Complaining
about a Barrister
If
you would like to complain about a barrister, you should first raise
your complaint with them. We recommend that you complain in writing,
If you don't receive a detailed reply from your barrister within a reasonable
time (we suggest 28 days) or you are not happy with the barrister's
response you may complain to the Bar Standards Board within six months
of the end of the work which the barrister did for you, or within six
months of the barrister's final response to your complaint, whichever
is later.
Bar
Standards Board
The
Bar Standards Board will look into complaints about any aspect of a
barrister's professional work. If the Bar Standards Board decides that
there is merit in your complaint, it has to decide how serious it is
and whether it involves professional misconduct or inadequate professional
service or both.
Professional
misconduct is a serious error or misbehaviour by a barrister
which may well involve some elementof dishonesty or serious incompetence.
It might include:
- misleading
the court
- failure
to keep your affairs confidential
- leaving
a case without good reason at short notice
- acting
against a client's instructions or best interests
Depending on
how serious it is, they have a number of penalties which range from
simply giving advice to disbarring the barrister (ie so that he or she
ceases to be a barrister) and include suspension for a period of time,
a fine or an order to repay fees.
Inadequate
professional service is defined as service towards the client
falling significantly below that which would normally be expected of
a barrister. It is not as serious as misconduct but may well have caused
significant concern or inconvenience to a client such as:
- delay
in dealing with papers
- poor or
inadequate work on a case
- serious
rudeness to the client
They
can require a barrister to apologise to a client, to repay fees or to
pay compensation of up to £5000. They can only do this if the
complainant is the barrister's client. If
you wish to make a complaint about a barrister, you will need to complete
a standard Complaints Form. You will also need to complete a Monitoring
Form as this enables them to monitor the effectiveness of their equal
opportunities policies. If you are dissatisfied with the Bar Council's
handling of a complaint, you are able to refer the matter to the Legal
Services Ombudsman.
Legal Services Ombudsman
The
Legal Services Ombudsman oversees the handling of complaints about barristers
in England and Wales. The LSO will investigate the way that your complaint
was dealt with by the Bar Standards Board. The LSO can widen their investigation
to include your original complaint to the Bar Standards Board. However,
the LSO's role is not to look at every case as if it were an appeal
against the decision of the Bar Standards Board. If the LSO believes
that a complaint has not been investigated properly, they will probably
recommend that the Bar Standards Board looks at the matter again. What
the Ombudsman will do is check that all your complaints were addressed
and that this was done within a reasonable time. They will want to be
satisfied that the Bar Standards Board reached a reasonable decision,
and they will also look at any other complaints you might have about
the Bar Standards Board.
You can’t
appeal against the Legal Services Ombudsman’s decision, your case
can only be re-opened in exceptional circumstances. These circumstances
could include where there was a fundamental mistake in the case or some
important information was missing, and this throws doubt on the Ombudsman’s
final decision. However the LSO's decision is open to judicial review.
This involves making an application to the court,
