General
These terms shall constitute our agreement to act as your
Solicitors with regard to any instructions received from you
and shall continue until terminated.
We reserve the right to amend the terms of this agreement
in such manner as may be required to comply with legislative
changes or changes to the rules or requirements of our governing
body, The Law Society.
Additional or alternative terms may be agreed between us and
these will be set out in a separate letter or quotation. In
the case of any conflict between these standard business terms
and the terms of any letter or quotation from us, the terms
of the letter or quotation shall prevail.
The Best Relationship
We want the best relationship between us in helping you with
your matter and this leaflet tells you:
The name of the person in overall charge of your matter (who
will be the person with ultimate responsibility for the conduct
of the matter and will discuss and resolve any difficulties
which may arise)
The supervising Member of the firm responsible for the department
within which your matter is being dealt with
When our offices are open
Information about our charges
The service we provide you
How you can help us to offer the best service
What to do if you are unhappy about the way your matter is
being dealt with.
The person with overall charge of your matter is:-
Who is a Member/Consultant/Assistant Solicitor/Legal Executive/Senior
Legal Assistant. If he/she is unavailable will be pleased
to take a message for you, or alternatively you can leave
a message on our Voicemail system.
The supervising Member is:
Please note that fee earners other than the one with overall
charge of your matter may be assigned to undertake the day
to day handling of some or all of the work, both to ensure
that your file is handled promptly and efficiently and to
ensure that the work is carried out with an appropriate degree
of expertise.
Our offices are open from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm on Mondays to
Fridays excepting Bank Holidays, but if you have significant
difficulty in attending during our normal opening hours, please
enquire about the possibility of an appointment at home or
outside our normal opening hours.
Our Promise To You
Where possible we aim to reply to correspondence within
5 working days.
As soon as reasonably practicable after the outset we will
confirm in writing to you:
Your instructions to us
Any advice we have given
What action we will be taking
What action we need you to take
The best information we can give as to the likely cost and
how it will be met; and
Any further information we need from you
During the matter we will:
Keep you informed of progress
Advise you of any delays and explain the reasons
Explain the effect of any important documents
Inform you if a cost forecast needs revising
Explain any changes of fee-earning staff affecting your matter;
and
If you so wish, send you copies of important letters (but
please remember that it will cost more if you ask for copies
of correspondence)
At the end of your matter we will:
Write confirming the conclusion of it
Explain any continuing consequences
Render our bill with reasonable promptness
Account to you for all money due to you; and
At your request send you any papers and property to which
you are entitled, subject to any right to retain them if our
bill has not been paid.
How You Can Help Us
Here’s how you can help us to help you:
Give us full and clear instructions, and
keep us updated in respect of any developments.
Tell us of any important time limits.
Make sure we have understood each other correctly. Please
ask if you are not sure about something.
Deal promptly with any important question which may arise.
Keep in touch regularly. Do not be afraid to ask for a progress
report if you are worried about anything or do not hear from
us when you expect to do so.
Help us plan our working day. If practical, and unless it
is urgent, write to us rather than telephoning. Make an appointment
if you want to see someone. Remember, avoid unnecessary calls
and appointments – the more time we spend talking to
you or writing letters the more it will cost.
The efficiency with which we conduct a matter on your behalf
depends heavily on your co-operation and the information you
provide.
Ensure you return to us promptly any forms or documents sent
to you for signature. FAILURE TO DO SO CAN LEAD TO FINES IN
STAMP DUTY LAND TAX CASES OR COURT SANCTIONS IN LITIGATION
MATTERS AND PROBLEMS OF VARIOUS TYPES IN OTHER MATTERS.
Joint Instructions
Where two or more people jointly instruct us to act on their
behalf (for example, on purchase of a property) we will be
entitled to assume that instructions given by one of them
are given with the authority of the other(s), unless and until
any of them instruct us in writing to the contrary, or unless
the particular point to which the instructions relate is one
in relation to which we have a clear duty seek confirmation
from the non-instructing client(s).
Charging Information
How Are Charges Determined?
Generally, time spent in the conduct of
your matter is chargeable. It may be time engaged on the telephone,
writing letters, dealing with documents, considering or preparing
your matter, attendance at meetings or court, travelling or
a number of other activities. Time is charged in units of
6 minutes each; a part unit will generally be rounded up to
1 full unit.
Factors affecting the charges include the complexity of the
matter, its value, the novelty of the issues raised, the skill,
labour, specialised knowledge and responsibility involved,
the number and importance of the documents prepared or perused,
the place where and the circumstances in which the business
or part thereof is transacted, and the overall importance
of the matter to the client. This list is not exhaustive,
but hopefully illustrates the variety of factors which must
be taken into account when assessing charges.
If we are acting on your behalf under a Conditional Fee Agreement,
we will explain the agreement (and its effects in relation
to our charges) to you before the agreement is entered into.
Forecasts of Charges
When or shortly after taking instructions we will endeavour
to:
Tell you the hourly charging rates to be
applied in matters involving court proceedings or conduct
of a dispute.
Give (where reasonably practicable) an estimate of the level
of charges to be made in other matters by means of a global
sum or hourly rates, or a combination of both.
Explain the possibility of varying the original forecast if
circumstances require it.
In certain cases your liability for legal charges may be covered
by an existing insurance policy, or you may be able to purchase
insurance cover in respect of your potential liability for
legal charges. If you think either of these possibilities
applies and the matter has not already been discussed with
you, then you should ask us about these possibilities at the
earliest opportunity.
N.B. Please note that you may set a limit to the charges and
disbursements (excluding VAT) which we may incur without further
reference to you. However, the relevant instruction must be
given in writing and if not so given no limit shall apply.
VAT is added to all our charges at the appropriate rate prescribed
from time to time.
INTERIM BILLING & PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT
We reserve the right to tender an invoice
or request for disbursements (the payments we make on your
behalf and on which we make no profit) either before or immediately
after they are incurred.
We have a general policy (though we reserve the right to deviate
from it) of rendering interim invoices for non-legally aided
work each 3 months, or (if earlier) when charges incurred
on your account exceed a level of £500, for work done
on your behalf, which also helps you to judge the level of
expenditure being incurred.
We reserve the right to ask you for a payment on account of
work undertaken or to be undertaken, either at the outset
of the matter or during the course of it.
We will place any sum paid on account to your credit or use
it in part payment of an outstanding invoice.
We reserve the right to discontinue work on your matter (and
any other matters being conducted on your behalf) until payment
where either an interim account has been rendered or a request
for payment on account of charges or disbursements has been
made.
Settlement of Accounts
It should be noted that:
Invoices are due for payment within one
month of issue.
Interest is chargeable at the rate allowed by statute from
time to time on unpaid debts in the event of non-payment within
one month of the date of the invoice.
If a third party has agreed or been ordered to pay your charges,
you will still be liable for those charges until the third
party pays.
Even if a Court orders your opponent in proceedings to pay
your costs it is unlikely to mean you will recover all your
costs. We will account to you for what we receive from your
opponent BUT:
(a) our charges are payable by you even if, when a Court has
awarded you costs, your opponent cannot or does not pay;
(b)if the amount recovered is less than the amount of our
charges for the work done, we will not be bound to accept
the sum recovered from your opponent in settlement of our
charges;
(c) we will not normally take steps to enforce an order until
our account for the proceedings leading to the making of the
order has been settled.
At the conclusion of the conduct of your matter by us no documents
or property belonging to you will be released by us until
all sums due to us have been settled in full.
Court Cases
It should be noted that:
If you lose your case you will probably
be ordered to pay most (and possibly all) of your opponent’s
costs as well as your own, unless you are in receipt of public
funding (when such an order is possible, but not usual).
Even if you win your case, your opponent:
(a) is most unlikely to be ordered to pay all your fees and
expenses;
(b) may not be capable of paying such of your fees and expenses
which he/she has been ordered to pay.
If your opponent is publicly funded you will not normally
be able to recover your fees and expenses even if you are
successful.
Public Funding
We hold contracts from the Legal Services
Commission to provide full public funding services in relation
to certain types of work only (Family and Personal Injury
matters at the time of printing). For work in other fields
of law, we would refer you to an alternative supplier of legal
services holding a contract from the Legal Services Commission,
if you desire to investigate the availability of public funding.
We charge privately for all work carried out prior to the
issue of a Certificate that public funding is available.
We reserve the right to cease representing you if you fail
to pay a contribution to your public funding or otherwise
fail to comply with any requirements of the Legal Services
Commission.
Disputes Over Charges
In the event of a dispute:
You should refer the matter to us in writing
setting out the reasons for your complaint.
If the dispute cannot be resolved then you can either:
(a) Ask us to apply to the Law Society for a certificate to
establish a fair and reasonable figure for charges in relation
to work done;
(b) Apply to the Court for an order for assessment of our
charges.
