Terms of Business

The following are Aston Park Law Limited’s general terms of business and should be read in conjunction with our engagement letter.

Professional Rules and Services

As solicitors we are governed by the professional rules contained in the Solicitors Code of Conduct published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

At the outset of each new matter we will:

– Write to confirm what you have asked us to do.

– Explain who will be undertaking that work, their status and identity.

– We will explain what the work entails and, to the extent possible, anticipated time scales.

– If possible we will provide an estimate of the likely cost of the work or its initial stages.

– We will periodically keep you informed of the progress on this matter.

We do not provide advice in relation to financial, accounting, taxation or pensions aspects of any matter.  You should obtain appropriate independent specialist advice on these aspects. 

Sue Grover is the Managing Director of Aston Park Law Limited and will be responsible for dealing with matters.  

We will communicate with you by email although if we consider it appropriate, or otherwise necessary, we may also correspond by post.  Please let us know of any changes to your email or postal address.  We would not usually send hard copies of emails by post unless you specifically request us to do so or an email is returned undelivered.

Service Issues

If there is ever any matter with which you are not happy please feel free to raise it with us. This should be done within 30 days of the issue arising. If you remain unhappy and have a valid complaint you can contact the Legal Ombudsman (“LO”) at www.legalombudsman.org.uk, email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk, tel. 0300 555 0333, post Legal Ombusdman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ within six months of a final response to a complaint from us to you and no more than six years after the act concerned or within three years of when you might reasonably have known there were cause for complaint  (and for professional conduct issues such as sex discrimination the SRA www.sra.org.uk email www.sra.org.uk/consumers/prblems/report-solicitor.page) once we have investigated your complaint here. LO will only consider your complaint if at the time you raised the complaint with us you were an individual, a micro-enterprise, a charity that had an annual income net of tax of less than £1m, a club, association or organisation whose affairs are managed by its members, a committee or a committee of its members and that had an annual income of less than £1m or a trustee of a trust that had an asset value of less than £1m. LO may also consider complaints made by a personal representative or beneficiary of the estate of an individual who raised a complaint with us before they died. If your complaint concerns acts or omissions outside England and Wales, LO may dismiss your complaint if the circumstances do not have sufficient connection with England and Wales.

Costs and Expenses

The cost of providing our services to you will be calculated on the basis of the time spent in dealing with matters for you (including telephone calls, meetings, travelling and waiting and dealing with correspondence), its complexity and its value. 

Our hourly rate is £295 plus VAT.  In addition to our fees, you will be responsible for any expenses we need to pay to third parties.

Where it is difficult to give you a definitive fee estimate, we will provide you with regular cost updates as matters proceed.

Any fee estimate provided to you is not a fixed fee estimate and the final figure may vary from this if the matters undertaken for you prove to be either extremely straightforward or relatively time consuming. If at any stage we feel that a fee estimate can no longer hold good, we will contact you to discuss this further.

Our fee estimates are based on our experience and judgement, however, as matters develop, new information may be received from you or other parties which materially affects the work to be done resulting in an increase to the cost.  It is important we both regularly review the information upon which our fee estimates are given to ensure that all material factors have been considered.

If anything develops in a way that affects our initial fee estimate, we will explain why this is.  You should be aware that in respect of some matters it is often only possible to give detailed fee estimates for the various stages of the matter undertaken as it progresses.  In such cases we will endeavour, where possible, to give our best fee estimate of the likely total cost so that cost effectiveness of proceeding with the matter can be assessed. 

Our hourly rates will be reviewed periodically to take account of increases in overheads and inflation.  If a review is carried out before this matter has been concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rates before they take effect.

If for any reason your matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for the work done on a time spent basis and for expenses incurred.

In some cases, you may be entitled to payment of your costs by another person.  It is important that you understand that in such circumstances the other person may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses which you incur with us.  You will be required to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any amounts which can be recovered will be a contribution towards them.  The other person will not be liable to pay the VAT element of your costs if you are able to recover the VAT yourself.

Each party (whether an individual, firm, partnership, company or other legal entity) whose interests we represent while acting in accordance with your instructions, will be liable jointly and severally for payment in full of our costs, expenses and VAT at the rate of 20%.  This applies irrespective of any agreement reached between you and any other party as to how our fees are to be paid or to whom we address our invoice and other communications.

In some situations we may require personal guarantees from individuals where we are being used to act for companies and/or organisations which may not have the ability to pay our fees and/or which require to be set up or created as part of the work we undertake for you.

Value Added Tax

Aston Park Law Limited is registered for VAT under number 346285189

Payments to us

Any invoice which we issue should be paid within 14 days, failing which we reserve the right to charge interest at the rate of 2% per calendar month.  In addition, we reserve the right to stop work on the matter until payment is received and, if requested, a further payment on account of future costs is made. 

