Business Hours
The office is open between 09:00am to 17:00pm Monday to Thursday and 09:00am to 15:00pm Friday. We are closed weekends and all bank holidays. If you require an appointment outside of office hours these may be able to be arranged by prior request, and may result in an additional charge.
Responsibilities
We will update you by telephone or in writing with the progress of your matter regularly and following agreed events and will explain to you by telephone or in writing any legal work required to be undertaken to progress your matter.
You will need to ensure that you provide us with instructions, all information and documentation that we request in a timely fashion to enable us to comply with any timescales.
Costs
You are liable to pay legal costs as addressed in our initial meeting and confirmed in our initial letter. All costs are subject to VAT. Where we are charging our hourly rate, this will be charged in 6 minute units to both read and draft correspondence. Where correspondence is lengthy and requires research or additional reading this will be charged for. To ease both parties cash flow, this firm raise invoices on a monthly basis and invoices will be both emailed and posted to you. Payment is due upon production of an invoice and interest will be charged on overdue bills at 8% above the Bank of England base rate.
If payment is not made within 7 days from the date of the invoice we reserve the right to suspend acting for you until payment is made in full or a payment plan agreed in writing.
You have the right to challenge or complain about our bill. Please see the Complaints section below for details.
You have the right to challenge our bill by applying to the court to assess the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The usual time limit for making such an application is one month from the date of the delivery of the bill. If the application is made after one month, but before twelve months from delivery of the bill, the court’s permission is required for the bill to be assessed.
Unless there are special circumstances the court will not usually order a bill to be assessed after: ➢ 12 months from delivery of the bill
➢ A judgment has been obtained for the recovery of the costs covered by the bill
➢ The bill has been paid, even if this is within 12 months.
We will update you on both the progress of your matter and also timescales, at the intervals set out in our letter confirming your instructions. If appropriate, we will continue to review whether there are alternative methods by which your matter can be funded.
We can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.
We reserve the right to review our fees on a yearly basis.
Fixed Fee
Where we have quoted a fixed fee for the work, this money is due up front in full unless otherwise stated. This will be explained in the initial letter and what the fixed fee covers.
Limit of Liability
This firm has a maximum aggregate liability to you in this matter of £3,000,000.00 including interest and costs. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses, or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profit or opportunity.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
Sheryl Perry Solicitors have professional indemnity insurance giving cover for claims against the firm. Full details of this insurance can be made available upon request.
To comply with our regulatory obligations and the terms of our professional indemnity insurance, we may disclose relevant documents and information to insurers, brokers and insurance advisers on a confidential basis. This could include details of any circumstances arising from our work for you that might give rise to a claim against us. You agree to such disclosure by us even if the documents and information in question are confidential and/or subject to legal professional privilege.
Storage and retrieval of files
After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fee and expenses. Thereafter, you will receive a closing letter advising you that we will keep your papers and documents for 6 years in storage. There is no charge for this service but may incur a charge if we have to retrieve your file.
Terminating your instructions
You may end your instructions at any time by giving us notice in writing. We are entitled to keep all files, papers and documentation until our charges and disbursements are satisfied.
If we decide to cease acting for you then you will be given reasonable notice of this.
Data Protection
We use your personal data to provide you with legal services, but also for conducting various checks to verify your identity, comply with all our regulatory obligations and bodies and to market our services.
Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, telephone, post, text message or any other form of communication) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including any offers or new services we may provide. You have the right to opt out of receiving this information by contacting us by post to 43 Henniker Gate, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 6QH.
Money Laundering
We are required by law to confirm satisfactory evidence of the identity of our clients and, sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their clients can be used by criminals to launder money. To comply with the law, we need evidence of your identity as soon as instructed.
Confidentiality
All information provided to us by you is confidential and subject to legal professional privilege unless stated in this document, our letter confirming your instructions, or we are required by law to report this.
Complaints Procedure
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, or are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received, or about any bill received, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your
complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman, whose details are as follows: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ.
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 you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it). For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Applicable Law
Any dispute or legal issue arising from our Terms of Business will be determined by the Law of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.