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CLIENT CARE INFORMATION
St Ive’s Chambers aims to provide the highest
possible standards of advocacy, advice and service. With this in
mind, we provide this information in order to set out in clear terms,
our policies and practices as they relate directly to the service
we provide for you. We ask you to keep this information on file
and to contact our Senior Clerk should you have any queries that
you feel remain unanswered by this letter or our other promotional
materials / activities.
Quality Standards
Review of new Instructions and Briefs: Counsel will review
new briefs and instructions within 3 days of receipt (or sooner
if marked urgent) to provide an initial response or to assess whether
they are able to conduct the work by the date required. If the agreed
deadline is not possible, a revised date will be negotiated or if
there is no room for manoeuvre, the instructions will be reallocated
to someone (generally more senior, but in any case, with your approval),
who is able to comply.
Paperwork: It is Chambers’ policy that all written work
should be completed within 14 days. This standard will be applied
unless you agree to another deadline (shorter or longer) appropriate
to your case. Any such agreement will be recorded on our computer
system so that we can monitor progress against our commitment to
you. Every attempt will be made to adhere to these arrangements
but we will notify you as soon as possible in the unlikely event
of our being unable to meet the deadline set. If a matter is required
to be dealt with urgently, it would assist if you could contact
us in advance and/or clearly mark the back sheet as ‘urgent’.
Court Appearances: When you contact Chambers to book Counsel,
we will advise you if the barrister of your choice has an existing
commitment and establish your wishes as to use of alternative counsel.
Should you wish to double-book your preferred counsel, we will keep
you informed as to likely availability as the court date approaches
so that you may reassess your options. In the unusual circumstance
that acceptable cover cannot be provided within Chambers, we will,
if required, assist in finding other Chambers to assist you.
Briefs: It is vital to the smooth and effective handling
of a case that we have sufficient time to prepare for court appearances.
Many cases now require skeleton arguments to be lodged in advance
of the hearing so it is therefore essential that instructions are
sent giving ample time for preparation. For our part, we shall ensure
that we arrive at court within plenty of time to allow time for
discussion with yourself and your client.
General Policies
Members of Chambers practise under the Code of Conduct of the Bar
of England & Wales and adhere to Chambers policies and procedures
defined in our Quality Manual. This has been developed to ensure
compliance with the Legal Services Commission’s Quality Mark
for the Bar (‘Quality Mark’) and the International Standard
for Quality Management Systems: ISO 9000. We uphold the Bar Council’s
Policy for Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination. Our premises
are adapted for disabled users however we have a policy to travel
for conferences where needed.
Basis of Fees/Terms of Business
We strive to provide a very high quality service at competitive
rates. Our Senior Clerk is available to discuss levels and basis
of fees with you and our policy for fee calculation and terms of
business is available on our web-site.
Continuous Improvement
The Management System we operate incorporates continuous improvement
mechanisms that allow us to monitor our effectiveness against our
standards, procedures and policies and to instigate improvement
initiatives where relevant. An important source of information for
improvement comes from client feedback and we would ask you to inform
us immediately should you experience any difficulty with our Chambers,
its staff or its members. We have appropriate internal procedures
for addressing clients’ concerns and take their comments seriously.
You might also like to contact the clerks or use the Client Feedback
Form available on our web-site.
The Future
We have strategic development and planning processes in place to
ensure that clear objectives are set and the services we provide
keep pace with changing client needs and a rapidly changing legal
profession. We welcome your views regarding our services and to
this end would encourage you to provide feedback regarding the service
provided either on a case by case basis or during training and social
events. From time to time, we will also conduct surveys to gauge
opinion on how well we are achieving our objectives and would appreciate
a few minutes of your time in completing the form if you are one
of our clients selected, at random, to participate tin this process.
In the meantime, thank you for valued instructions and please do
not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.
Client Feedback
We would be pleased to receive any client feedback using the Client
Feedback Form. Please email any completed forms to clerks@stiveschambers.co.uk.
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