Terms & Conditions of Business - Private Client

Introduction

These Terms and Conditions of Business along with the accompanying engagement letter set out our service standards and the terms of business on which we agree to act for you. If you have any questions about any of the information contained herein, please contact the person dealing with your matter. By continuing to instruct the practice we shall be entitled to assume that you have agreed to the terms and conditions set out here.  For the purpose of these terms, “we” “our” “us” or “the firm” refers to Samuel Phillips Law.

About the firm

Samuel Phillips Law is a trading name of Samuel Phillips Law Firm which is a private legal practice authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under number 59299. Our registered office is 18 – 24 Grey Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6AE. A list of Partners is available for inspection at the above office. The SRA Code of Conduct sets out the regulatory framework applicable to service providers such as ours. The current edition of the Code is available on the SRA Website at www.sra.org.uk. Under Law Society Lexcel requirements, we have adopted administrative procedures which are designed to promote efficiency and quality of service.

Our commitment to you

We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. We hope it is helpful to you to set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our professional services. We will:

• Explain to you the legal work which may be required and the prospects of a successful outcome.
• Keep you regularly informed of progress.
• Update you on the cost of your matter, as appropriate.
• Try to avoid using technical legal language.
• Deal with your queries promptly.

Our hours of business

The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 9.00am and 5.00pm on weekdays. Messages can be left on the answerphone outside those hours and appointments can be arranged at other times when this is essential.

Charges and expenses

The fee structure applied to our work is dependent on the nature of the matter.

It is our policy to be open and transparent about our prices and services.  To this end, costs information will be published on our website from 6 December 2018 in accordance with the SRA Transparency Rules.  The information is published to assist clients in understanding generic costs likely to be involved in a matter and the factors that can influence them.  The prices are not binding on us, as they are unable to address each and every scenario presented to us, nor address any unusual complexities in a matter.  Where there is a conflict between the generic prices set out on our website, and the individual prices quoted in our engagement letter, the latter will take precedence.

If your matter is to be funded by way of a Conditional Fee Agreement or Damages-Based Agreement, also known as a ‘No Win No Fee Agreement’, then you will also be bound by the terms set out in that Agreement. Where the Agreement is in conflict with these Terms and Conditions of Business, the Agreement will take precedence.

We will provide you with a fee estimate or in some cases a fixed fee; this is the cost for providing you with our legal services and does not contain our office expenses, which may need to be incurred during the matter. Office expenses include ID Checks, Bankruptcy/Official Search fees/Telegraphic Transfer Fees/Travel/Mileage etc. We will invoice you for our fees and office expenses in advance of transferring any funds which we may hold on your behalf.  It is our policy to transfer payment of our invoices within 21 working days of the date of the invoice. We will not bill you in advance of carrying out any legal work, where a fixed fee has been agreed. We reserve the right to make an additional charge in the event that the matter becomes more complex or lengthier than originally estimated. This would entail either increasing our fee estimate or charging at an hourly rate for the additional work involved.  In the latter case, we would try and give you our best estimate of the likely additional cost or, where this is not possible; we would obtain your authority to carry out work to an agreed fee limit.

On matters funded on an hourly rate basis, our fees are based on the amount of time which has been spent in dealing with the matter and the seniority of the personnel involved. This may include meetings with you and perhaps others; reading, preparing and working on papers; making and receiving telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and text messages; preparation of any detailed costs estimates, schedules and bills; attending at court; and time necessarily spent travelling away from the office. From time to time we may arrange for some of this work to be carried out by persons not directly employed by us; such work will be charged to you at the hourly rate which would be charged if we had done the work ourselves.

Routine letters, e-mails and texts that we send and routine telephone calls that we make and receive, are charged at one-tenth of the hourly rate. Other letters, e-mails and calls are charged on a time spent basis.

The current hourly rates are set out below.

We will add VAT to the above at the rate that applies when the work is done. At present, VAT is 20%. Our VAT registration number is 177084639.

We will be happy, on request, to provide estimates where possible or up to date statements of our charging rates.

These hourly rates are reviewed periodically to reflect increases in overhead costs and inflation. Normally the rates are reviewed with effect from 1 January each year. If a review is carried out before this matter has been concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes effect.

In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours, the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particular specialist expertise which the case may demand. An increase in the rates may be applied to reflect such factors.

During the course of your matter we may need to incur other expenses on your behalf, ranging from Land/Probate Registry fees/Court fees/Expert Reports and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless we receive funds in advance of such expenses.  We will request this payment from you by way of an invoice (some expenses may be subject to VAT).

