the Legal Ombudsman, who investigate problems about poor service from lawyers. Before a complaint is referred to the Legal Ombudsman an attempt must be made to resolve it with us first. If you have, then your complaint must be taken to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final response from us, no more than 6 years from the date of the alleged act/omission giving rise to the complaint or no more than 3 years from when you should reasonably have known that there may be cause for complaint.

  • The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted using the following details:

Address: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

  • There are other alternative dispute resolution schemes that exist such as ADR Group should both we and you wish to use such a scheme. Generally, we do not choose to use these schemes.

  • Individual Costs Lawyers who work for us are regulated by The Costs Lawyer Standards Board (CLSB) and the CSLB can investigate complaints about those Costs Lawyers’ professional conduct. If you wish to complain about a Costs Lawyers’ conduct, you should contact the CLSB promptly.

  • The CLSB will consider complaints made within 12 months of the date on which the matters giving rise to the complaint occurred or the date on which the complainant first became aware that they had grounds for the complaint. This period can be extended in exceptional circumstances. The CSLB will usually expect you to give us a chance to resolve your complaint first. The CSLB can be contacted using the following details:

Address: Centurion House, 129 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3WR
Telephone: 0161 214 7904
Email: enquiries@clsb.info
Website: www.clsb.info

  • General Data Protection Regulations

    Goodwin Malatesta complies with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The legal basis by which we control and/or process data is by contract or legal obligation and unless your prior consent is obtained, any data retained will be deleted at the conclusion of the contract or legal obligation. Any questions regarding compliance should be referred to our Data Protection officer, Domenico Malatesta.

 



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