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These terms may be varied or added to by correspondence at or after the time when your instructions are accepted by A&R Solicitors. If for whatever reason you do not accept or understand these terms you should inform the case handler (whose name appears in the accompanying letter) immediately.

GENERAL

It is A&R Solicitors professional duty to give your affairs proper care, skill and attention.

Throughout the handling of your matter A&R Solicitors will rely on you to supply in a timely manner all information needed to act on your behalf. It is your obligation to tell them promptly of any relevant change in or addition to such information in the circumstances. A&R Solicitors will not be under any obligation to verify or check the accuracy of such information unless it is specifically agreed in writing that they should do so.

Unless otherwise specifically agreed in writing these terms of engagement shall apply to all matters that you retain us on.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND DATA PROTECTION ACT

In order to act for individuals, it may be necessary for us to record on our files and also on our case management system certain personal details such as dates of birth, addresses and telephone numbers etc. We may also hold other non-essential information when acting for either individuals or companies. You are entitled to ask at any time for a copy of the information that we hold about you or your company.

All client matters will be kept confidential. No confidential material will be disclosed to a third party except where required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, by law or by an order of the Court.

For the purpose of data protection, A&R Solicitors is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office according to the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Privacy and Transparency Notice in view of the new GDPR

Data Controller - A&R Solicitors is a trading name of A&R Solicitors Limited, Suite 106, Uxbridge House, 460-466 Uxbridge Road, HAYES UB4 OSD, who is the data controller. Further contact details are available from https://www.aandrsolicitors.co.uk/Contact.

Purposes of Processing - Your data will be processed in order to:

  • market A&R Solicitors services to you;
  • provide services under contract to you and others;
  • comply with regulatory and other legal obligations; and
  • protect A&R Solicitors against potential claims.

Legal Basis - Your data will be processed on the basis that A&R Solicitors has a legitimate interest in being able to achieve the aims of processing set out above. Where special category data is provided, the provider of the data warrants that they consent to A&R Solicitors processing that data or that they have obtained written consent from the data subject.

Personal Data Held - As a minimum, A&R Solicitors is required to positively identify its clients. This also includes positively identifying a director in the case of a corporate client. In addition, A&R Solicitors holds whatever information is provided to it by its clients and others. This will rarely include special category data.

Failure to Provide Data – If you fail to provide A&R Solicitors with the data required you will not receive services or marketing.

Data Sources - A&R Solicitors obtains most personal data from its clients and those who have indicated that they have an interest in A&R Solicitors services. A&R Solicitors also obtains some personal data from other correspondents. A&R Solicitors also collects some data from publicly available sources (e.g. Companies House).

Recipients - Any data provided by a client is treated as confidential to that client and will only be shared with others in so far as this is necessary in order to provide the services contracted for by the client, to comply with regulatory and other legal obligations and to protect A&R Solicitors against a potential claim. In order to provide its services, A&R Solicitors relies on the services of certain data processors. These include secure cloud storage for files and emails. In each case, A&R Solicitors ensures that data is processed in compliance with this policy.

Third Countries and Safeguards - Other than where required in order to provide services as required in individual client matters, data is rarely sent to third countries. Where it is, the relevant devices are password protected and equipped with tracking and remote wipe software. The devices are personally accompanied.

Retention Period - Data is held for six years from the end of the relevant matter or for six years where not associated with a particular matter.

Data Subject’s Rights – Where relevant, you have the right (subject to client confidentiality) to:

  • withdraw consent to the processing of your data;
  • complain to a supervisory authority regarding the processing of your data (https://ico.org.uk/); and
  • obtain a copy of the data held on you and to correction of any errors in that data.

Automated Decision Making – None.

FEE ARRANGEMENTS

The basis of A&R Solicitors charges are set out in the accompanying letter, which will be reviewed each year and new rates apply with effect from such review date.

In Employment issues, Tenancy disputes, Commercial contracts, legal advice for small companies, Family law and Wills, and Civil litigation matters fees will be charged on an hourly rate basis according to the time spent on individual case or on fixed fee basis as agreed between the practice and the client. In immigration and personal injury cases, fees will be charged on fixed fee basis as agreed between the practice and the client.

All costs incurred by A&R Solicitors on your behalf (such as Court and Hearing fees, search fees, Counsel’s fees and all other disbursements), and all other expenses incurred on travel, faxes, couriers, telephone calls and copying will be chargeable. Estimates of costs are given for guidance only on the basis of information then known to A&R Solicitors and are not to be regarded as quotations. You should note that it is often not possible to estimate costs accurately in advance.

Clients may direct that movements of money on their behalf be carried out by bank transfer. You should be aware that the banking system does not necessarily produce instantaneous transfer of such monies. A&R Solicitors cannot be held responsible for delays or errors within the banking systems. Bank charges incurred in relation to such transfers made at your request may be deducted by us from your client account without specific prior notification to you.

VAT is chargeable at the applicable rate.

A&R Solicitors bill of costs would usually be submitted at the time of substantive completion of the transaction, however if it is likely that the matter would proceed for some time an interim bill may be appropriate. Interim bills will usually be submitted on a regular basis during the course of such a matter.

You have the right to give A&R Solicitors written notice to set a limit on the fees which we may incur on your behalf. If that limit is reached, A&R Solicitors will then cease work, notify you and await your further instructions. You should understand that, particularly in relation to contentious work, it may not be possible to limit your liability in relation to the costs incurred by any other party in the matter.

A&R Solicitors reserves the right to charge for abortive work.

CLIENT CARE AND COMPLAINTS

A&R Solicitors is committed to high quality legal advice and client care. It is the policy of A&R Solicitors to investigate complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction fully and promptly.

If you have a complaint relating to the work being carried out for you, you should raise this in the first instance with the fee earner dealing with the matter who will endeavour to resolve the matter. If you are dissatisfied with his or her response, you should raise the matter with the case handler.

If you are still unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill, please contact Mrs. Akil Rekha Gurusamy on 03333 443351 and akil@aandrsolicitors.co.uk or by post to our office. We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints and is available at request. We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman (http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk), which is subject to certain limitations.

If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman 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 or within six years of the act or omission about which your complaint occurs (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).

PAYMENT

A&R Solicitors may at any time require reasonable sums on account of anticipated costs and disbursements from you. A&R Solicitors shall have the right to appropriate such sums to cover disbursements incurred on your behalf or to pay interim bills which are overdue. However, such sums are, in the normal way, to be held against payment of the final account to be rendered to you and you are expected to settle interim bills without resort to such sums.

A&R Solicitors bills are due and payable within 14 days of the date of the bill on delivery. A&R Solicitors are entitled to charge interest on any sum unpaid 30 days after the date of delivery of a bill according to law.

MONEY LAUNDERING

In certain cases, we may be required to obtain formal evidence of identity and make disclosure to third parties in accordance with Money Laundering regulations.

CIVIL LITIGATION

This section applies only to litigious matters.

If you are successful in a litigation matter it may be that you will be entitled to an order for assessment of costs for the payment of your costs by another party. Such an award is in the discretion of the Court. You should be aware that it is rare for an assessment of costs to result in your opponent having to pay the full amount of your costs.

In this case, you will be responsible to A&R Solicitors for the difference between the actual costs incurred and the assessed costs payable by your opponent. If any sum ordered against your opponent is not recovered in full or in part, you will also be responsible for the shortfall in the amount received.

Likewise, if you lose proceedings, you may have an assessment of costs order against you and you will have to pay your opponent’s costs as well as your own.

A&R Solicitors do not practice to do work under the Legal Aid Scheme. Consequently, if you become eligible for legal aid during the course of a matter, A&R Solicitors may have to terminate the retainer.

If you obtain interest under an order for costs against your opponent, A&R Solicitors are entitled to retain such interest to the extent that any of their fees have not been paid on account.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Our efforts and success to protect your rights requires you to

  • provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions.
  • provide all documentation required to complete the transaction in a timely manner
  • safeguard any documents that are likely to be required for discovery

DOCUMENTS AND FILE STORAGE

It is important that you keep all documents which relate in any way to this matter. If you receive any communications from the Opponent or other person on their behalf in relation to your case, you should pass on such communication to us unanswered.

Further, it is important that you keep ALL documents which relate in any way to this matter (i.e. letters, emails, contracts, receipts, anything else of that kind). Whilst we do not need to see all of those documents at this stage, such documents may have to be produced in court proceedings and therefore must be preserved in case they should be required. Similarly, any documents you subsequently obtain which relate to the matter should also be kept. Also, if you have any other property connected with the matter in any way, you should preserve that property until the case is concluded.

After completing the work, the firm is entitled to keep all papers and documents while there is money owing for charges and expenses. The firm keeps papers (except for any papers you ask to be returned to you) for no more than 6 years and keeps the file on the understanding that the firm has authority to destroy it after 6 years from the date of the final bill.

If it becomes necessary to retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act on your behalf the firm would not normally charge for such retrieval. However, the firm will make a charge, based on time spent producing stored papers or documents to you or to another person at your request, in other circumstances. The firm may also charge for reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with instructions given by you or on your behalf in this connection.

JURISDICTION

A&R Solicitors advise on matters relating to the laws of England and Wales and the Articles of the EC Treaty (and the regulations and directives adopted pursuant to the EC Treaty) to the extent relevant to England and Wales only. CESSATION OF WORK

A&R Solicitors have the right to cease work and terminate their retainer by giving you written notice at your last known address in the event, among other things, that:

  • any bill remains unpaid for more than 14 days after delivery;
  • you fail without reasonable cause to give us instructions for a period of 30 days; or
  • you become eligible for Legal Aid.

In litigious matters, the leave of the Court may be required.

LAW

These terms are subject to the laws of England and Wales.

Call Our Legal Consultant : 03333 443351