BARRISTERS CHAMBERS
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board


About Us

Barristers Chambers was founded in November 2010 by a group of two experienced practitioners. Over the years it has been recognised as a modern, friendly set of chambers with a working environment appreciated by staff and members of the public who instruct chambers.
 
As a multi-disciplinary set, our barristers specialise in one or more of the following areas of law: crime, landlord & tenant, immigration, public law, human rights and employment. 

Although emphasis is placed in London and the South East, members accept instructions to appear throughout England and Wales. 

Chambers’ ethos is based upon its constitution which incorporates the Bar Code of Conduct, Equality Code, and Equal Opportunities Policy. 

Transparency Rules

Barristers Chambers is committed to providing clear price and service information in line with the BSB price transparency guidelines.

Legal services most commonly provided by Chambers

Barristers Chambers is a long-established specialist criminal and common law set of chambers. Our barristers’ practice in the following core areas:

Crime: Chambers has a specialist criminal team, involved in major fraud and serious crime cases. Our barristers advise and represent clients facing criminal charges in the Crown Court, and also act for clients in the High Court and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). Our barristers also act for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Employment: Members of the employment team within chambers act at all stages of employment disputes by advising, drafting pleadings and providing advocacy before employment tribunals, the EAT and the higher courts. 

Immigration: Members of the immigration team within chambers act at all stages of immigration law by advising, drafting pleadings, and providing advocacy before the First-tier Tribunal (IAC), the Upper Tribunal (IAC), the High Court and the Court of Appeal (Civil Division). 

Public law: Members of the public law team within chambers act at all stages of public law challenges by advising, drafting pleadings, and providing advocacy before the High Court and the highest courts. 
These core areas are complemented by other areas in which members of chambers practise, including, landlord and tenants, housing disrepairs, etc. 

How to Contact Us

Licensed Access clients, who either hold a licence issued by the Bar Standards Board, members of a professional body which has been recognised by the Bar Standards Board or members of the public who wish to instruct a barrister under the Public Access scheme may contact us in Chambers by telephone on 020 8888 8190 or by email at clerk@barristerschambers.org to discuss suitable Counsel, his/her availability and to ask for a quote for our barristers’ services.

We will provide you with a quote as soon as possible. We always aim to set out quotes clearly, but if you receive your quote and there is something you do not understand, please contact us.

Our contact details

You can contact us at Barristers Chambers, Suite 301, Ashley House, 235-239 High Road, London, N22 8HF. 
 
How we charge for the services which we provide – the pricing models
 Different barristers like to work in different ways, so the way they charge for their work varies but there are three basic pricing models in respect of privately funded work:

• Fixed fee;
• Hourly rate; and
• Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

A fixed fee is a fee agreed in advance for a particular piece of work. It may be calculated by reference to the amount of work likely to be involved (amongst other possible factors discussed further below) but, once agreed, the fee will not vary according to the amount of time it takes the barrister to complete the work unless the scope of the work changes significantly and you agree. 

If you agree to engage a barrister at his hourly rate, he will charge you at that rate for the number of hours which it takes him to complete the work which he has been instructed to perform. All fees will also be subject to applicable VAT.

Different barristers charge at different hourly rates and demand different fixed fees according to a large number of different factors the most important of which are: their area of expertise; the extent, nature and difficulty of the work likely to be involved in any particular case; their experience; and their standing within the profession. The latter two criteria are generally judged by the barrister’s year of call and whether they have been appointed Queen’s Counsel (QC) as well as the number and type of cases in which they have previously been engaged.

The way in which a particular barrister charges as well as the rate at which they charge may vary according to the nature and difficulty of the case as well as other market forces.

It is important to emphasise that the provision of a quotation does not mean that the barrister will be obliged to accept your instructions. If you accept the barrister’s quotation and proceed to provide instructions, the barrister will then be obliged to consider whether they are able, under their Code of Conduct, to accept your instructions.

For conditional fee agreements (CFA) see section below on the CFA. 

Additional costs

In some cases, barristers may incur expenses in the course of providing their services such as:

• Travel expenses;
• Hotel costs;
• Copying charges; and
• Search fees.

Unless necessarily and urgently incurred so as to make it impracticable to seek agreement in advance, such expenses will only be chargeable if agreed in advance.

