TERMS & CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS

Transcription

1 TERMS & CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS 1. Introduction These terms and conditions explain the basis upon which we carry out work for you and charge for our services subject to any variations set out in our engagement letter or agreed retainer. For the avoidance of doubt, none of the Directors or any of our Fee Earners will be in any way personally liable to you or any clients, such personal liability being excluded to the full extent of permissible law. Thomas Miller Law is a trading name for Thomas Miller Law Ltd registered in England No with its registered office at 90 Fenchurch Street London EC3M 4ST England. It is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) No and as such is subject to rules and principles of professional conduct. The website of the SRA includes details of the relevant Code of Conduct which can be accessed on A list of Directors is available from the Company s registered office. 2. Responsibility You will be advised of the name and status of the person responsible for the day to day conduct of your matter, together with the Director with ultimate responsibility for your case, in the accompanying letter. We will try to avoid changing the people who handle your work, but if this cannot be avoided, we will inform you promptly who will be handling your matter and why the change was necessary. 3. Fees and Disbursements Unless an estimate or an alternative arrangement has been agreed, our charges will be calculated by reference to the time spent dealing with your matter which includes meetings, any time spent travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence, making and receiving telephone calls attendance at court etc. We will confirm to you the rates for the various levels of staff in our engagement letter. Each hour of work is divided into ten units of time. Routine letters, telephone calls and e mails sent or received are charged as one unit. Other letters, calls and e mails are charged on a time basis. In addition to the time spent, a number of factors may be taken into account which may increase the hourly rate, including the complexity, urgency, expertise or specialist knowledge required and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved. VAT at the current rate will be added as appropriate to our charges together with disbursements as set out in the accompanying estimate. Our VAT registration number is Disbursements include payments by us on your behalf and we have no obligation to effect these payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. After deduction of any balance owing in respect of our fees and disbursements,

2 you will normally receive any surplus funds paid. Where you request or where we reasonably consider it expedient to effect payment of any sums by way of BACS or CHAPS (electronic bank transfers), we reserve the right to charge a handling fee of 50 + VAT for each transfer to reflect the extra work involved (which will appear under our charges in our invoice) in addition to any fee the Bank may charge us for the transaction (which will appear as an expense). We may ask for payment(s) on account of our fees and disbursements and expect to be placed in funds before undertaking any work or incurring any disbursements for which you are responsible. 4. Arrangements for payments of our charges and expenses All bills are payable on delivery and any queries must be raised within 14 days. Interest will be charged at 3% over HSBC Bank Plc's base rate from time to time in force from the date of delivery of a statement of account in cases where payment is not made within 28 days of such delivery. 5. Our fees Complaints/Assessment You are entitled to complain about our bill in which case we shall follow our complaints procedure and we refer you to section 12 which sets out our client care commitments to you. There may also be a right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act Please note that if all or part of the bill remains unpaid we reserve the right to charge interest as set out in section 3 above. 6. Litigation Whatever happens at the end of litigation, you will always be responsible for paying our accounts which may include the cost of assessment by the Court. When a case has been concluded, the Court assess payment of the successful parties costs of the proceedings in such a way that generally results in the unsuccessful party having to pay only a proportion of those costs. It is only in exceptional cases that the Court will order that the successful party has a right to full reimbursement of the costs of the proceedings. Even if you are not reimbursed for the full or any costs of the litigation from the successful party or if for whatever reason that party does not comply with an order to reimburse you, you will nevertheless have to pay the full amount of our charges and expenses. During the course of Court proceedings, we will provide the best indication we can as to the proportion of your costs which you may recover from the other party should you be successful. This is however a matter which is at the discretion of the Judge hearing the case and if you have pursued issues which have not succeeded (even though you are successful overall) or the Court believes that you have acted unreasonably, the Court has the power to reduce significantly the proportion of your costs to be paid by the unsuccessful party. If you are unsuccessful, the Court may order you to pay the successful parties legal charges and expenses. Such charges will be payable in addition to our charges and expenses.

3 7. Interest payments All monies held by us on your behalf, whether on account of fees or disbursements or otherwise will, until used, be placed either in our client account or in a separate designated deposit account. You will (unless such interest is 50 or less) be entitled to interest as if all monies had been held on separate designated deposit account at HSBC Bank Plc. Interest received on designated deposit accounts will be treated as clients monies. 8. Termination of Instructions You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time. We are entitled to keep your papers while money is owing to us. We may terminate instructions only with good reason and on giving reasonable notice. If you or we decide that instructions are to be terminated, then our charges and expenses will become due. We reserve the right to stop acting if: You do not pay our costs or money on account We cannot continue to act without being in breach of our professional obligations We are unable to obtain clear instructions from you For any reason there is a breakdown in the solicitor/client relationship You become bankrupt/insolvent or enter into any arrangement with your creditors 9. Money Laundering Regulations Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however is subject to a statutory exception: legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed Solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the National Crime Agency. If a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the firm is required to make a money laundering disclosure. If this happens, we will not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it. You agree to provide evidence of your identity and if applicable that of directors, partners, trustees and controllers of your company or firm and all connected shareholders to comply with our obligations under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002,current terrorism legislation and anti-money laundering Regulations. Our company policy is not to accept cash payments. 10. Confidentiality and Conflicts Conflict between your interests and the interests of other clients of the firm may arise during the course of a matter. If this situation occurs, we will discuss the position with you and determine the appropriate course of action. In order to protect your or their interests we may have to cease acting, in which case we will use our reasonable endeavors to find another firm of solicitors to continue acting for you.

