The following Terms & Conditions of Business (“the Terms”) give details of the basis upon which we will provide our legal services and should be read in conjunction with any accompanying letter. Any dispute or legal issue arising from them will be determined by the law of England & Wales, and considered exclusively by the English & Welsh courts.

1. Our aim

At Hall & Griffiths Legal, we aim to place our expertise on your side. We expect to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost.

2. Our commitment to you

We will:

• ONLY act upon instruction.
• GIVE you independent legal advice.
• ACT in your interests.
• EXPLAIN to you the legal work which will or may be required.
• MAKE SURE that you understand the likely degree of financial risk you will be taking on.
• KEEP YOU regularly informed of progress or, if there is none, when you are next likely to hear from us.
• TRY to avoid using technical legal language when writing to you.
• DEAL with your queries promptly.
• MEET or exceed the level of standards we set.

We will NOT:

• GIVE you advice about tax.
• CHECK the financial standing of any other party to your matter.
• GIVE you any investment advice.
• TELL you about any later changes in the law

3. Hours of business

The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm on weekdays. Messages can be sent to us by e-mail outside those hours, and there is an answerphone service for telephone messages. Appointments can be arranged at other times when this is important, as well as at your home or place of work if it is difficult for you to come to us.

4. Responsibility for the work

Our letter of engagement will give details of the member of staff who is responsible for dealing with your work, and his or her position in the firm, as well as the person in the firm with final responsibility for the work. We will try to avoid changing the people who handle your work but if this cannot be avoided, we will try and tell you promptly of any change and why it may be necessary.

5. Charges and expenses

5.1 If we have agreed to act for you on an Hourly Rate and Contingency Fee arrangement or a Conditional Fee basis, details of our charges, the way they are calculated, and your liability for them, will be covered by a separate agreement.

5.2 In other cases, our charges will be calculated mainly by reference to the time spent by consultants in carrying out any work which we are instructed, expected or required to do on your behalf.

This will include meetings with you and others; reading and working on papers; preparing and approving documents; correspondence, e-mail and other electronic communications including but not limited to instant messaging and SMS/MMS services, making and receiving telephone calls; preparation of any detailed costs calculations; and time spent travelling to and from meetings when this is necessary.

Time spent dealing with the work, routine letters and e-mails sent and received and telephone calls made and received are recorded and charged in units of 6 minutes.

5.3 Hourly rates are reviewed periodically to reflect increases in overhead costs and inflation. If a review is carried out before your matter is concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes effect.

5.4 In Conditional Fee cases, urgent matters, and cases that involve particular complexity or require specialist expertise or knowledge, the charging rates may be increased and you will be notified of those rates in the letter of engagement.

5.5 Travelling expenses will be charged at the rate of 45p per mile plus VAT when travelling by car or (where applicable) at the standard train fare.

5.6 You have the right to complain about a bill, in which case the firm’s Complaint’s Procedure should be followed.

6. Payment arrangements  

6.1 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, payment in full is due within 28 days of our sending you a bill. We are entitled to charge interest on the amount of the bill until the date of payment, if payment of the bill is not made within that time. Interest is charged at 8% over the National Westminster Bank plc base lending rate from time to time in force. We do not accept payment by instalments unless this has been agreed at the outset.

6.2 Apart from Conditional Fee and Contingency Fee cases, we may ask you to pay a sum or sums of money on account of the charges and disbursements which are expected to be incurred in the following weeks or months. We find that this helps clients to budget for costs as well as keeping track of legal expenses. If such requests are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result. If any bill or request for payment is not met, this firm reserves the right to stop acting for you.

6.3 Interim bills for charges incurred may be raised at any time during a matter. Where there are funds available, interim and final bills will be deducted from those funds.

6.4 Liability for costs and disbursements in Conditional Fee and Contingency Fee cases will be covered by separate agreement.

6.5 If two or more individuals are instructing this Firm then unless expressly provided otherwise than in these terms then individuals shall be jointly and severally liable for their respective obligations and liabilities arising under this agreement. Hall & Griffiths Legal may take action against, or release or compromise the liability of any person with joint and several liability or grant time or other indulgence without affecting the liability of any other person.

7. Liability to others for charges and disbursements

7.1 In some cases a client may be entitled to payment of costs by some other person. It is important that you understand that, in such circumstances, the other person may not be required to pay all the costs and charges that you incur with us. You must pay our charges and disbursements 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 Public Funding no costs are likely to be recovered. The other person will not be liable to pay the VAT element of your costs if you are able to recover the VAT yourself.

7.2 If you are successful and a court orders another party to pay some or all of your charges and disbursements, 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 and disbursements 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.

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

8. Storage of papers and documents

8.1 If you give us papers that relate to a particular matter we are handling for you these will be kept in your file. We will assume that you do not want the papers returned to you unless you tell us otherwise.  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 disbursements. 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 your file of papers 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.

8.2 If we need to retrieve your file or other papers from storage to answer questions raised by you or others, we reserve the right to pass on any charges made for such retrieval. We will make a charge based on time spent for producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request, or if the papers are required urgently. We may also charge for reading, correspondence, or other work necessary to comply with your instructions, and for the work involved in copying such papers or files for our records, to enable us to answer any future queries or correspondence.

