What defines the
Hewitsons approach
to service? The client.
Terms and conditions
This sets out our terms of business which, unless otherwise agreed in writing, apply in all cases in addition to any other terms of which we may notify you in writing. We hope that it will help you to understand how we operate and enable you to use our services to best effect.
Your Instructions
If your initial instructions to us are not in writing, we will normally write to you confirming the scope of the work to be carried out by us. In any event, we will notify you of the basis of our charges and other relevant details. This will include the name of a Contact Partner who will have overall responsibility for your matter. You will appreciate that it is important to supply to us, as soon as you can, all relevant information to enable us to act and to continue to act effectively on your instructions.
Identity Procedures
To enable us to meet our statutory obligations, new clients (and existing clients for whom we do not hold sufficient evidence of identity) will be asked to provide evidence of identity or documents relating to the formation of a company and, on occasion, information and evidence as to the source and/or destination of funding. Until we receive this information, the transaction or other work in question may be delayed. We may also have to cease acting for you if we do not receive this information.
Conduct of Work
We will allocate the conduct of your work to ensure that your matter is undertaken by individuals with the appropriate expertise. We will tell you the name of the person we propose will deal with your instructions. However, you can at any time telephone or write to your Contact Partner. The Contact Partner's concern is to see that we provide a good service to you.
We aim to offer an efficient and effective service to all our clients and we will deal with your work in a competent and professional manner, with care and diligence. If at any time during the conduct of a matter on your behalf circumstances arise which result in our having a conflict of interest, we may have to cease acting for you. You will appreciate that, in that event, you will still be responsible for our charges up to that time.
If you have any concerns about the way in which your work is handled, please get in touch with your Contact Partner, who will investigate your concerns and respond to you. Should you still have cause for dissatisfaction, then please write giving full particulars of the problem to Simon Biggin, the Partner who has special responsibility for dealing with such matters. A copy of our complaints procedure will be made available to you upon request if you wish to pursue a formal complaint. We will respond promptly, keeping a record of all action taken and the eventual outcome.
The Cost
Partners, solicitors and executives within the firm record the time spent working on each client matter. Depending on the type of work, we will assess our charges by reference to the cost of time expended and other relevant factors, such as the urgency and complexity of the matter, the specialist knowledge and responsibility involved and the value and detail of the transaction. For many types of work an hourly charging rate or rates will be used and we will provide you with appropriate details of these rates. We review such rates from time to time, and they may vary during the course of work we are carrying out for you.
We may ask you to pay in advance for certain expenses that will necessarily be incurred on your behalf. Any payments made to third parties in carrying out your instructions will be added to our charges. We reserve the right to charge in addition for photocopying, the cost of sending faxes and for international or lengthy telephone calls. We will in addition charge VAT at the prevailing rate in force, in any case where we are obliged by law to charge VAT.
If, for any reason, a matter cannot be completed (or if you withdraw your instructions or we cannot continue to act), we will make a reasonable charge for our work, together with any expenses incurred on your behalf and VAT. For a matter which does not proceed, you will normally be responsible for our charges, even in a case where a third party would have been responsible for payment had the matter been completed. So you can budget for charges, we normally submit interim invoices at regular intervals, depending upon the type of work, the circumstances of the case and the time spent on the matter.
We may ask you to make a payment on account of anticipated fees that will be incurred. We will normally provide you with an estimate of fees that will be incurred. You will understand that estimates can only be approximate and should not be regarded as fixed quotations.
Where unexpected difficulties arise during the course of a matter which will involve greater charges being incurred, we will give you a revision of the estimate. For certain work, fixed charges or charges up to a maximum level may be agreed.
Payment Terms
Our invoices are due for payment upon issue. If an invoice remains unpaid 30 days after the date of issue, then we reserve the right to charge interest at the statutory rate on the whole or the outstanding part of it. Such interest will run, both before and after any judgement, from 30 days after the invoice date until the date we receive payment of the invoice and any interest charged. You will also be responsible for any costs and expenses we incur in recovering amounts due from you, and for our standard administration charge for recovery.
Where you are entitled to recover our charges from a third party and you are registered for VAT, our invoice will be addressed to you to enable you to recover VAT (and you yourself must pay that VAT on delivery of our invoice).
Your Money
Your money will be held in a client bank account. Any deposit interest due to you may be paid gross and not net of basic rate income tax unless you are resident overseas. Please remember that for tax purposes you should disclose to HMRC details of any interest payments we make to you. All money that we receive in connection with work we are doing for you will be handled in accordance with the Solicitors' Accounts Rules 1998 ("SAR"). The SAR require us to deposit such money in a bank authorised by the Financial Services Authority to accept deposits. Our client funds are generally deposited with Abbey (Santander), Barclays, Lloyds TSB and NatWest. However, we keep this list under review and may change it from time to time without notifying you.
