Privacy
Policy

‍Privacy Notice

All of the barristers and staff at Hundred Court Chambers aim to provide the highest level of service to all of our clients. We welcome feedback from our solicitor and lay clients, which is valuable in helping us to maintain high standards of service. 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 are unhappy with an aspect of the service you have received from a barrister or our Chambers you are invited to let our Chambers Director, Nicholas O’Neill, know as soon as possible.

You can telephone Nicholas directly on 0151 242 0222, email him at nicholas.oneill@hundredcourt.co.uk or write to him using the following details:

Nicholas O’Neill, Hundred Court Chambers, Exchange Station. Tithebarn Street, Liverpool L2 2QP.

Formal Complaints:

When making a formal complaint please contact Nicholas O’Neill in writing using either nicholas.oneill@hundredcourt.co.uk or Nicholas O’Neill, Hundred Court Chambers, Exchange Station. Tithebarn Street, Liverpool L2 2QP.

Please ensure that you provide your name, the address and email address at which you will receive correspondence, a daytime phone number if possible, the name of the barrister or staff member concerned, and the name (and where possible Chambers’ unique reference number) of your case.

Please provide clear details of the nature of your complaint and what you would like done about it.

Your complaint will then be acknowledged as soon as possible, and an appointed person (Nicholas O’Neill or a member of the Hundred Court Complaints Panel - not the barrister or staff member you are complaining about) will then investigate your complaint, usually within two working weeks of receipt. If the investigation will take longer you will be informed as soon as possible.

The outcome of the investigation will be reported to you in writing by way of a decision letter from the appointed person, normally within 28 days of notification of the details of your complaint.

If more time is needed to reach a decision the appointed person will write to you within the 28 day period stating what the extended time will be and why.

The final decision letter will:

1. Summarise your complaint;
2. Summarise the investigations made;
3. Set out a conclusion on each complaint and brief reasons for the conclusion;
4. Set out any proposals made for resolving your complaint
5. Inform you that if you qualify under the LeO scheme, the time in which you may make a further complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.

Time limit: Please make any complaint within 12 months of the incident from which the complaint arises. Chambers retains the right to refuse complaints which are more than 12 months old without sufficient explanation or justification for the delay, and in circumstances where an investigation cannot be adequately conducted due to the delay.

Information and Clarification:

We do expect you to cooperate with reasonable requests for further information and for clarification of your complaint and we reserve the right to complete our investigation on the information you have given so far if you persistently or in substance fail to cooperate in these respects or fail to respond to our correspondence in a reasonable time or at all.

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 (Complaints Panel), our Chambers’ Director and such other individuals to whom it is necessary to disclose information to in order to ensure that your complaint is investigated fairly and expediently. This may include the Joint Heads of Chambers.

The Bar Standards Board is also entitled to inspect documents relating to complaints and to seek information about complaints when discharging their 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 Chambers’ Director examines the complaints made and their resolution in the previous 12 months, and files an anonymized report to the Chambers’ Standards Committee and/or the AGM on the topic of complaints and complaints handling.

Scope: If your complaint involves allegations of professional misconduct or professional negligence it may be that our Complaints Handling Procedure is not suitable to resolve it, or part of it. You will be informed if it is considered that your complaint is wholly or partially unsuitable for our Complaints Handling Procedure for this reason.

Our procedure is mainly meant to deal with complaints by clients. If you are not a client, for example, if you are someone who was involved in a case but not the barrister’s client (such as a solicitor, a witness or an opposing party); or if you want to make a complaint about a barrister’s conduct unrelated to a particular case, you are free to make a voluntary complaint under our procedure which we will consider. However, in these situations your complaint is likely to be more suited to consideration by the Bar Standards Board or may be incapable of fair resolution because of the barrister’s duty of confidentiality to their own client. If it is considered that a non-client complaint cannot be resolved satisfactorily under our Complaints Handling Procedure, you will be informed and referred to the Bar Standards Board: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/

Any complaint which involves an allegation of professional negligence or any other possible claim on the barrister’s insurers, the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund Limited, will be reported to them even where the complaint is being investigated under our Complaints Handling Procedure. This is a requirement of the insurance.

Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Ombudsman is the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers. The LeO Scheme deals with complaints about the service received by a lay client for whom the barrister was acting in court (or advising out of court) whether the client instructed the barrister through a solicitor or under the Public Access Scheme. It also covers complaints about the service provided by our staff.

A link to the Legal Ombudsman can be found here: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

The Legal Ombudsman records data of the complaints it has investigated. Such data can be found here: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/information-centre/data-centre/ombudsman-decision-data/

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman 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).

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 cannot 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

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Complaints to the Bar Standards Board:

Barristers in Chambers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board, which deals with professional misconduct and discipline.

You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk 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

Civil Mediation Council:

If your complaint concerns a Mediator who is regulated by the Civil Mediation Council (CMC) then the above process will apply save we will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and normally investigate and respond within 21 working days. On occasions, further time may be required to issue a response in which case you will be notified in writing.

Should you not accept the findings of our internal investigation, you may appeal direct to the CMC on certain grounds. Please see: https://civilmediation.org/concerns/

A hard copy of this policy is available upon request from Chambers’ Director Nicholas O’Neil.