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    Terms of Business

    Our engagement

    These Standard Terms of Business, along with your Engagement Letter, govern our engagement. Where there is a conflict between these Standard Terms of Business and the Engagement Letter, the latter will prevail.

    Your continuing instructions constitute acceptance of these terms.

    You may terminate the engagement at any time, and so may we. If the engagement is terminated whilst you are involved in court proceedings we will seek to be removed from the record as your solicitors.

    Our advice may be used by you only.

    Communications

    We may correspond, and send confidential information, by e-mail and we will assume that e-mails will be opened only by the addressee.

    Fees

    Unless otherwise agreed, our fees are a product of time spent by us on the engagement and the charging rate of the fee-earner concerned. You will be advised of prevailing charging rates, which are reviewed annually, and we will endeavour to notify the client if any estimate is likely to be exceeded. Fees are exclusive of VAT.

    We will also charge for expenses which we incur on your behalf. These may include stamp duty, stamp duty land tax, travelling costs, search fees, courier fees, and registration fees. If we instruct other advisers in relation to the engagement, we will do so as your agent and you will be responsible for their fees and expenses too.

    Hourly Charging Rates

    Partner:                                  £210 – 350
    Solicitor (or equivalent):     £180 – 270
    Lawyer/Paralegal:               £150 – 240
    Trainee Solicitor:                  £150 – 180
    Assistant:                               £95 – 120

    Payment on Account

    We may from time to time ask you to make a payment on account of fees or expenses which we expect to be incurred, or to discharge an unpaid invoice, or to reimburse a payment made by us on your behalf.

    Any money received on your behalf may be used to discharge any money due to us without further reference to you. Invoices may be delivered electronically.

    Payment of Interest

    We may pay you the interest that we earn on money we hold on your behalf, unless the amount earned is less than £50.

    Invoices and Payment

    Our invoices are payable on the date you receive them. We may from time to time submit interim invoices.

    If all or part of the invoice remains unpaid, we may be entitled to charge interest and we reserve the right to retain your file of papers and any other documents in our possession until we have received payment in full.

    Where we have entered into a contentious or non-contentious business agreement with you, your rights to challenge our fees (or in certain cases, the rate(s) at which they are charged), are restricted.

    Payment by Credit Card or Debit Card

    We accept payment of invoiced fees by credit or debit card, without a handling charge.

    Limitation of liability

    Our aggregate liability (including the liability of our members (partners) and employees) to you in respect of all claims relating to a particular matter, whether on the basis of contract, negligence or other tort, breach of duty, misrepresentation or otherwise, is limited to £5,000,000 inclusive of our liability for legal and other fees, costs and disbursements.

    Our liability is not limited in the case of fraud, reckless disregard of professional obligations, or (in respect of contentious business only) for our negligence. We maintain professional indemnity cover in accordance with the compulsory requirements of the Solicitors’ Indemnity Insurance Rules.

    We do not accept responsibility or liability for malicious or fraudulent emails that purport to be sent by us, and it is your responsibility to ensure that the content of any email is genuine before relying upon it.

    Cancellation

    The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 may apply to this engagement. Whether they apply will depend upon the nature of the business relationship between us and the circumstances in which the engagement is entered into.

    We will inform you whether we consider the Regulations have application. If they do then:

    • You have the right to cancel the engagement at any time within 14 days of entering into it.
    • If you decide to do so, then notice should be given in the form of, or in a similar form to the Notice of Cancellation available on request or by any other clear statement of that intention.
    • If you request us to start work during the 14 day cancellation period, you may still cancel within that period (until such time as the engagement is concluded unless the contract relates to digital content and the delivery of that content has already commenced).

    The effect of cancellation is:

    • Your obligations and our obligations come to an end.
    • Unless you expressly requested us to start work during the cancellation period, we will reimburse all payments received from you without undue delay, and, in any event, not later than 14 days after the day on which we were informed of your decision to cancel.
    • Reimbursement will be by the same means the payment was received, unless you expressly agree otherwise, and without any fee for reimbursement.
    • If you cancel the engagement within the 14 day period, but have expressed that work should start, then the firm is entitled to charge pro rata for the work that it has done (or the full amount where the delivery of digital content has begun.

    Our engagement letter and these terms of business are sent in compliance with the requirement to provide a copy, or confirmation, of the circumstances in which the Regulations apply (Regulation 12).

    Money Laundering Regulations

    The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 impose legal obligations on solicitors in England and Wales to conduct due diligence checks in relation to all transactions. In order for us to comply with those statutory requirements, and to be able to act for you, we are required to identify you and, where appropriate, carry out source of funds and wealth checks, to understand the origins of any funds to be used in a transaction and how those funds have been acquired or accumulated.

    Please note any delay in providing the required information may cause a delay in us being able to progress your matter and unless we are able to satisfy our obligations under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 we may have to stop working on your matter.

    We may carry out electronic checks via third party providers to assist us in complying with our obligations and by instructing us you authorise us to carry out those checks and to supply personal information to those providers. The cost of each check is £24 (incl VAT) per person.

    Financial Services

    We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), although we are included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we can 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 Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the FCA website https://register.fca.org.uk/s/

    We are able in certain circumstances, to offer a limited range of investment services, provided they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to supply.

    We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority; and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman.

    Data protection and Privacy

    In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) our basis for processing of personal data is the provision of legal services and the performance of our obligations under our contract with you. We may also process personal information for our legitimate interests, which are the improvement of our ability to provide legal services and compliance with our regulatory obligations. How we use this information depends on three factors: the instructions that you give us; the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and data protection law generally; and the duty of confidentiality that we owe to you.

    In particular circumstances, we may disclose the information that you have provided or that we have collected or received about you to other persons and organisations. For example, this information may be disclosed to:

    • other suppliers of professional services, such as other lawyers, accountants and expert witnesses;
    • suppliers of administration, financial / banking and technical services;
    • the courts and governmental and regulatory authorities; and
    • organisations that regulate the legal profession.

    You have the right to access any personal data and a right to rectification, erasure, restriction of or objection to processing, and the right to data portability. You should contact the DPO if you wish to enforce any of these rights at dpo@dfalaw.co.uk. Further details about these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at www.ico.gov.uk.

    We may use your personal data to contact you in relation to services related to those we have carried out for you in the past, but will not send you general marketing material without your specific consent. You can withdraw such consent, or request that we send you no further information by emailing dpo@dfalaw.co.uk.

    Confidentiality, money laundering & proceeds of crime

    As solicitors, we have both a professional and a legal obligation to keep your affairs confidential. These obligations include not disclosing the information that you provide to us (except in the circumstances listed in the previous section and in this paragraph) or details about the legal services that we are providing to you.

    These obligations of confidentiality are not absolute. In certain circumstances, we may have a duty under the law to make a disclosure to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. This duty to make a disclosure will be triggered when we suspect or know that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing.

    If we do make a disclosure to the Serious Organised Crime Agency in connection with your matter, this is likely to mean that:

    • we cannot tell you that a disclosure has been made;
    • we must stop working on your matter for a period of time; and
    • we cannot tell you why we have stopped working on your matter.

    If you and another person jointly instruct us on a matter, you agree that there will be no confidentiality between you and the other joint client and that information you disclose to us can be shared with the other joint client. We can also share information that you provide in relation to a matter with a third party (such as an accountant or estate agent and so on) who is helping with the matter, unless you instruct otherwise. You also permit us to disclose information about matters on which you instruct us to our insurers, auditors and the regulatory bodies governing the work of solicitors. We will only do so in confidence.

    If a conflict of interest occurs (for example, where your interests conflict with those of another joint client on the same matter or another client), we may have to stop acting for you.

    If you are buying a property with the help of a lender and you and the lender are both our clients, you agree that we can let the lender know information which concerns you or which you provide during the course of the retainer.

    Version: 05.25

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