Terms & Conditions

THIS DOCUMENT EXPANDS UPON AND CLARIFIES THE INFORMATION SET OUT IN YOUR CLIENT CARE LETTER

Terms and Conditions of Business

                   Solicitors and Commissioners for Oaths, Established 1758

20 Bold Street, Warrington. WA1 1HP

Tel: 01925 634681  Fax: 01925 230253  E-mail: law@anlaw.co.uk

We provide a full range of services including:

Directors:  S.J. Napier & K.E.Wills

Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority

Company Reg. No. 08755592

SRA no. 611814

We set out in this document the basis on which we provide our professional services.

We are Albinson Napier Ltd, company reg. no. 08755592, Trading as A.N. Law.  You are the client. The expressions ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to A.N. Law and ‘you’ and ‘your’ refer to you as our client.

Note:  By asking that we act for you, you are authorising us to take such action as we think necessary to obtain you required outcome.  We shall not refer to you for specific instructions every time we take a step. If, therefore, there is a limit to what we are required to do, or a limit to expenditure, we must be notified of this in advance.

1. Collaboration

1.1 In complex matters, it is necessary for us all to act collaboratively.  We can provide the Legal and Procedural input but is essential that you provide your ongoing full help and assistance, whether it be by raising questions, concerns or by providing instructions, information, evidence, documents etc. in a clear and quick manner.  Only you know the facts of your case and your personal circumstances and it is essential that you keep us up to date and correct any misapprehension we might have.   A.N. Law cannot be held responsible for any delays, extra costs or lost opportunities caused by lack of input and collaboration from you.

2. Our responsibilities

2.1 We will treat you fairly and with respect.  We will communicate with you in plain language.  We will ensure that we comply with our obligations set out within the SRA Standards and Regulations which can be found on the SRA (Solicitors Regulation Authority) website https://www.sra.org.uk/.

2. 2. We will review your matter regularly, advise you of any relevant changes in the law during the period of your case and advise you of any reasonably foreseeable circumstances and risks that could affect the outcome of your matter.

2.3 At the outset of our work, or as soon as practical thereafter, we will send you a client care letter which will, together with other documents:

(a) confirm your instructions and the scope of our work for you;

(b) contain details of the director, legal assistant or executive responsible for your work and the name of any supervisor;

(c) set out the basis or our charges, and when possible, give you information about our total likely fees.

(d) form a written agreement between us.

2.4 Sometimes work on your matter will be delegated to another member of staff where we deem it appropriate to expedite matters or to minimise expense. All support staff are closely supervised and the practice takes complete responsibility for their work.

2.5 Where it is not possible to quote a fixed fee, for example in family or litigation matters, we will provide an estimate of the likely costs and disbursements for each stage of the case and we will update our estimate whenever possible.  You should regard the estimate as a very rough guide only because it is often impossible to say how much work will be required, often because this depends upon the stance taken by the other party. On occasions, we are asked to provide a verbal estimate of our likely costs. Whilst we will do our best in trying to come up with a guideline figure such estimates invariably contain a significant number of assumptions and often assume the best possible set of circumstances. We will not be bound by any verbal estimates.

3. Your responsibilities

3.1 You will:

(i) provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions;

(ii) provide all documentation and information that we reasonably request in a timely manner;

(iii) comply with any applicable timescales and time limits which we notify to you with reasonable notice;

(iv) where applicable, review all letters, documents, forms etc. sent to you for approval and contact us promptly with any amendments and authority to send them out;

(v) safeguard any documents that may be required for your matter, including documents that you may have to disclose to another party;

(vi) advise us of any information that you are aware of which may affect any matter on which we are acting for you;

(vii) let us know how to contact you including keeping contact information up to date and also, inform us if you are going to be absent for any significant period, for example you will be away on holiday or working overseas;

(viii) check the factual information within your case and raise with us any facts that we have not correctly understood and raise with us promptly, any issue you have with the handling of your matter.

(ix) pay your bills, including any fee notifications and requests for interim payments promptly.

4. Service levels and frequency of communication

4.1 We will explain to you by telephone or in writing the legal work required as your matter progresses.

4.2 We will update you on the likely timescales for each stage of your matter and any important changes in those estimates.

4.3 The usual reasons for contact and frequency of contact for conveyancing matters and wills and probate matters are set out within the “welcome packs” sent out with your client care letter.  In all other matters, unless we have advised you differently, we expect to have contact with you at least once a week.  If there is an unexpected break in communication, please get in touch with us, as a letter or e-mail may have been misdelivered.

5. Our place and hours of business and extended hours of business

5.1 Our office is located at 20 Bold Street, Warrington, WA1 1HP.  The normal hours of opening are 9.00am to 5.00pm on weekdays.  Appointments can be arranged outside of those hours and outside the office by mutual agreement.

6. Limit of liability

6.1 Advice given by us is for your benefit only.  It may not be used or relied upon for any other purpose or by any person other than you without our prior written agreement.

6.2 We try to maintain the highest levels of service. However, if we are found to be liable to you, we are insured, subject to the policy terms and conditions.  Details of our professional indemnity insurance, including contact details of our insurer and the territorial coverage of the policy, can be inspected at our office or made available on request.

6.3 Unless we expressly state a different figure in our client care letter, our liability to you will not exceed a maximum aggregate sum of £3,000,000, inclusive of interest, for any claim or claims arising out of:

1. the same act or omission;
2. a series of related acts or omissions;
3. the same act or omission in a series of related matters or transactions;
4. similar acts or omissions in a series of related matters or transactions.

If you wish to discuss a variation of this limit, please contact the person dealing with your matter.  Agreeing a higher limit on our liability may result in us seeking an increase in our charges for handling your matter and/ or requiring that you pay any increase in our insurance premium for this and future years.

6.4 We exclude all liability for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses, or any damages, costs or losses attributable to loss of profit, goodwill, anticipated saving or opportunity.

6.5 We exclude all liability of whatever nature arising as a direct or indirect consequence of our compliance in good faith with the prevention of money laundering or prevention of terrorist financing provisions (see section 18).

6.6 Advice given to you by a director, consultant or an employee is given by that person on behalf of A.N. Law.  That person does not assume any personal responsibility to you for that advice. The practice’s directors are not personally liable for any acts or omissions by the practice, unless the law requires otherwise.

6.7 We will not be liable to you if we are unable to perform our services as a result of any cause beyond our reasonable control. In the event of any such occurrence affecting us we will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable.

6.8 Unless specifically agreed in writing with you, we do not provide any tax or accountancy advice nor undertake to advise you on any tax implications of any matter. We expect you to seek advice from your accountants and/ or tax advisors to deal with all tax and accounting aspects in connection with the matter and your tax and accounting requirements generally.

6.9 Nothing in this document limits our liability arising from fraud or dishonesty or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or other liabilities which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

6.10 We will not be liable to you for any losses resulting from a banking failure.  Our client account (and any client designated deposit accounts) are held at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc. The £85,000 Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) limit applies to each individual client.  Therefore, if you hold other personal monies in the same bank, the limit remains £85,000 in total. Some deposit taking institutions have several brands (i.e. where the same institution is trading under different names), please check either with your bank, the FSA or a financial adviser for more information.

6.11 If we make a claim under the FSCS in respect of client money held on your behalf, you consent to us giving certain client information to the FSCS to help them identify you and amounts to which you are entitled in client accounts, and you agree that we may charge on a time-spent basis for any such work.

7. Charges and expenses

7.1 Residential Conveyancing clients and Wills and Probate clients are particularly referred to the fees section within your client care letter but all clients are advised to read the following terms.

7.2 Unless we have entered into a fixed fee agreement, our fees are calculated by reference to the amount of time expended in relation to a particular matter. Our client care letter outlines our current hourly rates.  Our fee varies according to the seniority and experience of the person undertaking your work. Hourly rates are reviewed periodically and you will be informed in writing of any change.

7.3 Our time is recorded in units of six minutes. We will record time spent working on your matter; this will include, by way of example, attending meetings, correspondence including e-mails, considering and drafting documents, telephone calls, travel time, and client and file administration. Items of a ‘routine’ nature, e.g. telephone calls solely to make appointments, letters and e-mails of acknowledgement, etc., are not normally charged for.

7.4 We reserve the right to increase the level of our hourly rate where you have requested (or your instructions make it necessary for) work to be carried out as a matter of urgency or outside normal office hours.  Typically the increase will be around 20%.

7.5 We also reserve the right to increase the level of our hourly rate (typically such increase is by 20%) to take account of:

(i) complexity of the case or difficulty or novelty of issues of law or fact;

(ii) skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required of us;

(iii) number and importance of the documents (however brief) prepared or perused;

(iv) place and circumstances in which the business involved is transacted;

(v) importance of the matter to you;

(vi) the amount or value, where money or property is involved.

7.6 We will add VAT to our fees and disbursements, where appropriate, at the applicable rate. All sums in our client care letter are exclusive of VAT unless otherwise stated.

7.7 Our fees do not include any disbursements which we may have to incur on your behalf.  Examples of disbursements include court fees, counsel’s fees, fees for medical reports, probate registry fees, search and registration fees, company searches, Stamp Duty Land Tax (in England and Wales, Land Transaction Tax (in Wales) and bank transaction costs and expenses. You will have to pay those disbursements in addition to our fees.

7.8 We may also recover from you, miscellaneous charges not incorporated within our hourly rates.  These include photocopying and scanning costs, car travel on your behalf charged at our current rate per mile plus VAT and other travel costs we incur on your behalf (for example rail/air tickets and accommodation/ subsistence costs) to the amount invoiced or incurred by us plus VAT when required.

7.9 If you have asked us to act on behalf of a company of which you are a Director, then we will accept instructions from you only on the basis that you have agreed to be jointly and severally liable with the company for payment of our fees and disbursements.

7.10 Unless the hourly rate for an individual is set out in the client care letter that accompanies this document then the current hourly rates are set out below.  These rates do not include VAT which will be added when an invoice is prepared.

Solicitors

Senior Solicitor: Mrs S J Napier (Sarah) £300

Managing Solicitor Ms K. E. Wills (Kristina) £300

Consultant Mr R. M.Napier (Tim) £300

Consultant Mr Graham Wright £300

Clerks

Conveyancing Manager Ms S. L. Barlow (Sarah) £285

7.11 You agree that we may review our fees upward in line with inflation on 1^st August each year.

7.12 If you instruct us to prepare a will that appoints us to act as your executor, or if you ask us to wind up an estate on your behalf, in effect, acting your role of executor, you agree that in addition to charging for time spent on an hourly rate basis, we will also charge a fee to reflect the complexity, value, responsibility.  The additional fee will be as follows: –

1. 2% of the value of your estate up to and including the first £250,000, plus
2. 1.5% of the estate that exceeds £250,000;
3. furthermore, in the event that the value of the estate is more than 10% stocks and shares, we will charge a further 0.5% of the whole value of the estate to reflect the cost of dealing with these.

You further agree that these terms and conditions including this clause will continue to bind your estate after your death.

7.13 Fees are payable whether or not a case is successfully concluded or a transaction completed.  If any case or transaction does not proceed to completion for any reason during the period in which we have been instructed, then we shall be entitled to charge for work done on the basis set out above.  However, in our absolute discretion, we may waive part or all of such entitlement to fees.

8. Arrangements for payment of fees

8.1 Unless our client care letter says otherwise, we will send you a bill for our charges and expenses when the work is completed however we often ask clients to set up a standing order on account of fees and usually ask clients to pay sums of money from time to time on account of the fees and disbursements which are anticipated in the near future. Please meet such requests with prompt payment to avoid any delay in the progress of the case.

8.2 In transactions or cases likely to continue for more than one month, we will normally send you interim accounts covering the work already carried out.  These are sent at least quarterly or at appropriate stages in the case.  We find that this procedure enables clients to budget for costs as the matter progresses.

8.3 In the event of any bill or request for payment on account not being paid, or the cancellation of any agreed standing order or direct debit set up to make payment on account of fees, we reserve the right to decline to act further in the case.  We will send you a bill for the full amount of work done up to that date which will be due for payment within 14 days.  We will not work for you if there is a bill outstanding.

8.4 Interest will be charged at the late payment interest rate applicable under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 where payment is not made within 14 days of such delivery.  If you are instructing us in the course of business, we will also claim the statutory compensation arising from late payment.

8.5 If a bill is delivered in a concessionary figure (‘but say’) and remains unpaid after one month we reserve the right to credit the account with the amount of the ‘but say’ bill and to render a full account for all work done on the basis of a detailed costs analysis.

8.6 You may be required to make up front payments of anticipated charges and disbursements in certain circumstances. These are known as payments on account. In most matters, we ask clients at the outset, for a reasonable sum in advance on account. We shall also ask for payments on account where we are required to give an undertaking (which may bind us) to pay the fees of a third party.  In particular, we have the right to request payment for work before it is commenced and to suspend or terminate all or any part of your instructions to us and any work done for you without further obligation to you, in the event that any such request for a payment on account remains unpaid.

8.7 Prevention of cyber fraud

The interception of e-mails and the substitution of criminal’s bank account details for legitimate details is becoming and increasing problem.  Criminals are also sending emails or making telephone calls pretending to be from legitimate organisations encouraging people to transfer money to them rather than legitimate organisations.  Our account details are not going to change during our time working with you.  We encourage all clients to telephone our office and speak to your case handler with whom they are familiar with to confirm any bank details that they may have received electronically before sending over money.  We will not be liable if you are the victim of cyber fraud.

8.8 Our payment details are printed on our bills. You should not make payment to any other account in respect of monies payable to us. Any e-mail purporting to come from us seeking to redirect such payment is unlikely to be genuine. Please contact the [partner/member/director] or employee dealing with your matter if you receive any such e-mail, and only do so using the telephone number on which you usually contact them (not on any telephone number contained in the suspect e-mail).

8.9 If our instructions are given by, or on behalf of, more than one person or company each person or company for whom we are acting will be responsible for the payment of the full amount of our fees and expenses regardless of whether our bills are addressed only to one or some of such parties.

8.10 You have the right to challenge or complain about our bill. Please see the Complaints section below for details of how to complain about our bill.

8.11 We reserve the right to exercise a lien over papers held by us for unpaid costs.

9. Interest payments

9.1 Our policy upon the payment of interest upon sums of money held on your behalf is available on request.

10. Advice on investments and insurance

10.1 A.N. Law is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, however, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry on insurance distribution 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.  The register can be accessed by the Financial Conduct Authority website at www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register

11. Regulated services

11.1 A.N. Law is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN.  This means that we are governed by a Code of Conduct and other professional rules, which you can access on the SRA’s website at www.sra.org.uk or by calling 0370 606 2555.

12 Data protection

12.1 We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:

1. updating and enhancing client records;

(2) analysis to help us manage our practice;

(3) improving our marketing;

(4) legal and regulatory compliance.

12.2 Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, relevant data protection legislation including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), our duty of confidentiality and any subsequent legislation in force from time to time. Full details can be found in our privacy policy which is available on our website or a hard copy can be made available to you upon request.

12.3 If you do not wish to receive information about us and our services, wish to receive only certain kinds of information, or wish to receive information only by a particular method, please notify our office, preferably in writing.

12.4 If you are an individual and wish to make a subject access request at any time, please e-mail us and your request will be dealt with expeditiously.

12.5 You have the right to request from us, in certain circumstances, rectification or erasure of personal data or to restriction of processing concerning you or to object to our processing of the data as well as the right to data portability. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the manner in which we process your personal data.

12.6 It is likely that we will not be able to meet our regulatory requirements without the personal data we request. As such, if you do not provide it, we may not be able to act for you.

13. Electronic communications

13.1 We may communicate with you by e-mail, mobile phone and other electronic media. If you do not wish us to communicate with you by those means, please let us know.

13.2 When we communicate by electronic media, we take steps to safeguard the security and confidentiality of the information transmitted. However, we cannot guarantee that all communications will be secure or free from infection or virus.

13.3 If you require a greater level of security in electronic communications, please notify us in writing of this and we will agree with you a mutually acceptable e-mail protocol.

13.4 You should check to see whether e-mails we send you are blocked or are in your spam due to virus checking or other detection software.

13.5 Please note that we may monitor incoming and outgoing e-mails for the prevention and detection of crime, investigating or detecting the unauthorised use of our telecommunications systems and ascertaining compliance with our internal or professional practices and procedures.

13.6 It is your responsibility to ensure that any emails received from the firm are genuine before relying on anything contained within them. We accept no responsibility or liability for malicious or fraudulent emails that purportedly coming from us.

14. Storage of papers and documents

14.1 After completing the work, or after our retainer is terminated with you for other reasons, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

14.2 We may keep your file of papers for up to 12 years, except those papers that you ask to be returned to you, but keep files on the understanding that we can destroy them six years after the date of the final bill.  Full details of our data retention policy are available on request from our office.

14.3 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 the retrieval, however, we reserve the right to charge you for time spent producing stored papers that are requested and reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved papers.

14.4 If you ask us to store your will, deeds or other documents, we will use reasonable efforts to keep the documents secure in our safe.  This is on the strict understanding that we limit our liability for any loss caused to you by their destruction on the same basis as set out in clause 6 above but with the maximum liability found in clause 6.3 reduced from £3,000,000 to £500 only.  If we have entered into an agreement with you for you to pay an annual storage fee, then if that fee is not paid (one reminder having been sent to your previous notified address) then we may discharge our obligation to store the documents by sending them by post to your last known address or by delivering them there personally.  Please keep us updated as to your address.

15. Identity, disclosure and confidentiality of business

15.1 The information and documentation you provide to us is confidential and we will not disclose any such information or documentation to any person, save where we are required to do so by:

(1) any police, governmental, regulatory or supervisory or law enforcement body or authority in connection with statutory or regulatory obligations or in accordance with any internal procedures we have put in place to meet those obligations;

(2) our insurers, external auditors, other advisors or professional standards bodies.

16. Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing

16.1 We are required by law to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of our clients and sometimes people related to them.  This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their clients can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.

16.2 To comply with the law, we need to get evidence of your identity as soon as possible.  Our requirements in this respect will be made clear to you at the start of each matter.  Where we have any doubts about the legitimacy of a transaction or have not received the relevant identity documents, then we reserve the right to delay progress or completion until we have satisfied ourselves of the identity of the relevant persons or the legitimacy of the matter or transaction and we will not be liable for any loss caused by such delay.  Any personal data received for this purpose will only be processed for the purposes of preventing money laundering or terrorist financing unless permitted by an enactment or unless you provide consent.

16.3 We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential.  However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to relevant law enforcement agencies 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.

17. External auditing

17.1 External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice.  These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.  Please contact us if you do not wish your files to be disclosed to external auditors.

18. Receiving and paying funds

18.1 Our policy is not to accept cash from clients of more than £5,000 per transaction. 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.

18.2 Our client account facilities are provided, at our discretion, in order to receive, hold and transfer funds in connection with a matter on which we are acting for you.  Any receipts into the client account which are not expected, or which do not correspond to the particulars we have been provided with may be retained pending further investigation or returned to the sender.  We require advance notice of all receipts and the reasons for them.

18.3 You authorise us to make payments out of the client account without seeking further approval from you where such payments are anticipated in the ordinary course of business.  We may insist on verifying the identity of the recipient of funds before we make a payment.

18.4 In the absence of specific instructions from you, you hereby authorise us to hold such monies in a non-designated general client account.

18.5 We shall not be responsible for any loss or damage arising from the failure, refusal or inability of any bank or other financial institution to repay all or any part of such monies at any time or from their insolvency or failure, or the failure in or of the banking or inter-bank systems.

18.6 The interception of emails as the changing of bank account details is a very real risk.  When paying money to us, you must ensure that you have taken reasonable steps to ensure that you have our correct account details.  We will not be liable in the event that you lose money by transferring to a fraudsters account.

19. Complaints

19.1 We are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care.

19.2 In the event of a complaint, you should raise the concern in the first place with the person dealing with your matter.

19.3 If this does not resolve the problem, you should then contact their supervisor, whose name will have been notified at the outset of your matter.

19.4 The complaint does not have to be put in writing, although setting out clearly the issues and the action you wish us to take may help us to resolve your concerns more quickly.

19.5 If these steps do not resolve the problem you should contact the Managing Director (Richard John Napier) by telephone, e-mail or post.

19.6 We have a written procedure which sets out how we handle complaints. It is available on request from the person dealing with your matter or from our reception Tel: 01925 634681.

19.7 We have eight weeks to consider your complaint.  If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint.  The Legal Ombudsman can be contacted at: –

Post: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ;

Telephone: 0300 555 0333 (from 8.30am to 5.30pm);

E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk;

Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk.

19.8 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.

19.9 The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints by consumers and very small businesses. This means that some clients may not have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman.  If the Legal Ombudsman is unable to deal with a complaint it does not prevent you from making a complaint directly to us about the service, you have received or about the bill.