Timescales for the completion of work

If you have a specific deadline you must tell us at the earliest possible opportunity so that account can be taken of that deadline in selecting a barrister who will be able to complete the work within the time available as well as the fee which is to be payable. In the case of advocacy services and some drafting services, the deadline will often be obvious and/or governed by the rules of Court. In all other cases, whilst barristers will endeavour to complete work within 14 days whenever possible, it will be for the client to agree the time within which any work is to be completed with the barrister who is instructed.

Factors which may affect barristers’ timescales for the completion of work include the following:
• the urgency of the task;
• the complexity of the task;
• the volume of papers required to be collated and read; and 
• the availability of the solicitor, client, barrister and/or third parties and the availability of court time.

If a matter is genuinely urgent, barristers and the court will try to make time for it to be dealt with. However, in less urgent matters pressures on the court’s time and the court’s administrative support staff mean that delays of weeks or months are regrettably common.

Funding models

Private funding – This is the conventional and most common model. The barrister contracts with either the instructing solicitor or the client that they will pay the barrister’s according to their contract. The standard terms upon which barristers at our Chambers contract may be viewed from our Terms of business page.

Barristers are only obliged to accept instructions pursuant to the ‘Cab-rank rule’ if they have been offered a proper fee for their services.

Public funding – In certain types of case you may, depending on your means and various other factors, be eligible for Legal Aid. This is a matter which you will need to investigate with a solicitor. Barristers cannot accept instructions directly from lay clients pursuant to the Public Access scheme if an application for Legal Aid is likely to be required.

Conditional fee agreements – More commonly known as ‘no win no fee’ agreements, there are many different forms of such agreements. Their common feature is that the barrister’s fees, calculated in the manner described above, will only be payable or payable at a particular rate if the condition of ‘success’ is achieved.

Generally, as a condition of the barrister agreeing only to be paid in the event of success, an ‘uplift’, calculated as a percentage of Counsel’s ‘base fees’, will be payable in addition to the barrister’s base fees. The maximum permissible uplift is 100% of the fees charged by the barrister. Although the barrister’s base fees will generally be recoverable from the opposing party if the litigation ends in success, subject to the Court assessing their reasonableness, the uplift will not be recoverable from the opposing party although it may possibly be recoverable from other third parties in certain circumstances.


 The basic types of CFA are:

‘no win no fee’ agreements – The barrister will only be paid if the action ends in success as defined by the agreement but if it does, he will be entitled to be paid an uplift;

‘no win low fee’ agreements – The barrister will be paid at a ‘reduced rate’ which is a proportion of his ‘base rate’ in any event, but, if the action ends in success he will be entitled to be paid at his normal full rate and to an uplift;

CFA lite – The barrister agrees to accept only those fees which it is possible to recover from the opposing parties; and

Damages Based Agreements – Rather than being entitled to be paid fees, the barrister will be entitled to proportion of any damages awarded.

Barristers are not obliged to accept cases on Conditional Fee terms for the obvious reasons that the barrister is being asked to share the risk of failure with the solicitor and client, the barrister will therefore need to be satisfied that the prospect of the action ending in success are sufficient to justify taking that risk.

Fees in Public Access cases

Barristers instructed under the Public Access scheme will charge for their work in much the same way as they would if they were instructed in the conventional way by a solicitor.

Similarly, the remarks set out above concerning, timescales for the completion of work, additional costs, VAT, funding models, the assessment and recovery of fees and insurance all apply equally to lay clients instructing barristers pursuant to the Public Access scheme.

The barrister must send you a letter of retainer setting out the terms of his engagement before commencing work. That letter should set out the basis upon which he or she is to be paid. However, there are some slight differences:

• Barristers are not required to extend credit to clients instructing them under the Public Access scheme. It is, therefore, common for them to fix their fee and require payment of it in advance.

• Given that barristers are not able to guarantee their availability on any particular occasion, the fee which they agree will generally relate to a specific item of work. Some barristers may be willing to work on an hourly rate basis without insisting upon payment in advance. Unlike solicitor, barristers are not entitled to demand payments on account of unspecified work to be done in the future because they are not allowed to handle client monies.

• Barristers will generally charge clients instructing them under the Public Access scheme at a higher rate than they would if they were being instructed by a solicitor in order to reflect the fact that, to some extent, they will also be doing the work which would ordinarily be done by the solicitor as well as the work as a barrister. The burden of the work is therefore more onerous. Nevertheless, there should still be a significant saving as against the cost of instructing both a solicitor and a barrister in respect of the same work.