If you have a complaint about our invoice, please tell us why.

You may also be entitled to object to the invoice by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

The common law entitles us to retain any money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly comes into our possession pending payment in full of our costs.

We do not accept payments to us in cash.

Banking

In the event a ‘deposit taking institution’ fails, an individual or small business depositor may be entitled to compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (“FSCS”).  The amount of compensation is presently limited to £85,000 per individual or small business and deposit taking institution.  More than one brand or trading name may be used by a deposit taking institution and you can check those with your bank, the Financial Conduct Authority or a financial adviser.

Regulation and Compliance (Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and Money Laundering Regulations 2017)

The law requires solicitors, as well as banks, building societies and others, to carry out ‘customer due diligence’ on their clients  This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their clients can be used by criminals wishing to launder money.

In order to comply with the law on money laundering we need to obtain documentary evidence of your identity and address.  You will therefore be asked to provide certain information of your identity and address (and in the case of corporate clients, this will include specific documents relating both to the company and to individual directors).  Where you are acting on behalf of another person, firm, company or other legal entity you will also be asked to disclose details of any ‘beneficial owner’ and you may be asked to provide certain documents to verify the identity and address of any beneficial owner.  In all cases, we will make copies of these documents and maintain them in our client database for future reference.  Our obligations also require us to enquire about the source of funding in relation to all activity involving client money whether or not it passes through our client account.

Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of client’s confidential.  This obligation however is subject to a statutory exception.  Legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the National Crime Agency.

Where we know or suspect that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, we may be required to make a money laundering disclosure.  This includes all types of tax evasion.  If, whilst we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.  Where a report has been made, pending consent to proceed from the relevant authorities, we may also be unable to take any further action on your behalf. 

We do not accept any liability for any losses flowing directly or indirectly from our compliance with these statutory obligations.

Disclosure of Information

We will only disclose your information if it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or we have a legitimate interest in doing so, which is not overridden by your rights.  Full details of how we may share your information are set out in our Privacy Policy.  

Termination

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents whilst there is money owing to us for our costs and expenses.  If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work for you and/or incurring costs and expenses on your behalf, you must tell us this clearly in writing.

Liability

You are entering into a contract with Aston Park Law Limited.  It is a condition of the contract that only Aston Park Law Limited may be liable in respect of any breach of contract, negligence or other related default; you shall not make any claim against any officer, shareholder, employee, agent or other representative of Aston Park Law Limited in connection with the contract or the services we provide to you.

In certain circumstances it may be appropriate for us to agree with you, on accepting your instructions, that our liability is limited to the extent of our indemnity insurance cover or for some other limit to be agreed with you.  In such circumstances this agreement will form part of our retainer and you may choose to take independent legal advice on such limitation.  Our professional indemnity insurance currently stands at a lever of £3 million per claim with cover for any civil liability to the extent that it arises from private legal practice carried on from office in England and Wales.  We will provide details of the cover on request.

Financial Services

This company is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Data Protection

We will only use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy which is attached to our engagement letter.  We can send an additional copy of our Privacy Policy by post or email upon your request.

Use of Email

We cannot guarantee the security and confidentiality or the reliability of the use of emails.

Storage of Files and Documents

To ensure we are able to comply with our regulatory obligations and insurance requirements, once your matter has been completed we will retain any personal data provided to us in the course of our acting for you for a period of seven years after your matter has concluded, unless we agree with you otherwise.  After this time your file of papers will be destroyed, and electronic files will be deleted.

Consumer Protection

If you are a consumer (to whom the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply and we have not met with you at our business premises, or we have concluded our arrangements at a ‘distance’, you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.  The cancellation period will expire 14 days from the date of the signature of your formal written acknowledgement to our Terms of Business.  To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us, Aston Park Law Limited, of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (for example, a letter sent by post or email) using the following contact details as appropriate: Aston Park Law Limited, 9 Aston Park, Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire OX49 5SW, email: sue@astonparklaw.co.uk, telephone 07940 592709.  To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient to send your communication, concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.  If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you.  We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the date on which we are informed about your decision to cancel this contract.  We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction unless you have expressly agreed otherwise.  In any event, you will not incur any fees because of the reimbursement.  If you requested us to begin the performance of services during the cancellation period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been performed until you have communicated to us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.  In the event the contract is completed before the cancellation period has expired you acknowledge that the contract cannot be cancelled.

Effect of Terms of Business

These Terms of Business and our engagement letter contains the entire agreement and understanding between us about the terms and conditions upon which we will act for you in this matter.  You acknowledge that you have not relied on any assurance of whatever nature (including any innocent or negligent misrepresentation or misstatement) which is not expressly set out in this documentation.