GREEN SOLICITORS LTD
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS, REGULATIONS AND COMPLAINTS.

This document forms the basis of the agreement between us and the Terms and Conditions
upon which we shall act on your behalf.

1. People responsible for your work
Ian Procter will be responsible for your case, he is a Solicitor categorized as Grade A by the
SCCO. If for any reason he is unavailable, please ask for his Assistant Nicola Hartley who will be
able to take any message for you.

2. Levels of Service
We aim to achieve the highest possible levels of service. In particular we aim to ensure that: –
(a) The person dealing with the case whenever possible will deal with your telephone
calls, but if that person is unavailable your call will be directed to an assistant to deal
with, or for a message to be taken. All requests for returned telephone calls should
be dealt with on the same day, or as soon as possible thereafter.
(b) Your letters will receive a substantive reply within seven working days.
(c) You will be informed of any material developments by post, e-mail or telephone as
soon as possible. In any event we will keep you regularly updated as to the progress
of your case and you should normally hear from us approximately every three or four
weeks.

3. Regulation and Professional Indemnity
We are authorised by, and all of the work we do is regulated by, the Solicitors Regulation
Authority. This means that we must comply at all times with the Code of Conduct giving you
the protection afforded by that Code including the SRA Compensation Fund. Full details of
the Code and the benefits available to you can be found at www.sra.org.uk .
We maintain professional indemnity insurance in accordance with the rules of the Solicitors
Regulation Authority (to view our professional rules visit www.sra.org.uk/rules).

4. Fees and Expenses
Our fees and expenses are charged out on an hourly rate unless we have agreed differently.
Please see the initial retainer letter. All charges are subject to VAT at the standard rate.
All hourly rates are reviewed annually, so rates may increase and this will be notified to you
for approval to proceed at the appropriate time.
In addition to the fees charged by the business, we may also have to pay expenses on your
behalf, for example Court fees, barrister’s fees, etc. We will notify you of the relevant amounts
and ask you for an advance payment to cover these when they become due.
All accounts sent are payable within 28 days of receipt and interest will be charged at a rate
of 4% over National Westminster Bank plc base rate on outstanding amounts after 28 days
have passed. As detailed in section 6, we have the right to retain all papers and documents
while monies remain outstanding.
Where a third party is paying your legal costs, you remain responsible for paying our
accounts, but we will endeavour to secure repayment of all agreed costs to you before the
matter is concluded. If an order for costs is made against you, you will become liable for the
fees incurred by the other party.

Our policy is not to accept cash from clients. If you try to avoid this policy by depositing cash
directly with our bank, we may decide to charge you for any additional checks we decide are
necessary to prove the source of funds.
Where 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.
Our VAT number is 137243719.

5. Interest Policy
As part of carrying out your instructions to us, we may need to hold your money in our
client account. In holding client’s money, we have an obligation to pay interest on that
money at a fair and reasonable rate and are required to put in place an interest policy; this
policy sets out the guidelines for when interest will be paid and is summarised below.
We aim to account to you for interest at a reasonable rate of interest however as the
holding of your funds is incidental to the carrying out of your legal instructions, the rate is
unlikely to be as high as the rate you may be able to obtain when depositing the money we
hold on your behalf yourself. In most cases we must ensure that money held on client
account is immediately available and so the need for instant access is taken into account
when setting the rate of interest payable by us.
We align our interest rates on both monies held on general client account and separate
designated deposit account to the Barclays Bank Plc, Current Gross and AER Interest
rate. This rate is likely to change from time to time.
Where amounts are held outside of a general client account or separate designated
deposit account, the rate of interest and date that interest is credited will depend on the
relevant institution where the funds are held, and as such fall outside the requirements of
this policy. The relevant interest information can be obtained at your request.
Where money is held on our general client account, any interest paid to you is paid without
any deduction for income tax. As such it is your responsibility to inform HMRC of amounts
of interest received from us and the implications of this will depend upon your own
financial circumstances. Where interest is held on separate designated deposit account
interest is usually paid net of tax (unless you have signed a declaration confirming your
entitlement to receive bank interest gross). The same rate of interest will be paid on
money held in general client account as will be paid on money held in a separate
designated deposit account, assuming that this will offer a fair and reasonable outcome for
the client and the firm.
Interest will be calculated from the time the funds become cleared for interest purposes,
on cheques or banker’s drafts this will be 8 days after the cheque or draft has been
deposited with our bank. For amounts received by debit or credit, interest will start to
accrue from the date of the actual receipt, usually 3 days after the transaction has been
authorised. For direct transfers or same day payments the funds become cleared on the
day after receipt. Interest will be calculated on a daily basis and calculated on amounts
held overnight from the day the funds become cleared for interest purposes.
Interest will not be paid if the total amount calculated for the period that cleared funds are
held is less than £60.00. Interest will be calculated at the end of the matter and will credit
the client ledger at that date.
In the event of the failure of the deposit taking institution where we have placed your money,
you need to be aware of the following:
 It is unlikely that we will be held liable for losses resulting from a banking failure.
 The name of the deposit-taking institution in which your money is held is Barclays

