A West Country set of chambers is to launch an online booking service for its own tenants and
barristers in other chambers.
South Western Chambers, based in Taunton, is aiming to provide a one-stop service for solicitors covering all areas of law.
The website, provided by the 15-tenant common law practice, will act as a clearing house for work for members of the set and a panel of barristers throughout the country.
Senior clerk, Stephen Ward said: "I do not know of any other chambers that has a use for a website, other than as a brochure.
"Because we are in the West Country, 95% of firms we deal with are small and their partners have to be in court everyday. We will provide a service to enable them to contact chambers 24 hours a day from anywhere."
Ward added: "Our aim is to move on from the southwest to cover all parts of the country."
Services will include the ability to book counsel for any court centre, on any type of case, across the country.
In personal injury cases, the chambers will be able to provide conditional fee assessments within 24 hours for solicitor clients.
The site already has a panel of more than 100 barristers across the country to refer work to, including 13 silks. The service is scheduled to go live by the beginning of April.
In anticipation of a surge of work coming from the website, South Western Chambers has hired architects to design a new purpose built chambers with a call centre, lecture theatre and common room/library.
Last week Legal Week reported on a similar website, which is aimed at solicitors rather than the bar.
FirstLAW was set up by Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) commercial property partner Anthony Armitage and boasts of being the world's first virtual solicitors' firm. It aims to put customers in touch with firms suitable for the work required.