Eaton Ryan & Taylor

Quality of Service

We aim to provide the best quality of service that is available. We do this by the policies and procedures that we implement throughout the firm. If we fail to provide this quality of service, please tell us.

People Responsible For Your Work

All matters are supervised by a partner but the day to day conduct of a matter is in the hands of a lawyer. In the normal course time spent on supervision will be charged at the appropriate rate. The lawyers we employ include Solicitors, Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives, trainee Legal Executives and Litigation Executives. We will tell you in writing the name of the supervising partner, the lawyer who has conduct of your matter and his/her qualification together with the applicable charge rate. From time to time it may be necessary to use other lawyers in relation to your matters. We will notify you promptly of any relevant change.

If for any reason the lawyer dealing with your matter is unavailable, another member of our team will be happy to pass on any message for you.

Money Laundering

Government Regulations mean that you must prove who you are. The UK is a major financial and legal centre with a high reputation for honesty and integrity. Unfortunately, that is why financial and professional businesses like Banks and Solicitors firms are attractive to money launderers - criminals who sometimes try and hide stolen money by turning it into legitimate income. New measures have been introduced to make it more difficult for criminals to make and keep money from their crimes and also to confiscate the proceeds of crime. For this reason, there are compulsory checks which Solicitors have to make of their clients.

Being asked for identification does not mean that you are under suspicion. The new identification requirements apply to all clients when they are asking their Solicitors to conduct certain types of transactions. Banks and Building Societies have had to check the identity of customers for some time. Solicitors now also have to comply and this means that you will have to show us two forms of personal documentation, one of which will need to verify your physical appearance by way of a photograph, and one of which will need to verify your address. The documentation may include the following:-

Either:-

(i)

(ii)

and

(iii)

(iv)

A current signed Passport

Photocard Driving Licence

A recent utility bill

House or Motor Insurance Certificate

We will have to retain copies of the documentation to comply with the legislation.

Charges and Expenses

Our charges are normally based on the time we spend in dealing with a particular matter. The time spent on your affairs will include meetings with you and any other relevant parties, time spent travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence, making and receiving telephone calls, including telephone calls with yourself.

The hourly charge for the partner and for the lawyer dealing with your matter will be provided to you. Please note that all hourly rates and other charges are subject to an annual review which will take place on 1 May. You will be notified promptly of any change in the hourly rate at that time. All work carried out on your behalf will be clearly scheduled and calculated on the basis of time spent in relation to particular aspects of work. The firm charges time in units of 6 minutes so in any one hour, there are 10 units. Time is rounded up or down as appropriate. If at any time you require details of the level of charges incurred on your matter, please ask and we will be happy to provide them together with a computerised print out confirming those details.

In certain matters, it may be that a fixed fee or otherwise will have been agreed. Full details of this will be provided to you. If a Conditional Fee Agreement or a Contingency Agreement has been entered into, then the full details will be contained in a separate signed Agreement.

In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action must be taken, the expertise or specialist knowledge which the case requires and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved. On the basis of the information currently available, we expect these factors to be adequately covered by the hourly rates referred to. The rates may be higher if, for example, the matter becomes more complex than expected and we will notify you of this.

The costs and expenses which you will have to pay may be greater than the amount you can recover from another party to the case.

We will add VAT at the prevailing rate to our charges and expenses at the rate applicable when the work is done. The current VAT rate is 17.5%.

There may be certain other expenses, including payments we make on your behalf, such as court fees, enquiry agents' fees, fees for medical reports and barristers' fees which you will have to pay. VAT is payable on the majority of such expenses. At all times, we will try and give you clear costs estimates in respect of your case or in relation to any stage of the proceedings. We will endeavour to advise you if any unforeseen additional work becomes necessary.

We also make separate charges to you for certain other expenses incurred on your behalf. They are mainly of an administrative nature and the amounts which we charge are in part to cover the administrative work involved in carrying out those tasks. The actual cost to ERT is less than the charge passed on to yourselves. However, we believe the charges which we render are fair and reasonable and in accordance with those typically charged throughout the profession. You are more than welcome to arrange for those administrative tasks to be undertaken elsewhere. The relevant expenses and charges are set out below:-

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

Black and white photocopying - £0.25 per A4 sheet

Colour photocopying - £0.75 per A4 sheet

Petrol expenses - £0.40 per mile

Company searches - £10.00 each

Trace fees (when done internally by ERT) - £35.00 each

These charges will appear as a separate item in the profit costs part of any invoice that is rendered.

It is normal practise to ask clients to pay sums of money from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected to be incurred. This helps to avoid delay in the progress of your case. If such payment is required in your case, we will confirm this in writing to you. We may request further payments on account for charges and expenses to be incurred as the matter progresses. When we put these payments towards your bills, we will send you a receipted bill. We will offset any such payments against your interim bills and/or final bill, but it is important that you understand that your total charges and expenses are likely to be greater than any advance payments.

Under the civil procedure rules, there is provision for summary assessment of costs both at interlocutory hearings and final hearings. Should such an order be made against you, it is likely that those costs will have to be paid within 14 days. This is your responsibility and if payment is not made, the court may impose sanctions against you.

