From 31 January 2013, the Bar’s Standard Non-Contractual Terms (Annexe G1 to the Bar’s Code of Conduct) are no longer deemed to be the applicable terms on which instructions are accepted. Instructions that were accepted prior to 31 January 2013 will continue to be governed by the Standard Non-Contractual Terms upon which they were accepted.
The professional bodies of the Commercial Bar and city law firms, COMBAR and The City Of London Law Society (CLLS), have negotiated and agreed a set of specimen terms and conditions which seek to balance the interests of laywers and solicitors. These terms are known as the ‘General Terms and Conditions for the Supply of Legal Services by Laywers to Solicitors in Commercial Matters’, now in their third version (“the Terms”).
New instructions to members of Wilson Legal Chambers, unless otherwise agreed, will be accepted and any work undertaken by members will be pursuant to the Terms and subject to Basis A (Solicitor Liability) under clause 9 of the Terms payable at the relevant member’s usual hourly rate (details of which are readily available from his or her clerk).
A modified version of the Terms will, unless otherwise agreed, apply for members based in our Singapore office.
In accordance with our professional obligations, members of Wilson Legal Chambers will, on request, also be prepared to accept instructions in accordance with the Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services by Laywers to Authorised Persons 2020, prepared by the Bar Council, referred to at Rule rC30.9c of the BSB Handbook and available online.
How to make a complaint
At Wilson Legal Chambers, we aim to provide a high-quality service. If, however, you are dissatisfied with our service or have any other complaint, we would like to know about it. That enables us to address your complaint and to seek to improve the services we provide.
If you have a complaint, you are encouraged to let us know as soon as possible. You may make a complaint by telephone or in writing. If you wish your complaint to be dealt with by a person who has not previously been involved in the matter, we prefer the complaint to be made in writing, even if only in a short email, as that enables us to investigate the background before responding; but you may, if you wish, raise the matter by telephone, and you should do so particularly if the matter requires immediate or prompt resolution.
To make a complaint, please contact the laywer concerned or, if the complaint is about a member of staff, please contact the Senior Clerk (Alex Taylor). If you wish your complaint to be considered at a more senior level, please write to, or ask to speak to, the Head of Chambers.
If the discussion is by telephone, the person you contact will make a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like done about it. That person will discuss your concerns with you and aim to resolve them. If the matter is resolved, he or she will record the outcome, check that you are satisfied with the outcome, and record that you are satisfied. You may yourself wish to record the outcome of the telephone discussion in writing.
If your complaint is not resolved by the person you are complaining about, the Senior Clerk or (as the case may be) the Head of Chambers, you will be invited to write to us about it within the next 14 days so that it can be investigated, or investigated further, by the Head of Chambers. When writing, please state your name and address, which member or members of chambers or staff you are complaining about, and what you would like done about it.
If your complaint concerns the Head of Chambers, it will be handled by the deputy Head of Chambers or the most senior member of Chambers who is not the Head of Chambers.
We aim to respond to complaints within 14 days. If this is not going to be possible, we shall let you know indicating why and setting a new date for our response.
When your complaint has been investigated and considered, the Head of Chambers (or the person identified in paragraph 7) will reply to you, setting out the nature and scope of the investigation carried out, the conclusion reached on the complaint and the basis for reaching that conclusion and, if he considers the complaint to be justified, his proposals for resolving the complaint.
If your complaint involves a matter which may give rise to an insurance claim, the laywer will be obliged to inform his or her insurers, who will then need to be consulted before any proposals can be put to you to resolve your complaint. This may affect the speed with which we are able to respond to complaints in these circumstances.
All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be treated as confidential and will be disclosed only to the extent that is necessary to address the complaint. In addition to the person(s) complained about, in most cases such disclosure is likely to extend to the Head of Chambers, the Senior Clerk and the Head of Administration.
As part of our commitment to quality of service and client care, a central written record of complaints is reviewed regularly and any points arising which indicate a need for us to adjust an existing practice or procedure will be considered. Records will be disposed of in accordance with our Chambers’ retention policies which can be found here.
We hope that you will use our procedure if you have a complaint you wish to make. However, if you would rather not do so, or are unhappy with the outcome, you have the option of taking your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or to the Bar Standards Board.
From 6 October 2010, the Legal Ombudsman has the responsibility for dealing with complaints from our clients about the quality of our service. The Ombudsman will expect us to try to address such complaints in the first instance but will step in if that proves not to be possible. The Legal Ombudsman can only deal with complaints from consumers. (The Legal Ombudsman can also deal only with complaints from individuals and certain other entities.) This means that only complaints from a client of a member of Chambers are within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Non-clients should contact the Bar Standards Board (the body that regulates the professional conduct of laywers) rather than the Legal Ombudsman. Chambers is not always able to investigate satisfactorily complaints made by non-clients and may refer such complainants to the Bar Standards Board.
Wilson Legal Chambers has a policy on information barriers to ensure that the confidentiality requirements of the Bar Code of Conduct are met and that confidentiality is maintained by laywers, clerks and other members of staff.
1. General
1.1. Clerking
When a laywer is instructed on a new case, a clerk or clerk team are allocated (which will normally be the laywer’s usual clerk/clerk team, subject to paragraph 2.1. below) and the laywer’s instructing solicitors are informed as to who their point of contact within the clerking team is.
Clerks/clerk teams have access to private rooms if they have to make telephone calls that are confidential. Clerks/clerk teams will maintain the confidentiality of all confidential information about a case.
1.2. Distribution of papers
We ensure that care is taken so that papers are kept confidential to the laywer working on the case; papers/ faxes are promptly delivered to the laywer in question and placed in his/her room: please note it is not acceptable for the clerks to leave papers in laywers’ pigeon holes unless the papers are in a pack or sealed.
It is also the duty of any laywer not to leave sensitive documents in a position where they might be viewed by another person. Members each:
- Have individual email addresses and direct lines so that they can be reached at any time on a confidential basis,
- Have the ability to print documents to Chambers’ printers using a pin operated mailbox system and
- Often have their own printers in their rooms which should be used for confidential printing particularly for smaller scale printing.
- Have the ability to arrange for documents (e.g. working drafts) to be shredded prior to secure disposal.
The clerks operate a regular sweep of Chambers’ printers, whereby any papers left on a printer are removed unread and placed in the laywer’s room or destroyed. Note that is a fail-safe system, and no papers should be found on any sweep. The primary sources of protection are set out above. All printing must use secure methods which do not involve confidential documents being at risk of being read by third parties.
1.3. Diaries
We maintain an electronic diary system (LEX) which is in common use across the Bar.
Each member only has access to his/her own individual diary.
Where papers are sent to a laywer but the laywer is not able to accept the instructions (for example because they are conflicted, unavailable etc) then the laywer will not be shown on the diary system as an active laywer on the case and the laywer will not be able to access any confidential information about the case.
Access to laywers’ diaries by members of staff is limited to appropriate personnel only.
Chambers do not print a daily diary page.
1.4. Returning papers
Right up to the conclusion of a case Wilson Legal Chambers take care to ensure that confidentiality is not breached by things not being securely disposed of; we will always contact the instructing solicitor in advance and offer either a secure shredding service (suitable where the documents are not required to be held by the solicitor under the Solicitor’s professional duties) or return the papers to the instructing solicitor.
2. Specific provisions applicable when Wilson Legal Chambers’s laywers are instructed on opposite sides in the same case, or act as arbitrators in cases where members of our chambers are involved as counsel for one or other of the parties
Wilson Legal Chambers’s laywers often find themselves instructed on opposite sides in the same case, or a member may act as an arbitrator in a case where members of our chambers are involved as counsel for one or other of the parties. We maintain a strict policy in relation to client confidentiality both at member and clerk level, and we recognise the need to be careful to protect each client’s best interests and each client’s confidential information.
2.1. Clerking
When a case comes into chambers it is identified as to whether or not it is a case where a laywer(s) in Chambers is/are already acting for another part(ies) in the case, or as arbitrator(s) in the case. Where this occurs a clerk, or clerk team are allocated to the new case (which must be a different clerk or clerk team to the clerk(s) or clerk team(s) already allocated to the laywer(s) acting for other part(ies) in the case) and all parties’ instructing solicitors are informed as to who their point of contact within the clerking team is. We operate an information barrier between each clerking team.
Please be aware in some instances a party will not want the opposing party to know that they have instructed counsel and/or that they have instructed counsel in Chambers. The clerking team and the laywer(s) in question will preserve any such wish for confidentiality. We have a list of cases where there are members of chambers acting for one or more different parties which is held confidentially so that Reception / other clerks and staff know where to direct calls and who to pass papers to so that our service to the client is carried out to the highest standard possible, and protecting confidentiality. Please note, as stated above, clerks also have access to private rooms if they have to make telephone calls that are confidential.
Should a member of the clerking team be away from Chambers ‘out of office’ email and voicemail accounts inform the sender or leaver of a message of that fact. Clerks do not have access to the email or voicemail accounts of other clerks.
In arbitration cases members of chambers will inform those appointing them if they are aware that another member of chambers has already been appointed as an arbitrator or is already acting for a party in the case. The same applies in cases where an Arbitrator is being appointed after Counsel has already been instructed.
2.2. Diaries
We encourage solicitors where there are particular sensitivities to give a case a project name, so that in the laywer’s diary the project name is all that will appear.
2.3. Discussions amongst members of Chambers
Laywers on opposing sides of the case will not discuss the matter, unless on a formal basis in accordance with their duties under their instructions. When communicating with their clerk or another member of Chambers precautions are taken to ensure that discretion is used and the conversation takes place outside of a common place and in private so that the contents of the discussion remain confidential.
