Terms & Conditions

TERMS OF BUSINESS

Our terms of business are set out below; please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries. We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. As a start, we hope it is helpful to you to set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our professional services.

Slough Solicitors LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England & Wales . Registered Office 24 High Street , Slough, Berkshire, SL1 1EJ. Partnership No. OC331651. We use the word ‘Partner’ to refer to a member of Slough Solicitors LLP.

GENERAL

These terms of business are to be read together with the engagement letter that we send to you at the beginning of each matter (or series of matters) on which we advise you. Variations to the terms of business and engagement letters may only be in writing. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to our agreement with you to provide legal and other services and unless we specifically agree in writing no other person will have any rights under our agreement nor shall it be enforceable by any other reason.

Our advice will be provided solely for the purpose of each matter in respect of which you instruct us and may not be used for any other purpose or disclosed to any other person other than your own other advisors without our written consent.

We are practitioners only in the law of England and Wales and we do not purport to have expertise in laws of any other jurisdiction. We are happy to recommend and work closely with lawyers from other jurisdictions should the need arise.

Any agreement by us to provide services to you shall be governed by English law and any dispute relating to our services will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

OUR CHARGES

Each engagement letter sets out the basis upon which our charges will be calculated, including any estimate or fixed price we have given to you. In addition, we shall include in our invoices payments that we make to third parties on your behalf (disbursements), such as barristers’ fees, court charges and search costs.

These rates will be revised in April each year unless we have specifically agreed in writing with you a different review date.

Solicitors have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from Land or Probate Registry fees, court fees, experts’ fees, and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain expenses. We refer to such payments generally as ‘disbursements’.

Where we have indicated that our charges will be calculated by reference to an hourly rate, we shall charge for the time spent dealing with the matter, which will include meetings with you and others including travelling time; considering, preparing and working on papers; correspondence and making and receiving telephone calls. Our time is recorded on our computer system in units of six minutes each (i.e. ten per hour). This is the minimum unit of time used for charging purposes.

Where applicable VAT will be added to the disbursements that we incur on your behalf. At present VAT is 20%.

Where applicable our bank charges us £17 per CHAPs or telegraphic transfer fee. However we will invoice you the CHAPs fee as set out in the details of our fees and disbursements. We charge an uplift to you for providing this service due to the administration involved in arranging the CHAPs payment on your behalf; we are authorised to do this by the Law Society.

Routine letters that we write and routine telephone calls that we make and receive will be charged as one unit unless the actual time taken to deal with them is longer, in which case the appropriate number of units will be charged.

In addition to the time spent we may take in to account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issues, the speed with which action must be taken, the expertise or specialist knowledge that the case requires and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter.

If we identify at the outset of a matter that because of the urgency or complexity a higher rate than normal would be appropriate we will agree this with you. In extraordinary circumstances this may arise during a matter when it is not possible to agree this before we do the work. We need therefore to reserve the right to increase our hourly rate appropriately.

If you withdraw your instructions or a matter fails to proceed we shall charge such sum as is reasonable for the work done together with any disbursements we have incurred unless we have agreed otherwise with you.

Unless we have expressly agreed the contrary, we shall render interim invoices on a regular basis and reserve the right to require payments on account of our charges and disbursements. It is important that if you have any query on an invoice that you raise it at the earliest opportunity. Delay in providing us with payment may affect our ability to take essential action on your behalf. We will not be liable for penalties or other loss caused in such circumstances and we reserve the right not to carry out further work on your behalf if payment is not made when due and to inform third parties that we have ceased to act for you.

PAYMENT OF OUR CHARGES

It is normal practice to ask clients to pay interim bills and sums of money from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected in the following weeks or months. We find that this helps clients in budgeting for costs as well as keeping them informed of the legal expenses which are being incurred. If such requests are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result. In the unlikely event of any bill or request for payment not being met, this firm must reserve the right to stop acting for you further.

Our invoices are payable within 14 days of our sending you a bill unless we have specifically requested earlier payment or allowed later payment. We reserve the right to charge interest on all overdue sums at the rate of 4% above HSBC Base Rate from time to time in force or 10%, whichever is the higher, and to retain any papers or documents we hold on your behalf, including our file of papers, until all monies due to us from you have been paid.

Monies that we hold on your behalf may be applied to discharge any outstanding charges or disbursements incurred or to be paid by us on your behalf, or which are due for work that has been done but not yet invoiced on any matter that we are dealing with on your behalf.

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.

If we are conducting litigation for you, we have additional rights in any property recovered or preserved for you whether it is in our possession or not and in respect of all costs incurred, whether billed or unbilled. We also have a right to ask the court to make a charging order in our favour for any assessed costs.

We do not accept payments to us in cash in excess of £500. Monies due to you from us will be paid by cheque or bank transfer, but not in cash, and will not be made payable to a third party unless specifically agreed by us with you in exceptional circumstances.

OUR BANKERS

Our client and office accounts are held with HSBC. Any money that we receive from you or on your behalf will be deposited in to our account(s) with HSBC. In the event of any banking failure/the demise of HSBC, we will not be liable to repay you for any money lost.

INTEREST PAYMENT

Any money received on your behalf will be held in our Client Account. Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors’ Accounts Rules 1998, interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate from time to time payable on HSBC’s Designated Client Accounts. The period for which interest will be paid will normally run from the date(s) on which funds are received by us until the date(s) of issue of any cheque(s) from our Client Account.

ASSESSMENT OF OUR CHARGES IN COURT OR TRIBUNAL CASES

You may be entitled to have our charges reviewed by the court. (This is called “Assessment”). The procedure is different from the remuneration certificate procedure and is set out in sections 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974.

If you wish to have our charges reviewed you must ask the court to do so within a month of receiving the invoice concerned.

OTHER PEOPLE PAYING OUR CHARGES

As our client you will always be responsible for paying our charges and the disbursements and other expenses that we incur on your behalf. In certain circumstances you may agree with a third party that he, she or it should pay these charges and expenses for you. It may be possible in these circumstances for us to seek from the third party, or their legal representatives, some form of security for payment on your behalf. However, these arrangements are a separate agreement between you and the third party and do not affect your ultimate responsibility to pay us (in accordance with our normal terms of business) should payment from the third party on your behalf not be forthcoming.

COURT AND TRIBUNAL CASES

In a court or tribunal case costs either may not be awarded at the discretion of the court or tribunal. This means the court or tribunal will decide which party is to pay the costs of the other party, or whether each party should pay their own costs. There is therefore no guarantee that you will recover your costs against the other party.

Even if your opponent is ordered to pay your costs, it will rarely be the case that they are ordered to pay all of your costs and expenses. There is likely to be a shortfall. Even if you are able to obtain an order that your opponent should pay some of your costs they may not be in a financial position to do so. You will remain fully liable to pay our charges whether or not all or any of them are recoverable and recovered from a third party.

If your opponent is legally aided it is unlikely that any order for costs will be made against them.

You might be ordered to pay your opponent’s costs. These will be in addition to your obligation to pay our own charges and expenses.

We may send to you newsletters and other information about the firm and events that we are holding, legal developments and other matters that may be of interest to you. Unless you request us not to do so we may retain your personal information for this purpose and may contact you by email from time to time.

OUR LIABILTY TO YOU

Our liability to you and/or any other person will be limited (to include all related costs and expenses) to £3,000 000, being the amount of our professional indemnity cover. You accept that this is a reasonable amount of cover and limit to our liability. Further, we shall not be liable to you and/ or any other person for any loss unless our negligence or wilful default primarily causes it.

TERMINATING OUR RELATIONSHIP

Subject to you settling any of our outstanding charges and disbursements that we have incurred on your behalf you may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time.