9. Copyright 

When we draft or prepare documents for you, the copyright in them belongs to us and you are licensed to use them for the purpose for which they were prepared.

10. 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 and expenses incurred to that time.

11. Tax advice

Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We will not offer any advice in relation taxation. However, we may be able to identify a source of assistance for you.

12. Communication and complaints

12.1 Our aim is to always offer all our clients an efficient and effective service, and we hope you will be pleased with the work we do for you. However, if there is any part of our service with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern in the first place with the person you are dealing with, or the partner with overall responsibility.

12.2 We will aim to communicate with you by such method as you request. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by email, but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence sent by email.

13. Data protection

We will use the information you supply primarily to provide you with legal services and for related purposes including: updating and enhancing client records; management and analysis of our practice; statutory returns; legal and regulatory compliance. Our use of the information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018, GDPR 2018 and our duty of confidentiality. We may sometimes have to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access to the personal data we hold about you.

14. Vetting of files and outsourcing

14.1 External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality. Please let us know immediately if you wish your file to be excluded from any such audit or check.

14.2 We may sometimes ask other companies or persons to do typing or other work on our files to ensure that this is done promptly and cost-effectively. In such cases we will enter into a confidentiality agreement with those outsource providers. If you do not want your file to be outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.

15. Equality and diversity

Hall & Griffiths Legal is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

16. Limitations of our liability

16.1 We will perform the work which we do for you with reasonable skill and care and we acknowledge that (subject to the other exclusions and limitations in the Terms) we will be liable to you for losses, damages, costs or expenses (“Losses”) caused by our negligence or wilful default, subject to the following provisions:

• We will not be so liable if such Losses are due to the provision of false, misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete information or documentation, or due to the acts or omissions of any person other than a member of this firm.
• The aggregate liability, whether to you or any third party, of whatever nature, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, of the firm for any Losses whatsoever and howsoever caused arising from or in any way connected with each matter upon which we are instructed and/or advice on it, shall not exceed £2 million.
• Details of our Professional Indemnity Insurance cover and provider are available upon request from Hall & Griffiths Legal, Office 3, The Meadows, Church Road, Dodleston, Chester, CH4 9NG or by email sara@rhall.co.uk or by telephone 01244 629000.

16.2 Our liability, whether to you or any third party, in contract or tort or under statute or otherwise, shall exclude any indirect or consequential economic loss or damage (including loss of profits) suffered by you or any third party arising from or in connection with the matter on which we are instructed and/or advice on it, however, the indirect or consequential economic loss or damage is caused, including our negligence but not our wilful default.

16.3 Nothing in this section of the Terms shall impose on the firm any liability of any kind or for any amount which we would not have but for this section.

16.4 The firm has no duty to clients or any other person to inform them of any changes in the law or in practice occurring after the completion of a matter, and shall not be liable for Losses which arise from any failure to do so.

16.5 Nothing in this section of the Terms shall have the effect of restricting our liability in respect of any kind of loss, damage or liability which cannot or must not be excluded or limited under English law.

17. Termination of instructions

17.1 We may decide to stop acting for you if there is or may be a conflict of interest, where you fail to produce satisfactory evidence of identity, or where there is another good reason (such as failing to pay an interim bill). We will give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.

17.2 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.

17.3 If you or we decide that we will no longer act for you, you will pay our charges up until that point.

17.4 Termination will not affect any rights or liabilities that have accrued under the contract.

18. Money laundering regulations

18.1 The law requires consultants to obtain and verify information about your identity, and the identity of any principal, beneficial owner, or shareholder you represent. This is to comply with current Anti-Money Laundering legislation and regulations made under such legislation. To comply with the regulations, we need to get evidence of your identity as soon as possible, so you will be asked to produce suitable evidence of such identity and your address to us before we can act upon your instructions. The regulations may also require us to make enquiries of you (and possibly others) about the source of money or property involved in the matter or transaction in which we are instructed. We may use an electronic identification service to confirm your identity, and that of any principal or beneficial owner you represent. The cost of using this service may be charged to you.

18.2 We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, we may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, 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 period of time and may not be able to tell you why. We will not be accountable or liable to you or to any other person for any delay, loss, damage, demand, breach, interest, costs, or other claim occasioned by or because of such a disclosure made by us (or any other person), and whether or not the disclosure relates to you or your property.

19. Waiver 

A delay or partial delay in exercising the rights available under the agreement following a breach does not count as a waiver of those rights.

20. Severability

If any clause in the agreement is found by a Court to be unenforceable, the remainder of the agreement will be unaffected and stay in force.

21. Force majeure

For the avoidance of doubt neither party shall be liable for matters or losses arising from a Force Majeure event.

22. Status and regulation

Hall & Griffiths Legal is a limited liability company, registered in England and Wales with number 07777529 and is registered for Value Added Tax, registration number 345 8207 92.

23. Terms and conditions of business

23.1 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, or unless superseded by a later edition of our Terms and Conditions, (and subject to the application of the then hourly rates), these Terms and Conditions shall apply without variation to all present and any future instructions given by you to us.

23.2 Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start or continue work on your behalf until one copy of them, signed by you, has been returned to us.