Dear Client,
Wilberforce Chambers, established in 1965 in the heart of Hull Old Town, is a prominent Barristers’ set with a highly professional and dedicated team of practitioners. We cover a range of specialist areas including criminal, family and civil law, offering legal advice and advocacy in both publicly and privately funded work. We have a wealth of experience in appearing before the Magistrates’ Courts, Family Proceedings Court, Crown and County Courts, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and other tribunals. Centrally located, we are accessible and in close proximity to many law firms in the vicinity of Hull City Centre. In addition we have strong links with the South Bank legal community. We are also instructed by clients outside of the Humberside Area.
We pride ourselves on the ability to deliver an excellent and consistent level of service and expertise, individually tailored to meet all of your needs. We are committed to maintaining a high level of client care in each and every case. If at any time you have any concerns about the quality of our service then you are invited to let us know as soon as possible and we will endeavour to resolve your concerns efficiently and confidentially.
All of our Barristers are approachable and will be pleased to discuss your concerns and aim to resolve them; we would therefore encourage you to raise any concerns you have with your individual Barrister. If you would prefer to speak directly to our Practice Manager, Phillip Paxton, he would be pleased to deal with any such concerns.
We are confident that if you raise any concerns with your Barrister then the matter will be resolved to your satisfaction. In the event that this is not the case and you wish to make a formal complaint then please write to Mrs Rebecca Miller, Compliance Officer, Wilberforce Chambers, 7 Bishop Lane
Kingston Upon Hull, HU1 1PA or email: wstevens@hullbar.co.uk
In order to ensure that we deal with your complaint quickly and efficiently please provide the following details:
We will, where possible, acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two days, tell you who will be dealing with your complaint and provide you with details of how your complaint will be dealt with.
Our Chambers has a panel made up of experienced members of Chambers and a senior member of staff, which will consider any written complaint. Within 14 days of your letter being received, Mrs Miller will appoint a member of the panel to investigate. If your complaint is against the head of the panel, the next most senior member of the panel will investigate. 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 he/she has been appointed and that he/she will reply to your complaint within 14 days. If he/she finds later that he/she is not going to be able to reply within 14 days he/she will set a new date to reply and inform you of it. The reply will set out:
All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed only to the extent that is necessary. Disclosure will be to the Heads of Chambers, members of our management committee and to anyone involved in the complaint and its investigation. Such people will include the barrister or staff member you have complained about, the head or relevant senior member of the panel and the person who investigates the complaint. The Bar Standards Board is entitled to inspect the documents and seek information about the complaint when discharging its auditing and monitoring functions
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 a period of six years. Our management committee inspects an anonymised record regularly with a view to improving services.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation 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 is not able to consider your complaint until it has first been investigated by Chambers. Please note that the complaint must be referred to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of the date of the written response from Chambers. Please also note that the Legal Ombudsman has a 6 year time limit from the date of the act or omission about which you are complaining within which to make your complaint or 3 years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint. You can write to them at:
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone number: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
We look forward to helping you with your case.
GAVIN BUTTON (Head of Chambers)
ON BEHALF OF WILBERFORCE CHAMBERS
i Our standard terms of business with solicitors and authorised persons are the Bar Standards Board-approved Standard Conditions of Contract for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons, as from time to time amended.
The full terms and conditions can be accessed at
22.05.18-approved-contractual-terms-for-GDPR-pdf2-1.pdf (barcouncilethics.co.uk)
