We have set out here this firm’s terms of business as required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is the governing body for solicitors in England and Wales. It complies with the Solicitors Regulation Code of Conduct, The Solicitors’ Financial Services (Code of Business) Rules 2001(as amended) the Solicitors’ Financial Services (Scope) Rules 2001 and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
- 1. This firm
- 2. Responsibility for work and service standards
- 3. Fees – contentious matters
- 4. Fees – non contentious matters
- 5. Estimates, interim billing, budgets and your rights under the Solicitors Act 1974
- 6. Payment of fees and disbursements
- 7. Interest
- 8. Termination of instructions
- 9. Confidentiality
- 10. Problems and complaints
- 11. Insurance and limitation of liability
- 12. Storage of papers and documents
- 13. Financial services / Insurance mediation
- 14. Conclusions and acceptance
1. This firm
Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited is registered as a Limited Company in England and Wales under Company number 4105270. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our registered office is Broadstone House, Broadstone Road, Reddish, Stockport, SK5 7DL . Our VAT Registration number is 945976952. Our SRA number is 500055. Webster O’Brien Solicitors, UK Injury Law and Vickers Webster O’Brien are trade names of Webster O’Brien Solicitors Ltd.
2. Responsibility for work and service standards
If you instruct this firm you will receive from us a letter which will set out all the information you require including details of the lawyer with day to day conduct of your matter(s). It also sets out who will be responsible for overseeing conduct of your matter(s). This person will be a Partner (a Member/Director of Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited) or a senior member of staff of sufficient age and experience to supervise the conduct of your matter(s). We use the word Partner to refer to a Company Member/Director. A full list of Members/Directors is available for inspection at our registered office.
We may involve other members of the firm to provide appropriate assistance from time to time. It is the aim of this firm to provide the best possible service for all our clients in a manner that is practical, commercial and cost effective. We will explain to you the issues raised in your matter and keep you informed of progress. We try to avoid changing the people who are handling your work but occasionally this is unavoidable. We will notify you promptly in the event of any change.
3. Fees – contentious matters
Our fees are calculated on an hourly rate by reference to the time spent and the status of the lawyer who carries out the work. Time spent will include meetings with you and others, any time spent travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers or correspondence and telephone calls. Our fees include any costs for secretarial time although an additional charge may be made for other exceptional out of pocket expenses and all disbursements in the matter.
Our standard hourly rates are:-
Grade A – Partner (Company Member/Director) / Consultant / Associate/ Assistant Solicitor with over 8 years PQE £200
Grade B – Litigation Manager/Consultant/Associate/ Assistant Solicitor with over 4 years PQE £175
Grade C – Other Solicitors and Legal Executives and Fee Earners of equivalent experience £155
Grade D – Trainee Solicitors/Paralegals and Fee Earners of equivalent experience £95
In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action must be taken, the expertise or specialist knowledge that the case requires and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved.
We reserve the right to review and vary our hourly rates from time to time (usually no more than annually) and we will advise you of any such variation.
We also make a charge for telephone calls and letters at one tenth of the hourly rates detailed above. Any fees which we pay on your behalf, e.g., court fees, medical reports, barristers’ advices etc will be payable by you. All our charges are subject to VAT where applicable.
Where costs (i.e., fees and disbursements) are recoverable from an opponent we may charge such higher rate as is allowed by the Courts or Tribunal or agreed with the other party in respect of our fees.
Liability for other parties’ costs and recovery of your own legal costs.
You are responsible for paying our bills. This is so even if a third party (e.g., an insurer or your opponent) agrees to meet them, or is ordered to pay your costs.
The amount of costs which you will have to pay may be greater than the amount you can recover from another party in the case. Even if you are successful the other party may not be ordered to pay all your costs or these may not be recoverable from them in full. In cases where the other party is ordered to pay a contribution towards your costs the Court may assess the amount which the other party has to pay through a procedure known as assessment. It is unusual for the Court to make the other party pay all of your costs and there may be a difference between the hourly rate applied by this firm and the amount allowed by the Court on assessment.
If the other party is legally aided or without means to pay you may not get back any of your costs even if you win the case.
If you are successful and the Court orders the other party to pay some or all of your costs, 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 costs on account promptly, but we shall be entitled to the balance of the interest.
You will be responsible for payment of costs of seeking to recover any costs arising from the Court orders that the other party has to pay.
The Court may order you to pay the other party’s legal costs, for example, if you lose the case or lose an interim application in the case or if you fail to comply with the Court order. The money will be payable in addition to our fees and disbursements.
Conditional Fee Agreements.
If we have agreed to represent you under a Conditional Fee Agreement we will provide you with additional terms and conditions for that Conditional Fee Agreement. In essence the Conditional Fee Agreement (known as a no win no fee arrangement) means that this firm will represent you and if we are successful we will seek to recover our costs from the third party against whom a claim has been made. If we are unsuccessful in the claim then we will not make any charge to you. To take advantage of the Conditional Fee Agreement you must comply fully with its terms and conditions.
If you are successful with your claim then normally we would be entitled to recover part or all of our basic charges, disbursements and success fee (see below) from our opponent. Therefore you will not be liable to pay us anything in respect of these. You will only be liable to pay our charges, disbursements and success fee in certain circumstances as set out in the Conditional Fee Agreement that we will send to you. For example if you are in breach of the agreement. If however you lose your claim (once proceedings have been issued) you would not have to pay to us our basic charges or success fee as we are acting for you on a no win no fee basis. You would however be responsible for our disbursements and your opponent’s legal charges and disbursements. It is however possible to take out insurance, referred to as “after the event insurance” to cover you for these two items in the event that you lose your claim. We will discuss with you taking out such insurance if and when the need arises. This would certainly be before any proceedings are issued and served upon your opponent.
Success Fees.
If we represent you under a Conditional Fee Agreement then we will also charge a “success fee”. This is an additional fee calculated by multiplying the percentage fees set out in your Conditional Fee Agreement by the figure of our charges (excluding VAT and disbursements).
Payment for advocacy by Counsel.
It may be necessary to instruct Counsel (a barrister) during the course of your case. There are two ways in which the instruction of a barrister can be funded:-
Barristers instructed under a Conditional Fee Agreement with us.
Subject to the agreement of the barrister concerned we may be able to enter into a Conditional Fee Agreement with him/her. In those circumstances the barrister will also charge a success fee on his/her fees which we will attempt to recover from your opponent together with our own costs and success fee in the event that your claim is successful. If there is any shortfall in respect of the barrister’s success fee this would have to be met from your damages. In the event that your claim is not successful the barrister will not be entitled to make any charge for the work he/she has done under the Conditional Fee Agreement with us.
Barristers with whom we do not have a Conditional Fee Agreement.
If your barrister is instructed and charges his fees as a normal disbursement we should be able to recover those fees, provided they are reasonable, at the conclusion of the case if you are successful. However, if your case does not succeed then you would be responsible for the fees of your barrister.
4. Fees – non contentious matters
Our fees in relation to non contentious work are also charged on the basis of an hourly rate. The rates applicable are as follows:
Grade A – Partner (Company Member/Director) / Consultant / Associate/ Assistant Solicitor with over 8 years PQE £200
Grade B – Manager/Consultant/Associate/ Solicitor with over 4 years PQE £175
Grade C – Other Solicitors and Legal Executives and Fee Earners of equivalent experience £155
Grade D – Trainee Solicitors/Paralegals and Fee Earners of equivalent experience £95
We also make a charge for telephone calls and letters at one tenth of the hourly rates detailed above. Any fees which we pay on your behalf, e.g., search fees etc will be payable by you. All our charges are subject to VAT where applicable.
We reserve the right to review and vary our hourly rates from time to time (usually no more than annually) and we will advise you of any such variation.
Fixed fees.
In relation to the majority of non contentious matters we offer fixed fees. Any fixed fees will be agreed with you in advance and confirmed in writing. We will abide by the fixed fees agreed with you provided that the matter proceeds in accordance with our initial instructions. We reserve the right to review the fees in the event that the matter is aborted or it substantially changes throughout the course of our instruction.
Aborted matter fees.
We reserve the right to charge a fee in the event that the matter is aborted for any reason. However, in the event that a matter is aborted we confirm that our fee will never exceed the original estimate given for the transaction or matter.
5. Estimates, interim billing, budgets and your rights under the Solicitors Act 1974
We will give you estimates of our likely fees and disbursements as the matter progresses. We will also submit interim accounts on a regular, usually quarterly basis. This avoids a substantial build up of costs and enables you to budget for costs as the matter progresses.
We will inform you of any additional work that becomes necessary (for example, due to unexpected difficulties or if your requirements or the circumstances significantly change during the course of the matter). You may set a limit on the costs to be incurred i.e., a budget. We will inform you if it appears that the limit may be exceeded but will not exceed the limit without obtaining your consent.
You have the right to object to our bill and you may apply for an assessment of the bill under Part 11 of the Solicitors Act 1974.
6. Payment of fees and disbursements
It is normal practice for us to ask clients to pay sums of money on account of fees and disbursements which are anticipated in the following weeks or months. This will be particularly so in the weeks leading up to any hearing or transaction. It is helpful if you can meet such requests with prompt payment to avoid any delay in the progress of your matter.
Payment of our bills is due to us within 7 days of the date of the relevant account. Late payment will attract interest at the rate of 2% above Nat West Bank Plc base rate, calculated on a daily basis from 7 days after the date of delivery to the date of actual payment. If you have any query about your bill you should contact the person dealing with the matter immediately.
In the event of any account or request for payment not being met then we may decline to act any further and then the full amount of our fees for the work done and disbursements incurred up to that date will be charged and due from you.
7. Interest
Please note that interest may be earned by us in relation to sums held on account of costs in our client account or, indeed, sums recovered from any opposing party. We will account to you for such interest provided it exceeds £20 but otherwise we will be entitled to retain it.
8. Termination of instructions
You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses.
In some circumstances you may consider that we ought to stop acting for you, for example, if you cannot give clear or proper instructions on how we are to proceed or if it is clear that you have lost confidence in how we are carrying out your work.
We may decide to stop acting for you, but only with good reason, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with our request for payment on account on giving reasonable notice or failing to provide proper instructions when requested.
You should also bear in mind that we are, and remain at all times, officers of the Court and that our overriding duty is to the Court. Accordingly, if at any time, a conflict arises between your interests and our obligation to the Court, we will have no alternative but to immediately cease to act for you and to refer you to alternative solicitors.
If you or we decide that we will no longer act for you, you will pay our fees and disbursements to date in accordance with any agreements reached in relation to fees.
9. Confidentiality
Your matters are confidential. However, you should appreciate that in the event of documents relating to your matter being transmitted to or from our offices by fax or, particularly, email, there is a risk that the contents of such documentation will be read by unauthorised third parties. Unless you confirm to the contrary to us in writing, we shall utilise both fax and email (as appropriate) to facilitate communications on the understanding that you are aware of, and accept, the possibility of third parties having unauthorised access to otherwise confidential documentation as a result of our use of fax and/or email facilities in respect of documentation relevant to your matter.
10. Problems and complaints
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards. If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We will then proceed as follows:
- We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days of us receiving the complaint, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
- We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our client care Partner, John Webster, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
- John Webster will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. He will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
- Within 7 days of the meeting, John Webster will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
- If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, John Webster will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending to you the acknowledgement letter.
- At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for another Partner unconnected with the matter (or at our discretion in exceptional circumstances a solicitor in another unconnected practice) to review the decision.
- We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
- If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 15870, Birmingham, B30 9EB about your complaint. Any complaint to the Legal Complaints Service must usually be made within six months of the date of our final decision on your complaint but for further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman Service (0300 555 0333 or refer to www.legalombudsman.org.uk).
If we have to change any of these timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
11. Insurance and limitation of liability
Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited carries for the protection of its clients, itself, its members and its staff at least the minimum level of professional indemnity insurance required from time to time by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We will review and increase such insurance from time to time in accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority regulations and upon the advice of our professional insurance brokers. In the event that a specific and/or separate insurance policy is required in relation to the matter(s) that we are instructed on by you then we will discuss the same with you before we accept your instructions. If necessary we will take out appropriate specific insurance. Full details of our indemnity cover is available on request.
Except where specifically excluded by law, in the event of negligence or breach of contract or other matter giving rise to a claim against Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited, its members and/or its staff, by instructing us and entering into this agreement you acknowledge and confirm your consent to our limiting our liability (subject to current law) to the level of our indemnity cover.
Further, you specifically agree that any liability will rest with the firm (Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited) and not with any employee of the firm or any member of the Limited Company who might otherwise be liable. This agreement is subject to Section 60(5) of the Solicitors Act 1974 (in the case of contentious business agreements), the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999.
12. Storage of papers and documents
Following the conclusion of your matter(s) we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is any money owing to us for outstanding charges and expenses. We will retain your file for a minimum of six years after the date of the final bill we send to you but thereafter we may destroy the file without further notice to you. Papers may be retained for a longer period in appropriate matters. Additionally, should you require it, we can retain papers indefinitely but this will be at our discretion.
We accept no responsibility in the event that papers cannot be located if more than six years have elapsed since the date of the final bill.
If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs we will not normally charge you for such retrieval. However, we will make a charge based on time spent producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. Our minimum fee in such circumstances is £30.00 together with applicable VAT.
13. Financial services / Insurance mediation
Sometimes the work on which we are instructed involves investments. We are able to provide a limited range of advice and arrangements for which we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. For more complicated matters, we may refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority, as we are not so authorised.
As we have said, this firm is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority 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 Financial Services Authority website at www.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 Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.
14. Conclusions and acceptance
Unless otherwise agreed, these terms of business apply to any instructions you may give us. Your continuing instructions will amount to your acceptance of these terms of business. To be bound by these terms of business and to enable us to proceed with your instructions we will send to you a copy of the terms and a formal letter confirming your instructions to us. We will ask you to sign, date and return to us an acknowledgment that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these terms. When we have received the signed acknowledgment we can then be confident that you understand the basis on which we will act for you and you will have its benefit and protection in the event that you are successful in obtaining a costs order against another party.
If you have any queries concerning these terms of business please contact the fee earner dealing with your matter and he/she will be happy to discuss the same with you.
Webster O'Brien Solicitors Limited
(Version 6 – Revised 27 September 2011)
