TERMS OF BUSINESS
1. Our Aim 2. Our Responsibilities 3. Your Responsibilities 4. Charges and Expenses 5. Costs 6. Billing and Payment Arrangements 7. Other Party’s Charges and Expenses 8. Private Limited Companies 9. Limited Liability Companies 10. Limitation of Liability 11. Professional Indemnity Insurance 12. Distance Selling 13. Equality and Diversity 14. Quality Standards 15. Client Confidentiality 16. Client Due Diligence 17. Data Protection Act 1998 18. Financial Services 19. Complaints 20. Termination 21. Retention of Your Documents 22. Terms and Conditions of Business Our Aim We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. As a start, we hope it is helpful to you to set out in these terms of business the basis on which we will provide our professional services. Our Responsibilities We will update you by telephone or in writing with progress on your matter regularly, unless agreed with you to the contrary. We will communicate with you in plain language. We will explain to you by telephone or in writing the legal work required as your matter progresses. We will update you on the cost of your matter six monthly. We will update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances. We will update you on the likely timescales for each stage of this matter and any important changes in those estimates. We will continue to review whether there are alternative methods by which your matter can be funded. We will review your matter regularly. We will advise you of any changes in the law. We will advise you of any circumstances and risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that could affect the outcome of your matter. Where we act for two or more clients jointly it is on the clear understanding that we are authorised to act on instructions from either, both or any of them. The office is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. You can contact the person dealing with your matter by telephone from 9am each day. Outside of office hours there is a telephone answering machine service. Your Responsibilities You will provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions. You will provide all documentation required to complete the transaction in a timely manner. You will safeguard any documents which are likely to be required for disclosure.
Charges and Expenses Our charges will be calculated mainly by reference to the time actually spent by the solicitors and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf. This may include meetings with you and perhaps others; reading, preparing and working on papers; making and receiving telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and text messages; preparation of any detailed costs estimates, schedules and bills; attending at court; and time necessarily spent travelling away from the office. From time to time we may arrange for some of this work to be carried out by persons notdirectly employed by us; such work will be charged to you at the hourly rate which would be charged if we had done the work ourselves. Routine letters, e-mails and texts that we send and receive are charged at one-tenth of the hourly rate. Other letters, e-mails and calls are charged on a time spent basis. Other expenses, e.g. disbursements will be payable by you. VAT will be payable on certain expenses. The current hourly rates are set out in Appendix 1 attached. We will add VAT to these at the rate that applies when the work is done. At present, VAT is 20%. Our hourly rates have to be reviewed periodically to reflect increases in overhead costs and inflation. Normally the rates are reviewed with effect from 1 January each year. If a review is carried out before this matter has been concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes effect. In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours, the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particular specialist expertise which the case may demand. An increase in the rates may be applied to reflect such factors. In property transactions, in the administration of estates and in matters involving a substantial financial value or benefit to a client, a charge reflecting, for example, the price of the property, the size of the estate, or the value of the financial benefit may be considered. It is not always possibleto indicate how these aspects may arise but on present information we would expect them to be sufficiently taken into account in the rates which we have quoted. Where an increase in the rates or a charge reflecting any value element is to be added we will explain this to you. Solicitors have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from Land or Probate Registry fees, court fees, experts' fees, and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with thefunds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain expenses. We refer to such payments generally as 'disbursements'. If, for any reason, this matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred. Our practice's policy is to only accept cash up to £1,000 If you try to avoid this policy by depositing cash directly with our bank, we may decide to charge you for any additional checks we decide are necessary to prove the source of the funds. Where we have to pay money to you, it will be paid by cheque or bank transfer. It will not be paid in cash or to a third party, unless we are required to do so under the terms of any legal funding agreement, e.g. the Legal Services Commission. As you will appreciate these rules are imposed upon us and whilst we do not wish to cause inconvenience we have no alternative but to comply. Our VAT registration number is 358 5774 05.
Costs We will inform you if any unforeseen additional work becomes necessary - for example, due to unexpected difficulties or if your requirements or the circumstances significantly change during the course of the matter. We will also inform you of its estimated cost in writing before any extra charges and expenses are incurred. It is normal practice to ask clients to pay sums of money prior to starting work on your behalf and from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected in the following weeks or months. This helps to avoid delay in the progress of their case. We will request further payments on account for charges and expenses to be incurred as the matter progresses. When we put these payments towards your bills, we will send you a receipted bill. We will offset any such payments against your final bill, but it is important that you understand that your total charges and expenses may be greater than any advance payments. If this matter does not proceed to completion or we cease to act for you for any reason, you will be charged for work done and expensesincurred. You agree that we are entitled to cease to act for you if you fail to pay any invoices submitted or to meet payments on account in respect of disbursements to be incurred.
