We aim to provide an excellent quality of service at all times. If you are unsatisfied with any area of our service, please let us know immediately.
In many cases, we can resolve potential complaints informally without resorting to the formal complaint procedure. For example, you should contact the administration team if your complaint concerns a barrister. Alternatively, if your complaint concerns a staff member, you should direct your complaint to the Head of Chambers, Simon Russell Flint KC. In our experience, complaints can often be resolved satisfactorily in this way without recourse to the more formal procedure.
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE | MILLENNIUM CHAMBERS
Our aim at Millennium Chambers is always to give you excellent service. However, if you have a complaint, please let us know. We will investigate promptly; we will not charge for the investigation of any complaint and will aim to provide you with the outcome of our investigation within six weeks of receiving your complaint.
Involving solicitors to make your complaint is unnecessary, but you are free to do so.
Please note that the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers, has time limits for a complaint to be raised with them.
Under the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules, which have applied since 1 April 2023, those time limits are:
- a) one year from the date of the act or omission complained about; or
- b) one year from the date on which the complainant should reasonably have known that there was cause for complaint; and
- c) where Chambers’ final response to the complaint included, prominently, an explanation that the Legal Ombudsman was available if the complainant remained dissatisfied, full contact details for the Legal Ombudsman and a warning that the complaint must be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the final response, within six months of the date of that final response.
The Ombudsman may extend any of these time limits if it considers that it is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.
Please note that Millennium Chambers will only consider complaints raised within 12 months from the date of the act or omission.
The Ombudsman will also generally only deal with complaints from the barrister’s client, or from someone authorised to complain on the client’s behalf.
Non-clients unsatisfied with the outcome of the Chambers’ investigation should contact the Bar Standards Board rather than the Legal Ombudsman.
It should be noted that it may not always be possible to investigate a complaint brought by a non-client. This is because the ability of Chambers to investigate satisfactorily and resolve such matters is limited, and complaints of this nature are often better suited to the disciplinary processes maintained by the Bar Standards Board. Therefore, Chambers will make an initial assessment of the complaint. If Chambers considers that the issues raised cannot satisfactorily be resolved through the Chambers complaints process, it will refer you to the Bar Standards Board.
COMPLAINTS MADE ORALLY OR BY TELEPHONE
You may wish to make a complaint in writing, and if so, please follow the procedure set out under “Complaints made in writing” below. However, if you would rather speak in person or on the telephone about your complaint, please contact our Director of Clerking, Richard Fowler. If the complaint concerns Richard Fowler, please get in touch with our Head of Chambers, Simon Russell Flint KC. The person you contact will make a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like to have done about it. He will discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is resolved, he will record the outcome, check that you are satisfied with the outcome, and record that. You may also wish to record the result of the telephone discussion in writing. You will be sent a copy of the written record made of your telephone discussion, and a copy will also be sent to your solicitor.
If your complaint is not resolved on the telephone, you will be invited to write to us about it so that it can be investigated formally.
COMPLAINTS MADE IN WRITING
Please give the following details:
- Your name and address
- Which member(s) of Chambers are you complaining about
- The detail of the complaint, including date, time, and place where appropriate, e.g., the Court at which the case took place
- What would you like done about it?
Please address your letter to Richard Fowler and post it to Chambers at Millennium Chambers,
Lower Ground Floor, 3 Paper Buildings, Temple, London, EC4Y 7EU, or email it to clerks@millenniumchambers.com.
We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days and provide you with details of how your complaint will be dealt with.
Millennium Chambers has a panel headed by Simon Russell Flint KC, who will consider any written complaint. If your complaint is against the Head of Chambers, the next most senior member will investigate it. In any case, the person appointed will be someone other than the person you are complaining about.
The person appointed to investigate will write to you as soon as possible to let you know the nature and scope of his investigation and his conclusion on each complaint, and the basis for his decision, and if he finds that you are justified in your complaint, his proposals for resolving the complaint.
If you are dissatisfied with the conclusions of the person appointed to investigate, you may ask the Head of Chambers to review them by writing to him within 14 days of the date of the letter setting out those conclusions. The Head of Chambers will aim to give you his decision within 14 days of receiving your request, and his decision will be Chambers’ final response to your complaint. If the complaint concerns the Head of Chambers, or the Head of Chambers has investigated it, the review will be carried out by the next most senior member of Chambers who has not been involved in the complaint. If you do not ask for a review within 14 days, the letter setting out the conclusions of the person appointed to investigate will become Chambers’ final response at the end of that period.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be treated as confidential and disclosed only to the extent necessary. Disclosure will be to the Head of Chambers, the Director of Clerking, and anyone involved in the complaint and investigation. Such people will include the barrister(s) or Staff member(s) to whom you have complained, the panel’s head or relevant senior member, and the person who investigates the complaint. In addition, the Bar Standards Board is entitled to inspect the documents and seek information about the complaint when discharging its auditing and monitoring functions.
OUR POLICY
As part of our commitment to client care, we make a written record of any complaint and retain all documents and correspondence generated by the complaint for six years.
Complaints to the Bar Standards Board (the regulator of barristers in England and Wales)
If you are not the barrister’s client and are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation, then please get in touch with the Bar Standards Board at:
Bar Standards Board, 289-293 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7HZ. Telephone number: 020 7611 1444.
Website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk
COMPLAINTS TO THE LEGAL OMBUDSMAN
If you are unhappy with Chambers’ final response to your complaint and your complaint falls within its jurisdiction, you may take up your complaint with the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for complaints about lawyers. The Ombudsman will usually only consider your complaint once Chambers has first investigated it, but it may do so if your complaint has not been resolved within eight weeks of being made to Chambers. Please note the time limits for referring a complaint to the Ombudsman set out above.
You can write to them at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH. Telephone number: 0300 555 0333. Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Millennium Chambers,
Lower Ground Floor,
3 Paper Buildings, Temple,
London,
EC4Y 7EU.
Tel: 020 3179 2023
E-Mail: clerks@millenniumchambers.com
Web: www.millenniumchambers.com
“Regulated by the Bar Standards Board“