All of the barristers and staff at 7BR aim to provide the highest level of service to all of our clients. We acknowledge, however, that mistakes sometimes occur, and there may be occasions when the service we provide falls below the standard we aim for.
If you have a complaint about the service you have received from our barristers or staff members, you are invited to let us know as soon as possible. It is not necessary to involve solicitors in order to make a complaint, but you are free to do so should you wish. A hard copy of our Complaints Policy is available upon request from Chambers’ paralegal on 0207 242 3555.
Please note that the Legal Ombudsman (the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers) has time limits within which complaints must be raised in order to be considered, namely:
a. one year from the act or omission you are complaining about, or within one year of the date of you finding out about the issue; and/or
b. six months from the date you received a final response from your lawyer (i.e. us), if that response includes (i) an explanation that the Legal Ombudsman is available if you remain dissatisfied, (ii) the provision of full contact details for the Ombudsman, and (iii) a warning that you must refer your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months.
The Ombudsman can extend these time limits in exceptional circumstances. We will have regard to these time limits when deciding whether we are able to investigate your complaint, and will not usually investigate complaints that fall outside the Legal Ombudsman’s time limits.
The Legal Ombudsman will only deal with complaints from consumers. This means that only complaints from our barristers’ clients are within their jurisdiction. If you are a non-client who is not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you should contact the Bar Standards Board rather than the Legal Ombudsman.
The Legal Ombudsman retains a discretion to dismiss or discontinue complaints in certain circumstances, including where they are satisfied there is no significant loss, where there will be a disproportionate use of the Ombudsman’s resources, where there has been an undue delay in the complaint being raised, or where the barrister or chambers has made a reasonable resolution that has been accepted by you (the complainant).
7BR will not always investigate complaints brought by non-clients. This is because our ability to satisfactorily investigate and resolve such matters is limited, and complaints of this nature are often better suited to the disciplinary processes maintained by the Bar Standards Board. Therefore, if you are a non-client who raises a complaint, we will make an initial assessment of your complaint, and if we feel that the issues raised cannot be satisfactorily resolved through our complaints process, we will refer you to the Bar Standards Board.
Complaints Made by Telephone
If you wish to make your complaint by telephone, please call us on +44 (0) 20 7242 3555 and ask to speak to Olivia Campbell, 7BR’s Chambers Paralegal. He will make a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like to have done about it. He will discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is subsequently resolved, he will record the outcome, check that you are satisfied with the outcome and record that you are satisfied. You may also wish to record the outcome of the telephone discussion in writing.
If your complaint is not resolved on the telephone you will be invited to write to us about it so that it can be investigated formally.
Complaints Made in Writing
If you decide to put your complaint in writing please include:
- your name and address;
- which barrister(s) or staff member(s) you are complaining about;
- the detail of your complaint; and,
- what you would like done about it.
Please send your complaint as an email to the Chambers Paralegal, Olivia Campbell, at this address: OCampbell@7br.co.uk. If you prefer to send a letter, the address is: Olivia Campbell, 7BR, 7 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4BS. We will, where possible, acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and provide you with details of how your complaint will be dealt with, including the name of the person who will be investigating it and his or her role within 7BR. We will also send you a copy of or link to this policy.
We will investigate your complaint and reply to you with our decision within 42 days. In the event that we are unable to reply to your complaint within 42 days, we will inform you of this before the 42 days have passed, and tell you when you should expect to receive a reply from us.
Once our investigation into your complaint is complete, the person appointed to investigate it will send you a reply, setting out:
- the nature and scope of the investigation which has taken place;
- the conclusions reached on your complaint(s) and the bases for these conclusions; and,
- if one or more of your complaints are found to be justified, proposals for resolving your complaint(s).
Confidentiality
All conversations and documents relating to your complaint will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed to people only to the extent that this is necessary. Such people will include the barrister(s) or member(s) of staff who you have complained about, the person or people who investigate your complaint, the Head of Complaints at 7BR (Steven Ford KC) and such other individuals whom the person or people who investigate your complaint consider it necessary to disclose information to in order to ensure that your complaint is investigated fairly and expediently. It may include the Head of Chambers.
The Bar Standards Board is also entitled to inspect documents relating to complaints and to seek information about complaints when discharging its auditing and monitoring functions.
Records and Reviews
As part of our commitment to client care we make a written record of all complaints, and retain all documents and correspondence generated by complaints for at least six years from the date of the act or omission complained of, and for at least three years from the date we received the complaint. On an annual basis a King’s Counsel in Chambers (the Head of Complaints) examines the complaints made and their resolution in the previous 12 months, and files a report to the management committee and/or the AGM on the topic of complaints and complaints handling.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman
If you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation and you fall within their jurisdiction, you may take up your complaint with the Legal Ombudsman (the independent complaints body for complaints about lawyers) at the conclusion of our consideration of your complaint. The Ombudsman is not able to consider your complaint until it has first been investigated by us. Please note the timeframe specified above for referral of complaints to the Ombudsman.
You can write to the Legal Ombudsman at:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH
Telephone: 0333 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
You can view the Legal Ombudsman’s decision data here.
Complaints to the Bar Standards Board
Barristers in Chambers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board.
You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for-the-public/search-a-barristers-record/thebarristersregiste… 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 on 020 7611 1444 to ask about this (or e-mail ContactUs@BarStandardsBoard.org.uk).
If you are not one of our barristers’ clients and are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation of your complaint, you may wish to contact the Bar Standards Board:
Bar Standards Board
Professional Conduct Department
289-293 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7JZ
Telephone: 020 7611 1444
Website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk