Complaints Policy & Procedure

Our policy

1. Our aim is to act with professionalism and 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. You are also free to make your complaint through any other representative (such as a relative or friend).
2. Under this policy Serle Court (referred to in this policy as “Chambers”) will investigate complaints about the service given to clients by Chambers’ barristers, associates, mediators and members of staff. It may be possible to investigate similar complaints by non-clients; see paragraph 8 below.
3. Your complaint will be treated seriously and in accordance with the procedures set out in this policy, it will be:
   • handled using plain and appropriate language;
   • responded to fairly, consistently and promptly;
   • assessed competently, diligently and impartially; and
   • resolved at the earliest opportunity.
4. Making a complaint is free. You will also not be disadvantaged in any other way by making a complaint (for example by delays to the progress of your case, unless the complaint directly necessitates such delays).

Time limits

5. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers, has time limits in which a complaint must be raised with them. From 1 April 2023 the time limits are:
   • The complainant must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than one year from the act/omission, or the date by which the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
   • The complainant must also refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the complaint receiving a final response from their lawyer, if that response complies with the requirements in rule 4.4 of the Legal Ombudsman Scheme Rules (which requires the response to include prominently an explanation that the Legal Ombudsman was available if the complainant remained dissatisfied, and the provision of full contact details for the Ombudsman and a warning that the complaint must be referred to them within six months).
6. Chambers must have regard to that timeframe when deciding whether they are able to investigate your complaint. Chambers will not therefore usually deal with complaints that fall outside of the Legal Ombudsman’s time limits. The Ombudsman can extend the time limit where it is fair and reasonable for them to do so, and to the extent that they consider fair.
7. Also, you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman if after eight weeks following the making of a complaint to Chambers, it has not been resolved to your satisfaction. Therefore, Chambers will endeavour to deal with your complaint in that time-frame, and will only exceed that time-frame either by agreement with you, or in exceptional circumstances where the issues are complex.

Other questions about scope

8. The Ombudsman only deals with complaints from consumers. This means that only complaints from the barrister’s client (directly or indirectly) are within their jurisdiction. The service complaints covered by this complaints policy are those complaints which fall within the jurisdiction of the Legal Ombudsman.
9. It should be noted that it may not always be possible for Chambers to investigate a complaint brought by a non-client. This is because the ability of chambers 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 BSB. Therefore, Chambers will make an initial assessment of the complaint and if they feel that the issues raised cannot be satisfactorily resolved through the Chambers complaints process they will refer you to the BSB. The address of the BSB is set out at the end of this policy. If Chambers decides that it can investigate a complaint by a non-client and the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of the investigation by Chambers, the complainant should contact the Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) rather than the Legal Ombudsman.
10. Complaints of negligence or professional misconduct by barristers who are members of Chambers are not within the parameters of this complaints policy. However, if there is a complaint which falls within this policy but also raises issues of negligence or professional misconduct the service aspect will be dealt with under this policy. If there are reasonable grounds for believing that there has been reportable misconduct under the Code of Conduct, the investigating persons will come under a duty to and will report that misconduct to the BSB.

How to complain

11. The Head of Chambers, Elizabeth Jones K.C. has responsibility for complaints about barristers, associates and mediators, and the Chambers Director, Kathryn Purkis, deals with complaints about members of staff. You may complain to either of them by any means that suits you: including by phone or Teams, by email, or by letter. Please let us know how we can accommodate your needs.
    

    By phone or Teams

    • If you prefer to speak to someone about your complaint, then please get in touch with either Elizabeth Jones KC or Kathryn Purkis, as appropriate on 020 7242 6105. If the complaint is about one of them please contact the other.
    • The person you contact will speak to you as soon as possible, making a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like to have done about it. They will discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is resolved they 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 discussion in writing.
12. If your oral complaint is not resolved immediately you will be invited to write to us about it, so it can be investigated formally. At this stage, we will also check if you would like to engage with us on accessible formats, to meet your specific information and communication needs. We will discuss and agree with you the best way and format for us to engage and communicate together. We will advise you on the best way to set out your concerns and complaint for the next formal investigation stage, depending on your needs and preferences.
    

    By email or letter

13. Please give the following details:
    • Your name and address;
    • Which member(s) of chambers or staff you are complaining about;
    • The detail of the complaint; and
    • What you would like done about it.
14. You may email Elizabeth Jones KC at ejones@serlecourt.co.uk, or Kathryn Purkis at kpurkis@serlecourt.co.uk. Alternatively, write to the relevant one of them at:

    Serle Court, 6 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London WC2A 3QS

    We will, where possible, acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two (2) days and provide you with details of how your complaint will be dealt with. For complaints made in other accessible formats, we will discuss and advise you on the best way to set out your concerns, tailored to your needs, and how to provide the information above.

Our procedure

15. Chambers has a panel headed by Elizabeth Jones KC and made up of experienced members of chambers and the Chambers Director, which considers any written complaint. Your complaint will be acknowledged promptly. Within seven (7) days of your letter being received the head of the panel (or their deputy in their absence) will appoint a member or members of the panel to investigate it. Where your complaint is against a member of staff the person appointed will normally be the Chambers Director. Where your complaint is against the Chambers Director, the head of the panel will appoint another member of the panel to investigate. Where your complaint is against the head of the panel, the next most senior member of the panel will investigate it. In any case, the person appointed will be someone other than the person you are complaining about
16. The person appointed to investigate will write to you as soon as possible (and save in exceptional circumstances, within fourteen (14) days of your complaint) to let you know they have been appointed and when they expect to be able to determine your complaint. Our target time is no more than six (6) weeks, though the date proposed will be the earliest possible and may well be sooner than this. If they later discover that they cannot determine the complaint by the date initially given, then they will write to you to tell you the revised date for a response. In any event, we will keep you informed and provide regular updates on the progress of the complaint investigation. As noted above, unless agreed with the complainant, we make every effort to resolve complaints within eight (8) weeks of their being made.
17. Any person or persons against whom the complaint is made shall be given a proper opportunity to respond to the complaint, to put his or her side of the story, and to make representations within a time set by the person investigating the complaint with a maximum of 21 days.
18. Within the timescales promised, the person appointed to investigate will deliver a written response to you which will set out:
    • The nature and scope of their investigation;
    • Their conclusion on each complaint and the basis for their conclusion; and if they find that you are justified in your complaint,
    • their proposals for resolving the complaint. Such proposals will be proportionate to the level of poor service and may include an apology, and/or other redress.

Confidentiality

19. 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 to the Head of Chambers, members of our management committee and to anyone involved in the complaint and its investigation. Such people will include the barrister or member of staff who you have complained about, the head or relevant senior member of the panel and the person who investigates the complaint.
20. The BSB is entitled to call for and inspect the complaint documents and seek information about the complaint when discharging its monitoring functions.

Records of complaints

21. As part of our commitment to client care we make a written record of any complaint, the steps taken in response to it, and the outcome. We also retain all documents and correspondence generated by the complaint for a period of six years. Our management committee has delegated to Elizabeth Jones KC and Kathryn Purkis the task of reviewing the record at least annually with a view to spotting trends and improving services. They report the outcome of this review to Chambers’ AGM.

Options following investigation

22. If you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation you have a number of options open to you:
    • The Legal Ombudsman
    • Alternative Dispute Resolution
    • The BSB.

Further information is set out below.

Legal Ombudsman

23. If 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 chambers. Please note the timeframe for referral of complaints to the Ombudsman as set out at paragraph 4 above.
24. Those clients who are able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
    • Individuals;
    • Businesses or enterprises that are micro-enterprises within the meaning of Article 1 and Article 2(1) and (3) of the Annex to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC (broadly businesses or enterprises with fewer than 10 employees and turnover or assets not exceeding €2 million);
    • Charities with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million;
    • Clubs, associations or organisations, the affairs of which are managed by its members or a committee of its members, with an annual income net of tax of less than £1 million;
    • Trustees of trusts with an asset value of less than £1 million; and
    • Personal representatives or beneficiaries of the estates of persons who, before they died, had not referred the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

    A complainant must not have been, at the time of the act/omission to which the complaint relates, a public body, or an authorised person (such as a solicitor) who procured the services complained about on behalf of someone else.

25. You can write to the Legal Ombudsman at: Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH Telephone number: 0300 555 0333 (+44 121 245 3050 from overseas) Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. More information about the Legal Ombudsman is available on their website: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/.
26. The Legal Ombudsman publishes data on all complaints that have been resolved by an ombudsman’s final decision. To view case summaries and information relating to final decisions made, you may visit the following link: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/data-centre/ombudsman-decision-data/.

Alternative dispute resolution

27. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the investigation, alternative complaints bodies as approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (https://www.tradingstandards.uk/consumer-help/adr-approved-bodies/) also exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services, should you and the barrister both wish to use such a scheme.
28. If you wish to use your chosen ADR provider, please contact us to discuss this, including the time limits for contacting your chosen ADR.
29. Chambers’ ADR partner is CEDR, who may be contacted at 100 St Paul’s Churchyard, London EC4M 8BU, by adr@cedr.com, or by phone on 0207 536 6000. CEDR provide an independent mediation service and will, if all agree, act for the parties jointly on a review of the outcome of a complaint made under this policy. Our contact there is Brianne Williams-Lemaire; on bwilliams-lemaire@cedr.com or 0207 536 6063. Further information can be provided upon request.
30. In either case, please note that if mediation is used, neither you nor the barrister (or Chambers in the event of a staff complaint) is required to accept the proposed resolution. If mediation does not resolve the complaint, you may still make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (provided you fall within their jurisdiction and you do so within the time limit).

Bar Standards Board

31. The BSB can be contacted at:

    BSB Contact and Assessment Team
    289-293 High Holborn
    London
    WC1V 7HZ

    Telephone: 0207 6111 444

    Email: contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk

    Website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk. They prefer complaints to be reported using the Online Reporting Form. Advice and FAQ about reporting a complaint may be found here.