Transparency

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Central Chambers seeks to comply with the Bar Standards Board regulations on Transparency. What appears below is understood to reach those high standards but, if you are unclear on any aspect of how we as a chambers (or any individual member) operates, please contact us by email or telephone and we will try to provide you with any information you may require.

PLEASE NOTE: if you require this information in another format, please click here and speak to a member of our team.

  • Professional and/or lay clients may contact an individual barrister or Central Chambers to obtain a quotation for legal services;
  • To contact us, please see the bottom of any page of this website, email clerks@centralchambers.co.uk or call 0161 2361133;
  • The majority of work undertaken by members of Central Chambers is publicly-funded. Those rates are determined by the Legal Aid Agency, the CPS, or local authorities and they change from time-to-time. Central Chambers is not responsible for the setting of those rates and they are in the public domain.
  • For privately-funded work, we operate a mixture of fee structures, according to the nature of the work and circumstances of the case. This can include fixed flat fees, staged fees (for which a staged fee plan will be provided before the instructions are accepted), and hourly fees.
  • Whilst all privately-funded cases are charged according to a multitude of factors, the general range of fees for such work is based upon the experience and expertise of the counsel instructed. VAT will be added at the applicable rate, where counsel is VAT registered. As at January 2021, those indicative fees are:

Under 5 years – £50 – £150
5 to10 years – £80 – £200
10 to 15 years – £125 – £300
15 Years or more “junior” counsel – £150 – £400
Queens Counsel – £350 – £750

  • For Direct Access work, please see the Direct Access section of this site as, where the regulations require it, a typical charge table will be shown in that section. The table above is indicative for all Direct Public Access work too. Where it is required that we publish an indicative table for a specific area of work (i.e. Summary-Only Road Traffic Defence and Immigration First Tier matters), and see the Direct Access section.
  • For all other areas, full transparency of fees will be discussed and confirmed in writing prior to our accepting instructions.
  • Unless we have agreed to the contrary, we request our fees to be settled within the timescale prescribed within the standard contractual terms. For our part, we adhere to the Bar Council’s Code of Practice in respect of progressing payment of our fees.
  • Fees must be paid according to the standard contractual terms timescales whether or not the solicitor has been put in funds by the client or has taxed the costs.
  • Central Chambers provides various legal services but the most common as at January 2021 are Family Law (Public) representation, Criminal (Defence) representation, Family (Private), Criminal (Prosecution), Immigration, Commercial, Inquests. Not all members practice all areas stated. For each barrister, see their individual profile page. Alternatively, search by practice area and see which members are listed;
  • For all areas of practice involving litigation or court proceedings, timeframes are usually dictated by a combination of rules imposed by parliament (such as the Criminal or Civil Procedure Rules, for example), the time it takes other parties to perform their duties in the litigation or proceedings, or other factors beyond the control of the parties (for example, the availability of court time). However, our members will always try to act efficiently in the execution of your instructions.
  • It is sometimes the case that barristers, like any professionals, will have to triage their work. At the time of instruction, they will make clear if there are potential availability issues. This is particularly the case in Direct Access cases. For all cases where there is a solicitor acting for the lay client, the first port of call to the lay client in the event of concerns regarding delay must be that solicitor.
  • Please see here for the Complaints Procedure.

For your ease of reference: