1. This document

We aim to offer our clients a personal, high quality professional service at a fair cost. This document sets out the terms and conditions of our supply of legal services to you. It is important that you read it and understand the basis on which we will act for you. If there is anything you wish to have further explained, please let us know.

2. Our standard of service

Throughout the conduct of your case we have a duty to maintain certain standards and to advise you on several important issues, summarised below.

At the start of your case we will:

· confirm your instructions to us, our advice on the matter, and what action has been agreed;

· inform you of the people responsible for your work, by whom they are supervised, and how and to whom any complaints should be made;

· give you the best information possible about the likely total cost of the case, and how long it may take;

· advise you of any potential or actual liability for costs, if you win or if you lose;

· tell you of any important dates in the matter;

· advise you of any limitations on our ability or willingness to represent you at court or before tribunals.

During your case we will:

· inform you regularly by telephone or in writing at least monthly of the progress of your case, and explain any delay and the reason for it;

· communicate with you in plain language;

· provide you regularly and at least every six months with a written revised estimate of the likely total costs;

· consult you if we decide we need to do something not previously discussed with you;

· tell you of any change in the people responsible for your work, and the reason for it;

· explain the effect of any important and relevant papers;

· try to return telephone calls the same day or the following morning, and to deal with any correspondence within five working days. If the correspondence requires prolonged consideration, to send a short acknowledgement within five working days and a full reply within two weeks;

· consult you if we need to instruct a barrister or other expert to advise about your case or to represent you at court, and where appropriate, discuss the choice with you;

· update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances;

· update you on the likely timescales for each stage of this matter and any important changes in those estimates;

· continue to review whether there are alternative methods by which your matter can be funded;

· advise you of any changes in the law;

· advise you of any circumstances & risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that could affect the outcome of your matter.

At the end of your case we will:

· explain to you the outcome of the matter, and anything else you need to do, including whether you need to look at the matter again in the future;

· return any of your property, unless you ask us to store it;

· account to you for any outstanding money.

· invite you to comment on the quality of our service.

3. Contacting us

We have advised you of the person mainly responsible for your case and the supervisor with ultimate responsibility for work in their department. Others may assist temporarily as the matter progresses, for example to cover holiday absences or to provide expertise. We try hard to avoid changing the person mainly responsible, but if this cannot be avoided, we will promptly tell you who will be taking over and why it is necessary. The office is open from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm Mondays to Fridays. Outside these hours you can leave a message on our answering machine. We also operate an emergency service. If you wish to see us it is best to make an appointment, but if urgent we will always try to arrange a meeting the same day. We can be reached by telephone during office hours, but the person handling your work may be unable to speak to you if dealing with another client or at court. Their secretary will be happy to take any message for you.

We will aim to communicate with you by the preferred method you request. Communication by disc or email may be virus checked. We may communicate with others by fax or email but we cannot be responsible for the security of such communications. However, third parties that we communicate with are subject to the same data protection laws as us and are responsible for keeping your information safe.

4. Costs – our charges and other expenses

Our charges are based on a number of different factors:

· the amount of time spent;

· the level of skill, knowledge and responsibility required of those handling the matter;

· the complexities and difficulty or novelty of the questions involved;

· the particular special circumstances of the work (e.g. urgent necessary evening or weekend work).

Most important is the amount of time spent by the members of the firm dealing with your case. This will include meetings with you and perhaps others, reading and working on papers, correspondence, telephone calls, preparation of detailed cost calculations, and travelling and waiting. Each member of staff has a normal hourly charging rate, and records time spent in units of six minutes. Our current rates are:

Directors & Senior Solicitors /Senior Chartered Legal Executive £255.00: Solicitor/Licensed Conveyancer £190: Trainee Solicitor/Clerk/Paralegal £165.

Time spent in travelling and waiting is charged at two thirds, and that dealing with routine email/letters received at one half the normal rate.

Routine emails/letters written up to 6 minutes are charged at 1/10th of the hourly rate

Routine emails/letters received up to 3 minutes are charged at 1/20th of the hourly rate

Routine telephone calls made and received up to 6 minutes are charged at 1/10th of the hourly rate

Emails/letters written over 6 minutes, emails/letters received over 3 minutes and telephone calls over 6 minutes are charged on the time spent at the hourly rate

Our rates are subject to periodic review, and may be varied to take account of the factors mentioned above. If, through a periodic review, or due to the particular circumstances of your case, a different charging rate will be generally applied, we will write to inform you before it takes effect. Routine office tasks will not be charged for. (Such as making appointments)

In court cases it is always difficult to forecast the amount of time that will be spent. Much depends upon the attitude of the other person in your case and their solicitors, the volume and complexity of the documents disclosed, and the time required for preparation and in court. We have advised you of our best estimate of the likely total cost of your case, and will write to you at least every six months, revising our estimate.

As well as our charges, you may incur other expenses, called disbursements, which we may pay on your behalf e.g barristers and other expert’s fees, and court fees. Certain disbursements attract VAT.

At the end of the case we will prepare a detailed bill and send you a copy. VAT at the current rate will be added to the bill. If a matter for which we have given a fixed quote aborts, then we reserve the right to make a proportionate charge for work done.

We must emphasise that you are responsible for paying our bill whatever the outcome of your case.

5. Costs – payments on account and interim bills

It is standard practice both to require money on account and to deliver regular interim bills on account where appropriate. Because of the nature of litigation work, however, it is likely that at certain times during the case we will give you (without any further notification) varying amounts of credit which reflects on-going work which has not yet been billed.

The interim bills on account are based on an estimate of the costs incurred to the date of that bill. These will be a guide to the total cost to that date, although they may require some adjustment at the end of a case. The company requires that these bills are paid within 14 days together with a further payment on account of costs. The amount held by us on account of costs will be deducted from earlier bills we send to you. On some occasions we may require additional payments on account (for instance when we are about to incur responsibility for

payment of heavy fees to barristers or experts or when we need to prepare for a substantial hearing). If any bill and any further monies on account are not paid in accordance with these terms of business, we reserve the right to deliver a final bill in respect of all work done and cease to act as your solicitors.

When we deliver a bill we ask that it is paid within 14 days. If it is not paid within 1 month from the date of delivery of the bill, we reserve the right to charge interest at the rate of 15% per annum on the outstanding sum (whether the bill is interim or final) and to recover the cost of sending out any reminder letters to you.

We must emphasise that the final charge will be dependent upon all the circumstances, in particular the total amount of time involved on the matter, which cannot be foreseen with any certainty, although we will do our best to keep you informed as to the costs incurred as the case progresses.

6. If you do not go to Court

If, before court proceedings are started, you settle the case or decide not to proceed, the other person is not required by law to make any payment towards your legal costs, and you are unlikely to recover them.

7. If you lose at Court – costs against you

If you lose, the Court may order you to pay some or all of the other person’s costs. These are additional to our costs. It’s unlikely that the court will make any order for costs in a family case.

8. If you win at Court – recovering costs from the other person

If you win, the amount you will have to pay depends on whether:

· the other person is ordered to pay your costs, and in fact does;

· you are awarded any money, or recover or preserve any property.

The general rule is that the winner is entitled to have their costs paid by the other person. However, the award of costs is in the discretion of the court, and there are several exceptions to the rule. For example, it is unusual in family and children cases for the Court to order the other person to pay your costs, although in some cases it will. We will advise you if an Order for costs would be made in your case.

But even where an Order for costs is made in your favour, there are several important qualifications:

· the other person may not comply with the Order. If they do not pay your costs you will have to try to enforce the Order (for example by sending in the bailiffs or obtaining a charge over property owned by them) and this itself costs more money and takes time;

· the other person may turn out to have very little or no money, or simply disappear. You will then not be able to recover your costs from them, – nor indeed any money awarded to you, except perhaps by instalments over a long period. So it is important, in financial disputes, that you consider now whether the other person has enough money to make it worthwhile going to court;

· if the other person is receiving Community Legal Service funding, there are statutory controls on the amount of costs that can be recovered against them. It is very unlikely that the Court will order them to contribute anything to your costs. It will also probably mean that the other person has little or no money to pay you any award;

· even if the other person is good for the money, they will only be ordered to pay your ‘assessed’ costs. In assessing these costs the court applies special rules, with the result that there is nearly always a shortfall between the costs you have incurred and the costs you actually recover from the other person. Our experience is that we normally obtain about 75% of the total amount of the costs payable by you to us, but this cannot be guaranteed.