We also reserve the right to terminate the relationship and to cease acting for you if we have good reason to do so. Good reason will include failure to pay our charges in a timely manner, failure to give us full and proper instructions in a timely manner or if we feel there is a risk that there is a conflict of interest or the solicitor/client relationship has either broken down or is likely to break down. In all cases we shall give you as much notice as possible and reasonable given the circumstances that prevail at the time.

LIMITED COMPANIES

When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a Director and/or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the charges and expenses of this firm. If such a request is refused, we will be entitled to stop acting and to require immediate payment of our charges on an hourly basis and expenses as set out earlier.

TAX ADVICE

Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We may not be qualified to advise you on the tax implications of a transaction that you instruct us to carry out, or the likelihood of them arising. If you have any concerns in this respect, please raise them with us immediately. If we can undertake the research necessary to resolve the issue, we will do so and advise you accordingly. If we cannot, we may be able to identify a source of assistance for you.

RAISING QUERIES AND CONCERNS

We are confident that we will provide a high quality service. We are obliged to attempt to resolve any problems that a client may raise. It is important therefore that you immediately raise any concerns that you may have with us and we may instigate our complaints procedure.

If you cannot resolve the problem in that way or if you prefer to discuss the problem with someone else, you can then contact Edward Pilling of the Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire Law Society; if this is necessary then please let us know and we will provide you with his contact details.

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) demonstrates Slough Solicitor’s commitment to the privacy of your personal information. At Slough Solicitors, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe. The following sets out our information-gathering and dissemination practices for this website.

If you have any questions or queries regarding this policy, please contact enquiries@sloughsolicitors.co.uk. We will do our best to deal with your questions or queries as soon as possible.

We may update this Policy at any time without notice. Updates will be marked with a new edition number and dated accordingly. You agree to review this Policy regularly and to be bound by the Policy then in force as it appears on our website.

Privacy legislation

Slough Solicitors is subject to UK and European privacy legislation, which regulates the use of individuals’ personal information. This legislation imposes specific requirements on Slough Solicitors. All personal information supplied by you to us online via the website will be protected by us in accordance with current applicable privacy legislation and the terms of this Policy.

What personal information do we collect?

It is not necessary for you to provide us with any personal information in order for you to access the general information sections of the website. However, if you wish to benefit from any of the online services that we offer via the website and/or to register with us, you will need to provide us with certain personal information such as your name and contact details including your e-mail address. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the types of services which require some type of voluntary submission of personal information from you:

1. Electronic Newsletter – In the event that you request us to send you electronic newsletters, we will collect and hold your name and contact details including your e-mail address. You may at any time remove yourself from our mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter.

2. Careers – If you choose to submit a job and/or vacation placement via the website we will collect and hold the information that you provide in that application. This information may include any sensitive personal details, such as your racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, medical history and details of any criminal offences and/or involvement in any criminal proceedings. We will only hold and use the information you provide to us in an application for the sole purpose of considering your application and not for any direct marketing purposes.

How will we use your information?

Except as otherwise stated above, we will use the information that you provided to us online for the purposes of:

1. providing you with any service(s) that you have requested;
2. dealing with your requests and/or enquiries;
3. carrying out analysis;
4. improving the quality of our services;
5. maintaining our records for administrative purposes;
6. tracking activity on our website;
7. protecting our website against unauthorised access;
8. assisting with police investigations and/or enquiries;
9. complying with statutory and/or regulatory obligations;
10. sending you marketing information that we believe may be of interest to you.

Who do we disclose your information to?

Except as provided below, we will not share your personal information with any third parties:

1. We may be required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties such as the Law Society and/or the Financial Services Authority.
2. We may disclose your personal information to the police or other public sector bodies with authority to request such information and/or fraud prevention agencies for the purpose of preventing fraud/loss, to prevent, detect or discourage crime and/or for the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.

 

For further information about any of our specialist areas or to find out how we may be able to help you, please contact us on 01753 535422 or click here to make an enquiry.