Feedback & Complaints

Our aim is to give you an excellent service at all times. However, if you have any feedback or wish to make a complaint about the level or service you have been provided by a member of Chambers or a member of staff, you are invited to let us know as soon as possible. Set out below are the steps in our formal Complaints Procedure.

If your complaint against a member of Chambers extends beyond service-related issues into allegations of misconduct or professional negligence, it is not usually appropriate for Chambers to deal with such matters.

For complaints alleging misconduct, we advise you to contact the Bar Standards Board, which is the regulatory body for all barristers.

For complaints alleging professional negligence, it is necessary for the barrister(s) in question to inform their professional indemnity insurer. Such complaints will be passed onto the insurer, and it may be that they decide to handle the matter themselves. Contact details for the insurer will be passed onto you in such circumstances.

Complaints made in writing

Please address your formal letter of complaint to:

Mr Paul Cray
Chief Executive
Farrar’s Building
Temple
London
EC4Y 7BD

You are welcome to send in hard copy, or via email to paul@farrarsbuilding.co.uk. If your complaint relates to Paul Cray, please instead address your letter to Paul Lewis KC, Head of Chambers, or send via email to chambers@farrarsbuilding.co.uk.

Please provide the following details:

• Your name and address;
• Which member(s) of Chambers or staff you are complaining about;
• Whether you were the lay client, instructing solicitor, or had another role;
• The detail of the complaint; and
• What resolution you are seeking.

Complaints made by telephone

If you would prefer to speak on the telephone about your complaint, then please telephone Paul Cray on 0207 583 9241. If the complaint is about Paul Cray, then please telephone Paul Lewis KC on 0207 583 9241.

The person you contact will make a note of the details of your complaint. They will discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is resolved as part of the telephone discussion, they 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 as part of the telephone discussion, you will be invited to write to us in accordance with the procedure as set out above, so that it can be investigated formally by Chambers.

Complaints handling process

Farrar’s Building has a panel headed Paul Lewis KC, and made up of experienced members of Chambers from which an individual will be appointed to investigate the complaint.

We will, where possible, acknowledge receipt of your complaint within two working days.

Within fourteen days of your written complaint being received by Chambers, Paul Lewis KC will appoint a member of the panel to investigate it. If your complaint is against Paul Lewis KC, the next most senior member of the panel will investigate it. In any case, the person investigating the complaint will be someone other than the person you are complaining about.

The person appointed to investigate the complaint will write to you as soon as possible to let you know that they have been appointed and that they will respond to your complaint within 21 days. If they later find that they are not going to be able to respond within 21 days, they will set a new date for their response and inform you. The response will set out:

• The nature and scope of their investigation;
• Their conclusion on each complaint and the basis for their conclusion; and
• If they find that you are justified in your complaint, their proposal(s) for resolving the complaint.

At the conclusion of the complaints process, the person handling the investigation will forward a further copy of this Complaints Procedure to you with their response to the complaint.

Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman

We hope that any service-related issues will be resolved under our Complaints Procedure. However, if you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation and you fall within their jurisdiction, you may refer  your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for complaints about lawyers, at the conclusion of our consideration of your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman is not able to consider your complaint until it has first been investigated by Chambers.

Please note that the Legal Ombudsman has time limits within which a complaint must be raised with them. From 1 April 2023, the time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be no later than:

• one year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or
• one year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complaint.

Further, a complainant must ordinarily refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of the written response to the complaint from their lawyer, provided that the written response complies with the requirements in rule 4.4(a) of the Legal Ombudsman’s Scheme Rules (which requires the response to include prominently an explanation that the Legal Ombudsman is available if the complainant remains 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 written response). Full information about the Legal Ombudsman’s procedure and time limits can be accessed on the Legal Ombudsman’s website, details of which are provided below.

The Legal Ombudsman can extend the above time limits in exceptional circumstances.

Farrar’s Building will have regard to these time limits when deciding whether we are able to investigate any complaint. We will not therefore usually deal with complaints that fall outside of the Legal Ombudsman’s time limits.

The Legal Ombudsman will also only deal with complaints from consumers. This means that only complaints from the barrister’s client are within their jurisdiction. Non-clients who are not satisfied with the outcome of 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 satisfactorily investigate 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, Farrar’s Building will make an initial assessment of the complaint and if we feel that the issues raised cannot be satisfactorily resolved through our Complaints Procedure, we will refer you to the Bar Standards Board.

You can write to the Legal Ombudsman at:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167
Slough
SL1 0EH

Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

If you are not the barrister’s client and are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation then please contact the Bar Standards Board at:

Bar Standards Board
Professional Conduct Department
289-293 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7HZ

Call: 0207 611 1444
Website: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk

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. Disclosure will be to the Head of Chambers, our Chief Executive, members of our Management Board and anyone else we consider necessary to involve in the complaint and its investigation. Such people will include the barrister or member of staff about whom you have complained about, the head or relevant senior member of the panel and the person who investigates the complaint.

Further, the Bar Standards Board is entitled to inspect the documents and seek information about the complaint when discharging its auditing and monitoring functions.

Inspection / retention of records

As part of our commitment to client care, we make a written record of any formal complaint and will retain all documents and correspondence generated by the complaint for a period of six years. Our Management Board will inspect an anonymised record of complaints on a regular basis with a view to improving our services.