Complaints

Anyone in the firm may record a complaint; the compliance function handles it. Each is numbered (CMP-2026-0001), and every step is kept with who took it and when.

Record the complaint

Choose New, Complaint (or Record complaint on the matter's or the party's Complaints tab) and give the day it was Received on, How it came, who it is From, the Matter where there is one, its Category, the people of the firm it is About, a Handler if you know who should have it, the complaint In a line and The complaint in full.

The matter must be one you may open, and the client one you are not walled from. If you cannot read the complaints register yourself, you are shown the complaint's number once it is recorded, and the handler takes it from there.

Left empty, the handler is the person named under Settings, System, General, Compliance, Complaints go to; else whoever records it, where they handle complaints; else the first of those who do, by name. The handler and whoever manages compliance are told.

The time limits

Two days are set when it arrives, from the firm's settings under Settings, System, General, Compliance: it is acknowledged within Acknowledge a complaint within (working days) (two, as shipped) and answered within Final response to a complaint within (weeks) (eight). No rule in Ghana sets either; the shipped values follow common practice and the firm's own lawyer confirms them. The register shows each complaint's next day owed and marks late ones; as one comes near, its handler and compliance are told (the warnings are Warning before an acknowledgement is due (days) and Warning before a final response is due (days)).

Handle it

From the complaint's page: Acknowledge, Start investigating, Record final response (with what it said), and Close. Escalate to the regulator records that it went to the General Legal Council, with their reference, from any open step. Reassign gives it to another handler with the reason. Close as withdrawn closes it from any open step where the complainant withdrew.

Make a letter makes the acknowledgement, the final response or the letter on taking it further, from the firm's templates (three are shipped under Settings, Documents, Templates, for the firm to adapt). The letter is filed on the matter and the complainant, and Send by email opens it in a new email where the complaint is on a matter.

Close it

Close asks for the Outcome (upheld, partly upheld, not upheld, withdrawn), any Redress (an apology, a fee reduced or refunded with its amount, work redone), the Root cause, the Lessons learned, and whether to raise a File review of the matter, which sets a task for whoever manages compliance.

Privacy and the figures

A complaint about you is not shown to you unless you handle complaints yourself. Compliance, Clients, Complaints shows the year's figures above the register; the compliance dashboard counts the open and the late.