9. Data Protection

Denby & Co Solicitors Limited (‘the Firm’) is the ‘Controller’ for data protection purposes. This means that the Firm collects and holds your information and decides what it will be used for. The Firm is subject to the requirements of data protection legislation applicable to the UK and must use your personal data in accordance with the law. The Firm is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), with registration number ZA201461.

We keep your information confidential and will not disclose it to third parties unless disclosure is:

• Authorised by you;

• Necessary as part of the legal services we are providing to you (to perform this Contract);

• Required by law or our professional rules;

• Necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party (in other words, we have a compelling justification for the disclosure); or

• Necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person i.e. to protect a life.

We use your information primarily to provide legal services to you. We also use your information for: accounting and billing purposes; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, and to manage our business effectively. With your authority, we may also send you information about our services or events that we think may be of interest to you. Please confirm your preferences on the enclosed Client Declaration.

We may, on your authority, work with other professionals to progress your matter, and may need to disclose relevant information about you to them. Examples include: barristers/ counsel, expert witnesses, other professional advisors etc. Please confirm whether you are happy to consent to disclosure of your information in this situation on the enclosed Client Declaration.

Where there is another party(ies) to your matter, we will liaise with their legal representative (or the third party directly if they are not represented) in order to progress your matter. This may involve us disclosing relevant information about you, to this party(ies) in order for us to provide our legal services to you (perform this Contract). Please contact us if you have any queries about this.

Sometimes we outsource part of our work to other people or companies to improve efficiency and your client experience. We will always carry out due diligence and obtain confidentiality agreements from such outsourced providers. Please confirm on the enclosed Client Declaration, whether you are happy for us to outsource relevant aspects of your file as appropriate to our providers. If you would like more information about our outsourcing arrangements, please contact us.

The Firm may become subject to periodic checks by Law Society approved Consultants and/or Assessors and compliance specialists that we engage the support of. This could mean that your file is selected for checking, in which case we would need your consent for the checking to occur. All such checks are conducted by individuals who have provided the Firm with a Confidentiality Agreement. Please confirm whether you are happy for your file to be selected for file auditing and vetting, on the enclosed Client Declaration. If you refuse to give us consent to checks, your refusal will not affect the way your case is handled in any way.

We may correspond with you by email if you provide us with an email address, unless you advise us in writing that you do not wish us to do so. You acknowledge that email may not be secure. Email will be treated as written correspondence and we are entitled to assume that the purported sender of an email is the actual sender and that any express or implied approval or authority referred to in an email has been validly given. Please be aware that the Firm may monitor and read any email correspondence travelling between you and any mail recipient at the Firm as part of its monitoring activities to ensure compliance with its Information Management & Security Policy.

We will aim to communicate with you by such method as you request. More often than not this will be in writing but may be by telephone if it is appropriate.

Where you provide us with fax or email addresses for sending material to, you are responsible for ensuring that your arrangements are sufficiently secure and confidential to protect your interests. You must tell us if this method of communication is not secure so that can use an alternative method.

The Internet is not secure and there are risks if you send sensitive information in this manner or you ask us to do so. Please be aware that the data we send by email is not routinely encrypted.

We will take reasonable steps to protect the integrity of our computer systems by screening for viruses on email sent or received. We expect you to do the same for your computer systems.

It is very unlikely that we will change our bank account details during the course of your matter. In any event, we will never contact you by email to tell you that our details have changed. If you receive any communications purporting to be from this firm, that you deem suspicious or have any concerns about (however slight), please contact our office by telephone straightaway.

During the progress of your matter, we may hold your information both electronically and in paper format. We will use all reasonable measures to ensure that your information remains confidential and will advise you immediately if we believe that any of your information has been released. We have procedures in place with our staff members to ensure that your

information is only seen by members of staff who have a legitimate reason for accessing your file, such as fee earners and support staff working on your file and senior members of the firm for the purposes of supervision, checking your file for quality purposes or to deal with any complaints.

Once your matter has concluded, we will hold your files in our archive storage (paper files) or on our file management systems (electronic files) for at least 6 years from the date that the matter is closed in line with our retention periods. After that period has elapsed, we will destroy your file securely and/or delete it from our electronic records. Once that has happened, your file will no longer be available.

We do not send or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area.

If you are an individual, you have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Right to access personal data – you can request details from us of the personal data that we hold about you;

• Right to object to processing – you can tell us that you want us to stop processing your personal data;

• Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct personal data that we hold because you believe it is inaccurate;

• Right to erasure – you can ask us to delete the personal data that we hold about you;

• Right to restrict processing – you can tell us that you only want us to use the personal data for a specific reason.

Please note that the rights described above are not absolute rights (they are not rights that will be automatically granted), as we have to consider whether there are any reasons why we cannot meet your request. For example, we will not be able to delete data that we are legally obliged to keep. We will let you know if we not able to meet your request and the reason why (where it is appropriate to disclose this information to you).

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are not happy with the way that we handle your personal data. You can contact the ICO at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or by calling the ICO’s helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Please note that where you provide consent to us using your personal data, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. You can do this by informing your file handler or contacting our designated Data Protection Officer.

We have appointed Andrew Gallagher as our Data Protection Officer and you can contact him to discuss any data protection related issues or queries on 01229 822366 or at agallagher@denbyco.co.uk

10. Storage of Documents and Related Costs

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

We will keep our file of your papers for up to 6 years, except those papers that you ask to be returned to you. We will destroy your file after 6 years from the date of the final bill as we are not permitted to keep information that we no longer need. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody.

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 such retrieval.

However, we may charge you both for:

· time spent producing stored papers that are requested.

· reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved papers.

11 Terminating the Retainer

You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses. When our bill is paid we will release the papers to you or to any new Solicitor you instruct.

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason e.g. if there is a conflict of interest. We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you. We must cease to act as your Solicitors if:

· we cannot continue to act without being in breach of the rules of professional conduct; or

· we are unable to obtain clear instructions from you; or

· for any reason there has been a serious breakdown in confidence between us; or

· you do not pay our costs or money on account of costs in accordance with these terms of business

If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated on an hourly basis plus expenses or by proportion of the agreed fee as set out in these Terms of Business.

If Court proceedings are in progress we require either your consent or the permission of the Court to stop acting for you. If you do not consent you may have to pay the costs of any application we make to the Court.

12. Complaints

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage.

If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure here.

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.

Your right to complain and to whom is mentioned in our Client care letter and the Terms of Business sheet. In the first instance your complaint should be addressed to the person dealing with your case or their supervisor. You will find their names in the section of the client care letter headed ‘People responsible for your work’.

If your complaint is not resolved at this stage we would ask that you set out your complaint in writing addressed to our Complaints Handler, Andrew Gallagher, who will acknowledge your letter within five working days and thoroughly investigate your complaint and speak to the member(s) of staff who acted for you. He will then write to you within eight weeks with a view to resolving your complaint. Usually you will hear well within this period but sometimes a member of staff may be on holiday or ill.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case. All complaints are dealt with promptly, fairly, and free of charge the Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint.

If your complaint has not been resolved within 8 weeks you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman. The details of the Legal Ombudsman are set out below.

Cedr is an alternative dispute resolution approved body who are also competent to deal with the complaint. We agree to use the scheme operated by them in resolving complaints. They can be contacted at www.cedr.com

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

• Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint

and

• No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or

• No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

As from 1st April 2023, the time limits for referring a Complaint to the Legal Ombudsman will be no later than:

· One year from the date of the act or omission being complained about; or

· One year from the date when the complainant should have realised that there was cause for complainant.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them. Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH

13. Complaints re Bill

If you are unhappy with our charges you may also be entitled to apply to court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Please note that if all or part of the bill remains unpaid, we may be entitled to charge interest.

14. Client Due Diligence (CDD)

The law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their client’s 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.

To comply with the law, we need to obtain evidence of your identity as soon as possible. Our practice is as follows:

· To require you to provide formal evidence of your identity, e.g. passport plus utility bills, council tax etc, will usually be required even if we have acted for you before or know you personally. If you cannot provide us with the specific identification requested, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways to verify your identity.

· Cash is not normally accepted other than to pay legal fees and disbursements.

· Information about the source and destination of your funds is normally required.

15. Making a Disclosure

We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency 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.

16. Professional Liability Insurance

We are required to hold Professional Liability Insurance and at present cover in the sum of £3,000,000 is held through International Insurance Company of Hannover and Lockton Companies International Ltd The St Botolph Building 138 Houndsditch London EC3A 7AG Telephone number 020 7933 0000. This policy covers all work undertaken under English Law.

17. Solicitors Code of Conduct

We as a firm of Solicitors regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are subject to professional rules known as the “Solicitor’s Code of Conduct.” Information on these can be accessed at www.sra.org.uk.

18. Equality & Diversity

Denby & Co is committed to promoting equality & diversity in all of it’s dealings with clients, 3rd parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our Equality & Diversity Policy.

19. Exempt Financial Services

If during this transaction you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we maybe able to provide certain limited investment services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you.

The Law Society of England and Wales is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints against lawyers. If you are unhappy with any investment advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

20. Exempt Insurance Mediation

In relation to insurances we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, we are included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we may 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. The register can be accessed via the FSA website at www.fca.org.uk

21. Banking Crisis

In the event of a banking crisis, please be aware of the following:

· It is unlikely that Denby & Co will be held liable for losses resulting from a banking failure.

· Client funds are held with either Barclays Plc or Santander Plc.

· The £85,000 FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) limit applies to an individual client, so if you hold any other personal monies in either Barclays Plc or Santander Plc, the limit remains £85,000 per financial institution in total.

· Some deposit taking institutions have several brands, where the same institution is trading under different names. You should check either with your bank, the FSA or a financial advisor for more information.

· If a banking failure occurs in relation to any deposit provider which holds money that we have deposited on your behalf, we will, where applicable, need to disclose to the FSCS all relevant details in our possession about you and the money that we hold on your behalf with such a deposit provider in order to make a claim for compensation on your behalf. Please indicate on the enclosed Client Declaration, whether you are happy for us to disclose your information in this situation. Please note that by withholding consent to our disclosure of your details to the FSCS in such circumstances, you may forfeit any right you may have to receive compensation from the FSCS where a banking failure occurs in relation to a deposit provider holding money which we have deposited on your behalf.

22. Mortgage Fraud

Where we are also acting for your proposed lender in this transaction, we have a duty to fully reveal to your lender all relevant facts about the purchase and mortgage. This includes:

· any differences between your mortgage application and information we receive during the transaction.

· any cash back payments or discount schemes that a seller is giving you.

23. Consumer Contracts (Information Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

Where we have not met with you the Consumer Contracts (Information Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply to this work. This means you have the right to cancel your instructions to us within 14 working days of receiving this letter. You can cancel your instructions by contacting us by post or by fax to this office.

Once we have started work on your file, you may be charged if you then cancel your instructions. If you would like us to commence work on your file within the next 14

· sign the enclosed authority.

· Return it to our office by post or fax.

24. Payment of Interest

Any money received from you or on your behalf will be held in our client account. Interest will be calculated at the rate set by Barclays Bank plc in respect of their Solicitors Clients Premium account, and that amount will be paid by us unless the amount calculated does not exceed £25.00. The interest rate may of course change. The period for which interest will be paid normally runs from the date(s) when funds are received by us until the date(s) of payments issued to you.

25. Applicable Law

Any dispute or legal issue arising from our Terms of Business will be determined by the law of England and Wales, and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.

26. Terms of Business

Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of the then current hourly rates, these Terms of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to us. Although your continuing instructions will amount to acceptance, it may not be possible to start work on your behalf until we receive confirmation that you have read, understood and agree with these Terms of Business.

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For more information please contact us.
     01229 822366