Complaints Procedure

This is the complaints procedure for Direct Accident Management Limited and its trading names DAMS, McAMS, CAMS and EDGE.

Our Procedures

Our company and its trained members of staff are dedicated to ensuring that you get the appropriate help needed following your accident, and we do everything we can to ensure that this happens.

We aim to achieve 100% customer satisfaction and we sincerely hope that every customer has a positive experience with us. However, we urge our customers to contact us if you are not happy, so that we can help resolve the issue for you.

If you would like to make a complaint about a solicitor who has handled your claim, please raise the complaint with them, using their own complaints handling process.

If we receive any information about a solicitor, we will forward the complaint onto the relevant solicitor for them to handle directly.

We pride ourselves on the high level on service we offer. We are a nationwide company that has operated since 1996 and a high-quality service to our clients is of utmost importance to us.

We will handle formal complaints about Direct Accident Management Ltd (or its trading names) as detailed below. We request that complaints are to be put in writing for the attention of James Slater, Director, by post, email (email to complaints@directaccident.co.uk) or fax to 01695 587 865. If you call with a complaint, unless there are exceptional circumstances, we will ask you to put your complaint in writing so that we can be clear as to what you are dissatisfied with.

Complaints will be referred to our Compliance Officer at the earliest opportunity or to a member of the senior management if the Compliance Officer is unavailable. We will also:

• Acknowledge the complaint in writing promptly (within 5 days of receipt)
• Make contact to seek clarification on any points where necessary
• Fully investigate the complaint

You will receive contact from us advising on progress if we cannot respond immediately. We will let you have our final response as soon as possible and not later than eight weeks from receiving your complaint. If we are unable to send you a final response, we will contact you to detail why we are unable to respond, and notify you when you can expect to receive further correspondence from us.

Definition of a complaint

The FCA defines a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction from or on behalf of a client, whether justified or not, which includes an actual or potential financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.

The Financial Conduct Authority complaints rules apply to complaints:

• Made by, or on behalf of an eligible complainant
• Relating to regulated activity
• Involving an allegation that the complainant has suffered, or may suffer, financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience

Eligible Complainants

It is the firm’s policy to treat all complainants the same, however, eligible complainants are legally defined and have additional rights in law that we must acknowledge and adhere to.

Investigation

The Compliance Officer will establish the nature and scope of your complaint having due regards to the Financial Conduct Authority’s direction to:

• Deal with complaints promptly and fairly
• Give complainants clear replies and, where appropriate, fair redress

Final Response

This will set out clearly the firm’s decision and the reasons for it together with the reasoning for any compensation offered.

We will include details of the Financial Ombudsman Service in the final response (which is also detailed below) if dealing with an eligible complainant and a regulated activity, we will:

• Explain that the complainant must refer the matter to the ombudsman within six months of the date of this letter or the right to use this service is lost
• Indicate whether or not we consent to waive the relevant time limits.

Closing a Complaint

We will consider a complaint closed when we have made our final response to you. This does not prevent you from exercising any rights you may have to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Financial Ombudsman Service

We will co-operate fully with the Financial Ombudsman Service in resolving any complaints made against us and agree to be bound by any awards made by the Ombudsman. The firm undertakes to pay promptly any fees levied by the Ombudsman.

Contact:

The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR

Tel:  0800 023 4567 (free for most people ringing from a fixed line) or 0300 123 9123 (cheaper for those calling using a mobile) or 020 7964 0500 (if calling from abroad)

Email:  complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Website:  www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk