TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
CONDUCT
We shall endeavour to both advise you and promote your interests as professionally
and efficiently as we can, but we cannot guarantee a successful outcome to any
particular matter.
Responsibility for the conduct of your matter will usually remain with the fee earner whom you have instructed initially and whose name and status appear on our letterhead. If a transfer of the matter needs to be effected to another fee earner, we shall inform you and explain the reasons to you.
We shall keep you regularly informed as to the progress on any transaction over which you have instructed us, and we ask you in turn to respond promptly to our own communications with you.
Where it appears to us that your case requires expertise or ability not available within our firm, we may need to make arrangements for your case to be dealt with by a different firm altogether.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
& COMMISSION
We are not authorised under the Financial Services Authority. If, while we are
acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to
someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice. However, as members
of the Law Society of England and Wales [ a designated professional body for
the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000] we may provide
certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to
the legal work we are doing for you.
We are required to account to you for any commission received of more than £20 unless, having disclosed the amount to you or the basis of the calculation of the commission or (if the precise amount or basis cannot be ascertained) an approximation of it, we have your agreement to retain it.
FEES & DISBURSEMENTS
& FUNDS
We charge for work undertaken in one of two ways: according to fixed scales
or an estimate provided to you in advance, or according to the hourly rate of
the fee earner dealing with the transaction for you. Where the matter is particularly
important, complex or urgent, we reserve the right to mark up the hourly rate
by up to 50% as appropriate. Please note we shall charge for all work carried
out, even if the particular transaction does not come to a successful conclusion,
and we are required to charge VAT at the prevailing rate on all our accounts.
Furthermore, we reserve the right to charge in excess of an estimate provided
in advance if we undertake additional work not envisaged at the outset. In all
instances, we should be pleased to discuss the costs of any individual matter
with you, either at the outset or whilst the work is in progress.
Where a transaction is likely to be either costly or prolonged, we shall ask you to make a payment on account in advance and we shall render you interim invoices. We shall require that you put us in funds to meet the disbursements (out-of-pocket expenses) connected with the matter.
Where funds are requested in order, say to complete a conveyancing transaction, we require that those funds be in our account and cleared well in advance of the specified date (both personal and building society cheques take 4-5 working days to clear). Failure to provide cleared finds in time will have a detrimental effect on the outcome of the transaction.
MONEY LAUNDERING
& PROCEEDS OF CRIME
By law we are required to comply with The Money Laundering Regulations 2007
and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. These require us to obtain evidence of your
identity and your place of residence before we can proceed, and to question
the proposed source and flow of funds in order that we are satisfied that there
is no suspicion of money laundering or criminal offence of any kind.
Where money is being provided by a third party, we are not able to accept it without obtaining verification of identity and source as above.
You must ensure that we have agreed to receive funds from any source in writing before transmission. Failure to do so may result in funds being refused, and delay in returning funds. Any costs incurred in connection with identity or transfer of funds will be passed on to you for re-imbursement.
We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential, but where we have reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering or terrorist financing we are required to notify the Serious Organised Crime Agency and 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 while and not be able to tell you why.
PAYMENT OF BILLS
All invoices must be settled within seven days. Failure to do so may mean we
refrain from undertaking further work on your behalf unless and until payment
is made. In certain circumstances, and if appropriate, we may also apply to
come off the Court records as acting for you. We are entitled to charge interest
on all or part of any unpaid bill. You are entitled to apply for assessment
of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
COMPLAINTS
We are committed to high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy
about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please
contact Major Somerton if the fee earner is Peter Fletcher, Anne Christie or
Nimmi Pabla, or Peter Fletcher if the fee earner is Major Somerton or Deryn
Coe. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which
is available at the office.
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman at Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman, 3rd Floor, Sunlight House, Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3JZ to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.
PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY
Details of our professional indemnity provider and territorial cover of that
insurance are available on request from our office at 186a Victoria Road Cambridge
CB4 3LG.
DATA PROTECTION
Information provided by you will be used by us subject to your instructions,
the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality.
Notwithstanding the above, we believe that you will be satisfied with our services
and hope that we shall have the opportunity to assist you on many occasions
in the future!
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