Complaints Procedure – 12CP BARRISTERS
Introduction
1. Our aim is to give you a good service at all times. However, if you have a complaint, you are invited to let us know as soon as possible. It is not necessary to involve solicitors in order to make your complaint but you are free to do so should you wish.
2. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers, has a twelve-month time limit from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining within which to make your complaint. Chambers must therefore have regard to that timeframe when deciding whether they are able to investigate your complaint. Chambers will not deal with complaints that fall outside of the twelve-month time limit.
Raising Concerns
3. Chambers aims to resolve all concerns at the earliest stage possible. We encourage contact on the telephone about your concern. Please telephone the Senior Clerk, Lucy Smith, to discuss any concerns in the first instance. If the complaint is about Lucy Smith, please telephone the clerks and leave your contact details so the Regulatory Officer can contact you directly.
4. If your concern is not resolved on the telephone and becomes a complaint, you will be invited to write to us within the next 14 days so it can be investigated formally.
Complaints made in Writing
5. Please give the following details:
• Your name and address.
• Which member(s) of Chambers or Chambers’ staff you are complaining about.
• The detail of the complaint; and
• What you would like done about it.
6. Please address your letter to Lucy Smith, the Senior Clerk, 20 Carlton Crescent, Southampton, Hampshire, SO15 2ET. We will, where possible, acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days.
7. Our Chambers has a Regulatory Officer who considers any written complaint. Within 14 days of your letter being received, the Regulatory Officer will start an investigation. If your complaint is against the Regulatory Officer, an alternative Regulatory Officer will be appointed to deal with your complaint. In any case, the person appointed will be someone other than the person you are complaining about.
8. The appointed Regulatory Officer will write to you as soon as possible to let you know they are investigating and will seek to reply to your complaint within 14 days. If they are unable to reply within 14 days, they will set a new date for the reply and inform you. The reply will set out:
• The nature and scope of Chambers’ investigation.
• The conclusion on the complaint and the basis for Chambers’ decision; and
• If Chambers find that your complaint is upheld, you will be kept updated of any further steps that Chambers intends to take.
9. Save in exceptional circumstances, we will provide a final response to your complaint within 8 weeks of receipt.
Confidentiality
10. All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed only to the extent that is necessary. Disclosure will be limited to the Head of Chambers, members of our Management Board and to anyone involved in the complaint and its investigation. Such people will include the barrister member or staff about whom you have complained, the Head of Chambers or relevant senior member of the panel and the Regulatory Officer. Where wider disclosure is deemed necessary, Chambers will take such steps as are necessary to protect the complainant’s privacy. The Bar Standards Board is entitled to inspect the documents and seek information about the complaint when discharging its auditing and monitoring functions.
Our Policy
11. As part of our commitment to client care we make a written record of any formal complaint and retain all documents and correspondence generated by the complaint for a period of six years. The complaints procedure is reviewed regularly by the Regulatory Officer with a view to improving services.
Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman
12. If you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation 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 Chambers. You should take your complaint to The Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving our final response. Please also note that the Legal Ombudsman has a twelve-month time limit from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining within which to make your complaint (or if the act or omission about which you are complaining occurred more than a year ago, within 12 months of the date when you became aware of it).
See www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
You can write to them at:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 15870,
Birmingham
B30 9EB
Telephone number: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk