Complaints Policy

If you are a solicitor or a member of the public and you wish to make a complaint about the service I have provided to you, this is the procedure which I require you to follow in order for your complaint to be dealt with properly and efficiently.
The procedure is as follows:
Your complaint must be made within 3 months of the date of completion of the work by the barrister.
You should write to me setting out the details of your complaint and your desired outcome. Please note that your complaint must be precisely and succinctly summarised. It is preferable that you send your complaint by email, but you may also send it by post.
You must provide your full contact details on the complaint including email, postal address and telephone number.
Upon receipt, I will acknowledge your complaint by email. Please note that if you do not receive an acknowledgment, your complaint may not have been received.
I shall then prepare my response to your complaint.
If I accept, your complaint, I shall immediately notify you of this fact together with any remedy I propose to make.
If I do not accept your complaint, or you do not accept my proposal for remedy, I will then refer your complaint, together with my response, to an independent third party who shall be a barrister or solicitor of not less than 10 years post qualification experience to investigate the complaint ("the independent investigator").
Where appropriate, the independent investigator may, in his or her sole discretion, seek further information or clarification of the complaint either from me or you or both.
The task of the investigator is to assess whether I provided you with a proper service. If the investigator thinks your complaint raises allegations concerning breach of the my professional duties or allegations of professional negligence, those issues will not be decided by the investigator and may need to be referred to the Legal Ombudsman and/or the Bar Standards Board.
The investigator's decision which will be a full and final decision, will be in writing.
I will endeavour to send a copy of the investigator's decision to you within 28 days of the date of receipt of your complaint. Where more time is required, the investigator will email you the revised timescale, informing you why more time is required.

Further steps:

You must contact the Legal Ombudsman either within 6 months following the conclusion of our handling your complaint, within 6 years from the date of the act/omission, or 3 years from the date that you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint (if the act/omission took place before the 6 October 2010 or was more than six years ago).

The Legal Ombudsman’s details are as follows:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Tel: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Web: www.legalombudsman.org.uk