Quality Assurance
1. At Fountain Court we aim to provide a high quality service. If 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. The steps set out in this document are designed to enable us to respond to any complaint in the most prompt and effective way.
2. 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 e-mail, 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.
3. Please contact the barrister concerned or, if the complaint is about a member of staff, one of the Senior Clerks (Alex Taylor or Mark Watson). 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.
4. 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 also wish to record the outcome of the telephone discussion in writing.
5. If your complaint is not resolved by the person you are complaining about or by the Head of Chambers on the telephone, you will be invited to write to us about it within the next 14 days so 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, the detail of the complaint and what you would like done about it.
6. If you wish the Head of Chambers to consider your complaint, please address your letter to the Head of Chambers, Fountain Court, Temple, London EC4Y 9DH and mark the envelope ‘Confidential’. If you do so, the Head of Chambers will consider your complaint as soon as practicable. He will either investigate the complaint himself if he can or, if he considers it appropriate, depute someone to investigate it. That person will be someone other than the person or people you are complaining about. The person investigating and considering your complaint will make such inquiries as he or she considers to be the most appropriate for dealing with complaint efficiently and fairly.
7. 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.
8. When your complaint has been investigated and considered, the Head of Chambers 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.
9. All conversations and documents relating to the complaint will be disclosed to the extent that is necessary. Disclosure will be to the Head of Chambers and to anyone involved in the complaint and its investigation. Such people will include the barrister or member of staff who you have complained about.
10. With a view to improving services we make a written record of any complaint. Our Head of Chambers inspects the record regularly.
11. If you are dissatisfied with our service, we hope that you will use our procedure. However, if you would rather not do so or are unhappy with the outcome you do have the choice of taking up your complaint with the Bar Standards Board. You can write to them at:
Complaints Department
The Bar Standards Board
289-293 High Holborn
London WC1V 7HZ
Tel: 020 7611 1444
Fax: 020 7611 1342
E-mail: Complaints@BarCouncil.org.uk