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This page explains:
• when you can report a concern
• what we can and cannot look into
• what you need to do before you report
• how to submit your concern
• what happens next
Before you make a report. Watch this video that explains the process and what to expect.
See below for the steps you need to take if you want to report a concern about a barrister or a business we regulate.
You can report a concern about a barrister or an organisation we regulate if you are:
- The client.
- Another barrister.
- Someone else.
You should report a matter to us if you have evidence of a breach of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) Handbook.
You must have evidence that they:
- broke the law by committing a serious criminal offence.
- failed in their duty to the court.
- acted dishonestly.
- revealed private client information.
- bullied, harassed or used seriously offensive language.
There are some issues we cannot deal with. For example:
- We do not regulate judges or other types of lawyers.
- We cannot act where someone is pretending to be a barrister; this may be a matter for the police.
- We cannot change the progress or outcome of a legal case.
- We cannot stop a barrister from using evidence or arguments you disagree with.
- We generally do not intervene when a barrister expresses a political opinion, especially if they are also an elected politician.
Before you report a concern, think about the reasons for the report:
If you have a concern about a barrister who is, or was, representing you and that complaint is about the service they have given you, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman.
If you have a concern that relates to the barrister's conduct, or service and conduct, you can report a concern to us. We will look into the part of your report that relates to the barrister's conduct and assess whether the barrister may have broken the rules or their professional duties set out in the BSB Handbook.
You can tell us if you have concerns about a barrister who is not, or has not, worked for you.
You can tell us if you have concerns about a chambers or a BSB-regulated entity (a company or partnership regulated by the BSB). You can find further information about BSB-regulated entities here.
If you were given advice or representation by a barrister who was unregistered (which means they do not have a current practising certificate) you can submit a report directly to us.
This might be someone who represented you at an employment or benefits tribunal. Unregistered barristers are not allowed to call themselves barristers when providing legal services, and if they do this, it may be a breach of the BSB Handbook.
We cannot investigate things like whether you got good value, and we cannot order them to pay compensation, but we can look at whether they have broken the rules for unregistered barristers.
The Legal Ombudsman cannot deal with complaints about unregistered barristers.
If you report the conduct of another barrister to us, the Contact and Assessment Team will assess the information. They may only contact you if they need more information to complete their assessment.
We explain when you are under a duty to report your own serious misconduct and how we will handle reports of serious misconduct on the reporting serious misconduct page.
The easiest way to report a concern is through our Online Reporting Form. It helps ensure we receive all the information we need. You should ensure that you submit all necessary supporting evidence at the time you send us your report, as we will look to assess what has been provided to us.
If you need reasonable adjustments because of a disability, health or mental health condition, complete our reasonable adjustments request form so we can support you.
If you don't have access to the online form, you can complete the Word version and send it by email to [email protected] or by post to: The Bar Standards Board, 289-293 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7HZ.
For more information on our approach to requests for confidentiality and anonymous reports, please read our Confidentiality and Anonymity Policy.
When we receive your report, our Contact and Assessment Team will:
- check that the concern relates to someone or something we regulate.
- make sure we understand your concerns.
- assess whether there is a potential breach of the BSB Handbook and if we determine there has been, carry out a risk assessment to see whether the issue has harmed, or could harm, people, their legal rights, or public confidence.
- take any regulatory action.
- This policy sets out our process for the initial assessment of reports, and if action is needed, we will pass your concern to the right team.
We also monitor the types of concerns we receive so we can spot new issues and act consistently.
We may:
- give the barrister informal advice
- ask our Supervision Team to work with the barrister or organisation to improve things
- refer the concern to our Investigation and Enforcement Team for a formal investigation
- decide not to take action, but keep the information to inform our future work
We aim to assess your concern within about eight weeks, and if we need more information, we will contact you.
If you’re unhappy with the outcome of your report, any requests should be sent directly to [email protected]. We won’t review a decision just because you disagree with it, but we may reconsider it if there is a valid reason under our policy - Reviews of regulatory decisions and the independent reviewers.
A review may be possible if:
- there was a significant factual mistake.
- the law or BSB rules were applied incorrectly.
- there was a serious procedural error.
- new, relevant information has come to light that could have changed the decision.
Simply disagreeing with the decision is not enough for us to review it.
Decisions made by our Contact and Assessment Team are usually reviewed by the reviews team and sometimes by an Independent Reviewer, who is separate from the department.
If your concern is about the service you received from our staff (not the decision itself), you can use our Service Complaints procedure. Details and the complaint form are available on our “how to complain about us” page.
If you're unable to submit a written service complaint due to a disability, we can accept your complaint by phone and make other reasonable adjustments.
The Independent Reviewers help us make sure our regulatory decisions are high-quality, fair, and based on the correct procedures.
They have two main jobs:
-
Reviewing decisions
They review certain regulatory decisions made by our staff and by the Independent Decision‑making Body, following our policy on Reviews of regulatory decisions and the independent reviewers. -
Checking how cases are handled
They regularly audit a random selection of cases to make sure:- the correct processes were followed
- cases were handled fairly and consistently
- equality, diversity and inclusion issues were properly considered, as required of us as the regulator of barristers.
We may also ask the Independent Reviewers to carry out thematic reviews. This means looking at a particular area of our decision‑making and suggesting changes to improve how our systems work.
The Independent Reviewers do not make decisions themselves. They cannot change the outcome of an individual case, but they can recommend that a case is looked at again or that a decision is reconsidered.
Senior staff decide whether a case should be sent to an Independent Reviewer. If you think a regulatory decision should be looked at again, you should contact the person handling your case.
The Independent Reviewers do not communicate directly with people involved in a case. If someone contacts them directly, they will read the message and pass it on to the relevant team so that it can be dealt with appropriately.
The current Independent Reviewers are Sarah Baalham and TBC.