Payment arrangements

We accept payment by a number of methods: (1) online payments.  You can pay your bill online through our website by clicking ‘pay online’ using your credit or debit card and providing your invoice reference number and your file number from your invoice or statement. Please ensure you pay the correct amount due for each invoice number. The minimum amount you can pay online is £5.00 and the maximum is £10,000.00. We do not accept completion monies in any residential property transaction by this payment method, (2) you can pay by cheque which should be made payable to Samuel Phillips Law Firm (unless directed otherwise by the firm), (3) Bank Giro Credits, (4) BACS, (5) CHAPS, (6) Electronic Transfer and (7) all major debit/credit cards either in person, at our office, or by contacting us on 0191 232 8451. We currently do not accept any payments made via American Express.

Monies due to you from us will be paid by cheque or BACS.  We can also pay you by Faster Payment or Electronic Transfer but there is a charge for this service. We will not pay you cash, and payment(s) will not be made payable to a third party.

It is normal practice to ask clients to pay sums of money on account of 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.

We will provide written notification of any costs/expenses etc by way of an invoice in advance of transferring money from the money we hold on account for you.  It is our policy to transfer these funds within 21 working days from the date of the invoice (with the exception of holidays/sickness or other mitigating circumstances).

Our Accounts Department will credit any monies received into your account upon receipt or as soon as written confirmation is received from your solicitor (normally within 3 working days).  Any unidentified funds will be credited to a miscellaneous account until identified. Account errors will be rectified upon discovery or as soon as possible during holidays/sickness periods.  Any client payments must be authorised by a partner or a qualified solicitor of 3 years or more.

Payment is due to us immediately on receipt of our bill either final or interim. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 8% over the Bank of England base rate where payment is not received within 7 days.

We do not accept payments in cash in excess of £500.00. If you try to avoid this policy by depositing cash directly with our bank, we will charge you for any additional checks we decide are necessary to prove the source of the funds.

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.

Legal Aid and case funding

In family and children cases where there is a possibility of us obtaining Legal Aid for you, whether under the Legal Help Scheme or under a Legal Aid Certificate, we will advise on the possible entitlement to Legal Aid and take the necessary steps to obtain it where you are eligible and wish this to be done.  If the work proceeds under the Legal Aid Scheme we will advise on the requirements of the Legal Aid Agency and on the limitation of  the Legal Aid provided.

Once you have been granted Legal Aid, you have a duty to disclose any change in your circumstances, including a change of address or financial means.  If there is any increase in your financial means during the time you are in receipt of Legal Aid, this may affect the amount of contribution you have to pay towards the cost of the case.  As soon as there is any change in your circumstances, you should inform the Legal Aid Agency and ourselves in writing.

If you are granted an Emergency Certificate of Public Funding and Certificate is revoked – because, for example, once an assessment has been made, it is found that you do not qualify for Legal Aid or you have failed to provide the Legal Aid Agency with information that they have requested – you may be required to pay some or all of the costs incurred in preparing your case up until the date your Certificate is revoked.

If, once a Certificate has been issued, you are obliged to pay a contribution, it is important that this be paid promptly to the Legal Aid Agency and that you respond to queries from the Agency otherwise your Legal Aid Certificate could be discharged. This would mean you no longer have the benefit of legal aid, although you could make a further application for legal aid.

If you are granted the benefit of a Legal Aid Certificate, it only covers those costs incurred on your behalf and does not cover any costs which may be ordered against you.  It is unusual for costs to be awarded against a Legally Aided person but, if you do lose, the Court does have the power to make an Order for costs against you.

Please note that we are not authorised Legal Aid providers in matters other than family law.  In those other areas, if Legal Aid is available and you may be eligible for it, we will refer you, if you wish, to other approved providers.

Client Funds – Closing Balances

Our policy is to return any overpayment of client monies to our clients on completion of their matter, however any small left over client balances (£10.00 or under), will be transferred to our Charity Account unless the client request these funds be returned and provide us with banking details.

Conditional Fee Arrangements: Insurance to cover legal costs

Samuel Phillips Law provide clients with a number of case funding options including insurance policies that cover the costs of your case and/or expenses and your opponent’s costs.  This cover is only suitable and allowable on certain matters and your solicitor will advise you as to the best option available at instruction and during the case if circumstances change.

Some Insurers pay us a Commission on the Policies.  If you require further information on this issue please discuss with the solicitor handling your case.  In such circumstances when insurance cover is arranged to cover your legal costs the Insurers will use your details for administrative purposes only and not for any other purpose.

You may have a pre-existing policy of Insurance which might cover your legal costs and expenses.  This could be part of an existing Insurance Policy on your home and contents or other policy.  You may also have cover through a Trade Union or other organisation.  Please inform us if you believe you may have legal expenses insurance and/or other protection in place.

Financial services and insurance contracts

We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).  If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised to give that advice. We are, however, included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we can carry on insurance distribution 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 Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The register can be accessed via the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register.