4 Where we represent you on behalf of your funder or insurer, we may be required to discuss your case or disclose your file to them for indemnity purposes. We may also be subject to quality or audit checks and in these circumstances, your file will be made available. We will always obtain a confidentiality agreement with the third party. 11. Electronic Storage of papers and documents After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our fees and expenses. We will keep your file of papers (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for at least 6 years, and on the understanding that we have your authority to destroy your file 6 years after sending you our closing letter. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody. If we have to retrieve stored papers, we reserve the right to make a charge based on the time spent in photocopying or reading papers, writing letters or other work necessary to comply with your instructions. We would not expect our charges to exceed 50 + VAT. 12. Client Care We are confident that we will provide you with a first class service in all respects. In the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service or about our bill, please raise the matter with the person dealing with your case, failing which you should contact our Client Care Director, Patrick Bond. It is important that you raise any issues you may have with us immediately. We value you as a client and would not wish to think you have any reason to be unhappy with us. However clients who are an individual, a micro enterprise, a charity or club with an annual income of less than GBP 1m or a trustee of a trust with an asset value of less than GBP 1m also have a right to pursue a complaint by writing to the Legal Ombudsman. PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ Tel: or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk to consider the complaint. 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. 13. Copyright and Other Intellectual Property We retain the copyright and all other rights in all documents provided to you. You are granted a non-exclusive licence to use such documents for the purpose for which they are provided but not otherwise. 14. Data Protection We have made a notification to the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act You have rights under that Act in relation to personal data held about you. We will hold and process personal data about you, both in relation to taking your instructions, opening files relating to your matter, rendering bills and collecting sums due, and in the course of advising you on and managing your matter. This information may include sensitive personal data obtained both from you and/or from third parties.

5 In connection with any matter we deal with on your behalf, we obtain personal data including sensitive personal data from you and from any professional and other third parties whom we, in our professional judgment deem appropriate, and, likewise, we may disclose such information to such third parties. Where the matter relates to a claim, those third parties may include but are not limited to insurance companies, the police, medical practitioners and expert and other witnesses. By instructing us to act, you are giving your explicit consent to the processing of your personal data in the ways set out above. We may wish to send you information or contact you by telephone to inform you of legal developments and/or legal and other services we can offer. If you do not wish to receive such information, you may opt out by indicating this when asked or by contacting us at any time. Opt-out requests can be made to our Chief Executive at our Registered Office address. 15. Financial services and insurance mediation We are not authorised under The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to provide financial advice but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are regulated by the SRA. We can provide these investment services as an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide. If you have any problem with the service we have provided for you, please let us know. We will try and resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to enable us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to do so, then we are regulated by the SRA and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through them and the Legal Ombudsman. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act The SRA is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against solicitors. The Firm is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, it is included on the register maintained by the FCA 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 SRA as explained above. The register can be accessed via the FCA website at Professional Indemnity Insurance We hold insurance cover for Professional risks as required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Details of cover are available upon request. Our overall liability to you for all claims or losses arising out of any breach(es) of our retainer and/or for any negligent acts or omissions in connection with this work shall not in any circumstances exceed the total sum of 10,000,000 (ten million pounds Sterling).This limitation does not exclude or limit our liability for fraud or for reckless disregard of professional obligations or liabilities which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

6 17. Communication via the Internet Where appropriate, it is our practice to utilise extranet and links to send documents. Although this is an extremely effective means of communication, we are unable to guarantee the security and confidentiality of material sent over the internet. Please let us know if you do not want us to communicate with you via the internet. We check all communications with antivirus software, but again cannot guarantee that documents will be free from corruption. We recommend that you also use your own antivirus software. 18. Waiver and Invalidity Our failure to enforce any one or more of these terms and conditions at any time or for any period shall not be a waiver of them or our right at any time to enforce all applicable terms and conditions. The invalidity or unenforceability of any of the provisions of these terms and conditions of business shall not affect the rest of them which shall continue to bind both you and us. 19. Exclusion of Third Party Rights Nothing in these terms and conditions of business or in any other agreement or arrangement between us will confer any rights or other benefits on any third parties whether by statute or otherwise. 20. Entire Agreement These terms and conditions and our accompanying letter set out all the terms agreed between us in relation to the work we are to undertake for you. All other terms, conditions and representations are hereby excluded and you may not rely or have relied on them. The terms and conditions may only be varied by agreement in writing signed by a Director on our behalf. In the event of any conflict between these terms and conditions and our accompanying letter, the latter shall prevail. 21. Jurisdiction The High Court of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear any dispute which may arise between us. To this end, you and we irrevocably agree to submit to such jurisdiction. Judgment in any suit, action or proceeding brought in the High Court of England and Wales shall be conclusive and binding and may be enforced in the Courts of any other jurisdiction. 22. Amendment We may by one month's written notice to you modify these terms from time to time to reflect our current practice and/or changes to professional and other regulatory requirements which we are obliged to meet. 23. Acceptance of these Terms & Conditions Your continued instructions in this matter will amount to your acceptance of these terms and conditions. However, we would ask you to sign one copy of the client care letter enclosed to

7 confirm your acceptance of the terms and conditions and return this to us together with all other documents we have asked you to return to us. This is an important document and you should keep it in a safe place. Signed NAME IN CAPITALS Title/Company Reference Date