Every barrister at The Barrister Group is authorised and regulated by the Bar Standards Board. This page brings together the essentials in one place: how our barristers are regulated, how to raise a complaint, the role of the Legal Ombudsman, and how our fees and public access work.
Independent oversight that sets the standards every TBG barrister is required to meet.
All our barristers are authorised and regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and hold a current practising certificate. As regulated practitioners, they are required to comply with the BSB Code of Conduct and the professional duties set out in the BSB Handbook.
You can confirm any barrister's regulatory status and practising history on the Barristers' Register.
If you believe a barrister may have broken the rules in the Code of Conduct, for example acting dishonestly, taking on work they are not qualified for, or discriminatory behaviour, this is a matter of professional conduct for the BSB rather than a service complaint. Concerns of this kind should be raised with the BSB directly. Where appropriate, the Legal Ombudsman will also refer conduct concerns to the BSB.
Contact and Assessment Team
289 to 293 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7JZ
020 7611 1444
If something goes wrong, tell us early. Raising a complaint will not affect your instructions or cost you anything.
Our barristers and the teams supporting them are committed to delivering a high quality legal service. If something goes wrong, we want to hear about it as soon as possible so we have the chance to put it right. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your instructions, and you will not be charged for the time we spend investigating it.
Before making a formal complaint, please consider whether your concern can be resolved through a conversation with the person doing your work, a member of our Customer Service Team, or our Customer Insights Manager. This is usually the quickest route to a resolution, and it may be that your query can be answered by reviewing the agreement and the barrister's terms.
If the matter cannot be resolved informally, we encourage you to put your complaint in writing through our online complaint portal. This provides clarity and avoids misunderstanding. It is not a requirement, though, and we will investigate complaints made orally or in writing, including by phone, post or email.
If you need reasonable adjustments due to a disability, or need our complaints process or communications in an alternative format, please set this out in an email to our Customer Insights Manager at complaints@thebarristergroup.co.uk or call 01823 804271. You can review our Reasonable Adjustments Policy and our Office Accessibility Policy.
We acknowledge complaints made through the portal within 24 hours. Within 3 days we will confirm our understanding of your complaint and ask for any evidence you would like us to consider, which we ask you to provide within 5 working days.
We review the evidence and ask the barrister or staff member for their response. We then write to you with a reasoned final decision and any recommendations, and explain your options if you disagree. This is completed within 8 weeks of your complaint.
If you submit a complaint through the portal and do not receive a response within 48 hours, please email us at complaints@thebarristergroup.co.uk in case of a technical error.
For the full detail, please read our complete complaints procedure or download our complaints policy (PDF).
The independent body for service complaints, available once we have given our final response.
Our complaints procedure deals with concerns about the level of service delivered. If you are not satisfied with our final response to a service complaint, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to investigate. The rules require you to complain to us first.
You must refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you. The Legal Ombudsman also requires complaints to be made within 1 year of the act or omission you are concerned about, or within 1 year of when you found out about it. Legal service providers are allowed up to 8 weeks to resolve a complaint before it can be taken to the Ombudsman.
Allegations of professional misconduct should be referred to the Bar Standards Board. Allegations of negligence are dealt with through the courts; on receipt of a letter of claim, the barrister will refer the matter to their insurers, the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund.
You can view the Legal Ombudsman's decision data, which shows providers that received an ombudsman decision in the previous 12 months and whether a remedy was required.
Flexible fee arrangements, clear quotations, and indicative ranges published for common public access matters.
The same pricing model does not suit every matter. Depending on the area of law and the experience of the barrister instructed, our barristers can work on a range of bases.
For Public Access work, instructions are offered on a fixed fee basis and advance payment of the fixed fee is required. Our fees do not include VAT, and the amount of VAT is set out within each fixed fee quotation. Responsibility for any court fees always rests with you as the client.
Because every case is different, it is only possible to give broad indicative ranges before we understand your specific circumstances. Indicative fee ranges for common Public Access matters, such as employment tribunal cases, financial disputes on divorce, immigration appeals, personal injury claims and others, are published in our Public Access Transparency Statement.
For a full overview of how we work with fees and timescales, see our fees and pricing page.
How members of the public can instruct a barrister directly, and what that does and does not include.
Members of the public can instruct a barrister directly under the Public Access scheme without going through a solicitor. You can find a suitable barrister and obtain a quotation through Barrister Connect, or contact an accredited barrister directly.
In most cases, and unless agreed otherwise in writing, you are instructing a barrister to undertake discrete tasks in your case, and you retain conduct of the litigation as a litigant in person. Some of our barristers are authorised to conduct litigation and can take over conduct on your behalf; if you would like a quotation for this, please let us know. Additional tasks are agreed as they arise, with a new quotation provided.
Barristers are not permitted to carry out legal aid work on a Public Access basis. To help you decide whether to apply for legal aid or proceed with Public Access, you can use the eligibility calculator at gov.uk/check-legal-aid.
Our barristers aim to deal with instructions within a reasonable timeframe, agreed on acceptance where possible. Timescales can be affected by the complexity of the case, the availability of barristers, experts and the courts, interaction with outside parties, and the conduct of the parties to date. Your barrister and clerk will keep you updated.
Read the full Public Access Transparency Statement for area-by-area pricing and timescale information. You can also read the BSB's public access guidance for lay clients.
For questions about compliance, regulation or complaints, our Professional Standards team is here to help. We aim to respond to all enquiries promptly during working hours.
professionalstandards@thebarristergroup.co.uk | complaints@thebarristergroup.co.uk | 01823 247 247
