Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
Temple Garden Chambers is a leading common law set based in London and The Hague.
With excellence from top to bottom Chambers provides a first class service in a number of different fields.
Under the Public Access scheme, anyone can instruct a barrister directly, without the involvement of a solicitor or other intermediary. Many members of Temple Garden Chambers are qualified to provide their services under this scheme.
Our Public Access clients choose to use the scheme as it provides quick and easy access to specialist advice and representation, reduced cost and improved value for money, and more control over their case.
Barristers at Temple Garden Chambers can provide you with independent legal advice in writing, by telephone, or at a face-to-face meeting. They can draft documents such as letters, documents required for court, instructions to experts, witness statements, contracts, other commercial agreements, and settlement agreements.
Members of TGC are regularly instructed directly on contractual matters, costs cases, employment law, health & safety, personal injury, inquests and cases involving international law.
They can carry out advocacy before any court or tribunal in England and Wales, and before international courts and tribunals. They can also represent you at meetings, during negotiation, mediation and arbitration: anywhere you need someone to look after your interests and present your case.
Barristers are regulated by a strict code of conduct. They are held to the highest ethical and professional standards by the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board. You will always be advised if at any stage your case would be best handled by a solicitor, and we can recommend suitable firms.
The Bar Standards Board “Public Access Guidance for Lay Clients” provides full guidance.
To enquire about instructing a barrister please fill in our contact form below. This will help the clerks allocate the case to the most appropriate barrister.
Under the Licensed Access scheme organisations with the relevant experience and expertise (such as various Ombudsmen) and members of certain professional bodies (such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Institute of Civil Engineers and the Incorporated Society of Auctioneers and Valuers) are able to instruct a barrister directly for specialist advice and advocacy without the need for a solicitor to act.
Many of our barristers deal with professional discipline matters as well as professional negligence claims and claims for unpaid professional fees.
To instruct a barrister by way of Licensed Access it is necessary for the barrister to be sent a copy of the Licence issued by the Bar Standards Board.
A full list of licensed organisations and licensed professional bodies together with the rules and regulations can be found on the Bar Standards Boards website.
We have developed an initial contact form. This will ensure that the Temple Garden Chambers clerks have the details that they need to allocate your case to the most appropriate barrister – someone with the expertise, experience and availability to help you. The barrister will then be able to check whether the Public Access scheme is suitable for the matter.
We will then advise you on any further information and documents required to complete the work.
Once a completed contact form has been received the clerks will pass the information to the most appropriate counsel and you will receive confirmation within two working days as to who is able to assist (subject to further information). Once the relevant documents have been received your barrister will provide you with a client care letter within seven days along with terms for signing and returning. Payment will then be required within seven days. Once payment is received unless otherwise agreed or if there is a fixed hearing date counsel will return the necessary work within 28 days.
The Public Access scheme is open to all members of the public and all corporations, as long as the matter is suitable for the scheme.
There is no limit to the type of case that a barrister can handle under Public Access. However, it is highly desirable that only a barrister with the necessary expertise and experience for your type of case is instructed. Profiles of members of chambers are available on this website, as are summaries of our practice areas, but the best people to ask for guidance are the Temple Garden Chambers clerks.
There are some formal steps in legal proceedings that most barristers cannot do, such as issuing proceedings or applications, filing documents at court and serving documents on other parties. This is known as ‘conducting litigation’.
Barristers can draft all of these documents for you and can advise you on how to issue, file or serve them. Alternatively, they may advise you to engage a solicitor if you are unable to take these steps yourself (e.g. you are out of the country).
Barristers do not generally conduct correspondence. This is because they are often away from their offices (chambers) at court. Under the Public Access scheme you remain the point of contact for other parties, and the court or tribunal.
Of course, barristers can advise you on correspondence and can draft letters for you.
Some of our barristers are authorised to carry out litigation but the majority of them are not. Those who cannot carry out litigation are able to carry out the following types of work:
Barristers advise on the law, draft documents for clients to use and appear on behalf of their client before courts or other organisations. Barristers do not handle client money or undertake the organisation or management of a case proceeding through a court.
Where one of our barristers is authorised to carry out litigation they may perform all of the tasks described above and, in addition, they may also instruct an expert on your behalf, serve documents on your behalf, receive documents served on you and go onto the court records and provide an address for service. You should let us know whether you require a barrister who is authorised to conduct litigation.
Submitting a completed form does not make you liable to pay anything. You do not have to pay anything until the barrister has agreed to accept instructions and you have agreed how much to pay for the work in question.
The short answer is any way that you and your chosen barrister agree – subject to the code of conduct and regulatory rules. There are many different ways that you can pay for a barrister’s services, and our clerks are happy to discuss the options with you.
We always agree a fee with you before one of our barristers starts work. The fee must be paid before the barrister starts working on your case and will be subject to VAT. The fee will be based on the seniority of the barrister, the level of expertise required, the importance of the matter, the time scale required for completing the work and the amount of time it is likely to take. The fixed fee for the work will be agreed in advance and set out in the covering letter which accompanies the agreed terms. We will quote for each item of work as and when required. If there are any additional costs, such as train fares or overnight accommodation, these will be set out in the covering letter. On average typical expenses for one day range from £50 for travel up to £500 for travel and accommodation.
Further information in relation to our services, pricing and timescales is available for the following specific types of public access work:
Personal Injury and Employment Tribunal cases.
It is possible that you may be eligible for public funding or “legal aid” as it is usually referred to. However, barristers cannot do legal aid work unless they have been instructed by a solicitor. If you want to talk to someone in more detail about getting legal aid, you should contact a solicitor who does legal aid work. They will be able to advise you about legal aid arrangements relating to civil cases eg where you are in dispute with another individual or organisation and criminal cases eg where a crime may have been committed.
You can find out more information on the www.gov.uk website.
If you wish to be assessed for legal aid for a civil case you can contact Community Legal Advice. This is a service which provides advice about family, debt, benefits, housing, education or employment problems. You can call them on: 0845 345 4345. You can also use their online legal aid calculator. This is a tool which allows you to check whether you can get legal aid for your case, if it is a civil case. This tool also allows you to get online advice and can help you find a legal adviser near you.
If you do not qualify for legal aid, you might like to consider whether you have any insurance policies that might cover your legal fees, or if the fees may be paid by someone else, for example a trade union.
Counsel can advise and represent you if:
When you agree to sign terms, you confirm that you have been informed that you may be eligible for public funding and where you can find further information. You are choosing to instruct counsel without the benefit of any public funding that may be available to you.
Some barristers and solicitors are prepared to work under conditional fee agreements (where payment is contingent on a successful outcome) or under a damages-based-agreement (where payment is in the form of a percentage of the compensation awarded in the event of the claim being won) but counsel are not prepared to act under these arrangements on public access matters.
Barristers at Temple Garden Chambers are based in Middle Temple, in central London. We have accessible premises and are located near the Royal Courts of Justice. Our barristers can travel anywhere in the country, and around the world, to meet you and to represent you.
Our aim is to give you a good service at all times. However, if you have a complaint you are invited to let us know as soon as possible. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on our website at this link.
If your question about instructing a Temple Garden Chambers barrister directly is not answered on this page, please contact our clerks.
