Terms and Conditions of the practice of J. A. Walker, Solicitor.

Charging and billing

Our charges, like those of all solicitors, are based on a number of factors such as:

1.      The time spent

2.      The skills, specialised knowledge and responsibility required of the members of the firm handling the matter.

3.      The complexities and difficulty or novelty of legal questions involved

4.      The circumstances in which the business involved is transacted (for instance, if due to the urgency, evening or weekend work is required or if any unusually large amount of documents needs to be considered).

Our standard rate is currently £175.00 per hour if instructed on our standard retainer. We are currently offering a special price rate of £130.00 per hour for for children advice for the duration of our retainer with you if engaged online. If the advice is provided on an urgent basis there may be an increase in the fees charged, however this will be explained and agreed before any work is undertaken.

These charges are subject to an annual review on 7 April each year. Any changes to the rates will be notified directly to you at that time.

We provide much advice by way of fixed fees, based on an assessment and estimate of your needs, we will take payment on account prior to the work taking place. We will not undertake any work without payment on account being received into the account of J. A. Walker, Solicitor.

Our charges are set out in the table below. We shall advise you as to how much time we believe each transaction will take by email. Should you wish to continue to accept our service, you pay the outstanding fixed fee.

Disbursements will be discussed separately and confirmed in writing.

The above fees do not include V.A.T, currently @ 15%. 

Our service to you 

• We will provide you with a costs estimate when we receive your completed client questionnaire.
• We will update you by telephone and email with progress on your matter after every piece of work has been completed.
• We will communicate with you in plain language.
• We will explain to you by email the legal work required as your matter progresses, and will advise you of the cost for the next piece of work.
• We will update you on the next level of costs for your matter and advise you  what money needs to be paid on account.
• We will update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your matter whenever there is a material change in circumstances.
• We will update you on the likely timescales for each stage of this matter and any important changes in those estimates.
• If your financial circumstances change please inform us you may wish to seek Public Funding (which used to be called legal aid).  We do not offer a publicly funded service but we can signpost you to agencies that may be able to assist.   

Our responsibilities to you include:

• Reviewing your matter at the conclusion of each piece of work.
• Advising you of any relevant changes in the law.
• We will advise you of any circumstances and risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that could affect the outcome of your matter.

Your responsibilities to us are:

• You will complete our client questionnaire prior to our initial telephone discussion. Completion and submission of that questionnaire by email to us indicates that you have read these terms and conditions and agree to be bound by them.
• You will provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions.
• You will provide all documentation required to complete the transaction in a timely manner.
• You will safeguard any documents which are likely to be required for discovery.
• You will pay money on account in respect of our estimated costs for each transaction.

Hours of Business

Our standard office hours are 9.30 am until 4.30pm Monday to Friday. However we arrange appointments for telephone discussions outside of these times to suit individual client requirements. This can be in the evening or at weekends.

Equality and Diversity

J. A. Walker, Solicitors are 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

Data Protection Act

We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including: 

Updating and enhancing client records

Analysis to help us manage our practice

Statutory returns

Legal and Statutory Compliance

Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you. 

We may from time to time send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information, please tell us by email.

Storage of documents

We will retain electronic copies of your file for a period of 6 years from the date when of the conclusion of our professional relationship, unless an alternative is agreed in writing or by email. You are responsible for keeping original documents. Any original document sent to us will be scanned and stored electronically, the original document shall be returned by post, should you wish a secure form of postage or courier delivery you agree to pay the cost of postage or delivery in addition to the fees for legal services. Documents shall be returned when any outstanding charges or fees have been settled to our satisfaction. We shall use our best endeavors to ensure that data is backed up and stored in at least two locations. 

As our storage is purely electronic there are no costs for retrieving files at a later date if you instruct us again. A charge will be made if you require paper or electronic copies of any file to be forwarded to yourself or a third party on your instructions. We will store your records on CD and on external hardrive. We accept no responsibility for any loss - you are urged to make suitable arrangements for storage independently of J. A. Walker, Solicitor.

Outsourcing of work

Sometimes we ask other companies or people to do typing, photocopying or other work on our files to ensure this is done promptly. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If you do not want your file to be outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.

Vetting of files and confidentiality

External firms or organizations may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice. These external firms or organizations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

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

Terminating the retainer

You may end your instructions to us in writing or by email at any time. We may keep all papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

As every single transaction is managed by specific email quotations for advice you are be required to make this payment prior to receiving the legal advice or representation. As soon as the advice is provided you will be invoiced and monies transferred from our client account to our office account.

We may refuse further instructions, not take telephone calls or respond to emails and letters and cease acting for you only for good reason, e.g. if you do not pay a bill, or if a conflict of interest arises, or if there is an irretrievable breakdown in the client /solicitor relationship.

If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These will be submitted again in writing.

We will write to you confirming the termination of our retainer.

Money Laundering and Client Due Diligence

We do ask you to provide two forms of identification - a household utility bill and a photocopy of your passport. If we meet with you, please bring these to our first appointment. As we do not engage in providing advice that is regulated by anti-money laundering practice we can represent you in children and education matters without meeting you face to face.

We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the Serious Organised 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.

Introductions, referrals and commission

We do not take or pay referral fees, introduction fees or commission to any third party. As part of our service to you we may recommend other professionals who may be able to assist with aspects of your  circumstances that are outside our expertise but we do not take any money from them, nor would we pay for a referral to ourselves

Distance selling

We have not met so the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) regulations 2000 apply. These regulations mean that you have the right to cancel your instructions to us within 7 working days of receiving these Terms and Conditions by email. You can cancel your instructions by contacting us by post, email or fax to this office. Once we have started work on your file, you may then be charged if you then cancel your instructions. If you would like us to commence work on your file within the next 7 days, please:

            Complete and return our client questionnaire.

If you require urgent legal advice before the 7 day cancellation period, you must email us confirmation that you agree to the work as set out in our estimate, and make payment on account for that piece of work which will be non-refundable.

Financial arrangements with clients

We take payment by debit or credit card only. We use PayPal payment services, which are encrypted for client financial security. In exceptional cases we may agree to payment by cheque, however the funds must be cleared before we would undertake that specific piece of work on a case.

If counsel is instructed, payment must be made in advance, this payment will made to the barrister as soon as the particular piece of work has been completed, or on receipt of a fee note, whichever is sooner.

We are not authorized by the Financial Services Authority. If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorized to provide the necessary advice.

However, we may provide certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. This is because we are members of the Law Society of England and Wales , which is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The Solicitors Regulations Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints-handling arm of the Law Society. If you are unhappy with any investment advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

Complaints 

If you have a complaint about any aspect of the service you have received, we do try to deal with any problem informally. If the issue arises with anyone other than John Walker, he will deal with that complaint. Any complaint about John Walker will be delegated to a named individual. Any complaint must be made in writing and on receipt of any complaint we will then forward a copy of our complaints policy.

If you remain unsatisfied, please contact the Solicitor's Regulation Authority or Solicitors' Complaints Service.