Terms and conditions
• Aim to ensure that your matter proceeds as quickly, straightforward and stress free as possible and to provide you with an efficient and effective service at all times;
• Represent your interest and keep your business confidential; subject to issues concerning Money Laundering Regulations.
• Explain to you the legal work which may be required;
• Keep you regularly informed of progress or, if there is none, when you are next likely to hear from us;
• Avoid using technical legal language when possible in communicating with you.
• Normal hours of opening are Monday to Thursday from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. We are available evenings and weekends and on Public Holidays. All by appointment only.
• The persons responsible for dealing with your work will be mentioned in correspondence. There will be a specific person dedicated to looking after your case. The staff at this office work as a team and there may be an occasion, i.e. when the person dealing with your case is away from the office or engaged in a meeting or engaged on the telephone, when you speak to another member
of staff.
• We very rarely need to change the person who will handle your work but if this cannot be avoided, we shall tell you promptly of any change and why it may be necessary. The Proprietor of this firm with overall responsibility is Miss. Piri Gallington.
• You agree to reply promptly and accurately to requests from us; to inform us if you believe we may have information which is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete; not to deposit cash into our bank account (as compared with electronic transfers, which are permitted) for any reason. We cannot be held liable for loss or damage sustained as a result of inaccurate information supplied by you. We are not permitted to hold any client monies apart from the discharge of our bill of costs and payment of disbursements.
• You have been provided with either an estimate or an indication of our charges for dealing with your transaction, which includes Value Added Tax. If a written estimate has not been given to you already, this will follow shortly. This estimate is valid for the next 90 days after which time, costs and disbursements may have to be reviewed. Payment becomes due on receipt of an invoice.
• You have also been provided with a written estimate or indication of the disbursements we are likely to spend on your behalf to complete your transaction. These charges are outside our control and, therefore, may increase. We will still need payment for them, if we have paid the disbursements on your behalf, if you decide not to proceed.
• The work we do may increase depending on the complexity of your matter, issues that arise and your particular requirements. We will inform you if any unforeseen extra work becomes necessary and unless the work is urgent, we will inform you in writing of the estimated cost of the extra work before incurring extra costs. We will inform you of any additional fees payable to a third party as soon as these are known to us. By instructing us to proceed you agree to pay those costs.
• If, for any reason, you decide not to continue with your matters, we will charge you for any work we have done on your behalf up to that point on a time cost basis in accordance with the rates set out on the enclosed schedule. All disbursements we have paid on your behalf will become payable.
• In some cases and transactions, a client may be entitled to payment of costs and expenses by some other person. It is important that you understand that in such circumstances, the other person may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses, which you incur with us. You have to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any amounts, which can be recovered will be a contribution towards them.
• Most matters will be at a fixed fee for the work agreed.
• Matters that are not fixed fee are: –
£100.00 per hour: Hearing, attendance, preparation, perusal, travelling and waiting
£ 10.00 per letter out
£ 10.00 per telephone call in / out (6 minutes = 1 unit)
£ 10.00 per letter in
• Letters, e-mails and telephone calls will be charged as one time unit unless they exceed 6 minutes duration.
• A moderate amount of photocopying is included, but we reserve the right to charge for these items separately in appropriate circumstances.
• We may ask you to provide payment direct to the supplier in respect of fees or disbursements to be paid on your behalf.
• We will forward to you our bill of costs at regular intervals for work carried out on your matter. This will avoid you having to find a large sum of money to discharge our fees and disbursements at the end of the matter. We ask you to settle our invoices upon receipt.
• Payment is due to us within 14 days of our sending you a bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 4% above NatWest Bank Base Lending Rate from time to time from 28 days after delivery by us of the bill.
• It is your responsibility to make sure that adequate funds are made available to us and to pay all fees and disbursements.
• Uncleared funds must be sent to us a minimum of 5 working days prior to their requirement to allow time for them to be cleared through our bank. We will give you as much notice as possible when funds are required. It will be your duty to ensure we have cleared funds irrespective of the transaction’s time-scale
• If we send money to you at any time, it will be by a cheque or bank transfer payable to you the client and, if more than one, to all of you. If you do not have a joint account, then with the original consent (not a fax or e-mail) in writing of you all, we shall issue a cheque to the specified person, or uponpayment of a fee, send the money by Telegraphic Transfer or BACS transfer to the nominated account.
• If you utilise the services of this firm with the benefit of a discount card/voucher, this will entitle you to a 10% reduction on the professional fees only not disbursements.
• You should be aware that you have rights under Sections 70 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974 to apply to the Court to have our invoices assessed by an officer of the Court in a process known as assessment. Such application (should you wish to make it) should be made by you within one month (and not more than 12 months) of delivery of the invoice. Further information about this can be made available to you on request. 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.
• We regret we are unable to accept debit/credit card payments.
• You agree and confirm that our liability to you for any loss to you caused as a result of our acting for you in relation to this or any other matter, shall not exceed three million pounds.
• You acknowledge and agree not to make any claim personally against any employee of Gallingtons Law for any loss to you caused as a result of them acting for you in relation to this or any other matter. In particular, the fact that a Gallingtons Law employee signs in his or her own name any letter, email or other document in the course of carrying out any work will not mean that he or she is assuming any personal liability separate to that of Gallingtons Law. This does not affect Gallingtons Law liability as a firm and you accept that any claim brought in respect of a matter, upon which we are instructed, will be made against Gallingtons Law and not against any
Gallingtons Law employees.
• Nothing contained within these terms of business will limit any liability that we may have to you in respect of any loss caused by our fraud, dishonesty or fraudulent misrepresentation or in any other situation where we are prohibited in law from excluding or limiting liability, including in respect of any death or personal injury resulting from our negligence.
• We acknowledge no liability or responsibility of any kind toward any person(s) except you unless we expressly agree in writing with you and with any other person(s) that the latter shall be entitled to receive or rely upon our legal advice and, if so, on what terms they shall be able to receive or rely.
• We cannot be responsible for, or guarantee the correctness, completeness or timely delivery of advice which may be received from other advisors, consultants or experts acting or advising in relation to your case. In the unlikely event, we were held to be responsible for the correctness, completeness or timely delivery of advice from any such person, any resulting financial liability shall be treated as within the applicable liability cap set out in this clause.
• This firm is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
• 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.
• Some matters sometime involves investments. As we are not authorised by the FSA we may refer you to someone who is authorised so that you may seek the necessary advice.
• After completing the work, we are required to keep all your papers and documents whilst there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. In addition we will keep your file whether in paper or electronic form for not less than 6 years. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable and you consent to our keeping the information and data and maintaining it, as we see fit.
• We will not of course, destroy any documents such as wills, deeds and other securities, which you ask us to hold in safe custody. No charge will be made to you for such storage unless prior notice in writing is given to you of a charge to be made from a future date, which may be specified in that notice.
• 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 the time spent producing stored papers and documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for postage, reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions.
• We are required to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2003 and obtain satisfactory evidence of identity of all clients. In this regard, we will request from our clients original identification documents, for copying and return to the client. The copy identification will be retained on the client’s file.
• We do not accept large amounts of cash to finance a client’s transaction whether paid to the person dealing with your work or any other member of staff. We do not accept any sums of money, whether in cash or cheque being paid direct into our bank account. We may request to see a client’s bank or building society statement or passbook to verify that money paid to us has been drawn from the client’s own account. If the money has been drawn from a third party’s account we will request the reason and a copy of the third party’s bank statement or building society passbook.
• We are entitled to refuse to act for you if you fail to supply proof of identity for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent
• We are not normally allowed to disclose information about our client’s affairs without the client’s authority. By these Terms & Conditions of Business, you authorise us to disclose to the other parties in the transaction (for example Lawyers, Court Officials) and if applicable to all other parties in the transaction, information which we have in relation to your involvement in the transaction. You may withdraw this authority at any time IN WRITING but if you do so you should appreciate that we will inform the other party or parties and their agents or advisors that this authority has been withdrawn.
• We are under a legal obligation to report money laundering issues to the enforcement authorities and can do so without your authority if we consider it necessary.
• We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.
If you have a complaint, please contact us, in writing, with the details of your complaint.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
• We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 3 days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
• We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to Miss. Piri Gallington, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
• Miss. Gallington will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• Within 5 days of the meeting, Miss. Gallington will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
• If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Miss. Gallington will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
• At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for your complaint to be reviewed by an independent solicitor.
• We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
• If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Complaints Service at Victoria Court, 8 Dormer Place, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5AE about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Complaints Service must usually be made within six months of the date of our final decision on your original complaint. For further information you should contact the Legal Complaints Service (0845 608 6565) or refer to www.legalcomplaints.org.uk)
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
• You may terminate your instruction to us at any time in writing, but we shall be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf, you must tell us this clearly in writing.
• If we decide to stop acting for you, for example if you do not comply with a request for a payment on account or for identification, or are persistently rude or abuse towards members of staff, then we shall tell you the reason and give you notice in writing.
• If we have not met with you in person, or face-to-face somewhere that’s not the registered office or business premises of the trader The Consumer Contracts (Information Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply to this matter.
• This means that you have the right to cancel your instructions to us within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period will expire 14 days after the date of our initial communication to you. To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel by a clear statement (e.g. letter send by post, fax or mail / using the contact details on our letter. To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
• If you have requested us to begin work on your matter during the cancellation period, we reserve the right to ask you to pay us an amount in proportion to the work undertaken on your behalf until you communicate to us your cancellation in comparison with the full coverage of the retainer.
• Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. Our clients and staff are of first importance to us. We hope that you will be pleased with the work that we do for you. However, should there be any aspect of our services with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern in the first place with the person dealing with your matter. If you still have any queries or concerns, please contact the proprietor of this firm, Miss. Piri Gallington in writing setting out the full details of you concerns.
• We will aim to communicate with you by such method as you may request. We may need to virus check disks or e-mails. Unless you withdraw your consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by e-mail but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by any method whether by usual post, public or private, or by e-mail.
• Unless otherwise agreed, these Terms & Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm, but the costs in the Schedule may have been revised.
• No liability is accepted by us for delay or failure to perform out obligations under our contract with you as a result of causes beyond our reasonable control. Such matters, without limitation, may be acts of God, war, riot, strike, lockouts, industrial disputes, acts and regulations of government or bodies of authority.