Billing and Payment Arrangement Property transactions. We will normally send you our bill following the exchange of contracts and payment is required on a purchase prior to completion; and at completion on a sale. If sufficient funds are available on completion, and we have sent you a bill, we will deduct our charges and expenses from the funds. Administration of estates. We will normally submit an interim bill at regular stages during the administration, starting with the obtaining of a Grant. The final account will be prepared when the Estate Accounts are ready for approval. Other cases or transactions. It is normal practice to ask clients to pay interim bills and sums of money from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected in the followingweeks or months. We find that this helps clients in budgeting for costs as well as keeping them informed of the legal expenses which are being incurred. If such requests are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result. In the unlikely event of any bill or request for payment not being met, this firm must reserve the right to stop acting for you further. Payment is due to us within 28 days of our sending you a bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 4% over Allied Irish Bank’s base rate from time to time from the date of the bill in cases where payment is not made within 28 days of delivery by us of the bill. If you have any query about your bill, you should contact the person handling your matter straight away. The common law entitles us to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly come into our possession pending payment of our costs, whether or not the property is acquired in connection with the matter for which the costs were incurred. This is known as a ‘general lien’. We are not entitled to sell property held under a lien but we are entitled to hold property, other than money, even if the value of it greatly exceeds the amount due to us in respect of costs. If we are conducting litigation for you, we have additional rights in any property recovered or preserved for you whether it is in our possession or not and in respect of all costs incurred, whether billed or unbilled. We also have a right to ask the court to make a charging order in our favour for any assessed costs. We do not accept payments to us in cash in excess of £1000. Monies due to you from us will be paid by cheque or bank transfer, but not in cash, and will not be made payable to a third party. Any money received onyour behalf will be held in our client account. Interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate set by Allied Irish Bank. That of course may change. The period for which interest will be paid normally runs from the date(s) when funds are receivedby us until the date(s) on the cheque(s) issued to you. The payment of interest is subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors' Accounts Rules 1998. By signing the attached client care letter you have agreed to waive your right to any interest. Where a client obtains borrowing from a lender in a property transaction, we will ask the lender to arrange that the loan cheque is received by us a minimum of four working days prior to the completion date. If the money can be telegraphed, we will request that we receive it the day before completion. This will enable us to ensure that the necessary funds are available in time for completion. Such clients need to be aware that the lender may charge interest from the date of issue of their loan cheque or the telegraphing of the payment.
Other Party’s Charges and Expenses If you are successful and the court orders the other party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses, interest can be claimed on them from the other party from the date of the court order. We will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our charges or expenses on account, but we are entitled to the rest of that interest. You will also be responsible for paying the charges and expenses of seeking to recover any charges and expenses that the court orders the other party to pay. In some circumstances, the court may order you to pay the other party’s legal charges and expenses; for example, if you lose the case. The money would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses. We have discussed with you whether our charges and expenses and your liability for another party’s charges and expenses may be covered by any insurance policy you may have. Private Limited Companies If we are given instructions by a private limited company then, unless otherwise agreed with you in advance, it is a condition of our accepting these instructions that the directors are personally, jointly and severally liable along with the Company for payment of our fees and costs and any interest thereon.Limited Liability Partnerships If we are given instructions by a limited liability partnership then, unless otherwise agreed with you in advance, it is a condition of our accepting these instructions that the partners are personally, jointly and severally liable along with the Partnership for payment of our fees and costs and any interest thereon.Limited Liability Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall not be less than the minimum required by the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules (currently £2,000,000), unless we expressly state a higher amount in the letter accompanying these terms of business. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities.We can only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Please ask if you would like us to explain any of the terms above. Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms of business will be determined by the law of England and Wales, and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts. Professional Indemnity Insurance Details of our professional indemnity insurers and cover are available for inspection at our offices.Distance selling Where we have not met with you, the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 apply to this file. This means you have the right to cancel your instructions to us within seven working days of receiving this letter. You can cancel your instructions by contacting us by post or by fax to this office.Once we have started work, with your consent on your file, you may be charged if you then cancel your instructions. If you would like us to commence work on your file within the next seven working days, please: sign these terms and conditions of business return them to this office by post or fax Equality and Diversity We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. A copy of our equality and diversity policy is available for inspection at our offices.Quality Standards The firm is registered under the Lexcel quality standard of the Law Society. As a result of this we are subject to periodic checks by outside assessors. This could mean that your file is selected for checking, in which case we would need your consent forinspection to occur. All inspections are, of course, conducted in confidence. If you prefer to withhold consent, work on your file will not be affected in any way. Since very few of our clients do object to this I propose to assume that we do have your consent unless you notify us to the contrary. We will also assume, unless you indicate otherwise, that consent on this occasion will extend to all future matters which we conduct on your behalf. Please contact me if I can explain this further or if you would like me to mark your file as not to be inspected. If you would prefer to withhold consent please put a line through this section in the copy letter for return to me.We also carry the Investors in People quality mark, which is the independent gold standard for service industries. We have worked hard to achieve and maintain these standards which are your assurance of the high quality of our services and practice management. Client Confidentiality Our firm may be subject to audit or quality checks by external firms or organisations. We may also outsource work. This might be for example typing or photocopying or costings, or research and preparation to assist with your matter. Information from your file may therefore be made available in such circumstances. We will always aim to obtain a confidentiality agreement with the third party.We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the Serious Organised Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why. In order to comply with court and tribunal rules, all documentation relevant to any issues in litigation, however potentially damaging to your case, have to be preserved and may be required to be made available to the other side. This aspect of proceedings is known as ‘disclosure’. Subject to this, we will not reveal confidential information about your case except as provided by these terms of business and where, for example, your opponent is ordered to pay your costs, we have to meet obligations to reveal details of the case to them and to the court. Client Due Diligence The law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.To comply with the law, we need to get evidence of your identity as soon as possible. Our practice is to request two different original documents,at least one to prove your identity and one to prove your address. Acceptable proofs of identity include; passport, UK photo card driving licence, nation ID card (non-UK residents), birth/marriage certificate, deed poll. Acceptable proofs of address include; current council rent book, receipted utility bill (less than 3 months old), current council tax demand, bank statement (less than 3 months old), appearance on the electoral roll, pension book, firearm and shotgun certificate, mortgage statement. If you cannot provide us with the specific identification requested, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways to verify your identity. Data Protection Act 1998 This Act requires us to inform you that we will retain anyrelevant personal data which you give us within our computerised database. This is done so that we can process your matter effectively. You are entitled to see this data at anytime subject to reasonable notice. You can be assured that this data is completely secure and will not be divulged to anyone outside the firm, without your permission, except insofar as we require to do so in order to process your matter. We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:updating and enhancing client records analysis to help us manage our practice statutory returns legal and regulatory compliance Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you. We may from time to time send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing. Financial Services This 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 Solicitors’ Regulation Authority. This register can be accessed via the Financial Services Regulation Authority website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register.If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority, as we are not. However, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints-handling arm of the Law Society. If you are unhappy with any insurance adviceyou receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies. Complaints We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please raise them in the first instance with me. If we can not resolve the problem to your satisfaction or you would prefer not to speak to me, then please contact our Mr S. Hinds, who is responsible for Professional Standards, on 020 8658 3922, postmaster@pj-h.co.uk or by post to Kelsey House, 77, High Street, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AN. We have a procedure in place which is available from the office upon request.If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 15870, Birmingham B30 9EB on 0300 555 0333 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk to consider the complaint and/or apply to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Normally you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint. Termination You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, e.g. if you do not pay an interim bill or there is a conflict of interest. We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you. If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated on [an hourly basis plus expenses/by proportion of the agreed fee] as set out in these terms and conditions. Retention of your Documents After completing or earlier termination of the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.We will keep our file of your papers for up to 6 years, except those papersthat you ask to be returned to you. We keep files on the understanding that we can destroy them 6 years after the date of the final bill. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody. If we take papers or documents out of storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However we may charge you both for: time spent producing stored papers that are requested reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved papers Terms and Conditions of Business Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of then current hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until one copy of them has been signed and returned to us for us to keep on our file. I confirm I have read and understood, and I accept, these Terms and Conditions of Business. Signed ..................................................... Date .................................
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