Billing Arrangements

We will send you interim bills for our charges and expenses as and when appropriate while the work is in progress. These interim bills may be monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. This enables you to budget as the matter progresses. We will send a final bill after completion of the work. If for any reason this matter does not proceed to a conclusion or complete resolution, we will charge for the work done and expenses incurred to that date.

Payment of invoices rendered to you are payable on delivery. In practical terms, we require payment to be made to us within 28 days of our sending you a bill. We reserve the right to charge interest at the rate of 12% per annum from the date of the bill if payment is not made within 28 days of the date of the bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis. If you have any query about your bill, you should contact the supervising partner straightaway.

We reserve the right to transfer monies between accounts to discharge any costs, VAT and disbursements that may be outstanding.

In the event that instructions are received on a specific matter from more than one person or company, then the liability of those persons or companies instructing us will be joint and several in respect of the fees incurred.

Other Parties Charges and Expenses

It is important that you understand that you will be responsible for payment of our costs. If you believe you may have some other form or method of enabling our costs to be paid then you must provide us will full information regarding this as soon as possible. This may include the availability of legal aid, legal expenses cover such as under house or car insurance, or payment by some third party such as your employer or a trade union. We will confirm with you whether our charges and expenses and your liability for other party's charges and expenses may be covered by insurance. It is your responsibility to advise us of any other funding option which may be available to you.

Even if you are successful, the other party may not be ordered to pay all your charges and expenses or these may not be recovered from them in full. If this happens, you will have to pay the balance of our charges and expenses. If the other party is legally aided, you may not get back any of your charges and expenses even if you win the case.

If you are successful and the court orders the other party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses, interest can be claimed on them from the other party from the date of the court order. We will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our charges or expenses on account, but we are entitled to the rest of that interest. You will be responsible for paying the charges and expenses of seeking to recover any charges and expenses that the court orders the other party to pay.

In some circumstances, the court may order you to pay the other party's legal charges and expenses, for example, if you lose the case. Such costs would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses.

Storage of Papers and Documents

After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. We will keep our file of papers (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for no more than 3 years. We keep the file on the understanding that we have the authority to destroy it 3 years after the date of the final bill we send you for the matter. We will not destroy documents you ask us in writing to deposit in safe custody. If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make a charge based on the time spent producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with instructions given by you or on your behalf.

Termination

Subject to the terms of any supplemental agreement between us, you may terminate your instructions in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is any money owing to us for our charges and expenses.

In some circumstances, you may consider we ought to stop acting for you, for example, if you cannot give clear or proper instructions on how we are to proceed, or if it is clear that you have lost confidence in how we are carrying out your work.

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill, comply with a request for payment on account, fail to provide prompt and clear instructions or are in breach of any other agreement. We will give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you. If you or we decide that we will no longer act for you, you will pay our charges on an hourly basis and the expenses as set out earlier. If it is necessary for us to make any application to come off the court record as acting on your behalf, those costs incurred will be payable by yourself.

Communication Between You and Us

We are confident in providing a high quality service in all respects. If, however, you have any queries or concerns about our work for you, please raise them in the first instance with the supervising partner. If that does not resolve the problem to your satisfaction or you would prefer not to speak to the supervising partner, then please contact one of the other partners of the practice. All solicitors must attempt to resolve problems that may arise with their services. We value you and would not wish to think that you have any reason to be unhappy with us. It is therefore important that you immediately raise any concerns you may have with us.

We have a written Complaints Policy which we are happy to send to you on receipt of your request.

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 complaints handling system to help us to resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority which also provides a complaints and redress scheme.

Occasionally probate/company/personal injury/conveyancing work involves investments. We are able to provide a limited range of advice and arrangements for which we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. For more complicated matters we may refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Services Authority, as we are not so authorised.

10.

Insurance Mediation

We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do.

11.

Anti-Discrimination

Eaton Ryan & Taylor is an equal opportunities employer and has an Anti-Discrimination Policy in place. The firm will make every effort to reflect its commitment to equality and diversity in its marketing and communication activities. Should you wish to have a copy of the Anti-Discrimination Policy sent to you, then please contact us.

12.

Limit of Liability

In respect of claims against this firm, its liability will be limited to £9,000,000 (nine million pounds sterling) including any claim for costs and interest.

13.

Tax Advice

Any work that we do for you may involve tax implications or necessitate the consideration of tax planning strategies. We are not qualified to advise you on the tax implications of a transaction that you instruct us to carry out, and do not accept responsibility for any taxation or accounting implications of the work we may carry out for you. If you have any concerns in this respect, please raise them with us immediately. We may be able to identify an independent source of tax advice for you.

14.

Agreement

Unless otherwise agreed, our terms of business apply to any future instructions which you give to us including any current matters. Your continuing instructions will amount to your acceptance of these terms and conditions of business. Even so, we ask you to please sign and date these terms and return it to us immediately. We can then be confident that you understand the basis on which we will act for you.

Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority - Eaton Ryan & Taylor - SRA Number 173954