What If I Have A Complaint?
- Barristers in chambers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board.
- You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website: Barristers register. This shows (1) whether a barrister has a current practising certificate, and (2) whether a barrister has any disciplinary findings, which are published on the Bar Standards Board’s website in accordance with their policy. Alternatively, you can contact the Bar Standards Board to ask about this on 020 7611 1444 or email [email protected].
- You can also search the decision data on Legal Ombudsman’s website: Decisions data This shows providers which received an ombudsman’s decision in the previous 12 months, and whether LeO required the provider to give the consumer a remedy. Alternatively, you can contact LeO to ask about this on 0300 555 0333 or e-mail [email protected].
- All barristers at No. 39 have professional indemnity insurance cover for all the legal services they supply to the public
- Every professional client and every lay client is entitled to make a complaint about the service provided by a barrister.
- If you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance please contact the Senior Clerk to Chambers in writing. Acknowledgement of receipt of your complaint will be sent within two working days.
- A lay client may make a complaint either through his solicitors or, if he wishes, directly without going through his solicitors.
- The complaint will then be referred for action to the Heads of Chambers, Mr. Robert Skyner and Mr Richard Canning. The Heads of Chambers will try to resolve your complaint as soon as possible and in any event within 28 days of its receipt. If they needs longer than 28 days they will write to you explaining why and saying when they expects to be able to deal with the matter. In any event they will try and resolve your complaint within 56 days of its receipt at the very latest.
- If we fail to deal with your complaint to your satisfaction you should then refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
- The Legal Ombudsman asks that you go to him as soon as you can; and in any event you must contact him with your complaint within 6 months of the date of our written response. There are circumstances where the Legal Ombudsman can receive complaints up to six years from the act/omission complained of, or three years from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. He can be contacted in the following ways:-
- By telephone on 0300 555 0333 (calls charged at a local rate)
- By email at [email protected]
- Via his website https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk
- By post to: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
- The services of the Legal Ombudsman are free for consumers. The Legal Ombudsman will assess your complaint and either deal with it himself or, if in his view it involves possible issues of professional misconduct, he will refer it to the Bar Standards Board to deal with. If he does refer it to the Bar Standards Board, both he and the Bar Standards Board will contact you to confirm this. (“Professional misconduct” is when a barrister has breached the Code of Conduct for barristers, for instance by misleading the court or by acting dishonestly. You can find out more about the Code of Conduct on the website www.barstandardsboard.org.uk).
If you require any of the information relating to complaints in an alternative format, please contact the clerks on 0113 2456633 or [email protected].