SIMPER LAW LIMITED
46 KING STREET NORWICH NR1 1PD
TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT
1. ABOUT US
Simper Law Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registration number 9950480. It provides legal services and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under number 628123. A list of its members may be inspected at its registered office at 46 King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PD.
Our Premises
- Our offices are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.
- Our switchboards are open from 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. If you are calling outside those hours, a message can be left on our voicemail.
2. INTRODUCTION
This document and any relevant client care letter contain the terms that apply to each matter in relation to which Simper Law undertakes work for you.
By instructing us, you have authorised us to take the steps we consider appropriate to represent you, including incurring reasonable expenses on your behalf.
If you have already asked to start work on your behalf, e.g., by giving you initial advice or by acting in an emergency, we will have been doing so on the understanding that, unless otherwise agreed, the terms as set out here apply from the start.
Your continued instructions will amount to acceptance of these Terms of Business regardless of whether you have signed and returned a copy of the attached letter.
3. HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE
The nature of legal work makes it difficult to give accurate estimates of how long a matter will take to complete. We will discuss timescales with you when we take your initial instructions. Although we attempt to meet any agreed timescales, and deal with everything as quickly and efficiently as possible, you should bear in mind that the speed at which work can be completed is frequently affected by the speed of the response of other parties, which is outside our control.
4. OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOU
We will:
– represent your best interests.
– communicate with you in plain English.
– confirm to you who will be responsible for your work.
– advise you of the costs and estimated timescale; and
– keep you informed of progress and the work that we are doing for you.
5. COMMUNICATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY
5.1 Methods of Communication
We will communicate with you by email, telephone, letter, or in person as appropriate. Please inform us immediately if you have any specific requirements or preferences regarding methods of communication.
5.2 Email and Electronic Communication
Unless you instruct us otherwise, we will predominantly communicate with you by email. Whilst we take reasonable steps to ensure the security of our email communications, you should be aware that email is not entirely secure and there is a risk of interception or misdirection.
By instructing us, you consent to us communicating with you and with third parties on your behalf by email, including sending confidential information by this method.
5.3 Confidentiality
We will keep all information which you pass to us confidential and will not disclose it to third parties except:
– as authorised by you.
– where we are required to by legal or professional obligation (including to our professional indemnity insurers or our regulator).
– as otherwise stated in these terms.
6. CLIENT IDENTIFICATION AND MONEY LAUNDERING
We are required by law to verify the identity of our clients and, where applicable, any person on whose behalf they are acting. We use electronic verification systems for this purpose.
We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency (NCA) where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. Money laundering includes all proceeds of crime and covers all offences, including for example tax evasion and benefit fraud. 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.
You must provide us with all information and documentation we reasonably request for the purposes of client identification and anti-money laundering compliance. We cannot act for you until we have completed these checks.
We will only accept a cash amount of up to a limit of £1,000.00 in any 28 day period. When we have to pay money to you, it will be paid by cheque or bank transfer. It will not be paid in cash or to a third party.
7. HOLDING CLIENT’S MONEY
Funds held by us on your behalf will be (unless otherwise agreed with you) held in our general client account which is subject to the provisions of the Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules. Subject to the Rules, we will not be liable to you for any loss arising as a result of bank insolvency.
Our policy on the payment of interest in relation to money held on your behalf is to account to you for all sums earned where the total exceeds £30.00. Below this sum we will retain any such sums earned without accounting to you for them. We believe that this policy is fair and reasonable and we will keep it under continual review, in the light of changing interest rates.
By prior arrangement with you, we can sometimes place especially large sums of money on specific deposit if we feel the length of time we expect to hold it justifies doing so, in which case you will receive all the interest received on account.
General payments of interest are made without the deduction of tax, but tax is deducted at source on specific deposits.
Please note that the rates of interest we might earn on your behalf are likely to be lower than you might otherwise obtain as an individual investor since we need to have instant access to such funds.
8. FEES AND PAYMENT TERMS
8.1 Basis of Charging
Our fees will be calculated on one or more of the following bases as set out in your Client Care Letter:
– Hourly Rates: Based on time spent by fee earners and other personnel working on your matter, this is calculated in units of 6-minutes.
– Fixed Fees: An agreed fixed amount for specific pieces of work.
– Other Arrangements: As may be agreed in writing, including conditional fee agreements, and delayed fee agreement in appropriate cases.
8.2 Disbursements and Expenses
In addition to our fees, you will be responsible for disbursements and expenses incurred on your behalf. Such fees will be charged to you at cost. We make no margin or profit on these fees. Before such expenditure is incurred, it is an absolute requirement that you must first provide us with sufficient funds to cover these disbursements or expenses. We will always try and give you as much notice as possible of such payments being required.
For the avoidance of doubt postage charges up to a value of £5.00 per item is considered an office expense. Any postage over £5.00 will be treated as a disbursement and allocated to your file accordingly.
8.3 Estimates and Costs Information
Any estimate of costs provided is based on our assessment of the work likely to be involved given the information available at the time. The final costs may be more or less than any estimate depending on how the matter progresses. We will inform you as soon as reasonably practicable if it appears that our costs are likely to exceed any estimate given.
8.4 Billing and Payment
Our standard policy is that fees and disbursements are payable in advance. At the outset of your matter, we will normally require an initial payment on account of our costs and anticipated disbursements. Any funds received from you on account will be held in accordance with the SRA accounts Rules and applied towards our fees and disbursements as work is carried out.
We may require you to make further payments on account from time to time to ensure that sufficient funds remain available to cover work undertaken and anticipated costs. We will notify you when additional funds are required.
We will not be obliged to undertake or continue any work on your behalf until any requested payment on account has been received and cleared. If requested funds are not provided within a reasonable period, we reserve the right to suspend work on your matter until payment has been received. We shall not be responsible for any delay, loss, additional costs, missed deadlines, or other consequences arising from such suspension, except to the extent that liability cannot be excluded by law.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the requirement to pay fees and disbursements in advance applies to all matters.
We will provide statements and invoices at appropriate intervals to show how funds held on account have been utilised. If, at the conclusion of your matter, any fees, disbursements, or other sums remain outstanding, we will issue a final invoice. Any balance due is payable upon receipt.
If any invoice remains unpaid, we reserve the right to:
- Charge interest on the outstanding amount from the due date stated on the bill, at 4% above the Bank of England base rate from time to time, or at the rate payable on judgment debts as amended from time to time (currently 8%), whichever is the higher. Interest will continue to accrue until payment is received in full.
- Cease acting on your behalf until payment is received, subject to any obligations we may have under the SRA Code of Conduct and, where proceedings are ongoing, any requirement to obtain the court’s permission or provide reasonable notice before withdrawing. We will endeavour to give you reasonable notice before taking this step.
- Exercise a lien over any documents, papers, deeds, funds, or other property held by us on your behalf until all outstanding fees, disbursements, and interest across all matters are paid in full. This right applies regardless of which matter the property relates to.
If you have any queries about an invoice, please raise them with us promptly. If you are dissatisfied with an invoice, you have the right to challenge it. Further information about this is set out in the Complaints section at paragraph 17 below.
8.5 Conditional Fee Agreements and Alternative Funding Arrangements
Where your matter is being conducted under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) or other alternative funding arrangement, the terms of that separate agreement will take precedence over the payment provisions in these Terms of Business in relation to our fees.
The specific terms relating to payment of our fees, success fees, liability for costs, and other financial arrangements will be set out in the separate funding agreement and Client Care Letter.
You remain responsible for disbursements and expenses as set out in the funding agreement, and for any opponent’s costs you may be ordered to pay.
For matters funded by way of CFA or similar arrangements, the provisions of clauses 8.4 above shall not apply except where they relate to disbursements or where they are specifically incorporated into the separate funding agreement.
9. STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF FILES AND DOCUMENTS
Following completion or termination of your matter, we will retain your file in accordance with our document retention policy and regulatory requirements.
We are entitled to keep all your papers and document while there is money owed to us for fees and/or expenses.
If you request that we provide copies of your file, release documents to you, or transfer all or part of your file to another adviser, solicitor, or third party, we reserve the right to charge an administration fee of up to £300 plus VAT for reviewing, collating and transferring a file to another solicitor or adviser, together with any additional costs reasonably incurred in dealing with unusually large, complex or urgent requests.
We may require payment of these charges before releasing or transferring documents where we are legally entitled to do so.
Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights, rights of access to personal data, or our professional and regulatory obligations.
After the conclusion of your matter, we may destroy correspondence and other documents from our files in accordance with our normal procedures. We will generally retain files for a minimum of six years from the conclusion of a matter, although this may vary depending on the nature of the work.
10. ZERO TOLERANCE ABUSE
Most individuals who contact us communicate with us in a polite and courteous manner. This policy is aimed at how we manage the relatively few individuals whose actions we consider unreasonable. We will manage behaviour that is aggressive or abusive, or which places unreasonable demands on our staff.
Aggressive and/or abusive behaviour or language (whether verbal i.e. face to face or by telephone or written) that may cause staff to feel intimidated, threatened, abused, or harassed.
Examples may include:
- Threats and verbal abuse
- Racist and sexist language
- Derogatory remarks
- Offensive and rude language
- Making inflammatory statements or
- Raising unsubstantiated allegations
Unreasonable demands and communication may include:
- Requesting responses to unreasonable timescales, or
- Insisting on speaking with certain members of staff.
All members of our team have the authority to deal with unreasonable behaviour and/or demands placed upon them. This may include giving you notice that we will record all calls that you make to the office, or that you are only able to deal with an allocated member of the team appointed on your case.
We will explain what action will be taken if the warning is ignored and, if you do not modify your behaviour, we will take steps to restrict communications with you. If we decide a restriction is appropriate, we will consider which of the options open to us best fits the circumstances. The level of restriction that we apply will be proportionate, considering the mature, extent and impact of your behaviour on our ability to do our work. This may include blocking emails/calls from you, limiting our contact with you, or more seriously, terminating our retainer with you.
If we terminate your retainer, we will give you reasonable notice of this termination. After receiving such notice, you will be liable to pay all costs in relation to your matter up until the date your retainer ends.
11. TERMINATION OF REPRESENTATION
You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees or expenses.
We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, e.g. if:
– There is a conflict of interest.
– You do not co-operate with our identity checking requirements.
– You do not provide satisfactory evidence of source of funds or source of wealth when requested.
– You do not give us proper instructions or co-operate with us.
– You do not pay a bill or provide enough money on account.
– You ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way.
– Trust and confidence have broken down.
– It would be unethical or unlawful for us to continue to act; or
– You seek to mislead us or another party involved in your matter.
If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, we will give you reasonable notice in writing and will take reasonable steps to minimize disruption to your matter. You will remain liable for our fees and disbursements up to the date of termination.
12. SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR LITIGATION AND CONTENTIOUS MATTERS
The following provisions apply to all litigation and contentious matters (including but not limited to personal injury, clinical negligence, contractual disputes, neighbour and landlord and tenant disputes, building disputes, family law proceedings, and contested probate matters) but excluding uncontested probate applications and other non-contentious matters.
12.1 Evolution of Scope and Continuing Retainer
Litigation matters can evolve in nature and scope. For example, a matter begins as a pre-action dispute and subsequently proceeds to the issuing of court proceedings or may escalate from one level of court to another.
Where the scope of work evolves in this manner and you do not expressly terminate our instruction in writing, your continued engagement with us and your continued provision of instructions shall be taken as confirmation that you wish the retainer to continue and that you accept liability for our fees and disbursements in connection with the evolved scope of work.
We will notify you when we consider that the scope of work is likely to change materially and will provide updated costs information where appropriate. However, your failure to terminate our instruction following such notification will be taken as acceptance of the continuing retainer.
12.2 Coming Off the Record
Where court proceedings are on foot (whether issued by us on your behalf or by an opposing party against you), if you:
- Cease to instruct us.
- Fail to respond to our communications within a reasonable time.
- Withdraw your instructions; or
- Fail to provide requested payments on account or pay our bills
we will be required to formally come off the record with the court.
To facilitate this process, you acknowledge and agree that within 7 days of a written request from us you will sign any document we reasonably require, including but not limited to a Notice of Change (Form N434) or a consent to our application to come off the record.
If you fail or refuse to sign such documentation within that 7 day period, you accept liability for all reasonable costs, disbursements, and expenses associated with any application we are required to make to the court to obtain permission to cease acting, including but not limited to the applicable court fee and our costs in preparing any application notice (Form N244), draft order, and witness statement in support.
You further acknowledge that until we have formally come off the record, we remain your solicitors of record and may be required to attend hearings or take steps in the proceedings, for which you will remain liable for our fees and any associated disbursements.
12.3 Duty to Respond and Comply with Court Directions
By instructing us in any litigation matter, whether existing or to be commenced, you acknowledge and accept that:
- You have an obligation to respond to communications from us within a reasonable timeframe.
- You have an obligation to provide us with timely instructions to enable us to comply with court orders, directions, and timetables.
- We owe duties to the court which may require us to take certain steps or make certain disclosures regardless of your wishes.
- The court’s directions and timetables are binding and that failure to comply can result in your claim being struck out or judgment being entered against you, and/or costs sanctions.
Failure to respond to our communications or provide instructions within a reasonable time, particularly where this prevents us from complying with court directions or deadlines, will be considered a material breach of these Terms of Business.
Where you fail to engage with us as required by the above points, we reserve the right to:
- Cease acting in accordance with clause 10.2.
- Make an application to come off the record as set out in clause 11.2.
- Take such steps as we consider necessary to protect our position, including making the court aware that we have been unable to obtain instructions.
You will be liable for any costs, expenses, or disbursements incurred as a result of your failure to engage or provide instructions in a timely manner.
13. DATA PROTECTION
We use the information you provide to us primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related services including statutory returns and legal and regulatory compliance. Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the provisions of the GDPR and our duty of confidentiality. We enclose with these terms and conditions our privacy policy as required by the GDPR provisions.
14. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY
Simper Law is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all its dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.