Title Documentation, Wills and Files
If you wish, we will retain title documentation and wills in safe keeping but, in the case of wills, only on the basis that we are under no obligation to keep them under review. We make no charge for this. Working papers are normally kept by us for a period of between six and sixteen years depending upon the type of matter. At the end of the relevant period, these working papers will be destroyed unless we have your written instructions during the transaction that the papers are to be retained. If you have lent documents to us they will normally be returned to you once we no longer need them, unless we are entitled to retain them in relation to outstanding charges.
Confidentiality and Privacy
Information of a confidential nature about you and your affairs is held in the strictest confidence by this firm and will not be disclosed by us to any third party without your consent, unless we are required to do so by law. Where we undertake work for you in conjunction with your other advisors, we will assume that we have your authority to discuss relevant confidential information with them unless you tell us otherwise.
Please also refer to our privacy policy published on our website at www.hewitsons.com for details of how we may use your personal information. If you are unable to access our website, we will provide to you a copy of this privacy policy upon request. We will be pleased to correspond with you by e-mail when appropriate although we are bound to point out that e-mail communications may not be secure. Should we receive an e-mail from you, we will assume (unless you tell us otherwise) that you are prepared for us to respond by e-mail, despite the likely confidential nature of our communication.
Liability
We do not limit our liability for fraud, or for reckless disregard of our professional obligations. Subject to that, we reserve the right by agreement with you to limit our liability to you, and our liability to all other persons who seek to rely on any services or advice provided by us to you or who suffer any loss arising from any act or omission on our part in relation to such services or advice (and whether such liability arises as a result of breach of contract or due to negligence or otherwise). In agreeing a limit on our liability we will take into account, in particular, the nature of the services or advice that we anticipate providing to you, the resources available to us to meet any claim that might arise, and the availability to us of insurance in respect of any such claim.
We will deposit all money that we receive in connection with our work for you with a bank or banks that we consider to be reputable. However, we cannot guarantee the security of the money held in our client bank account(s) against the risk of losses arising from the failure or default of any bank. If for any reason any bank should fail to remit the money to you, to us, or to a third party on your behalf, we will have no liability to make good any shortfall or otherwise to compensate you for any loss you suffer as a result, unless we acted in breach of our contractual or other duties to you concerning our choice of bank. In that case, our aggregate liability, to you and to all other persons who suffer loss as a result of the failure of any bank or banks to remit money held in connection with our work for you, for losses arising from such failure, shall be limited to a maximum of £3 million, or to such higher amount as may from time to time be required by our professional rules or by law.
Your contract with us will always be with Hewitsons LLP alone, and it shall be a condition of such contract that only Hewitsons LLP may be liable in respect of any breach of contract, negligence or other default relating thereto; and you shall not in any circumstances make a claim against any member, employee, agent or other representative of Hewitsons LLP in connection with such contract or the service we provide or agree to provide to you.
Tax Advice
Please note that, except as expressly otherwise agreed, we will not provide tax advice, whether in relation to a transaction that is proposed or otherwise. In any case where there may be tax implications and we have not expressly agreed to advise upon them, you should consult your internal or external tax advisors. If asked, we can put you in touch with specialist tax advisors.
Marketing
We usually enter details of new clients and client contacts on to our marketing database in order to send to clients newsletters, publications, etc which may be of interest, together with invitations to seminars we regularly run. Please let us know if you would prefer not to receive such information.
General
Except to the extent otherwise expressly agreed with you in writing by our duly authorised representative, the contract between you and us shall not confer a benefit on any third party and no third party shall be entitled to enforce any of its terms or otherwise to rely upon it.
We may at any time transfer our business and assets to another entity incorporated by us to carry on our practice, or in connection with a merger of our practice with another one. If we do this then, with effect from the time that we notify you that we have done so, all of our rights and obligations arising out of or relating to any work for you (whether past, ongoing, or future) shall transfer to that entity which shall be solely responsible for the performance of such work thereafter. Accordingly, you shall at that time be deemed irrevocably to release us from all our obligations and liabilities to you, and to accept instead the obligations and liability of that entity towards you.
The contract between us shall be governed by and construed in all respects in accordance with English law and, save in respect of actions by us to recover sums due from you, the Courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with the contract between us.