• It is more likely that barristers will incur disbursements which they will seek to recover from their clients in accordance with their agreed terms.

• In certain circumstances barristers may still be willing to enter into conditional fee agreements with Public Access clients but in view of the discontinuous nature of instructions under the Public Access scheme and the consequently greater risks of the litigation for the barrister, it is less likely that they will be willing to consider entering into a CFA with a client instructing them under the Public Access scheme.

We have indicated below the likely hourly rate range for one of our barristers to do the work specified. The exact cost will depend on their experience.

Additional price transparency rules

In compliance with the additional price transparency rules, we set out below the range of the work to be done and the hourly rate charges applicable to certain areas of law where the services are provided to more vulnerable clients. 

Employment matters

Bringing of a claim for ordinary Unfair Dismissal and/or Wrongful Dismissal before the Employment Tribunal – £200 - £350 per hour:

• Providing advice and representation to employees in relation to their claims against their employer; and/or
• Providing advice and representation to employers in relation to defending claims before the Employment Tribunal brought by an employee.

Financial disputes arising out of divorce 

We do not cover this type of work.

Cases where the joint assets are worth less than £300,000.00 and the parties cannot agree on financial matters during the process of obtaining, or following, a divorce such as:
• How assets should be divided;
• Whether to sell the matrimonial home or other assets;
• Maintenance payments; and
• Pension sharing.

Note that additional price transparency rules only apply where the parties have joint assets which are worth less than £300,000.

Immigration appeals (First-tier Tribunal)

Providing advisory and advocacy services in relation to applications for leave to enter or remain in the UK and/or appeals against the decisions of the Secretary of State for the Home Department or the decisions of the Entry Clearance Officers regarding an immigration application – £150 - £250 per hour:

• Preparing and/or advising in relation to applications for leave to remain or enter the UK; and/or
• Providing advice and representation at the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) in relation to appeals against the Secretary of State for the Home Department or the decisions of the Entry Clearance Officers, i.e., appeals against an immigration decision only. 

Note that additional price transparency rules do not apply to asylum appeals.

Inheritance Act advice 

We do not cover this type of work.

• Providing advice to clients in relation to potential claims under the Inheritance Act 1975; and/or
• Providing advice to clients in relation to defending claims under the Inheritance Act 1975.

Note that additional price transparency rules only apply where the deceased person’s estate is worth less than £300,000.
Licensing applications in relation to business premises 
We do not cover this type of work.

Note that additional price transparency rules only apply in relation to:
• Local authority hearings and appeals to the Magistrates’ Court, and licensing applications for:
• The sale or supply of alcohol;
• Change of opening hours; and
• Entertainment purposes.

Personal injury claims 

We do not cover this type of work.

• Providing advice and representation to clients in relation to personal injury claims (claims for physical injuries, diseases or illnesses, or psychological injuries or illnesses).

Note that additional price transparency rules only apply in relation to claims which are allocated to the fast track (generally, claims which are not worth more than £25,000).

Summary only motoring offences (advice and representation for defendants) 
We do not cover this type of work.

Note that additional price transparency rules only apply in relation to summary only motoring offences under Part I of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and/or s89 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. For example:
• Driving while disqualified;
• Driving without insurance;
• Careless driving;
• Failing to stop or report; and
• Speeding.

Winding-up petitions 

We do not cover this type of work.

• Providing advice and representation to clients in relation to winding-up companies which owe them monies; and/or
• Providing advice and representation to companies in relation to defending winding-up petitions issued against them.

Regulatory and Complaints Information

Barristers in Chambers is regulated by the Bar Standards Board. You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/regulatory-requirements/the-barristers’-register/. This shows (1) whether a barrister has a current practising certificate, and (2) whether a barrister has any disciplinary findings, which are published on the Bar Standard Board’s website in accordance with their policy. Alternatively, you can contact the Bar Standards Board on 020 7611 1444 to ask about this (or e-mail (ContactUs@BarStandardsBoard.org.uk).

The following page on our website provides information about: our complaints procedure; any right you might have to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) – the independent body which can help you if you have complained to your lawyer and are not happy with their response; how to complain to LeO; and any time limits for making a complaint: www.barristerschambers.org/complaints. 
 

This shows which providers of legal services received an ombudsman’s decision in the previous 12 months, and whether LeO required the provider to give the consumer a remedy. Alternatively, you can contact LeO on 0300 555 0333 to ask about this (or by e-mail at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk). 




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