Terms & Conditions
- Introduction.
The name and status of the person responsible for the day to day conduct of your matter is indicated on the accompanying letter. However, to ensure that your file is handled properly and efficiently, it may be necessary for a colleague to deal with various aspects. A partner in the firm will oversee the work undertaken and the partner with ultimate responsibility for your matter is set out in the attached letter.
We try hard to avoid changing the people who are handling your work, but if this cannot be avoided, we will notify you promptly of the change in handler. We will use our best endeavours to provide you with an efficient, effective and professional service and will keep you informed of progress on a regular basis.
It is very important that you maintain regular contact with us, including advising us of any change of address or telephone number. In particular it is important that you provide us with all information and documentation that we request.
Please ensure that in all correspondence our reference which appears at the top of the accompanying letter is clearly stated otherwise delay may occur.
- Instructions.
In appointing Donns LLP to act on your behalf, you authorise us to take any necessary steps to protect your interests in that matter (unless you instruct us to the contrary). We cannot be held responsible for any failure of ours to advise or comment on any matter which falls outside the scope of your instructions, or any matters of which you fail to inform us.
- Charges.
Unless agreed to the contrary, our fees are based on the amount of time spent on your matter by reference to the normal hourly rates of those involved. The firm’s current charge out rates are shown in the accompanying letter. Time spent will include meeting with you and any time spent travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers; correspondence and the making and receiving of telephone calls. If your instructions mean that we have to work outside office hours, we reserve the right to increase the level of the hourly rate. We will discuss with you if the matter becomes more complex and if this is likely to impact the rates we charge. These rates are reviewed on an annual basis and we will advise you of the next review if the matter has not been completed by then.
When a fixed fee is agreed in advance, we will not seek to charge any additional fee unless the work carried out is of a different nature or extent from that which we understood to be required on the basis of your instructions.
Any estimate (as opposed to an agreed fixed fee) is given only as a guide to assist you in budgeting and should not be regarded as a firm quote. We will advise you as soon as we are able to if the estimate needs to be amended.
We reserve the right to request payment in advance on account of both costs and disbursements (money that we pay out on your behalf). If we do request a payment on account, this shall be a condition of our acting for you and your failure to make that payment will entitle us to terminate our instructions.
We will provide you with a costs update every six months in the case of private and publicly funded matters. However, if your matter is funded by legal expense insurance or conditional fee arrangements, we will only provide costs updates for your case if you notify us in writing that you require them.
If for any reason we cease to represent you, we reserve the right to charge you for the work done and expenses actually incurred.
- Disbursements.
By instructing us to act on your behalf, you are also authorising us to incur such expenses and disbursements as we consider necessary in order to carry out the work. We will require expenditure which we make on your behalf to be reimbursed to us as and when it is incurred and in appropriate circumstances may ask you to place us in funds in advance unless your Legal Expense Insurer will cover these costs.
We reserve the right to charge expenses for travel accommodation and meals incurred whilst travelling away from the office and also for postage, telephone, faxes, photocopying and courier fees incurred on your behalf. We would discuss such charges with you before incurring these. We also reserve the right in appropriate circumstances to charge for the storage of files and other documents. You will be notified of the amount of this charge as appropriate when documents need to be stored.
We charge a fee (to offset the charges which we incur) for transferring funds to the banking systems (telegraphic transfers and CHAPs payments) or the provision of bankers drafts.
- Valued Added Tax.
All estimates or quotations given by us and all fees charged by us are exclusive of VAT which will be charged as applicable on our fee and those disbursements and expenses that are subject to VAT.
When an invoice is paid by the third party and you are registered for VAT, then you must pay the VAT element of the invoice and then subsequently reclaim it from HM Customs and Excise.
- Accounts.
You will be invoiced at such intervals as are set out in the accompanying letter or at such other intervals as are agreed between us. If your instructions are likely to last for some time, we will normally send you regular bills on a quarterly basis. These regular bills may not include an exact costing of the full amount due but will give a broad indication of the work done and will keep you informed of the costs accruing.
- Payment.
Payment of our invoices is due upon delivery unless other arrangements have been agreed in writing by the Senior Partner. If accounts are not paid within one month of delivery of the invoice, we reserve the right to charge interest from that date at a rate equivalent of 4% above the base rate for the time being of the Cooperative Bank Plc.
If accounts are overdue, we reserve the right to suspend work and to retain documents and papers belonging to you or supplied to us for the purpose of carrying out your instructions whether they relate to the matter to which the invoice relates or to any other instructions given to us by you until all sums outstanding to us are paid.
We may also appoint a firm of solicitors to represent us in the collection of any outstanding bills or money due to the practice where such a bill or debt remains unpaid.
- Assessment of Fee and Remuneration Certificate.
There are procedures whereby clients can ask for fees on contentious and non-contentious work matters to be independently reviewed. For Court (contentious) work procedures are laid down by statute for legal fees to be assessed by the Court. In non-Court (non-contentious) work the Law Society can provide a remuneration certificate stating whether the costs are fair and reasonable or the Court can assess them. A request for a remuneration certificate must be made to us within one month from the date of our invoice.
- Money Held By Us & Commissions
All monies held by us on your behalf, whether on account of fees or disbursements or otherwise will, until used, be placed in our client account. You will (unless such interest is £20 or less) be entitled to interest as if all monies had been on separate designated deposit accounts at the Cooperative Bank Plc.
If, when acting on a matter for you, we receive commission which is attributable to regulated activities governed by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 we will account to you for all such commission (unless agreed otherwise in writing).
- 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. If the other party is legally aided, you may not recover any of your charges and expenses even if you win the case. 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. That money will be payable in addition to our charges and expenses.
- Termination of Instructions.
You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time. In some cases, we may decide to stop acting for you for example, if we cannot obtain clear instructions from you or if you fail to pay your invoices as they fall due or to meet our requests for payment on account of fees or disbursements or if you fail to accept our advice.
- Confidentiality and Conflicts.
Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organised Crime Authority. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure.
If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it because the law prohibits “tipping-off”. Where the law permits us to do, we will tell you about any potential money laundering problem and explain what action we may need to take.
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 interest we may have to cease acting, in which case we will use our reasonable endeavours to find another firm of lawyers to continue acting for you.
Where we represent you on behalf of your funder or insurer, we may be required to discuss your case or disclose your file to the funder or insurer (insurance intermediary) for indemnity purposes.
- 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 charges and expenses. We will keep your file of papers (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for 7 years, after which it is destroyed. The firms’ working papers, all correspondence between you and the firm and other papers prepared by us will remain our property.
We will not destroy documents you have previously asked us to deposit in safe custody.
If we retrieve papers and documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make a charge based on time spent producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with the instructions given by you or on your behalf.
- Client Care
We give you our assurance that the work which we will carry out on your behalf will be of the highest standard and we will report to you as appropriate throughout the matter.
If for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the standard of service provided, you should first of all report it to the person dealing with your case.
If you are still not happy, the matter should be referred to the partner in charge as detailed in our client care letter who will take the appropriate action. We attempt to resolve all problems that may arise with our services. It is therefore important that you (immediately) raise any concerns you may have with us. We value you as a client and would not wish to think that you have reason to be unhappy with us.
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.
- Money Laundering.
We may be required to carry out money laundering checks on all new clients. If this is necessary, our acceptance of your instructions will be subject to you providing to us all necessary information to enable us to comply with our statutory obligations. This will normally require the production of a copy of a passport and utility bills for individuals or in the case of a corporate client, for one of its directors.
We are required by regulations in certain circumstances to enquire into the source of funds or monies which may pass through our client account. We will not accept responsibility for any loss that may arise as a result of our compliance with those regulations and in certain circumstances we reserve the right to terminate our retainer.
Our practice’s policy is not to accept cash from clients. 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 any third party.
- 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.
- Data Protection.
Donns LLP has made a notification to the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998. 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 instructions from you, opening files relating to the matter we act for you in, rendering bills to you and collecting sums due, and in the course of advising you on and managing the matter we represent you in. This information may include sensitive personal data and we may obtain it both from you and from third parties.
In connection with advising you on your file, and managing any matter 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 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; in the case of conveyancing matters, they may include but are not limited to banks, building societies and other lenders, insurance companies and surveyors.
We may, in order to provide you with the most cost effective and efficient service, appoint data processors ( third parties who process data on our behalf) to undertake some aspects of you matter, but always under the control and supervision of one of our partners.
Should we at any time sell or transfer our business, this may involve the transfer of your personal data to another data controller (a third party who decides what data is held and how it is used.
By instructing us to act, you are giving your explicit consent to the processing of your personal data in the ways set out above.
You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
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 the Compliance Officer, Donns LLP PO Box 41, City Wharf,New Bailey Street. Manchester. M60 1DZ.
- Regulations.
Donns LLP is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We are 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 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 via the Financial Services website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register.
The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.
- Communication via the Internet(www)
Where appropriate it is our practice to utilise extranet and email 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. We ask you to let us know if you do not want us to communicate with you via the www, or if you wish us to utilise date encryption and/or digital signature technology in our communications to you via the www. We check all communications we receive with antivirus software, but again cannot guarantee that documents will be free from corruption. We recommend that you also use your own antivirus software.
- Waiver.
Our failure to enforce any one or more of these terms and conditions of business 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.
- Invalidity.
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.
- 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.
- Entire Agreement.
These terms and conditions of business 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 of business may only be varied by agreement in writing signed by a partner on our behalf. In the event of any conflict between these terms and conditions and our accompanying letter, the latter shall prevail.
- Jurisdiction.
The High Court of England and 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. Judgement 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.
- 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.
- Acceptance of These Terms and Conditions
Your continued instructions in this matter will amount to your acceptance of these terms and conditions.