Terms and Conditions

Policies

  1. INTRODUCTION
    • Dean Wilson LLP (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (registration number OC351755). Our registered office and principal place of business is Ridgeland House, 165 Dyke Road, Brighton, BN3 1TL.
    • Any person undertaking work on our behalf pursuant to your instructions, does so as an employee or member of or otherwise on behalf of us, not personally and accepts no personal liability.
    • We confirm your instructions and the services to be provided to you by us in the client care letter addressed to you (referred to in these Terms as the “CCL”).
    • Your continuing instructions to us will amount to your acceptance of these Terms and the basis upon which we are accepting your instructions as set out in the CCL.
    • If there is any conflict between these Terms and the CCL, the CCL will take precedence.
    • In these Terms, there are provisions which allow us to:
      • charge you interest on late payment of our invoices (paragraph 11.1 and paragraph 11.2);
      • recover our costs for legal proceedings initiated to seek payment of our invoices (paragraph 11.3); and
      • limit our liability to you (paragraph 16)
  2. SCOPE OF INSTRUCTIONS
    • The scope of our instructions is set out in the CCL.
    • We shall not advise or provide guidance on any matters which are not expressly included in the CCL.
    • Unless we expressly agree and confirm in the CCL, we will not be responsible for providing advice in relation to:
      • any laws other than the laws of England and Wales;
      • tax in any form;
      • the commercial and/or financial implications of any matter or transaction;
      • the financial status of any other party to a transaction; or
      • any accountancy matters.
    • The advice we give is personal to you. If any advice we have given is passed to any third party, we shall not be liable in any way to that third party under these Terms.
  3. CONFLICTS
    • We conduct routine checks for conflicts of interest on accepting instructions.
    • We can only accept your instruction if no conflict exists or is likely to develop. If that changes during the course of a matter, we will talk with you about how to resolve it.
    • We may have to stop acting for your if a conflict arises. This may occur because we have discovered or are aware of information obtained whilst acting for another client which we would normally have to tell you about.  However, telling you about that information would conflict with our duty of confidentiality to the other client.  In this event, we reserve the right to withhold this information and stop acting for you.  In certain cases, we may continue to act for you and the other client, but only if we are able to observe our duty of confidentiality to you.
    • We act for many clients. Some of our clients work in the same industry and sector.  You accept that the fact that other current clients we may have or any future clients we may obtain, will sometimes have commercial interests which may be adverse to your own.  In that situation you agree that that of itself would not prevent us from acting for you.
  4. RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR WORK
    • The CCL details the principal people who will carry out your work and their status.
    • We try to avoid changing the principal people who carry out your work but if this cannot be avoided, we will notify you promptly as to who will continue to handle your matter and why the change was necessary.
  5. YOUR INSTRUCTIONS TO US
    • It is important that we have a clear understanding of the legal services required by our clients. We will, therefore, need detailed instructions in respect of each particular matter so that we can properly and fully advise you and take the appropriate action.
    • You can assist us by giving clear instructions, letting us have all relevant documentation, informing us of any time limits of which you are aware and dealing promptly with any important questions or issues that arise.
    • It is your responsibility to inform us of any changes in circumstances which may affect your instructions to us and the advice we give.
  6. Our charges
    • If you have insurance cover for your own or another’s legal fees, you must tell us straightaway.
    • If you do not tell us, we will assume there is none and you may lose the right to be covered by the policy.
    • We charge either by hourly rate or fixed fee.
    • You are responsible for payment of our charges even if you have entered an agreement with another to pay or share payment.
  7. Calculation of our charges
    • In circumstances where we charge by the hour, our charges are calculated mainly by reference to the time we spend in dealing with a matter and recorded in 6 minute units or part thereof per activity on a computerised time-recording system. Time will be spent in undertaking various tasks including but not limited to meeting with you and other relevant parties either in person or by video conference, preparing correspondence, considering pertinent issues, preparing and working on documentation, providing advice to you, making and receiving telephone calls.  The hourly rates depend on the seniority and specialised knowledge of the person or persons dealing with your matter.
    • Details of current hourly rates are set out in the CCL. Our rates are reviewed annually with effect from 1 April and in the absence of agreement to the contrary will increase by not less than an amount equal to the greater of:
      • the increase in the Consumer Prices Index during the previous 12 months;
      • the increase in the Retail Price Index during the previous 12 months; or
      • 3%.
    • In some matters, our charges may also take into account other factors, including the importance or complexity of the matter, the values involved and the difficulty or urgency of the work. For some matters, we may agree to fix our charges at the start.  In these circumstances, we will not change our fee unless the matter becomes unduly protracted, unforeseen issues arise or your instructions to us change.
    • If we are not able to fix our charges, we will endeavour to provide a realistic estimate or give a forecast within a possible range of costs. Any estimate, quotation or other indication of fees is not intended to be fixed unless otherwise agreed in writing.
    • Where we have agreed to fix or cap on our charges, this will be confirmed in the CCL. If at any stage it becomes impractical to complete the matter for the fee agreed, we will inform you and seek to agree a revised fee prior to incurring any additional charges.
    • Where we have agreed to set a limit on our charges, this will be confirmed in the CCL. Where we have agreed a limit, you will be responsible for our charges up to that agreed limit.  We will advise you if we think our charges will exceed the agreed limit and we will not incur any further charges above the agreed limit without obtaining your prior approval.
    • In addition to our charges, we may incur expenses that we have to pay on your behalf. You agree to repay us for any such expenses we pay on your behalf and we may ask you to place us in funds before we incur certain expenses.
    • Where we are required to transfer money to you or a third party, we will charge an additional fee to cover our costs in setting up and arranging this payment.
    • Where we are instructed by two or more clients, their liability to pay our costs and expenses will be joint and several unless agreed otherwise in writing.
    • If for any reason we cease acting for you, unless agreed otherwise, we will charge you for the work done and the expenses incurred.
  8. VALUE ADDED TAX
    • Except for fees, charges and expenses which are zero rated or exempt, we will add VAT to our fees, charges and expenses at the rate which applies when the work is carried out.
    • We may also incur disbursements on your behalf or as a result of your instructions. These may be subject to VAT irrespective of the VAT treatment of our supply of services.
  9. TERMS OF PAYMENT
    • It is our standard practice to require clients to pay sums on account in advance to cover the cost of future charges and expenses.
    • The initial payment and subsequent payments required will be set out in the CCL.
    • Where initial payments are specified in the CCL chargeable work may not be commenced until such time as we are in receipt of cleared funds. Where your matter is time-sensitive, it is your responsibility to ensure that we are placed in funds and we shall not be responsible for your delay.
    • Our fees and expenses are payable in full on or before completion of each matter, unless stated otherwise in the CCL.
    • We may send you regular interim invoices for our fees, disbursements, charges and expenses and if we are holding funds on account, we may offset those funds against an interim invoice in accordance with the Solicitors Account Rules. In that circumstance, we may require you to provide us with further payments on account.
  10. PAYMENTS
    • The methods by which funds may be transferred to us shall be set out in the CCL. In making payments to us you should be wary of cyber-crime.  It is your responsibility to verify our bank details before any payment is made and we are unable to take responsibility if you transfer money to a wrong account.
    • We will accept payment by debit and credit card in settlement of our fees (meaning the cost of legal services rendered by us to you) and VAT thereon.
    • We shall not accept credit card payments in respect of disbursements (including Counsel’s fees) or any other third party charges and expenses incurred on your behalf.
  11. INTEREST ON LATE PAYMENT AND COST OF ENFORCEMENT
    • If you do not pay an invoice (in whole or in part) within 28 days of the date of the invoice, we may charge you interest on the amount outstanding from and including the date of invoice until payment.
    • Interest will be payable at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of the invoice until and including the date of payment and will be charged on a daily basis.
    • If you fail to pay our invoice, we may at our discretion commence legal proceedings against you for payment. In these circumstances, you will be responsible for the payment of all further fees, charges and expenses incurred in those proceedings, even if the claim is for less than £10,000.
  12. INTEREST PAYMENTS
    • If we hold money on your behalf, it will be instantly accessible subject to normal clearance times and interest will be calculated and paid to you gross in accordance with the amount held and the time for which it is held. Notwithstanding the provisions of this paragraph 1, no interest will be payable if the interest amount calculated on the balance is £100 or less.
    • We aim to account to you at an interest rate that is fair and reasonable. However, the rate is unlikely to be as high as the rate you may be able to obtain when depositing the money we hold for you yourself.  Our regulations state that client money must be available immediately and the need for instant access is taken into account when setting the rate of interest payable by us.  Interest rates payable are aligned using the Natwest Client Account interest rate.
    • Where monies are held in a separate designated client account the whole of the interest earned will be credited to the account.
  13. DATA PROTECTION, DATA PROCESSING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
    • In this paragraph 13:

“Data Protection Legislation” means (i) unless and until the GDPR is no longer directly applicable in the UK, the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK and then (ii) any successor legislation to the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 2018; and

“GDPR” means the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679).

  • We will only collect personal data from you that is relevant to the matter that we are dealing with. The GDPR requires us to tell you how we may use that information.  We will mainly use your information for the provision of legal advice and as is necessary for the performance of the contract between us.  We may also disclose these details to third parties where necessary for the purpose of the matter upon which you have instructed us.
  • We may also where it is in our legitimate interest, i.e., in a way in which we might reasonably be expected as part of running our business, contact you from time to time by mail, email, or telephone to provide information that might be of use to you, including details of the service we offer, newsletters, legal updates and invitation to events.
  • We will process your data in accordance with our ‘Privacy Policy’, a copy of which can be found on our website at deanwilson.co.uk/policies.
  • We may monitor, record, store and use any telephone, email or other communication with you in order to check any instructions given to us, for training purposes, for crime prevention and to improve the quality of our client care.
  • We will keep your personal data throughout the period of time that we do work for you and afterwards for such periods as we are required to do so by our insurers or by law.
  • You have a series of rights under the GDPR including the right to access a copy of the information we hold about you. Further information on this issue can be found in our Privacy Policy.
  • If you have any questions about the way in which we may process your personal data or you are unhappy about the way that we are using your personal data then initially you should contact our Compliance Officer for Legal Practice, at data@deanwilson.co.uk and if your complaint remains unresolved you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, details available at www.ico.org.uk.
  1. STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS
    • After completing your matter, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our fees, charges and expenses and those incurred on your behalf or upon your instructions.
    • We will keep our file and your deeds and documents (other than those papers, deeds and documents that you ask to be returned to you) for no more than seven years after the conclusion of your matter, or for such other period as is required by law. We reserve the right to destroy files at the end of that period but we will endeavour to contact you first if those files contain deeds or documents which belong to you.  We will not destroy deeds or documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody.
    • If we retrieve papers or deeds 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, if you request us to produce stored papers or deeds or documents, we may make a charge of £30 plus VAT, based on the time spent producing those papers, deeds or documents and the additional costs we incur.  We may also charge for reading or copying correspondence or documents or carrying out other work necessary to comply with the instructions given by you or on your behalf.  We will inform you in advance of our costs and expenses in carrying out this work.
    • If we agree to store any deeds or documents for you, we will not be responsible for checking their accuracy or for advising on any changes which may affect the terms of those documents or their validity or for any time limits that may be referred to in those documents unless we expressly agree to do so in writing.
  2. TERMINATION
    • You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers, deeds and documents while there is money owing to us for our fees, charges and expenses and those incurred on your behalf or upon your instructions.
    • We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example:
      • the threat or risk of violence, injury or other danger to the physical, psychological or moral well-being of any of our personnel;
      • the discovery or creation of a conflict of interest;
      • your requesting us to break the law or any professional requirement;
      • the relationship of trust and confidence necessary between solicitor and client ceasing to exist between us;
      • your failure to pay us any amount due, or money on account requested;
      • your bankruptcy or insolvency;
      • our being forbidden to act by the National Crime Agency or your name appearing on any sanctions list produced by HM Government;
      • our reasonable belief that our continuing to represent you may cause damage to our professional or personal reputation; or
      • any other breach by you of these Terms.
    • If you decide to terminate your instructions to us, or we decide to cease acting for you, we will still be entitled to receive payment of our fees, charges and expenses for services performed up to the date of termination. All our rights set out in these Terms shall continue to apply even if the agreement is terminated.
  3. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
    • We accept no liability for any loss, damage or expense of any nature whatsoever which is caused by the reliance upon our advice by any third party.
    • Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our liability in any matter will be limited to £3m for any claim or series of claims arising from the same circumstances. We accept no liability for consequential or indirect loss.  We can only limit our liability to the extent that the law allows (for example, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence).
    • We will not be liable to repay money lost through the failure of a bank or other financial institution.
  4. EMAIL POLICY
    • We may use email when communicating with you unless you have specifically requested us not to do so.
    • You accept that email communications are potentially insecure and may be accessed by someone not involved in the transaction. Although we will keep your files confidential, the use of email gives rise to a risk of this confidentiality being compromised.
    • Our computer systems and all our external email messages are checked for viruses. However, we accept no liability for any loss or damage that you may incur as a result of any viruses and you should check all your incoming email messages for viruses.
  5. MAKING A COMPLAINT
    • Our complaints procedure is set out on our website at https://deanwilson.co.uk/complaints-policy.
    • You are entitled to complain to us or the Legal Ombudsman (legalombudsman.org.uk), about the level of fees charged in our invoice and you may also apply to the court for an assessment of the level of our fees under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.
    • If all or part or our invoice remains unpaid, we reserve our right to charge interest notwithstanding that our invoice has been challenged.
    • Our fees remain payable regardless of the investigation of any complaint.
    • We reserve the right to outsource the conduct of any complaint to a third party provider.
  6. MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS and The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
    • We are required by law to operate strict procedures to guard against the risk of money laundering. Particularly we are required to verify the identity and permanent address of all new clients.
    • Our preference is to use an electronic verification platform for identification purposes. This will not affect your credit score.  We will charge you for the use of the electronic verification platform.  Our fees are currently £15 plus VAT for each individual search or £25 plus VAT per couple where we are acting for you both jointly on a transaction.    A fee of £25 plus VAT will be charged for each company or partnership search.  International Company Searches are charged at £35 plus VAT for each company or partnership search.
    • Alternatively, if we have not previously verified your identity, you are requested to supply one item from List A and one item from List B below. If we are not to see you in person with original documents, we will require certified copies.
      • List A – proof of identity:
        • current Passport
        • current full UK Photocard Driving Licence
      • List B – address verification:
        • a bill for the supply of electricity, gas, water or telephone services (provided it is fewer than three (3) months old). Mobile telephone bills are not acceptable;
        • Television Licence renewal notice
        • Council Tax bill (providing it is fewer than three (3) months old)
        • recent Tax Coding Notice;
        • recent Mortgage Statement;
        • credit card or bank statement (provided it is fewer than three (3) months old) showing current address.
      • If you are a new or existing body corporate not listed on a regulated market who has not previously supplied information, we will require the following:
        • Company/organisation full name;
        • Company or other registration number;
        • Registered address and, if different, principal place of business address;
        • Memorandum of Association or other governing documents;
        • Names of the Board of Directors or members of your management body and its senior management;
        • Documentation in accordance with lists A and B above for any beneficial owners if their identity has not otherwise been verified in accordance with paragraph 19.2 above.
      • We may ask you to tell us the source of any monies you send to us. You agree that where we are requested to do so, we may provide this information to your insurance company, building society, bank or other relevant authority.
      • Where there is a suspicion that you are engaged in money laundering, we may have to make a report to the National Crime Agency without prior reference to you. We may not be permitted to tell you that we have made a report and there may be a period during which we are not permitted to continue to act for you.  In these circumstances, we accept no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage you may directly or indirectly suffer as a result.
      • It is our policy not to accept cash payments unless we expressly agree. Where cash is paid directly into our client account at any bank, we reserve the right to return this to you and request that you use an alternative method to transfer funds to us.
  7. BRIBERY ACT
    • We and our employees and all associated persons are prohibited from giving or receiving gifts or hospitality made with the intention of exerting improper influence, obtaining or retaining a business advantage, or in explicit or implicit exchange for favours or benefits. No gifts in the form of cash will be accepted.  If you wish to provide a gift or hospitality to a person associated with this firm, then we have a duty to log the same in our central register.
    • We may terminate our retainer with you should we have cause to believe you or a person or business performing services on your behalf have committed an offence under the Bribery Act 2011.
    • A copy of our anti-bribery policy can be found on our website at www.deanwilson.co.uk/policies.
  8. NOTICE OF THE RIGHT TO CANCEL
    • If you are an individual and the terms on which we are to act for you are concluded when we are meeting away from our offices or in our offices but when you have originally asked us to act in a meeting elsewhere, under consumer protection legislation you have a right to cancel your instructions within fourteen days without giving any reason.
    • Your right to cancel can be exercised by delivering, or sending (including by electronic mail) a cancellation notice to the person with day to day conduct of your matter (as stated in the CCL) at our address at any time within the period of fourteen days starting with the date you originally requested us to start work or you receive the CCL, whichever is the earlier.
    • You cannot exercise this right by telephone.
    • If you cancel, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you unless we have paid them out to a third party on your behalf.
    • We will make the reimbursement without undue delay and no later than fourteen days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel your instructions.
    • We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction unless you have expressly agreed otherwise. In any event, you will not incur any fee as a result of the transaction.
    • A form of our cancellation notice is provided on our website at deanwilson.co.uk/policies should you decide to cancel the agreement between you and us or you may write to or email us with your own unequivocal cancellation.
    • You must pay for any service you have received prior to cancellation. The fee will be based on time recorded on your matter and will be proportionate to the full contracted price.
    • If you wish us to start work before the end of the cancellation period, your counter signature on the CCL will provide sufficient authority for us to do so.
  9. FINANCIAL SERVICES AND INSURANCE MEDIATION
    • Sometimes, conveyancing, family, probate or company work involves investments. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and so we may refer you to someone who is authorised to provide any necessary advice.  However, we can provide certain limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with the legal services we are providing you, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
    • If you have a problem with the service we have provided for you then please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves.  If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman.
    • We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, 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 at fsa.gov.uk/register.
    • The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman is an independent complaints handling body.
  10. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees.  A copy of our equality and diversity policy can be found at www.deanwilson.co.uk/policies.

  1. Third party rights

It is agreed between us that the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 does not apply to these Terms.

  1. Publicity

We may occasionally wish to give details of our existing client base and the nature of the work we undertake to prospective clients, publishers of legal directories or the media.  We will contact you for agreement before providing any information about you or your business.

  1. Severence

If any provision of these Terms is found by a competent court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions of these Terms which shall remain in full force and effect.  If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable but would be valid or enforceable if some part of the provision were deleted, the provision in question shall apply with such deletions as may be necessary to make it valid and enforceable.

  1. GOVERNING LAW

These Terms and the CCL and any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with these Terms and the CCL or their subject matter or formation shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

  1. JURISDICTION

The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with these Terms and the CCL or their subject matter or formation.