TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

ABOUT US

  1. We are Epoq Legal Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales. In these terms of engagement, 'we', 'our' and 'us' refers to Epoq Legal Ltd.
  2. Our registered office address is at 2 Imperial Place, Maxwell Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JN.
  3. Our company number is 3707955.
  4. Our VAT number is 247 9946 45.
  5. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our SRA number is 645296.
  6. The standards and requirements that we are expected to achieve and to observe can be found in the SRA Standards and Regulations (https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/).
  7. In relation to work performed by us under these terms of engagement, you are entitled to the protections offered by the SRA Compensation Fund (https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/compensation-fund-rules/). You are not entitled to these protections in relation to our other, non-legal activities.
  8. We hold professional indemnity insurance that covers our legal practice carried out from offices in England and Wales and extends to acts or omissions wherever in the world they occur. Our liability for negligence with respect to your matter is limited to the maximum of our indemnity insurance.
  9. When performing work for you under these terms of engagement, we do not expect to provide any financial services which are 'regulated activities' under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

DEFINITIONS

  1. Ask a Legal Question service: the work that we will do on your behalf in connection with answering a general legal question submitted by you through the Website.
  2. Document: a Rapidocs Document or a Non-Rapidocs Document.
  3. Document Preparation Service: the provision by us of access to the System on the Website.
  4. Document Review Services: the Rapidocs Document Review Service and the Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service.
  5. Helpline: the provision by us to you of a telephone legal advice line.
  6. Non-Rapidocs Document: a legal document, other than one created by you using the Document Preparation Service, that you upload using a facility on the Website.
  7. Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service: the work that we will do on your behalf in connection with a Non-Rapidocs Document.
  8. Rapidocs Document: a legal document created either by you or by one of our telephone operatives on your behalf using the System.
  9. Rapidocs Document Review Service: the work that we will do on your behalf in connection with reviewing and approving a Rapidocs Document.
  10. Services: the services listed at paragraph 3.1.
  11. System: the document assembly and drafting system used to create a Rapidocs Document.
  12. Telephone Document Preparation Service: the collection from you by telephone of the information required for our telephone operatives to create a Rapidocs Document on your behalf using the System.
  13. Website: the MyLawyer website hosted at the site www.mylawyer.co.uk.

OUR SERVICES

  1. These terms of engagement explain the operation of:
    1. the Telephone Document Preparation Service;
    2. the Rapidocs Document Review Service;
    3. the Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service;
    4. the Ask a Legal Question service;
    5. the Helpline; and
    6. the Small Claims Service.
  2. You may not have access to all of the Services. Therefore, reference in these terms to the provision to you of the Services is only to the Service or Services to which you do have access.
  3. 3.3 The work that we do for you in connection with the Services will be governed by these terms of engagement and either by the Terms of Use appearing on the Website or the Terms of Use relating to the Telephone Document Preparation Service sent to you by email (as applicable).
  4. Responsibility for any legal information provided by us or any other third party on the Website is governed by the Website Terms of Use, not by these terms of engagement.

STARTING WORK

  1. Prior to carrying out any work on your behalf under these terms of engagement, there are certain steps which we are required to take in order to be sure that it is proper and in your best interests for us to act for you. We will notify you by separate email, after completing these steps, if we are unable to accept your instructions. Further information can be found below under 'Acceptance of instructions'.
  2. We shall not be obliged to carry out any work on your behalf unless and until:
    1. you have signified your consent and agreement to these terms of engagement either expressly or impliedly by you telephoning us to make use of the Helpline or Small Claims Service or in order to proceed with the Telephone Document Preparation Service, or by you submitting a Document to us for review under a Document Review Service or a question to be answered under the Ask a Legal Question service; and
    2. we have accepted your instructions.
  3. A contract is made between us for the provision of the Services when, and if, we accept your instructions. This contract is ancillary to a separate contract between you and the Service Provider for the provision of the Document Preparation Service.
  4. By telephoning us to make use of the Helpline or Small Claims Service or in order to proceed with the Telephone Document Preparation Service, or by submitting a Document to us for review under one of the Document Review Services, or by submitting a question to the Aska Legal Question service, you request that we begin to provide that Service as soon as practically possible

ACCEPTANCE OF INSTRUCTIONS

Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017

  1. Before we can accept your instructions and begin work on your behalf, we may be required to obtain information and documents to enable us to verify your identity and to understand the nature and purpose of the work you want us to do for you. Unless you are an existing client of the firm and we hold all relevant and required information about you already, we will tell you separately which information and documents we need you to provide, and will be obliged if you will kindly supply us with them as soon as possible. We do hope that the impact on you will be minimal and that you will promptly provide all requested documents so that we may commence our work on your behalf. If you cannot provide us with the specific identification documentation that we request, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways to verify your identity.
  2. If we are unable to complete the verification process to our satisfaction because of any failure on your part to supply any requested information or documents, we will not be able to carry out any work for you and will be required to refuse your instructions. If this should occur, any payment (if applicable) already made with respect to those instructions will not be refundable.

    Conflict

  3. Similarly, before we can accept your instructions and begin work on your behalf, we are required to undertake a conflict check to ensure there are no reasons why we may not or should not accept your instructions because either the interests of another client may be in conflict with your interests, or our own interests may be in conflict with your best interests. We will let you know as quickly as we can if we are unable to act for you, and in that event (if applicable) any payment already made with respect to your instructions will be refunded in full.

    Joint instructions

  4. If you want us to act for both you and another person, we will need to conduct a similar verification and checking process in relation to that other person before we can accept instructions from, and begin work on behalf of, both of you. We will also need to assess the risk of a conflict of interests arising between the two of you. If we are satisfied that it is proper and appropriate for us to act for both of you, we will inform you and send a separate engagement letter to the other person. Otherwise, we will contact you to discuss your options.

TELEPHONE DOCUMENT PREPARATION SERVICE

  1. The purpose of the Telephone Document Preparation Service is to collect by telephone the information required for our telephone operatives to create a Rapidocs Document for you using the System.
  2. Our telephone operatives will either collect that information, if appropriate, when you telephone, or book an appointment for that purpose. In the latter case, one of our telephone operatives will call you at the appointed time. If you do not have available all the information required to complete the Rapidocs Document during the call, the operative will arrange for you to call back or email in with the missing information.
  3. If you are not available at the appointed time, the operative will leave telephone messages and/or send email messages to advise you to arrange another appointment.
  4. Our telephone operatives will not enter into correspondence with you other than as indicated here.
  5. The Rapidocs Document will be sent by a telephone operative for review under the Rapidocs Document Review Service when complete.
  6. Our telephone operatives will provide general information relevant to the creation of a Rapidocs Document, but it is not part of the Telephone Document Preparation Service for our operatives to suggest any particular choice or course of action, or to give any other advice (legal or otherwise).
  7. However, we would be very happy to provide such advice under the Rapidocs Document Review Service, where appropriate.

RAPIDOCS DOCUMENT REVIEW SERVICE

  1. There are limitations on the work that we will do under the Rapidocs Document Review Service.

    What we will do

  2. The scope of our work is:
    1. to indicate to you whether or not we are satisfied, based on the answers that you gave the System or one of our telephone operatives, that the Rapidocs Document created by or for you is effective, so far as has been disclosed, to meet your requirements and suitable for your circumstances; and
    2. if necessary and practicable, to amend the Rapidocs Document to ensure that it is suitable for your disclosed requirements and circumstances.
  3. This means that it is very important that you inform us about any information that you think may be material to the preparation of the Rapidocs Document or about the purpose for which the Rapidocs Document is to be used. The possible damage to you or to your interests if the Rapidocs Document is not correct is one such important material piece of information that you should disclose to us.

    How we will perform our work

  4. We shall:
    1. review the answers you gave the System or one of our telephone operatives;
    2. review the Rapidocs Document; and
    3. engage in reasonable correspondence and/or communications with you that are relevant to our work under the Rapidocs Document Review Service or that are required to clarify your requirements or to resolve ambiguities in information provided by you that is material to the performance of the Rapidocs Document Review Service. Subject to our fair use restrictions (see paragraph 7), we will endeavour to respond to your correspondence and communications as fast as we can, but do not guarantee any particular response time.

    What we will not do

  5. The Rapidocs Document Review Service does not include:
    1. undertaking any investigation of your particular circumstances beyond those that you disclosed in the answers you gave the System or one of our telephone operatives, or that you informed us of via subsequent communications;
    2. the provision of legal advice about the suitability of the Rapidocs Document to your particular circumstances save to the extent that they are disclosed by the answers you gave the System or one of our telephone operatives and/or in any subsequent communications;
    3. verifying your answers or any information given by you when using the System or the Telephone Document Preparation Service. You alone are responsible for ensuring the answers, and any information you give, are correct (this includes information in relation to the identity of any parties or signatories, their age and capacity). We rely on you providing the correct information;
    4. making substantial amendments to a Rapidocs Document; in particular, to add material provisions to the Rapidocs Document that are not contemplated by the underlying document template;
    5. proofreading data you have inputted for typographical errors;
    6. supervising or checking the due and proper signing of the Rapidocs Document. It is your responsibility to ensure that the Rapidocs Document is properly signed, and, if any person or entity who is to sign it is outside the jurisdiction in which we operate, it is your responsibility to ensure that the Rapidocs Document is properly signed in accordance with the requirements of that jurisdiction where those requirements prevail;
    7. undertaking any future review of the Rapidocs Document or providing any ongoing advice, legal or otherwise, as to the continued effectiveness for legal, taxation or any other purpose of the Rapidocs Document;
    8. sending your completed Rapidocs Document to you.

    Exclusions

  6. Where the Rapidocs Document is a will or a trust:
    1. We do not give personal, corporate or specialised tax advice and we strongly recommend that you engage a specialist to provide this advice for you.
    2. We will not supervise the signing of any will or take responsibility for the will being correctly signed. You will be provided with instructions on how to sign the will. If the will is not correctly signed it will be invalid.
    3. To make a valid will you must have the requisite mental capacity at the time of signing. If you instruct us to review a will, we shall proceed on the basis that the testator has mental capacity, and is of the minimum age for the relevant jurisdiction to make a will. If this is not the case, this could be grounds for challenging the will's validity which could adversely affect the intended beneficiaries. If you are concerned about this, we would suggest that you contact us to discuss the matter further.
    4. We do not assume any responsibility nor will we accept liability for failing to provide later advice on the terms of any will or trust prepared using the System should future taxation changes or any other changes in the law render their terms inappropriate. The responsibility for future reviews of the terms of your will or trust rests with you. We advise you to have your will reviewed regularly and at least every 2-3 years to make sure that the Rapidocs Document continues to meet your requirements.
  7. Where the Rapidocs Document is a power of attorney, we do not assume any responsibility for verifying that the donor has capacity or that the donor has not been subjected to undue influence with respect to the creation or the terms of the power.

    Alterations to the Rapidocs Document:

  8. We do not have any liability for:
    1. any alterations made by you or on your behalf to the Rapidocs Document once it has been returned to you by us unless such alteration has been approved by us;
    2. any use of the Rapidocs Document or signing of the Rapidocs Document by a person or entity outside of the jurisdiction in which we operate; or
    3. any adverse consequences resulting from the use of the Rapidocs Document which are attributable to circumstances pertaining to you which were not disclosed in the answers that you gave the System or in subsequent communications.

NON-RAPIDOCS DOCUMENT REVIEW SERVICE

  1. A Non-Rapidocs Document is any document that you have not created using the Document Preparation Service.
  2. When requesting a Non-Rapidocs Document Review, you will be asked to upload your Non-Rapidocs Document using a facility on the Website.
  3. There are limitations on the work that we will do under the Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service.
  4. What we will do

  5. The scope of a Non-Rapidocs Document Review is flexible but, depending on your specific requirements, we will:
    1. provide a written response to any questions raised by you with respect to the Non-Rapidocs Document; and/or
    2. review the Non-Rapidocs Document, or any specified part of it, and provide written advice to you:
      1. identifying any provisions that place an undue burden on you or which are unusually restrictive of, or disadvantageous to, you; and
      2. suggesting amendments and possible arguments that might be employed when seeking to persuade any relevant counterparty to the Non-Rapidocs Document to agree to such amendments.
  6. What we will not do

  7. We will not perform a Non-Rapidocs Document Review with respect to a Non-Rapidocs Document if that Non-Rapidocs Document or any question raised by you about it concerns the Service Provider, us, or any member of their or our respective groups or any of their or our respective directors, officers, agents or employees.
  8. The Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service does not include:
    1. undertaking any investigation of your particular circumstances beyond those that you disclosed when uploading your Non-Rapidocs Document and/or in any subsequent communications;
    2. undertaking any investigation to verify your capacity to make the Non-Rapidocs Document or that you have not been subjected to undue influence with respect to its creation or terms;
    3. the provision of legal advice about the suitability of the Non-Rapidocs Document to your particular circumstances beyond the scope of any questions raised by you with respect to the Non-Rapidocs Document or beyond the scope of the particular review requested by you under the Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service;
    4. providing any ongoing advice or assistance to you with respect to a negotiation between you and any relevant counterparty of the terms of the Non-Rapidocs Document;
    5. verifying any information given by you in any communications;
    6. supervising or checking the due and proper execution of the Non-Rapidocs Document; or
    7. undertaking any future review of the Non-Rapidocs Document or providing any ongoing advice, legal, estate, tax or otherwise, as to the continued effectiveness for legal, taxation or any other purpose of the Non-Rapidocs Document.
  9. Exclusions

  10. We shall not have any liability for:
    1. any alterations made by you or on your behalf to the Non-Rapidocs Document that have not been approved by us;
    2. any use of the Non-Rapidocs Document, or signing of the Non-Rapidocs Document by a person or entity, outside of the jurisdiction in which we operate; or
    3. any adverse consequences resulting from the use of the Non-Rapidocs Document which are attributable either to aspects of the Non-Rapidocs Document which you did not ask us to consider as part of the Non-Rapidocs Review or to circumstances pertaining to you which were not disclosed by you.

FAIR USE RESTRICTIONS APPLICABLE TO THE DOCUMENT REVIEW SERVICES

  1. Our aim is to complete our work under each Document Review Service quickly and efficiently. We expect that in most cases the work that we undertake under a Document Review Service will take no more than one hour in total. We reserve the right to manage the work we agree to do to ensure that, so far as possible, that expectation is fulfilled
  2. What this means in practice is as follows:
    1. We will expect that correspondence and communications between us will take place by email or by telephone. Face-to-face interviews will not be offered.
    2. We may limit the extent to which we engage in communications with you or to which we respond to correspondence from you if we reasonably consider, and have explained to you, that to do so would be incompatible with the efficient conduct of our work under a Document Review Service.
    3. You may provide us with additional information about your requirements and circumstances, but we reserve the right to terminate our work under a Document Review Service at any time if, by reason of the volume and/or complexity of that additional information, we reasonably consider, and have explained to you, that it is impractical or inappropriate to continue to work on the Document under a Document Review Service.
    4. As part of a Document Review Service, we may decline to deal with any requests, issues or questions made or raised by you if they are not essential to our work on a Document under a Document Review Service.
  3. On first receiving a Document and each time that you provide additional information or make a new request with respect to that Document, we shall assess, in good faith, if it will be practical or appropriate for us to provide, or continue our work under, a Document Review Service, or if any work you want us to do, or request you have made, falls within the scope of the Document Review Services. If the result of any such assessment is that we consider it appropriate to take any of the steps referred to in paragraphs 8.2(b), 8.2(c) or 8.2(d) below, we will, if possible, consider and discuss with you if and how we might perform a modified Document Review Service with respect to the Document if you change or limit your requirements or requests. If this is not possible, or if you do not agree, we will discuss with you your options.
  4. If, in our absolute discretion, we consider that you have made, or are making, excessive use of the Non-Rapidocs Document Review Service, your access to that service may be restricted or suspended (either for a fixed period or indefinitely). You will be notified before any such action is taken.

ASK A LEGAL QUESTION

  1. The Ask a Legal Question service allows you to submit a general legal question through the Website and for us to provide a written response to that question.
  2. There are limitations on the work that we will do under the Ask a Legal Question service.
  3. What we will do
  4. The purpose of the service is to provide general legal information (i.e. information about the law and legal processes that is not tailored to your particular circumstances) in response to any question that is submitted.
  5. What we will not do

  6. We will not provide legal advice, meaning (for example) that we will not answer a question that calls for an opinion about how you should proceed, or for an analysis or interpretation of the law to a given set of facts.
  7. Legal advice cannot be given to you without full enquiry as to, and consideration of, all relevant facts relating to your particular circumstances. If you need legal advice about a specific issue, the Helpline may be a suitable option for you; alternatively, you should consult licensed legal practitioner.
  8. Similarly, any request for legal drafting, legal letter preparation, or for any other legal support, assistance or representation is not within the scope of the Ask a Legal Question service.
  9. We will not respond to a question submitted by you if that question concerns the Service Provider, us, or any member of their or our respective groups or any of their or our respective directors, officers, agents or employees.
  10. How we will perform our work

  11. All legal information in response to a question is given in good faith and is based upon the information supplied by you. We are not under any obligation to seek any further information.
  12. Your use of the Ask a Legal Question service is subject to fair use in line with its intended purpose. As a guideline, any question asked should be answerable within approximately 20 minutes. We are not under any obligation to answer a question that is beyond the scope of the Service or if it is inappropriate to deal with your question through the Service (for example, if it raises a complex issue that cannot be dealt with within 20 minutes).
  13. Legal information in response to a question will be provided in writing solely in accordance with the workflow processes, and using the workflow systems, on the Website. We will not communicate with you in any other way.
  14. Exclusions

  15. We shall not have any liability for any loss suffered if information provided by you is inaccurate or incomplete.
  16. Legal information given in response to a question is specific to the individual issue raised in that question and should not be applied to other situations. If you do so, then that is at your own risk.

FAIR USE RESTRICTION APPLICABLE TO THE ASK A LEGAL QUESTION SERVICE

If, in our absolute discretion, we consider that you have made, or are making, excessive use of the Ask a Legal Question service, your access to that service may be restricted or suspended (either for a fixed period or indefinitely). You will be notified before any such action is taken.

HELPLINE

  1. The Helpline is provided by us on the following terms and conditions:
    1. All advice is given in good faith and is based upon the information supplied by you during the call. We cannot be held liable for any loss suffered if inaccurate or incomplete information is given. We may ask questions to elicit information to assist us in answering your questions, but we are not obliged to do so and a failure by us to ask questions that may have altered our advice will not incur any liability on our part.
    2. Advice is provided solely by telephone and will not be provided in writing. We will not enter into correspondence with you.
    3. Advice given is specific to the individual issue being discussed and is not intended to be applied to other situations. If you do so then it is at your own risk.
  2. The Helpline does not include:
    1. drafting or amendment of documents or clauses;
    2. preparation of letters; or
    3. advising, supporting or representing you in any further way.
  3. A Helpline call will be discontinued immediately if you are rude or abusive to our staff, and your future access to the Helpline may be withdrawn
  4. You must not facilitate the use of the Helpline by unauthorised persons. If you do, your access to the Helpline may be withdrawn.
  5. In some cases, the Helpline is not provided by us - see the Terms of Use for details. We do not have any liability for advice given by other legal services providers.

FAIR USE RESTRICTIONS APPLICABLE TO THE HELPLINE

  1. Your use of this Service is subject to fair use in line with its intended purpose. As a guideline, any question asked on the Helpline should be answerable within approximately 20 minutes.
  2. We shall have no obligation to provide advice to you through this Service if, in our absolute discretion, a question being asked by you is outside the scope of the Service or if it is inappropriate to deal with your question through the Service (for example, if it is a complex issue that requires a face-to-face meeting or if you need written advice or a document drafted).
  3. In this event, we will inform you immediately during the call and discuss your options with you.
  4. If, in our absolute discretion, we consider that you have made, or are making, inappropriate or excessive use of this Service, your access to the Service may be restricted or suspended (either for a fixed period or indefinitely), or conditions may be imposed upon your access to it, which may include a condition of payment or an additional charge.
  5. You will be notified before any such action is taken.

SMALL CLAIMS SERVICE

  1. A Small Claim means a claim by a consumer for the breach of a contract for the sale of goods or provision of services having a monetary value of less than £500.
  2. The purpose of the Small Claims Service is to provide advice, guidance and assistance to enable those having access to the service (Eligible Persons) to make Small Claims themselves. The intention is that, wherever possible, Eligible Persons wishing to pursue a Small Claim will be supported at all stages of the process from preliminary advice and pre-action correspondence through to preparation, commencement and conduct of proceedings.
  3. Eligible Persons will have access on the Website, free of any additional charge, to a range of document templates from which they will be able to create for themselves Rapidocs Documents relevant to the Small Claim that they wish to pursue. They may also ask us for advice using the Helpline or to review the Rapidocs Documents they have created under the Rapidocs Document Review Service. Rapidocs Document Review and Helpline services will be subject to the usual conditions and policies as to fair use described above.
  4. However, we shall endeavour at all times to implement and operate these conditions and policies with reasonable flexibility and to give effect to the purpose of, and intention behind, the Small Claims Service. For example, it may, on occasion and to facilitate the pursuit by an Eligible Person of their Small Claim, be appropriate for us either to adapt a Rapidocs Document created by that Eligible Person in order to create an additional legal document or to provide bespoke drafting assistance.
  5. The extent to which we implement and operate the conditions and policies as to fair use applicable to Rapidocs Document Review and Helpline services according to their strict terms will, however, remain a matter within our absolute discretion.
  6. Subject to the applicable fair use policy, there will be no formal limitation upon when, and how often, Eligible Persons may make use of the Helpline with respect to each Small Claim that they wish to pursue. Advice given through the Helpline may include advice on the law relating to each Small Claim, advice on the selection of an appropriate document template, advice on adapting Rapidocs Documents in order to create additional legal documents and advice on procedure.
  7. The Small Claims Service is subject to the following exclusions and limitations:
    1. We will not under any circumstances act for, or otherwise represent, Eligible Persons in the pursuit of their Small Claims.
    2. There are no document templates suitable for use in the conduct of proceedings once a Small Claim has begun. We will not provide any bespoke drafting assistance once such proceedings have begun, although we will continue to provide Helpline services.
    3. It will be the responsibility of Eligible Persons to print, sign and despatch Rapidocs Documents, once we have approved them, and to pay any applicable fees.
    4. There will be limitations on the Small Claims Service where an Eligible Person wishes to pursue a Small Claim in Northern Ireland or Scotland, as follows:
      1. Eligible Persons will be provided with information rather than advice.
      2. We may suggest changes to Rapidocs Documents, but we will not amend or adapt them, or provide any bespoke drafting assistance.
      3. The available document templates will not include a claim form. Eligible Persons wishing to commence court proceedings in Northern Ireland or Scotland will be directed to the appropriate court website.

SCOPE OF REGULATION

  1. All work performed by us under these terms of engagement will be regulated by the SRA, but our other, non-legal activities will not be. For example, if we are also the Service Provider (i.e. we provide access to the System on the Website), the provision by us of the Document Preparation Service (and of the other non-legal services offered on the Website) will not be regulated by the SRA. However, this will not affect how we must deal with any complaint you make about any service provided by us or your right to take that complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (see paragraph 19).

WEBSITE ACCESS FACILITY

We have a facility that enables us to access your account, or any Rapidocs Documents you have created or started, and perform actions as if we were you. We will only ever use that facility when it is necessary in order to action a support request that you have made to us, whether by email or by telephone. You consent to us using this facility in this way when you accept these terms of engagement. By accepting these terms of engagement, you also agree to comply with the instructions we may give you to ensure that the use of this facility is effective. For the avoidance of doubt, we shall not ever, unless you are on a telephone call with us at the time and specifically provide your consent, use this facility to accept any contractual terms or other legal acknowledgements, or to make any payments, on your behalf.

COST

Where applicable, the price charged to you for any of the Services is an agreed fee; in other words, it is fixed, we cannot increase it, and it does not cease to be payable if the Service is lawfully terminated before the Service is fully performed. It is your responsibility to investigate other ways of funding the provision of an equivalent service. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you are satisfied that it is appropriate for you to pay the price and that the price is reasonable.

CANCELLATION

  1. The Services are ancillary to the contract between you and us for access to the Document Preparation Service (whether that contract is for access on a single occasion or multiple occasions).
  2. If you have a right to cancel that contract and have validly notified us that you wish to exercise that right, the contract with us for the provision of the Services will automatically be cancelled.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WORK

  1. We will advise you separately of the name of the file handler who will be assigned to doing most of the work under the Document Review Service as well as the identity of the partner (Client Partner) with overall responsibility for your business relationship with us. The file handler may not be a solicitor, but the Client Partner will be an experienced solicitor.
  2. From time to time, and if we consider it to be of importance in relation to our work for you under a Document Review Service, it may be necessary for us to involve other staff, including trainees and paralegals, with different levels of experience or with other areas of expertise. We will, in each case, let you know in advance why we consider it necessary, what the area of specialisation is, and the name of that person.

DATA PROTECTION, CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLOSURE

  1. We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:
    1. Updating and enhancing client records
    2. Analysis to help us manage our practice
    3. Statutory returns
    4. Legal and regulatory compliance
  2. Our use of your information is subject to your instructions, data protection law and our duty of confidentiality.
  3. For information about how we look after your information, about your privacy rights and how the law protects you, see our Privacy notice. However, please note the following in particular:
    1. Although we are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential, there may be circumstances where we are required by law to make a disclosure, e.g. where we know or suspect that a transaction may involve such illegal activities as money laundering or terrorist financing.
    2. If we have to notify our insurers about a claim you have made, or about any circumstances that may give rise to a claim by you, we will pass information about you and your matter to our insurers. By instructing us to perform work for you, you are agreeing to disclosure of your information to our insurers, and any assessors appointed by them, in that situation.
    3. External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on us, and by instructing us to perform work for you, you are agreeing to disclosure of your information to these firms or organisations for that purpose. These external firms or organisations are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your information.

COMPLAINTS

  1. This firm is committed to providing a first-class service and consistently excellent advice of the utmost quality to its clients, but if you have any questions or concerns, or in the unlikely event that you have any cause to complain about our service (including a complaint about any bill delivered by us), please initially contact the Client Partner. We have a written complaints procedure to which we shall adhere when dealing with any complaint. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request by emailing support@lawassure.co.uk.
  2. If we fail to respond to your complaint within eight weeks or if at the conclusion of our complaints process we are unable to resolve matters to your satisfaction you may have a right to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. If you wish to do so, you must contact the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response or, if we haven't responded within 8 weeks, within 6 months of your last contact with us. Additionally, you must raise your complaint with the Legal Ombudsman within 1 year of the relevant act or omission or, if the act or omission took place more than 1 year ago, 1 year from when you should reasonably have known there was a cause for complaint.
  3. In relation to a complaint about any bill delivered by us, which we have not resolved to your satisfaction, you may have a right to object to the bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. Please note, however, that if all or part of a bill remains unpaid we may be entitled to charge interest. In addition, the Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about the bill if you have applied to the court for assessment of the bill.
  4. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman as below:

    Postal address
    Legal Ombudsman
    PO Box 6806
    Wolverhampton
    WV1 9WJ

    Website
    http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk

    Telephone
    0300 555 0333

    Email
    enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Thank you for your interest in our services.

Yours sincerely

Richard Cohen
Senior Partner

ToE_ML

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.