Making a Conduct Complaint

Conduct complaints are about the professional conduct of a barrister who may or may not have been instructed on your behalf. Conduct complaints must relate to a breach of a section of the Code of Conduct which governs barristers.

Barristers must abide by the Code of Conduct of the Bar of Northern Ireland which details the standards of professional conduct, practice and service required by barristers. You can view the Code of Conduct here.

Some examples of Conduct Complaints include:

The Conduct Complaints procedure aims to establish the facts and details of a complaint and ensure that proportionate sanctions are applied to barristers where appropriate.

• Acting without honesty or integrity - failing to disclose a personal interest for example,
• Suspected dishonesty,
• A breach of confidentiality,
• Bullying or harassing behaviour,
• Breaches of matters described in the Bar’s Code of Conduct.

Eligibility to Make a Conduct Complaint

What Your Status Must Be:

Any complaint alleging misconduct by a barrister including any alleged breach of the Code of Conduct may be made to the Professional Conduct Committee (the ‘PCC’).

Eligible conduct complaints are received by the Complaints Officer and investigated by the PCC.

In order to make this kind of complaint you (the complainant) must:
Your complaint form must clearly identify:

• Be an individual who must be identified and provided a full name, address, contact details and a signature and,

• the barrister who the complaint is against.

When Your Complaint Must Be Made:

All complaints must be received within six months of the matter complained of or where you are complaining about a continuing issue, the last date when it occurred.

If a complaint is made after the period prescribed the relevant committee will have a discretion to consider the complaint if it is satisfied, from the information contained in the complaint form that there were valid exceptional circumstances for the delay. Exceptional Circumstances might include:

• Medical conditions or Serious Illness
• Unforeseen circumstances

How You Must submit Your Complaint

Your complaint must be submitted in the relevant form and, amongst the information that must be provided, the form must clearly identify:
When submitting your form you must also provide a full name, address, contact details and a signature.

• the barrister who the complaint is against,
• the solicitor who engaged the services of the barrister,
• the particulars of the complaint and the alleged misconduct.

The Professional Conduct Complaints Process

Once a completed complaints form is received, the Complaints Officer will check that it meets the eligibility criteria.

Eligible complaints will be passed to the Professional Conduct Committee (the ‘PCC’).

Whether or not your complaint meets the criteria, the Complaints Officer will write to you to keep you informed and if necessary, request more information or explain the reasons why a complaint cannot be accepted by the PCC.

We may feel that your complaint either relates exclusively to a service issue or has elements of a service complaint rather than relating exclusively to the conduct of a barrister. If that is the case we will write to explain why and how your complaint will now progress.

Some complaints are treated as hybrid complaints and are investigated by both Complaints Committees. More information on Hybrid Complaints can be found by clicking here / below.

How we Will Investigate a Complaint

An eligible complaint made in a completed proforma will be discussed by the PCC. This Committee is made up of practising barristers and 2 lay members and is supported by the Secretary to the PCC.

The purpose of the investigation will be to establish the facts in relation to the complaint and to provide a report on the complaint to the PCC.

The Chair of the PCC will nominate one of its members, other than a lay member, to have designated responsibility for making the necessary enquiries and compiling a report for the Committee. Enquiries will normally include writing to the barrister being complained about or any other relevant person and asking them to respond and provide any relevant information or documentation.

The nominated member will not make any recommendation in the report and will not vote on the action to be taken on foot of the report.

Once an investigation is concluded and the report has been considered by the PCC, it will make a decision on whether or not a breach of the Code of Conduct appears to have taken place and can then do one or more of the following:
Depending on the seriousness of the offence, if proven, the Committee may take the decision to progress matters to a Summary Panel or a Disciplinary Panel where a range of other sanctions are available.

• dismiss the matter,
• order an apology by the barrister,
• reprimand the barrister,
• issue a warning to the barrister about their future conduct, behaviour and/or the management and control of their practice,
• order the barrister to undertake specific training (Continued Professional Development, ‘CPD’),
• issue informal advice to the barrister about their conduct,
• where appropriate, explore the possibility of mediation.

Once the Committee has reached a conclusion, we will write to you and keep you informed. If you are dissatisfied with the Committee’s conclusion, and you have cooperated fully with it’s investigation, you will be entitled to request a review by the PCC.

If you have any questions about this process, you can contact the Complaints Officer.