Transparency
FEES / COSTS / TRANSPARENCY
The services Philip provides and how he charges for them

The services provided

Philip specialises in Criminal Defence and Regulatory law.

The services provided typically include the following:

•    Advocacy services:- representing clients before all Courts and Tribunals.
•    Drafting services, including drafting:- Correspondence, Statements of Case, Applications, Skeleton Arguments, Defence Statements, Proofs of Evidence and Grounds of Appeal. In certain circumstances barristers may also assist in the drafting of witness statements.
•    Advice services:- advising clients as to the law of England & Wales and its application to the circumstances of their cases.

How much does legal advice and representation cost?

Philip will ordinarily consider fees on a case-by-case basis. Legal advice and representation can be expensive. How much it will cost will depend on a range of factors, including the nature of your case, the amount of material to be reviewed and as such the time expended in preparing the matter. However, Philip can often keep costs lower than others as he does not work within the common chambers set up and so has lower overheads.

Similar factors need to be taken into account when deciding on the appropriate fee structure for a case, including risk, complexity, geographical location (of the client and the court where the matter may be litigated). His charges are commensurate with the service provided, and he is always willing to discuss how his fees are structured in order to find a solution that works for clients. Philip will typically offer one or more of the following fee models to his clients:

•    Fixed fee arrangements. This is when a barrister considers how much work they will have to do in total and how much this will cost. The client is then given an overall amount that has to be paid for the work to be done.
•    Hourly rate arrangements. This is when a barrister will have a set rate they charge for each hour of work they do. They will then keep track of how many hours of work they have done, and this will be the final cost. An estimate of the number of hours it will take can sometimes be given.
•    Some other pricing model such as a framework agreement

All fees will also be subject to applicable VAT.

A mixture of funding types can sometimes be beneficial.

Fixed fees can provide more certainty in knowing in advance how much the cost of the work will be and are popular with some clients. Philip may agree the fees for a particular piece of work in advance of that work being done. Where fees are agreed in advance of the work being done, he will usually ask you to agree to pay the fee before carrying out the work.

Where it is not appropriate to agree the fee in advance, an estimate will be provided to you. Philip may also place a ceiling on the fee to be charged for certain work to provide you with some certainty. If, when finding out more about the case, Philip considers the work that is proposed will take longer than the time agreed, he will contact you to arrange and amend the contract.

It is important to emphasise that the provision of a quotation does not mean that Philp will be obliged to accept your instructions. If you accept his quotation and proceed to provide instructions, he will then be obliged to consider whether he is able, under their Code of Conduct, to accept your instructions.
Fees for a court or tribunal hearings will usually consist of a ‘brief’ fee and, in more substantial cases, ‘refreshers’. Dependent on the location and nature of the case, additional expenses may be chargeable for travel and overnight accommodation and subsistence, when required.

A brief fee is an agreed fixed fee that covers all pre-hearing direct preparation for the case (e.g. reviewing papers, preparing cross-examinations, researching legal issues, preparing a closing speech) and the first day of hearing.

A refresher is the fixed agreed fee for any subsequent day of the hearing after the first day.

Sometimes a reservation fee may be levied for each day of tribunal/court work that a Philip is booked for, which is payable if the case settles or withdraws before a brief fee is incurred. This reflects the fact that Philip is committing to your case and is not accepting other bookings for the dates in issue. The reservation fee would normally be deducted from a brief fee if a case goes ahead. There may be certain instances – such as where a case is adjourned at short notice before starting and/or to a date months ahead – that a ‘re-reading’ fee will be applied, to reflect the fact he has to re-read all the papers before a hearing resumes.

Factors which may affect 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,
•    the availability of the solicitor, client, barrister and/or third parties, and the availability of court time.

If a matter is genuinely urgent, Philip will liaise with the court to try and persuade them 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.

Philip’s hourly rates range from £200 - £500 per hour + VAT

Philip will always tell you what the first stage of your case will cost or is likely to cost.

Funding models in General
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 we contract may be viewed at https://www.barcouncilethics.co.uk/documents/contractual-terms/ Direct access lay clients will be provided with written terms in advance.

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.

More information about your potential eligibility for Legal Aid can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/check-legal-aid.

Recovery of Costs -
Defendant’s Costs Orders in Criminal Cases

Legislation that came into force on the 1 October 2012 governs the awarding of costs from Central Funds to successful defendants and appellants in criminal proceedings in respect of compensatory costs reasonably incurred by you in those proceedings.

Defendant’s Costs Orders are a mechanism for a defendant/appellant to recover some or all of their legal costs. Legal costs are defined as fees, charges, disbursements and other amounts payable in respect of advocacy or litigation services including, in particular, expert witness costs. These costs, however, will be reimbursed at legal aid rates details of which can be provided upon request. These can also be obtained on the Ministry of Justice website http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/national-taxing-team. This means that there is often a shortfall between what you recover and what is owed to your legal representatives and this would have to be made up by you.

Defendant’s Costs Orders are only available in the following circumstances:

Magistrates Court proceedings

Appeals to the Crown Court in relation to conviction or sentence arising from matters in the Magistrates Court

As legal aid is available to defendants in mainstream Crown Court proceedings (subject to contributions where appropriate), Defendant’s Costs Orders are not usually available to those individuals who choose to fund their case privately. It may be available if you have applied for legal aid and have been refused on means.

