Terms & Conditions
Our Terms and Conditions of business will vary depending on which of our departments you have engaged and how your matter is funded. If you have any queries, we would ask that you contact the fee earner with conduct of your matter and request a further copy of your Terms and Conditions. Save for where the Terms and Conditions you have agreed with our relevant department vary from the following, Our general Terms and Conditions are as follows: -
1. YOUR INSTRUCTION
You have instructed Chebsey & Co, of 51 London End, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire HP9 2HW (The Firm), to advise you in respect of Your Instruction. These Terms and Conditions set out the basis on which Your Instruction will be handled and the way in which you will be charged. Unless you ask us otherwise, we will not do any work or provide you with any advice in relation to anything other than Your Instruction.
2. AUTHORITY
You agree that where you are instructing us on behalf of any other party (e.g. a company or partnership) that you are properly authorised to do so and will provide written confirmation.
You agree that we have full authority to act on your behalf in all matters related or incidental to Your Instruction. This includes your authority to:
(i) Incur expenses for the proper conduct of the work
(ii) To engage law firms or third parties in other jurisdictions
(iii) To engage barristers, agents and other professional third parties
We may require you to enter into agreements directly with third parties and for you to be directly responsible for payment of their charges.
3. THE TEAM
You will have been informed of the fee earner with primary conduct of your file and, where appropriate, the head of department that supervises that fee earner.
If it becomes necessary to include other members of the firm in this matter we will try to inform you in advance, together with that person’s hourly rate. N.B. In some circumstances we may not be able to inform you in advance of the involvement of another member of the firm
4. OUR ADVICE
Unless otherwise specifically agreed between us, the advice we give to you is:
(a) Only for you, and may not without our prior written consent:
(i) Be relied upon by any third party
(ii) Be disclosed by you to anyone not normally authorised with access to your papers and records, and only on the basis that they make no further disclosure;
(iii) Be quoted or referenced in any public or published document;
(b) Is limited strictly to the matters it refers to and not by implication to any others;
(c) Is limited to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, and governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of that jurisdiction, unless expressly stated otherwise; and
(d) Is rendered at the date of the letter, email or other written or oral advice.
We are not bound to notify you in the event of any changes in the law following the date upon which the advice was rendered.
5. PROOF OF IDENTIFICATION
We are required to request proof of identification from all our clients in order to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. We will need you to provide the following documents (either originals or copies certified by a Solicitor):
Proof of name:
Photo-card Driving licence or
Passport
AND
Proof of Address (dated within last 3 months):
Utility Bill (not mobile phone), or
Council Tax Bill, or
Bank/credit card Statement, or
Mortgage/loan Statement, or
Pension/Benefit Book.
For Company clients, we will need you to provide the following, in addition to personal identification: Certificate of Incorporation AND evidence of your authority to instruct us.
If you are unable to provide us with relevant identification documents, we may be unable to carry out work for you. If you require further assistance with regard to proof of identification, please contact us.
6. MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS
You agree to provide such evidence of your identity and that of directors, partners, or others with control of your company or firm and of all connected shareholders and parties we may reasonably require in order to comply with our obligations under the legislation and regulations from time to time in force relating to money-laundering and drug trafficking.
We may cease to act for you if you do not comply with this requirement and we may at any time make any such reasonable disclosures to the appropriate authorities as a result of any such failure or upon our suspecting that you or any connected party are involved in money laundering.
7. PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF COSTS & EXPENSES
Your account with the Firm must be kept in credit at all times. If this condition is not met we reserve the right not to perform any further work in relation to Your Instruction until we have received such payments that we may request on account of our anticipated fees and expenses. We cannot be held liable for any losses you may suffer as a result of our exercising this right.
We also reserve the right to deduct any outstanding fees or charges against any settlement monies that may be received into your account prior to remitting the balance to you.
8. METHODS OF PAYMENT
For payment of invoices, we accept credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, cheques or cash (subject to floor limit).
For payment of money on account, we accept all of the above forms of payment, except credit cards.
We cannot accept cash payments in excess of £500.00. Should this present any difficulties for you, please contact us.
9. PAYMENT TERMS
We will invoice you at regular intervals. Our invoices are payable within 7 days of issue. If payment is delayed, we reserve the right to charge interest at 8% above the base rate per year.
You will be liable for any charges, fees or expenses or any other costs however arising and interest thereon that may be incurred by this firm as a result of any breach of these payment terms.
10. UNPAID BILLS
Our bills rendered to you may incorporate this firms professional fees together with all other expenses and charges incurred on your behalf. If any element of our bill to you remains unpaid in accordance with clause 10 and 11 above, we may, without limiting our available remedies:
(a) Not perform any further work until all unpaid bills and expenses and any interest thereon are paid in full; and/or,
(b) Retain custody of your file of papers until all unpaid bills and expenses and any interest thereon are paid in full; and/or,
(c) Take such other steps, as we deem necessary in order to recover any unpaid bills.
11. COSTS PAYABLE BY OTHERS
Sometimes another person agrees or is ordered by the court to pay some or all of your costs. If such an agreement or order is made, you will remain liable for your costs should the other person fail to pay. If the order or agreement is for part payment of your costs, you are responsible for paying the remainder of the costs.
12. INTEREST PAYMENT
We shall account to you for any interest received on money that is held in your client account, subject to the Solicitors Accounts Rules 1988. Any interest payable to you will be paid gross and it is therefore your responsibility to declare tax payable.
Any monies that are put in a designated deposit account will be paid net of any interest.
13. CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENT
(‘No-Win No-Fee’)
Where you are offered and take up such an agreement its terms are separate from and in addition to these Terms & Conditions.
14. INDEMNITY
If Your Instruction is authorised on behalf of a Limited Company or any other legal entity, you agree to personally indemnify The Firm against any failure of such a Company or other legal entity and to be personally liable for all of our fees and expenses.
Where there is a join instruction all parties are jointly and severally liable for the fees incurred.
15. CONTACT
We shall contact you by telephone, fax, post and/or email. Please advise us if you have any preference. There may also be occasions when we shall have to meet in person.
16. DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY
We will keep all information relating to you and Your Instruction confidential at all times and will not pass it on to any third parties without your consent except where we are required to do so by law. We will not use your personal information for anything that is not covered by our Notification with the Information Commissioner under the appropriate Data Protection legislation (including the Data Protection Act 1988) or the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 or such other legislation and regulations from time to time in force. Your personal details will be kept on our database and we may use this to send you information that we believe is of interest to you.
We will not disclose to you any confidential information obtained as a result of acting for any other client but if you acquire such information as a result of our acting for you, you agree not to disclose it to any third party or use it for your own purpose except with our prior written consent.
You agree that your information may be made available for the purpose of external assessment and for the outsourcing of any part of Your Instruction (for example dictation or court advocacy work).
17. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Conflicts of interest can arise from time to time. Occasionally a conflict arises that would prevent us from continuing to act for you. In that event we will inform you immediately and assist you in finding alternative legal advisers and provide for the transfer of your file subject to clause 11 and 22.
18. EXCLUSIONS & LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
In your dealings with others, you may, intentionally or otherwise create circumstances which limit or prevent us from pursuing a claim against others. In these circumstances you will not be able to recover from us any amount, which, by your action, you have prevented us from being able to recover.
If, and to the extent that we are obliged to comply with money laundering legislation and our internal anti-money laundering procedures or any other statutory or regulatory requirements, we shall not be liable to compensate any loss sustained by you as a result of our abiding with such obligations.
19. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
The limit of our total liability shall be £10,000,000 in the event that a claim is made against us for the following:
• An act or omission
• A series of related acts or omissions
• The same act or omission in a series of related matters or transactions
• Similar acts or omissions in a series of related matters or transactions
One matter or transaction will be regarded as one claim for the purposes of this paragraph.
Nothing in these terms and conditions shall affect your statutory rights. We do not restrict or limit our liability for death or personal injury as a result of our negligence.
20. STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS
At the completion of Your Instruction, we shall return any documents in accordance with the Law Society guidelines and store the balance of your file for six years. If you require access for any reason to the file during this period we reserve the right to make an administrative charge for recovering the file from our archive, and for any copy documents that you require. After that, we will destroy you file confidentially, unless otherwise agreed in writing with you.
Should you wish for your file to be archived for a period longer that 6 years, we must agree in writing. We reserve the right to make reasonable charge for extending storage and any associated administrative costs.
21. TERMINATION/LIEN
Your Right to Terminate: You may terminate Your Instruction in writing at any time but we shall not release your file to you or any third party until any final bill has been paid in full and you have completed all necessary documents in order to release us from any obligations to you, the court or a third party.
Our Right to Terminate: We may decide to stop acting for you, but only with good reason: - for example if you do not pay a bill, or if you do not comply with reasonable requests to pay monies on account, or if you fail to give clear or proper instructions on how we are to proceed, or if there is a serious breakdown in confidence between us or in our professional relationship with you or if by continuing to act we would be in breach of the law or of the Solicitors Code of Conduct.
We will give you notice in writing of this and of the reason. We will be unable to release your file to you or any third party until any final bill has been paid in full and you have completed all necessary documents in order to release us from any obligations to you, the court or a third party.
Payment of Fees on Termination: upon the termination of Your Instruction for any reason you will promptly pay in full all outstanding fees and expenses as incurred up to and including the date of termination together with all fees and expenses as incurred through any continuing obligation to you, the court or any third party.
22. TAX AND FINANCIAL ADVICE
Your Instruction may have implications for your tax or financial planning. We are not able to advise you on these issues. No comment made to you regarding such matters will constitute advice. You should consult your own Independent Financial Advisor if you require tax or financial advice.
23. REFERRALS
We undertake to comply with The Solicitors’ Code of Conduct from time to time in force in relation to referrals where a third party (“Introducer”) has referred you to us.
Before accepting instructions to act for you we will give you, in writing, all relevant information concerning the referral, in particular:
(i) the fact that we have a financial arrangement with the Introducer;
(ii) the amount of any payment to the introducer which is calculated by reference to that referral; or
(iii) where the Introducer is paying us to provide services to you and you are a customer of the Introducer:
(a) the amount the Introducer is paying us to provide those services; and
(b) the amount you are required to pay the Introducer.
Any advice we give will be independent and you are free to raise questions on all aspects of the transaction. Any information disclosed to us by you will not be disclosed to the introducer unless you consent but where we are also acting for the Introducer in the same matter and a conflict of interests arises, we might be obliged to cease acting for you.
24. CLIENT CARE
We welcome any comments as to how our service can be improved. If you would like to comment on the way in which Your Instruction is being handled, please contact the fee earner with conduct of your matter or, where applicable, their supervising head of department.
25. ACCEPTANCE
These terms together with and subject to any letter of engagement you have received from This Firm and comprise the terms for the provision of legal services to you by This Firm. It will be considered that you have accepted these Terms and the letter of engagement if, after receipt, you instruct us or accept advice from us.
