About

Becket Chambers is the largest independent barrister’s chambers in Kent and the longest established, since 1993. Our barristers include specialists in Family Law, Civil Law, Local Government Law as well as mediation and arbitration.

As a modern chambers, serving clients in courts and tribunals across Kent, Sussex and the South East of England, we have a reputation for providing an unsurpassed service, whether via solicitors or using Direct Access. Our main office base is in Canterbury, but we also offer facilities in Brighton, Dartford, Kings Hill (Maidstone) and Tunbridge Wells.

Our clients choose Becket Chambers not only for our unrivalled specialist knowledge of Family Law, Civil Law and Local Government Law, but also for our approachability and desire to enable all our clients to access the high-quality legal advice and advocacy that they need, whatever their situation.

Our barristers, clerks and administrators are proud of our reputation for offering a high-value service which rivals that of London sets. We are dedicated to providing pragmatic and practical advice, a friendly and sympathetic approach, and going above and beyond to ensure the best possible outcome for our clients.

Becket Chambers is proud of its reputation for excellence in all areas of advocacy and advisory work, which continues to grow throughout Kent and the South East. We aim to provide the highest quality of service possible at all times.

All of our barristers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board.

Barristers in our chambers practise in civil and family law. For details of our specialisms please visit our expertise page.

Contact us

We encourage all of our potential clients:

Solicitors or other practising lawyers;
Members of the public who wish to instruct a barrister under the Public Access scheme; and
Licensed Access clients, who may either hold a licence issued by the Bar Standards

to contact our clerks for a quote for our barristers’ services.

Our clerk’s contact details are: E-mail: clerks@becket-chambers.co.uk

We will provide you with a quote as soon as possible. We always aim to set out quotes clearly, but if you receive your quote and there is something you do not understand, please do immediately contact us.

Fees

Our barristers most often charge an agreed fixed fee for civil and family work but on occasions an hourly rate will be agreed in advance (where the client is not eligible for legal aid).

Our barristers also accept instructions under conditional fee agreements (“no win, no fee” agreements) in certain circumstances. For further information, please contact our clerks on 01227 786331 (or e-mail clerks@becket-chambers.co.uk).

Timescales

Timescales for a case may vary depending on factors such as the barristers’ availability, the type and complexity of the case, the other side’s approach and court waiting times. Please read our service level agreement for details.

Details of our contractual terms can be located here Bar-Council-Standard-Contractual-Terms.

Confidentiality and security

We understand how important it is that your information is kept secure and confidential. As part of our ongoing investment in IT security, all of our barristers and staff have access to secure systems, storage and data transfer to ensure your correspondence and documentation is protected during transition and storage.

Read more about security and our Privacy Policy

Our complaints procedure

Should our clients be in any way unhappy with the level of service they have received, we always endeavour to resolve issues quickly as soon as they are brought to the attention of the Senior Clerk, or indeed any barrister within of Chambers.

Regulatory

All of our barristers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board. You can search the Barristers’ Register on the Bar Standards Board’s website.

This shows:

whether a barrister has a current practising certificate; and
whether a barrister has any disciplinary findings, which are published on the Bar Standards Board’s website in accordance with their policy.

Alternatively, you can contact the Bar Standards Board on 020 7611 1444 to ask about this (or e-mail ContactUs@BarStandardsBoard.org.uk).

You can also search the decision data on the Legal Ombudsman’s website:

This shows providers who received an ombudsman’s decision in the previous calendar year, and whether the Legal Ombudsman required the provider to give the consumer a remedy. Alternatively, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 to ask about this (or e-mail enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk).

Equality and diversity

In a modern, multicultural society, it’s essential that the justice system reflects the diversity of the society it serves. The principles of non-discrimination and equality of opportunity apply to all Becket Chambers’ staff, members of Chambers, applicants, visitors, clients, suppliers and former staff members. We remain committed to applying an Equality and Diversity Policy in all aspects of our business operations and are accredited by the Law Society and Bar Standards Board to provide continuing professional development.

In accordance with the Bar Standards Boards equality rules, members and staff are given the opportunity to provide diversity data in order for Chambers to publish an anonymous summary of such data.

Our diversity data can be found here, and we publish an updated summary of the data every 3 years.

Becket Chambers welcomes the publishing of the Bar Council’s Trans Inclusion Statement. Becket Chambers shares the Bar Council’s commitment to promoting and respecting equality, diversity and inclusivity at the Bar. Becket Chambers echoes the importance of recognising that some people are transgender and that not everyone feels that their gender can be defined within the margins of gender binary.

Becket Chambers supports Trans, non-binary, and gender fluid barristers, pupils and employees. Chambers’ policies have been reviewed and amended, to ensure that they reflect our inclusive ethos, and to specify that trans, non-binary, and gender fluid individuals are protected by our policies.

We remain committed to promoting equality and diversity within our Chambers and at the Bar. We welcome feedback; if you have any questions or recommendations in relation to this, please feel free to contact our Equality and Diversity officer.