If a Defendant’s Cost Order is granted in your case, there will be an additional fee for the work in respect of preparing the claim and submission to the National Taxing Team at an agreed hourly rate for your case, plus VAT. You will need to make this payment in advance as the Costs Order will be paid directly to you.
Complaints
Complaints Procedure
1. My aim is to give all my clients a good service at all times. However if you have a complaint please let me know as soon as possible, by telephone or in writing. I will treat your complaint as confidential although I may discuss it with other barristers or officials from the Bar Standards Board for their advice. I will not reveal your name to others unless I am setting up mediation or arbitration. I will deal with your complaint promptly.

2. Please note that the Legal Ombudsman, the independent complaints body for service complaints about lawyers, has time limits in which a complaint must be raised with them. The time limits are:

a) Six years from the date of the act/omission
b) Three years from the date that the complainant should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint (if the act/omission took place before the 6 October 2010 or was more than six years ago)
c) Within six months of the complaint receiving a final response from their lawyer, if that response complies with the requirements in rule 4.4 of the Scheme Rules (which requires the response to include prominently an explanation that the Legal Ombudsman was available if the complainant remained dissatisfied and the provision of full contact details for the Ombudsman and a warning that the complaint must be referred to them within six months)

3. The Ombudsman can extend the time limit in exceptional circumstances. Chambers must therefore have regard to that timeframe when deciding whether they are able to investigate your complaint. Chambers will not therefore usually deal with complaints that fall outside of the Legal Ombudsman's time limits.

4. The Ombudsman will also only deal with complaints from consumers. This means that only complaints from the barrister's client are within their jurisdiction. Non-clients who are not satisfied with the outcome of the investigation should contact the Bar Standards Board rather than the Legal Ombudsman.

5. It should be noted that it may not always be possible to investigate a complaint brought by a non-client. This is because my ability to satisfactorily investigate and resolve such matters is limited and complaints of this nature are often better suited to the disciplinary processes maintained by the Bar Standards Board. Therefore, I will make an initial assessment of the complaint and if I feel that the issues raised cannot be satisfactorily resolved through my complaints process, I will refer you to the Bar Standards Board.

Complaints made by telephone

6. If you wish to make a complaint by telephone, I will make a note of the details of your complaint and what you would like done about it. I will endeavour to resolve matters with you on the telephone. If after discussion you are satisfied with the outcome, I will make a note of the outcome and the fact that you are satisfied. If you are not satisfied you may wish to make a written complaint.

Complaints made in writing

7. If you wish to make a written complaint please give me the following details:-
• Your name, telephone number and address;
• The detail of your complaint; and
• What you would like done about it.

Procedure for dealing with your complaint

8. There are a number of ways in which your complaint may be dealt with:

(a) Discussion over the telephone;
(b) Dealt with by correspondence;
(c) Discussion at a meeting between us;
(d) The appointment of a mediator who will try to facilitate the resolution of your complaint;
(e) The appointment of an arbitrator whose decision we both agree shall be binding.

9. If we decide to appoint an arbitrator, we both would need to agree how the arbitrator should approach his/her task and the limit of the compensation that can be awarded. The Bar Sole Practitioners Group (BSPG) or local Circuit will be approached, and a barrister will be appointed to arbitrate. We will decide together whether it will be the BSPG or the local Circuit who should be approached. However, neither of us may veto the person chosen. It is expected that the BSPG and the Circuit will choose someone who has considerable experience in the area that is the subject matter of the dispute.

10. Upon receipt of a written complaint I will

(a) Reply in writing, normally within 48 hours, to acknowledge the complaint and inform you how I shall be dealing with it.
(b) Reply within 14 days responding in full to your complaint. I will offer you the opportunity to meet with you if that is appropriate. If I find later that I am not going to be able to reply within 14 days I will set a new date for my reply and inform you. My reply will set out:
• The nature and scope of my investigation;
• My conclusion on each complaint and the basis for my conclusion; and
• If I find that you are justified in your complaint, my proposals for resolving the complaint.

11. If you indicate that you are not happy with my written response you may ask for mediation or arbitration or, if you fall within their jurisdiction, you may make a formal complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), the independent complaints handling body for complaints about lawyers. Please note the timeframe for referral of complaints to the Ombudsman as set out at paragraph 2 above.

They can be contacted at:

Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806,
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Telephone number: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Link to the decision data on the LeO’s website.  http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/raising-standards/data-and-decisions/?utm_campaign=1008373_New%20BSB%20Transparency%20Rules%20%E2%80%93%20July%202019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=BSB%20Regulatory%20updates&dm_i=4HUI,LM2D,36EHA7,2J0QI,1#ombudsman-decision-data

12. If you are not my client and are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation then please contact the Bar Standards Board at:
Bar Standards Board
Professional Conduct Department
289-293 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7JZ
Telephone number: 0207 6111 444

13. I will maintain confidentiality at all times and discuss your complaint only to the extent that is necessary for its resolution and to comply with requests for information from the Bar Standards Board discharging its auditing and monitoring functions.
14. I will retain all correspondence and other documents generated in the course of your complaint for a period of six years and I will review complaints at least once a year to ensure that I maintain good standards of service.

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