20. Conflicts

20.1 Sometimes conflicts may arise between your interests and the interests of another client of the practice, another person connected with the practice or ourselves during the course of an engagement.

20.2 If a conflict does arise we will discuss this with you. Professional conduct rules may require us to stop acting for you on that particular matter and we reserve the right to act on behalf of another client (and not for you) on a transaction in which you are an interested party.

20.3 To assist with detecting potential conflicts, you should tell us of anyone connected with the matter and whether, to your knowledge, you are aware of anything which may affect our ability to give impartial advice or may lead to a conflict arising.

21. Undertakings

21.1 As solicitors, we are obliged to fulfil any undertaking we may give in the course of our work for you.

21.2 Where you instruct us to give an undertaking and we act on your instructions, you agree that

(1) you will not withdraw or change your instructions to us in relation to the undertaking; and

(2) you will do everything you can to ensure that we are able to fulfil the undertaking.

22 English law

22.1 Unless specifically agreed in writing by us on each occasion we can only advise on English jurisdiction, law and procedure (this covers England and Wales but not Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands). If the matter involves issues of non-English jurisdiction, law or procedure, subject to your agreement, we shall engage lawyers qualified in the relevant country to provide specific advice on those aspects.

23. General

23.1 No person other than a party to our agreement with you may enforce any terms of such agreement by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, unless expressly agreed in writing. What this means is that no other person except you has any rights under our agreement with you unless we expressly agree otherwise with you.

23.2 Each of these terms in this document shall be regarded as independent of every other term so that if any such term or the application of any such term to any person or to any circumstances is found to be invalid or unenforceable, then such finding will not affect any other term or the application of such term to any other person or circumstance.

23.3 Any failure by us to pursue our legal rights or any relaxation of any of them shall not be taken as a waiver or compromise of any such rights.

24. Equality and diversity

24.1 We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.  Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

25. Future instructions

25.1 Unless otherwise agreed, these terms of business will apply to all future instructions you give us on this or any other matter.

26. Terminating your instructions (all contracts)

26.1 You may end your instructions at any time, prior to completion of the job, by giving us notice in writing.

26.2 If we have quoted you a fixed price for the whole job, then we will charge you a reasonable proportion of the price, depending upon how far the case has progressed.

26.3 If we are charging you on an hourly basis then, what we will charge you, will be based on the hours of work carried out on your case;

26.4 If we are charging you an uplift, (see 7.5), then we will charge you a reasonable proportion of the uplift based upon the anticipated total value of the matter and how far the case has progressed.

26.5 We can only decide to stop acting for you with good reason.  Amongst other matters, you agree that the following are good reasons:

(a) your failure to pay any outstanding bill, fee notification within the contractual period, or the cancellation of any payment scheme including any on-account of fees payment scheme;

(b)your failure to follow our reasonable advice;

(c)the collaborative relationship between solicitor and client has broken down;

(d)failure to meet a request to pay disbursements up front and in good time.

26.6 We will, where it is lawful and practicable to do so, give you reasonable prior notice if we decide that we are no longer willing or able to act for you.

26.7 If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you are liable to pay our charges up until that point.  These are calculated as set out in clauses 26.2 to 26.4.

27. Off premises and distance contracts

27.1 Your right to cancel contracts not entered into on our premises

Provided you have not asked that we carry out steps for you immediately, and provided that we have not concluded your case (having received such a request within the 14-day cooling off period, commencing on the date that the client care letter was received by you) you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the date of the accompanying client care letter and notice. To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail).  Please use the enclosed cancellation form.  In order to meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel by email before the cancellation period has expired.

Note: If you have asked us to proceed with your case during the 14 day cooling off period, then we have the right to charge any reasonable costs and disbursements incurred during the cancellation period.

27.2 Effect of cancellation

If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse all upfront payments received from you save as set out below: –

1. we will deduct our reasonable costs as set out in clause 26 above;
2. we will deduct money to cover the costs of any disbursements that we have paid out or commissioned on your behalf.

27.3 Method and timing of repayment

If you have paid us money up front, we will pay the reimbursement to you by electronic transfer.  You must contact us with your bank account details. We will pay the reimbursement within 14 days of receipt of the cancellation notice from you or receipt of your bank account details, whichever is the latter.

PLEASE CALL US ON

01925 634681

IF YOU WOULD LIKE A LARGER PRINT VERSION.