Tax advice

Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. If we are not qualified to advise you on the tax implications of a matter, we will say so. However, even if we do not, we always recommend clients to obtain tax advice from qualified accountants.

Abortive costs

If, for any reason, this matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred, which would be on a proportion basis for example if half of the work has been completed then you will be charged half of the estimated costs.

Other parties’ charges and expenses

In some cases a client may be entitled to payment of costs by a third party. It is important that you understand that in such circumstances, the other person may not be required or able 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. If the other party is in receipt of legal aid no costs are likely to be recovered.

If you are successful and a court orders another party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses, interest can be claimed on them from the other party from the date of the court order. We will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our charges or expenses on account, but we are entitled to the rest of that interest. You will also be responsible for paying our charges and expenses of seeking to recover any costs that the court orders the other party to pay to you.

A client who is unsuccessful in a court case may be ordered to pay the other party’s legal charges and expenses. That money would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses. Arrangements can be made to take out insurance to cover liability for such legal expenses. Please discuss this with us if you are interested in this possibility.

Client accounts and interest payment

Any money received on your behalf, as part of the retainer or to facilitate the carrying out of your instructions, will be held in our Instant Access Client Account on which, interest will be calculated monthly or on conclusion of the matter and will be paid Gross of tax.

We will calculate the sum of interest due using Lloyds Bank rates, applicable to the sum(s) of money held and the length of time cleared funds are available.  We have applied a charge of £20.00 so that no interest will be paid if the amount calculated is for £20.00 or less.

The period of 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 this Account.

Subject to certain conditions money will be placed on Lloyds Bank Designated Deposit Accounts.  Interest will be calculated at the rates provided by Lloyds Bank and tax will be deducted at source based on the tax status of the individual.

Although we recognise interest earned on Designated Deposit Accounts is Office Money under the Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules we will continue to pay this into the Designated Deposit Account.

If money is to be held in a Joint Account with you, all interest earned will be for your benefit unless otherwise agreed.  If money is to be held jointly with another practice, the allocation of interest earned will depend on the agreement reached.

Acting for your Lender

Please note that if we are also acting for your Lender in a Conveyancing transaction, we have a duty to make full disclosure to the lender of all relevant facts relating to you, your purchase and mortgage. This could include the disclosure of any discrepancies between the mortgage and application and information provided to us during the transaction and any cashback payments or discount schemes which a seller is providing you. If a conflict arises between our duties to you and our duties to the Lender, we must cease to act for you.

Deposit protection

Please note that if we do hold any of your money at any point we will take good care of it and we only bank with UK banks. We are unlikely however to be liable to repay money lost through a banking failure. If we do hold any of your money, it will be held with Lloyds Bank plc and that money will have the same protection (up to £85,000) under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) as if you held the money in that bank personally. If you hold other personal monies in that same bank you should note that the limit of £85,000 remains the same for the total. You also need to be aware that some deposit taking institutions/banks have several brands, i.e. where the same institution is trading under different names. You should check either with your bank, the Financial Conduct Authority or a financial adviser for more information. If we do have to make a claim under the FSCS in respect of your money we will, subject to your consent, need give certain information to the FSCS about you to help them identify you and any amount to which you would be entitled within our client account. Further details are available at www.fscs.org.uk.

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. In addition, we will keep your file of papers for you in storage for not less than one year. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable or to make a charge for storage if we ask you to collect your papers and you fail to do so. 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 or 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 for 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 your instructions.

Termination

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will 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 pay an interim bill or comply with the request for a payment on account, we will tell you the reason and give you notice in writing.

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, for some non-business instructions, you may have the right to withdraw, without charge, within fourteen working days of the date on which you asked us to act for you. However, if we start work with your consent within that period, you lose that right to withdraw. Your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business will amount to such a consent.

If you seek to withdraw instructions, you should give notice by telephone, e-mail or letter to the person named in the engagement letter as being responsible for your work. The Regulations require us to inform you that the work involved is likely to take more than 30 days. Please note that the Regulations do not apply to legally-aided work.

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.

Identity, confidentiality and disclosure requirements

The law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money. To comply with the law, we need to verify your identity. To do this we will conduct an electronic identity check (‘E-ID check’) via SmartSearch using the information and ID documents that you provide to us.

The E-ID check will search various databases (public and otherwise). The search will leave a ‘soft footprint’ on your credit file. This records that an identity search has been carried out. We must stress this is not a credit search and will not affect your credit rating.

We charge a small administrative charge to cover the costs involved in verifying your identity. If you instruct Samuel Phillips Law in relation to other matters in the future, you will not usually incur these charges again unless it is over 3 years since our last E-ID check was conducted, or your circumstances have changed within that period (e.g. change of name, address etc.).

Our charges are subject to VAT and are as follows: