Our terms
Our terms
Acceptance of instructions and fees
Professional clients should contact the barrister concerned through the Chambers’ email address (celestialchambers@protonmail.com) in order to establish:
(i) The barrister’s agreement to accept the instructions proposed, dependent on the nature of the instructions;
(ii) Whether the barrister is available to accept the instructions as regards workload and/or any hearing dates already set.
Instructions (including all relevant papers) will only be accepted by email to celestialchambers@protonmail.com unless by specific advance agreement.
Any variation of instructions, or of terms of agreement of instructions, must be confirmed in writing (by email to celestialchambers@protonmail.com) between the professional client and the barrister.
Instructions are not accepted directly from members of the public through any Direct Access scheme.
Professional clients should contact Chambers (by email through the Chambers’ email address) as regards fees and their payment.
‘No-win, no-fee’ arrangements, or fixed fees, may be available for certain instructions.
General terms and conditions on which services are provided
Services are provided
subject to The Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons 2020.
Choice of jurisdiction:
The Standard Contractual Terms for the Supply of Legal Services by Barristers to Authorised Persons 2020 provides (Clause 19) that agreements for the provision of legal services are to be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the law of England & Wales, and to be subject to exclusive jurisdiction of the court of England & Wales unless any alternative dispute resolution is agreed between the parties.
Professional liability insurance
Professional liability insurance is provided by the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund Limited.
The website address of the Bar Mutual is www.barmutual.co.uk/.
The postal address is Bar Mutual Management Company, 90 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4ST.
The territorial coverage of the Bar Mutual insurance cover is worldwide, subject to the applicable terms of cover of the Bar Mutual, which may be accessed at www.barmutual.co.uk/downloads/, albeit that costs of defending a claim brought before a court or tribunal in the United States or Canada are included within the limit of indemnity and the award of punitive, exemplary or multiple damages by a court or tribunal in the United States or Canada is excluded from coverage.
The minimum cover which barristers must have as a member of the BMIF is currently £500,000.
Complaints and complaint handling
Any complaint about a barrister should, in the first instance, be made to the barrister in question.
If a satisfactory solution to the complaint is not obtained from this sources, the members are subject to a non-judicial dispute resolution procedure, which may be accessed through the Legal Ombudsman’s website at www.legalombudsman.or.uk.
Complaints will be dealt as quickly as possible, using best efforts to find a satisfactory solution, in compliance with the Code of Conduct in the BSB handbook (rules C99 – 109) and the complaints’ handling procedure set out in the BSB handbook Section D1.1.
The complaints’ policy will be provided to professional clients on receipt of accepted instructions, with the expectation that the same will be provided by the professional client to the lay client/s.
The barristers are governed by the BSB Handbook, which is available in English on the Bar Standards’ Board website at www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/regulatory-requirements/BSB-handbook/.
