ONE BRICK COURT | 1BC

Complaints procedure

• This Complaints Procedure is addressed to lay clients, solicitors and any other persons (including litigants in person) having professional dealings with One Brick Court. Our aim is to give you a good service at all times. If however you have a complaint which you have not been able to resolve informally with the barrister or member of staff concerned, you are invited to let us know as soon as possible. Complaints may be made to us directly and need not be made through a solicitor. A copy of this Complaints Procedure is available on request to any lay client, solicitor or other person having or contemplating professional dealings with One Brick Court and will also be provided to every complainant as explained below.

Complaints by telephone   

• You are requested if possible to make your complaint in writing.  The procedure for written complaints is explained below.

   

• If however you would first like to explore whether the complaint can be resolved by telephone, please telephone the Head of Chambers (Andrew Caldecott QC) or (if the complaint is about a member of staff) the Senior Clerk (David Mace). If the complaint is about the Senior Clerk, please telephone the Head of Chambers. The person you contact will make a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like done about it. S/he may also ask you to put your complaint in writing, in which case it will then be investigated under the procedure explained below. Otherwise, once the nature and terms of the complaint have been established, s/he will as soon as reasonably practicable inform the barrister or member of staff about whom you have complained of your complaint and will invite his/her comments upon it. S/he will then discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is resolved s/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 within the next 14 days so it can be investigated formally.
  
  
  

Complaints made in writing

• 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. Please address your letter to the Head of Chambers or the Senior Clerk, marked CONFIDENTIAL. 

   

• Our chambers has a panel, composed of the Head of Chambers and the Senior Clerk, which considers any written complaint. Within 14 days of your letter being received the panel will investigate it. (If your complaint is against the Head of Chambers, or if he is not available to deal with it, it will be investigated by a barrister of suitable seniority and experience. In any case, the person dealing with the complaint will be someone other than the person you are complaining about and will have no connection with your case.)

   

• The barrister or other member of staff about whom you have complained will immediately be informed of your complaint and his/her comments will be invited upon it.

   

• The person dealing with the complaint will write to you as soon as possible to let you know that s/he has been appointed, what his/her role in Chambers is and that s/he will reply to your complaint within 14 days. A copy of this procedure will be enclosed with the letter. If s/he finds later that s/he is not going to be able to reply within 14 days s/he will set a new date for her/his reply and inform you. Her/his reply will set out:
  
  The nature and scope of her/his investigation;
  
  Her/his conclusion on each complaint and the basis for her/his conclusion; and
  
  If s/he finds that you are justified in your complaint, her/his proposals for resolving the complaint.
  
  
  

Confidentiality

• All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed only to the extent that is necessary for investigating and resolving the complaint; for any internal Chambers review carried out the for purpose of improving practice; or for complying with requests from the Bar Standards Board in the exercise of its monitoring or auditing functions. Disclosure for the purpose of investigating and resolving the complaint will be to the Head of Chambers, the Senior Clerk and to anyone necessarily involved in the complaint and its investigation (which will include the barrister or member of staff about whom you have complained and the person who investigates the complaint.)

   

• We will make a written record of each complaint, all steps taken in response to it and the outcome of the complaint, together with a copy of all correspondence (including electronic e-mail) and all other documents generated in response to the complaint. Such records and copies will be kept for a period of six years. 

   

• A report is made annually by the panel to our management committee on the number of complaints received, the subject areas of complaints and the outcomes. This information is then reviewed by the management committee for trends and possible training issues.
  
  

Complaints to the Bar Standards Board (the regulatory body for barristers)

• The Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) points out in its guidance document Complaints Against Barristers that complaints should first be made directly to Chambers; and that, if a complaint is made directly to the BSB before being made to Chambers, the BSB may itself decide to refer the complaint to Chambers.

   

• If however you have used our procedure and are unhappy with the outcome, you can then complain to the BSB. You must do so within three months of the date that our reply to the complaint was sent to you. You can contact the BSB at:
  
  The Complaints Team
  The Bar Standards Board,
  289-293 High Holborn
  London WC1V 7HZ
  
  DX 240 LDE
  Switchboard: 020 7611 1444
  Complaints Information Line: 020 7611 1445
  Fax: 020 611 1342
  Web: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
  E-mail: contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk
  
  
  
  
  
  

Chambers of Andrew Caldecott QC
1 Brick Court, Temple,
London EC4Y 9BY (LDE 468)
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clerks@onebrickcourt.com
Tel: 020 7353 8845
Fax: 020 7583 9144
Out of hours contact details