The right to ask for charges to be assessed or for a certificate
to be issued may be lost unless a request is made by you within
one month of the date of delivery of the bill in dispute.
Further details of your rights are printed on the reverse
of our invoices.
What Do You Do If You Are Disatisfied
Generally
A) Tell us if you feel you are not receiving
the service you hoped for. We want to know if you are dissatisfied.
We can then try to put it right, and will look into it promptly
and thoroughly
B) Our complaints procedure is as follows:
(i) Mention your dissatisfaction first to the person responsible
for the conduct of your matter.
(ii) If this does not result in resolution of your complaint
write to our relevant supervising Member.
(iii) If you are still unhappy after that, ask for details
of the firm’s complaints procedure.
Storage/Release of Original File Papers
At the conclusion of our conduct of your matter, if you require
the return of any file papers please let us know when arranging
payment of your final account or as soon as possible after
the matter is finished. If no request is made within
one month of the file on your matter being closed (which will
normally occur when the final bill is settled) your file will
be sent to storage. We make a standard charge for storage.
Storage is for a limited period only (usually seven years)
and when the relevant period expires the file will be destroyed.
Storage/Release of Deeds and Wills
We will store your Will or title deeds or other important
documents on request, but please note that in common with
the usual practice of banks and building societies we make
an administration charge on withdrawal or removal of such
items from our storage system (even if withdrawal or removal
is temporary). The charge is reviewed annually and you
should ask if you wish to know the current rate of charge.
Financial Services and Distance Selling
Regulations
We are not authorised under the Financial
Services and Markets Act to undertake the conduct of Investment
Business. Because we are not authorised by the Financial
Services Authority to undertake such dealings, we will generally
assist you in accessing a full range of Investment Business
services, including expert advice, through our contacts with
other professionals. However, we can offer a limited range
of investment services to clients, provided they are closely
linked with the legal services we are providing to you, because
we are members of and regulated by the Law Society. Sometimes
conveyancing/family/ probate/company work involves dealings
with such investment work.
No direct fee will be charged by us for advice on how to access
expert advice on financial matters.
In the event of our receiving a commission or fee from a third
party following the introduction of your investment business
to them we will give you an indication of the amount of commission
or other payment received by us and, save where otherwise
agreed in writing, we shall retain such commission or other
payment to cover time spent in dealing with the matter.
If your instructions have not been given at a face-to-face
meeting, you will generally have the right to cancel those
instructions without any cost to you within seven working
days of the written confirmation of your instructions and
a copy of these Terms & Conditions being received from
us. In such case you may cancel the agreement by either delivering
or posting a note to our office cancelling your instructions,
or by sending such note by fax or e-mail. However, you may
not cancel the agreement between us once we have, with your
permission, started to do work on your behalf. You are,
of course, free to withdraw instructions from us at any time
when you would be liable for payment of our charges for work
already done on your behalf.
Nothing in the contract between us shall require us to complete
the work we undertake on your behalf within thirty days, or
any other specific time period, from formation of the contract
between us, but this does not relieve us of our obligation
to conduct your matter with all due diligence.
Sales of General Insurance
The firm is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority.
However, we are included on the register maintained
by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on
insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising
on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This
part of our business, including arrangements for complaints
or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by The Law
Society. The register can be accessed via the Financial
Services Website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register.
We only select products from a limited number of insurers
for defective title insurance contracts but we are not contractually
obliged to conduct business in this way. We do not receive
any commission from the insurers whose products are selected.
We will provide details of those insurers from whom
we procure defective title insurance contracts on request.
Money Laundering
You should be aware that, by virtue of the Money Laundering
Regulations, we are placed by law under certain strict obligations
with which we must comply. The principal obligations which
may affect our relationship with you are:-
We must verify the identity of our client,
including the identity of persons controlling any limited
company for which we are requested to act and the beneficiaries
behind any trust for whose trustees we are requested to act.
We must report to the proper authorities and without notification
to the client any information we may acquire from any source
(including you) which may give rise to any reasonable suspicion
that someone (including you) is in possession of, or involved
in or about to be involved in some dealing concerning the
proceeds of a crime (which includes tax evasion).
Accordingly, please understand that it may be necessary at
the outset of your matter, and /or from time to time thereafter
for us to ask you detailed questions to enable us to discharge
our legal obligations faithfully (which failure to discharge
may render us liable to conviction and severe penalties).
Governing Law
The agreement between us is governed by English law and you
agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts
of England and Wales.
