Society's News

Corporate Members 2021

3PB Albion Chambers Ashfords Barcan + Kirby Battens Beale & Co BLM Burges Salmon Clarke Willmott CMS CMNO Cooke Painter Ltd Clyde & Co DAC Beachcroft The Family Law Practice Foot Anstey (including Enable Law) Fussell Wright GL Law Guildhall Chambers Irwin Mitchell Solicitors Lyons Davidson Marc White & Co Meade King Osborne Clarke Paragon Costs Solutions Queen Square Chambers … more

BLS features in Bristol Post oldest thriving companies in Bristol

Excerpt from the article: How Bristol’s oldest companies are still thriving after more than 100 years in business They include the city’s last-surviving chocolate maker a wine merchant and a tannery. Why do some companies struggle to survive beyond a year while others flourish for hundreds? Although more than 90 per cent of small companies in Britain will survive one … more

No 12, The Meeting Rooms – Conference, Meeting and Mediation Rooms for Hire

Please note that the BLS office is shut to members at present as we continue to work from home during the pandemic. We can be contacted on info@bristollawsociety.com. In the meantime, our office is now operating as the Bristol Nightingale Court and accordingly, we are unable to hire out our facilities until further notice. (Oct 2020) Bristol Law Society’s suite … more

Boost for small businesses as free and independent service for unresolved bank complaints goes live

Business banks sign up to innovative scheme with a focus on historical cases alongside contemporary complaints.
Small businesses will, from today, be able to use a new, free and independent service to
help them resolve disputes with their banks, in a boost for SMEs struggling in the current crisis.

The Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS) will use alternative dispute resolution
techniques to settle unresolved complaints from larger SMEs with seven participating
banks, who make up the majority of the business banking market.

It is hoped that the BBRS will give SMEs added confidence to take out loans and other
business banking products and services knowing that, if something goes wrong, they
have a route to independent resolution. An improved climate for investment will be
much-needed as the economy seeks to recover.

The service has been two years in the making and has been set up on a voluntary basis
with small business groups and banks working together. The setting up of the BBRS
comes after a sustained campaign by SMEs, who have argued for a wider means of
resolving disputes.

The BBRS will work to settle unresolved complaints from customers of the financial
institutions who have signed up. The banks are: Barclays Bank plc and Barclays Bank UK plc; Danske Bank; HSBC UK Bank plc; Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank plc and Bank of Scotland plc); NatWest Group (including The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Coutts & Company and Ulster Bank Limited (Northern Ireland)); Santander UK plc; and Virgin Money (including Clydesdale Bank plc and Yorkshire Bank).

It is hoped that more banks will join in future.

Read more about the service Business Banking Resolution Service goes live – 15.2.21