15. INVESTMENT ADVICE
If during this transaction you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. However, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, we may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are linked to the legal work we are doing for you.
If you have any problem with the service, we have provided for you then please let us know. We will try to resolve any problem quickly and operate an internal complaint handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman provide complaints and redress mechanisms.
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 Ombudsman is the independent complaints managing body of the Law Society.
16. OUTSOURCING
Sometimes other companies or people will do work on or have access to our files. This will include our IT support providers and the company who stores our closed files. If you have any concerns regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact us.
17. COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
17.1 Our commitment
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, we would like to hear from you so that we can try to resolve the matter. In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns, and we will do our best to resolve any issues at this stage.
17.2 How to make a formal complaint
Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case. However, if you would like to make a formal complaint, please can you put the complaint in writing to the Head of the Department set out below, either by posting the letter to our Norwich Office at 46 King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PD or via email to:
1. Contentious Probate: Victoria Rose-Smart
Email: victoria@simperlaw.com
2. Litigation: Victoria Rose-Smart
Email: victoria@simperlaw.com
3. Conveyancing: Kayleigh Eke
Email: kayleigh@simperlaw.com
4. Private Client: Casey Robins
Email: casey@simperlaw.com
5. Family Law: Sarah Denny
Email: sarah@simperlaw.com
6. Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury: Kate Batchelor
Email: kate@simperlaw.com
7. Business Growth Team: Danny Moloney
Email: danny@simperlaw.com
If your complaint is regarding one of the Heads of Departments mentioned above, please put your complaint in writing to our Office Manager:
Rachel Fountain, Email: r.fountain@simperlaw.com
Once we have received your formal complaint, we will send you a letter or email acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
We will then use all endeavours to investigate your complaint. The appropriate Head of Department will review your matter file and, if appropriate, speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
Within 28 days of reviewing the matter, they will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including their suggestion for resolving the matter. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again in writing within 7 days and we will arrange for our Director, Victoria Rose-Smart to review their 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.
Our full complaints procedure can be found on our website Complaints Policy | Simper Law Ltd | Norfolk.
17.3 Legal Ombudsman
The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about poor service from lawyers.
If we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks or you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may be able to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. However, the Legal Ombudsman is only obliged to deal with your complaint if you are an individual, a business with fewer than 10 employees and turnover or assets not exceeding a certain threshold, a charity or trust with a net income of less than £1m, or if you fall within certain other categories.
In addition, you should be aware that the Legal Ombudsman will be unlikely to accept your complaint if:
- more than one year has elapsed from the date of the act or omission giving rise to the complaint; or
- more than one year has elapsed from the time when you should have known about the complaint.
Visit www.legalombudsman.org.uk or email enquiries@thelegalombudsman.org.uk.
You can call 0300 555 0333 between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calls to national geographic numbers (starting 01 or 02) from both mobiles and landlines. Calls are recorded and may be used for training, and monitoring purposes. For minicom call 0300 555 1777.
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Do not send original documents to the Legal Ombudsman. They will scan any documents you send to make computer copies and then destroy the originals.
You may also be able to object to our bill by applying to the Court for an assessment under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. If your exercise this right, you could be prevented from making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. In addition, if you apply to the Court for an assessment and if all or part of the bill remains unpaid at the end of that assessment, we are entitled to charge interest. There are strict time limits that apply to this process, and you may wish to seek independent legal advice.
18. THE CONSUMER CONTRACTS (INFORMATION, CANCELLATION AND ADDITIONAL CHARGES) REGULATIONS 2013
If you have engaged us in a personal capacity and are not acting on behalf of your trade, business, craft, or profession, then you may be entitled to a 14-day cooling off period during which you may cancel the contract if any of the following circumstances apply:
- We met with you somewhere other than at our offices, and at that meeting we agreed to act in this matter.
- We met with you somewhere other than at our offices and at that meeting you asked us whether we could act in this matter. At some point after that meeting, we agreed to act.
- We personally and individually addressed you somewhere other than at our offices and immediately afterwards effected the contract either in our offices or by telephone or email.
- We agreed to act for you in this matter during an excursion that we organised.
Should you wish to cancel the contract, please do so in writing. A cancellation form is enclosed for your convenience and use.
However, if you would like us to commence work before the end of the 14-day period, you must confirm this to us in writing. A Commence Work Early Request Form is enclosed for your convenience and use.
Please note that if you ask us to commence work before the end of the 14-day period, you will be liable to pay us for any work done prior to any subsequent cancellation. If you have authorised us to commence work early, your right to cancel is lost if all the work is completed before you cancel.
I attached a Notice of Cancellation, a Cancellation Form, and a Request to Commence Work Early Form that should be attached to the terms of business if the retainer came into being in any of the circumstances described in the bullet points above.
