Terms and Conditions
- Introduction
- Scope of instructions
- Responsibility for your work
- Our Service to You
- Contacting You
- Your responsibilities as a client
- Charges and expenses
- Data protection
- Storage of papers and documents
- Money Laundering and terrorist financing Regulations
- Conflict of Interest
- Complaints
- Going to court
- Termination
- Limitation of liability
- Financial Advice and Reserved Legal Matters
- Jurisdiction
- Value Added Tax (VAT)
1. Introduction
1.1 In these Terms of Business, “we”, “our” or “us” means Lestons Ltd.
1.2 The expressions ‘you’ or ‘your’ refer to you, our client.
1.3 These Terms are subject to change from time to time without notice
1.4 There is a separate box to tick as part of your enrolment process which confirms your acceptance of these Terms of Business, should we instigate any changes to them you will be informed. Not responding to any such changes, which may happen due to regulatory changes and so on are deemed to be accepted unless challenged within 7 days of the notice being posted onto your client dashboard.
2. Scope of instructions
2.1 The advice we give is personal to you. Our duty of care is to you alone, it does not extend to any third party in any way.
2.2 We are not responsible for advising (or not advising) on any matters outside the scope of your case, or for advising on changes in the law after we have delivered our advice.
2.3 You are responsible for providing us with all instructions, information and documents that we require to advise you on your matter and to ensure that such information is clear, true, and as accurate as possible.
2.4 You are responsible for ensuring that you have all the necessary rights to supply us with the correct information and that our use of that information will not infringe the rights of any third party or result in a breach of any law, rule or regulation.
2.5 To enable us to continue to advise you on your matter effectively you are obliged to inform us, within 7 days, of any changes to your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number.
2.6 We will take your instructions and advise according to English law. If we need separate advice from foreign lawyers, we will obtain written quotations and treat them as disbursements.
3. Responsibility for your work
3.1 The initial response to your joining as a client details who will be the lead case manager for your case, we regularly hold specialist training courses for case managers which may last several weeks, in addition there is the potential for unforeseen absences. Because of this, we cannot guarantee that the same person will handle your case until closure, however, we will make every effort to retain the same case manager throughout. Should there be a required change then your new case manager will introduce themselves to you via the client dashboard.
4. Our Service to You
4.1 We will exercise due skill, care and diligence in carrying out legal work following your instructions. We shall use reasonable care to:
- Represent your interests,
- Keep your business confidential;
- Explain to you the legal work which may be required;
- Explain the likely degree of any financial risk concerning legal costs which you will be taking;
- Inform you regularly of progress;
- Make every reasonable attempt to deal promptly with your queries.
4.2 Our standard method of communication is via your client’s dashboard (Unless you are using our “Secret Diary” service, in which case you may instruct us to contact an intermediary on your behalf). If the client dashboard is not suitable then please inform us of your preferred communication method.
5. Contacting You
5.1 Our preferred, and default method is via the client dashboard, we make every effort, utilising the latest virus and data protection software. We constantly strive to make the dashboard as safe a communication method as possible and have Information Commissioner certification for such. It is your sole responsibility to keep your log-in details safe and secure. If you feel they have been breached then contact us immediately and we will pause access whilst a new password and PIN are assigned and dispatched to you.
5.2 Should you instruct us to use other methods, such as calling us on a phone then we cannot guarantee that you are not being overheard from your location, likewise, if you email ourselves then we cannot guarantee that your personal email account is secure. You will appreciate that we have no control over your choice of internet or telecommunications systems.
6. Your responsibilities as a client
6.1 You are responsible for:
- Providing us with clear, timely and accurate instructions;
- Providing any requested documentation promptly;
- Keeping safe any confidential correspondence sent to you regarding your case;
- Ensuring that there is a sufficient balance on your account to manage the case;
- Provide us with all required information (if required) to enable us to comply with Money Laundering Regulations.
- Providing us pertinent information, for instance, if asking us to resolve an issue with damp in a rental property we will need the details of your landlord, if a benefits issue we will need national insurance number and so on. Your case manager will discuss these with you as required.
6.2 At times we may have multiple persons seeking for us to resolve a combined issue for them, such instances may be several employees banding together to seek action against their employer, a family group seeking to overturn a will and so on. This can cause obvious confusion, especially if there are mixed, or even conflicting instructions. To avoid this we would insist that the client group appoint a single point of contact who has the authority, on behalf of the group to give us instructions and deposit required funds.
6.3 Handling children as clients – If we are processing personal information for a child under the age of 13 years then we will need the permission of the child’s guardian. If the child is over 13 years, we will need the child’s permission.
7. Charges and expenses
7.1 Our charges are calculated on a minute by minute basis (no “rounding up”), your balance is automatically changed as and when funds are deposited or deducted for completed tasks.
7.2 We charge for time spent dealing with your case, this would include such items as research, drafting, administration and so on.
7.2 When representing you outside our offices, such as a court, care home, hospice etc then we would charge for the period that our staff member was away from the office, in addition, we charge £1 per travelled mile (based on 1 person only) and should the duration of the absence be over three hours we will apply a sustenance charge of £20 per person. Should you request an out of office visit you consent to these charges. As a general course we would estimate the cost of each instruction to ensure there is a sufficient balance on your account, should there be insufficient funds then the visit will not be authorised until sufficient funds have been deposited.
7.3 In addition to our charges, you may incur additional expenses known as disbursements. Where these are voluntary (such as expert witnesses, counsel) then they will be approved with you before instructing them. Where there are unavoidable (such as court administration fees, local council search fees) then you agree that your case manager may incur them on your behalf.
7.4 Natwest Bank PLC manage all financial aspects of your case, we use them to process your payments. We have a specialist banking team who handle our client accounts directly on our behalf, By using this method we never know your bank details, again this is for your security.
7.6 We do not offer our clients any credit, this is simply because the cost of maintaining staff to recover small sums is not financially viable, to be able to meet our hourly charge it was essential to negate this cost by simply not offering credit terms. By keeping things simple, and avoiding any “success fees”, “Conditional fee agreements”, “damage based agreements” etc, then we avoid any confusion over costs.
7.7 All financial exchanges are in pounds sterling, we do not accept any foreign currency.
8. Data protection
8.1 Whilst we are acting for you, we will collect from you certain personal information which will be held on our database. This information will be kept following data protection regulations.
8.2 For certain matters such as personal injury, we may need to obtain copies of your medical records and medical reports. Where it is necessary to deal with your case, you agree that we may pass those records and reports to other relevant professionals or parties.
8.3 We may from time to time outsource some tasks, such as employing staff at a call centre to handle calls outside office hours etc, rest assured that these companies have been thoroughly checked to meet the highest standards of confidentiality and data management.
8.4 WE WILL NEVER CALL YOU TO DISCUSS THE CASE – IF YOU RECEIVE A CALL FROM SOMEONE PERTAINING TO BE FROM OUR OFFICE PLEASE HANG UP AND LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
9. Storage of papers and documents
9.1 Under data protection law we have given the Information Commissioner formal notice that we handle personal information, and have received appropriate certification in respect of data handling.
9.2 We keep digital copies of all case correspondence, letters received are scanned into your dashboard. To meet our environmental goals we run, to the best of our ability, a paperless office. Having all the case details digitised means storage is very simple and at a low cost. When the case is closed we create a bespoke CD or memory stick for the case which is stored in our secure storage area. By using this method your data is easily recoverable if needed.
9.3 This method may seem old fashioned, however not having old case details on any internet-accessible device (we never use cloud-based due to threat of data breach) ensures maximum protection of your data.
9.4 We will keep the detail of your case without any time restrictions, at no cost.
9.5 Unlike most legal professionals, should the information be needed in a future case there is no retrieval fee to access the stored data.
9.6 Should you wish a copy of the data held (usually sent on a memory stick, if not suitable please inform) then there is a charge of £10 (which is donated to charity) and we will post one to you.
9.7 To represent your interest we may, as required need to reveal personal information about you to other people, for instance, if you need a medical opinion then we will need to let a doctor request your medical records and provide your contact details to make an appointment. Disclose of your data is only done where necessary in regard to your claim unless we may have a legal duty to release information (see the section below).
10. Money Laundering and terrorist financing Regulations
10.1 The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 say we must if requested by a suitable authority release your data to prevent money laundering and terrorism.
10.2 As a result, we are legally required to conduct an independent computer identity check on you with another service provider to check your identity, this agency will have their own terms and conditions regarding how they treat your data.
10.3 If we know or suspect that money laundering is involved then we have to report it, we are not allowed to inform you that we have done this as we would be accused of ‘tipping off` potential criminals. Conversely, if we have no concerns then your details remain private.
10.4 We are required by law to operate strict procedures to guard against the risk of money laundering. We may be instructed by a relevant authority to ask you to tell us the source of any monies you send to us.
10.5 We accept no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage you may directly or indirectly suffer as a result of us having to report the matter to the authorities.
11. Conflicts of Interest
11.1 As we act as an intermediary there is the possibility that both sides in a case may use our services. Please rest assured that case managers handle their workload, cases are not viewable by any other case manager (unless your assigned case manager is unavailable due to training, leave etc, in which case it may be transferred to another manager). Qualified solicitors are required to simply refuse any cases where there is conflict, passing them up for the next solicitor to take on. In this way, there is separation for both sides, both in terms of case manager and solicitor, as such, there is no potential for any conflict of interest to occur.
12. Complaints
12.1 If you have a complaint about our service then please see the complaints section of the website, we have dedicated teams to address different elements of the business to ensure a fully impartial assessment of the situation.
12.2 Complaints are handled in 5 stages.
Stage 1 – your complaint will be examined by a departmental manager (of a different department from that being complained about)– they will contact you directly to try and resolve the matter.
Stage 2 – Director – One of our board of directors (again from a different department to the one deemed at fault) will examine the details and report back to, ultimately if you are still unhappy you can escalate it to the Managing Director
Stage 3 – Managing Director, this is the owner of the company, he will examine the issue carefully and report back to you individually.
Stage 4 – Alternative Dispute resolution (aka Mediation), here we would agree on a third party to look over the complaint, we would suggest a representative from the ADRS (Alternative Dispute Resolution Services) who are an independent agency supplying mediators and arbitrators, as a gesture we would agree to cover their fees in such a matter – see http://www.adrs.co.uk/index.html
Stage 5 – The legal ombudsman may consider the complaint. It should be noted that before they will consider a complaint they will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint via steps 1 to 4 first. If you have, you must take your complaint to them within six months of receiving a final response from the managing director. Although the Legal Ombudsman Guidelines allow us eight weeks to resolve your complaint, we would seek to resolve the matter well within this timeframe.
12.3 You will appreciate that should all internal efforts to resolve the matter fail the ADRS (or similar) or ombudsman will require full access to all the case history. Should the matter proceed to this stage then you consent to us disclosing information to them so they can conduct a fair and thorough assessment of your complaint.
13. Going to court
13.1 If we are assisting you in this manner and win the court may order the losing party to refund you the fees paid to ourselves, including any disbursements. However the other party may not be liable for any VAT charges, this is because you may be able to recover these yourself (and as such would end up with double the VAT back). The rules in England are different to those in Scotland.
13.2 The court will examine the entire situation and award what it feels is fair, because of the variances involved this is done on a case by case basis. When we attend we would have a detailed statement of your costs for the court to consider. You should note that an award for costs may sound great, however, it does not mean the other side will instantly pay, the court usually allows them 14 days to pay, however, they may not be willing, or able to do so. In this situation, we would suggest retaining our services to collect these funds. Because of this, we do not automatically close your case after judgment, but after you instruct us that we are no longer required.
13.3 If you are not successful the court will probably order you to pay part or all of the other person’s costs.
13.4 The rules regarding court awards are extremely varied, there are even different rules for different case types, hence costs cannot be determined or estimated in these terms of business. We would ensure that you are represented to the very best of our ability, should you win we will help with obtaining the money awarded, should you lose we would take instruction from you on how you wish to pay.
14. Termination
14.1 You may terminate your instructions to us via your client dashboard, or in writing, at any time – we do not apply any limitations.
14.2 We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, these may include us discovering that you are using us to assist with a criminal act such as fraud/deception/extortion, that you constantly ignore requests for information and so on. These “frustrate” our agreement, leaving us little option but to close the case. Any monetary balances on the case would automatically be returned to you.
15. Limitation of liability
15.1 We work solely for our client, and as such accept no liability for any loss, damage or expense of any nature whatsoever which is caused by the reliance upon our advice by any third party.
15.2 Lestons use a network of qualified solicitors who work on a self-employed basis, holding their own insurances in case of problems. Lestons are a client of these solicitors and our clients are, in effect their sub-clients. By agreeing to these terms of business you are accepting that we act purely in an intermediary position and as such indemnify/absolve ourselves of any claims, of any nature, for whatever reason. Should you wish to make a claim against our contracted solicitor, or their professional indemnity insurance then you should instruct another solicitor to approach us and we will give them the appropriate contact details.
15.3 If you are a company, charity, organisation etc then we are not responsible for advising your shareholders, directors, trustees, employees and so on, this requirement would need to be done as a separate agreement between us.
15.4 As required by law we hold the following insurances
Professional Indemnity Insurance – £50,000
Public Liability Insurance – £1M
Employers Liability Insurance – £10M
Cyber insurance – £50,000
16. Financial Advice and Reserved Legal Matters
16.1 We have no desire to become financial advisors/wealth creators, nor seek work, such as probate, conveyancing and so on.
16.2 When we are approached to give such advice we will refer you to suitably qualified and experienced third parties who will contact you with their terms and conditions. We receive no commission for such work and take no responsibility for these third parties actions, or the results of their actions.
17. Jurisdiction
17.1 These Terms of Business are governed by the laws of England and will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
18. Value Added Tax
18.1 We are bound to charge VAT to our charges and expenses (except when they are zero-rated or exempt), at the rate set by the government.