Hartnell Chanot: Divorce/Family Law Solicitors Exeter, Devon

Our Promise

We have strict standards in client care and believe in providing a quality service.

Our Standards

We insist our staff meet certain standards with regard to the care of our clients. Such standards include:

• You should receive copies of all significant letters unless you request otherwise.
• Telephone calls are to be returned during the course of the same day if at all possible.
• Letters received are to be dealt with within 5 days if at all possible.
• Urgent matters are dealt with on the same day. However decisions as to the level of urgency must be left with the solicitor dealing with the matter alongside other urgent matters remembering that he/she will have other clients and commitments such as court hearings.
• Our letters to clients and other parties are to be written in plain English that you are able to understand easily.
• Appointments are to be given to clients as quickly as possible bearing in mind court and other commitments.
• We will keep you informed of the progress of your case, especially if we decide we need to do something urgently, which we have not yet discussed with you. Equally, we will keep you appraised of the progress of your case periodically. If you do not require us to do so then you should advise us accordingly.
• We will tell you of any delay and the reason for it.
• We will explain the effect of any important and relevant papers.
• We will tell you about any significant changes and the likely cost of the matter.
• If a different person needs to assume responsibility for your case we will tell you the name of that person and the reason for the change.
• We will discuss with you any risks and the likelihood of succeeding with your case. Sometimes the advice we give and our view of what may happen may be hard to accept. We understand this and we are happy to explain our advice thoroughly. We are all specialist in the area of family law and will have considered very carefully every aspect of the case. We will encourage you to keep the interest of any children you may have at the centre of all our discussions.

When your case has finished we will

• Confirm the details and effect of the outcome and explain to you anything further that needs to be done including whether you need to look at the matter again in the future.
• Return any of your property, unless you ask us to store it.
• Account to you for any outstanding monies. Please note that this may involve some delay while the court and Legal Services Commission (LSC) check your legal costs.

Who Is Dealing With The Matter

You will be told who is dealing with your matter, but there may be occasions when your case will have to be dealt with by someone else in the firm. All of our solicitors are specialists in family law and will be able to assist you in the absence of the person who normally handles matters for you, but we appreciate that a change can be stressful and this will only happen in unavoidable circumstances.

Client Feedback

We constantly strive to improve the service we provide and you will periodically receive questionnaires from us asking for feedback. Please feel free at any stage however, to let us know if there is something you feel that we could be doing better, or indeed anything we are doing particularly well. Any such matters should be referred to the Practice Manager, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it