 An £85,000 FSCS limit applies to each individual client, and so if you hold other
personal monies in the same deposit-taking institution as our client account, the limit
remains £85,000 in total
 If as a corporate body client you are not considered a small company by FSCS, then
you will not be eligible for compensation.
 Some deposit-taking institutions have several brands, i.e. where the same institution
is trading under different names. You should check either with your deposit-taking
institution, the FSA or a financial adviser for more information.
 Please provide your consent for the disclosure to FSCS of client details in the event
of a deposit-taking institution failure.

6. 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. In any event, we will keep your file of papers
for you in storage for not less than six years. After that storage is on the clear understanding that
we have your authority to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable. We will not
destroy any documents that you ask us to deposit in safe custody (in which case you should ask
us in writing and obtain a written receipt from us – we will make an extra charge for this service).
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 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 the instructions given by you or on your behalf.

7. 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 any money owing to us for our charges and expenses.
If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses
on your behalf, you must tell us clearly in writing – you must obtain our written confirmation of
receipt of any such instructions.
In some circumstances we may consider that we ought to stop acting for you, for example, if a
conflict of interest were to arise or you failed to provide us with clear or proper instruction on
how we are to proceed. We will only cease to act for you with good reason and only after
giving reasonable notice.
In all cases where you terminate your instructions to us before a matter is concluded and we
have not received all sums due to us you will be responsible for our costs, charges, VAT
applying and any disbursements that we have incurred on your behalf up to that date, such
sum to be paid within 14 days thereof.

8. Your Right to Cancel where contract agreed off premises or at distance
You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The
cancellation period will expire at the end of 14 days after the day on which the contract is
entered into namely 14 days from the date of our initial letter.
To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us:
Green Solicitors, First Floor, 41 Moor Lane, Clitheroe, BB7 1BE
Tel: 01254 822330
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or
e-mail).
You may use the model cancellation form attached, but it is not obligatory.

To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication
concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
Effects of cancellation
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 day 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 as a result 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 us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of
the contract.

9. Regulation and Complaints Procedure
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority Limited whose address is The Cube,
199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN , www.sra.org.uk , telephone 0370 606 2555.
We aim to offer all of our clients’ efficient and effective service and we are confident that we will
do so in this case. However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are not
happy you should raise your dissatisfaction with Ian Procter who will offer you a meeting for
which you will not be charged in order to discuss and seek to resolve the matter. You may
contact him by telephone, e- mail or letter. You are entitled to complain about any problem
relating to your file, including Green Solicitors Ltd.’s bill. We also point out that the firm does
have a formal complaints procedure, a copy of which is available on request.
At the conclusion of our complaint’s procedure, if you remain dissatisfied you may be able to
make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH or call 0300
555 0333 but you must do so within 1 year of the thing being complained about or from the date
you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint.
The LeO can accept complaints after this period however where it deems it fair and reasonable
to do so. Their website address is www.legalombudsman.org.uk .
Should your complaint be about our bill, you may also have a right to apply to the court for it to
be assessed under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. However, if all or part of our bill remains
unpaid, we may be entitled to charge interest.
We confirm that you will not be charged for handling your complaint.

10. Your responsibilities
It is essential that we can contact you at all times until your case is settled. Please inform us in
writing of any change of address or telephone number, as failure to do so could delay and
prejudice your case. You must give us instructions that allow us to do our work properly and you
must not deliberately mislead us or ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way. Finally,
please note that we cannot deal with any other person on your behalf, without your prior written
instruction.

11. Money Laundering Reporting Requirements
Sometimes, the law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients
and sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and
property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.

To comply with the law, we may need to get evidence of your identity. If so, our practice is to ask
clients to supply their passport or driving licence and in addition we may undertake an electronic
search.
Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money
laundering, the solicitor is required to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency. If this
happens, we will not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made, but will have to suspend
work on your file pending an investigation, which may also involve the Inland Revenue.
It is also an offence to enter into a financial arrangement with any other party where you know or
suspect that some of the money involved represents the ‘proceeds of crime’. This includes money
retained or gained as a result of tax evasion and benefit fraud. Any financial irregularities should
be rectified prior to instructing us.

12. Financial and Tax Advice
We are not registered to provide financial or tax advice and therefore our advice is limited to
the legal implications of your matter.
We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, we are included on the
register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority (The register can be accessed via the
Financial Conduct Authority website at http://www.fca.gov.uk) so that we can carry on
insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of
insurance contracts. The SRA is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. If you
are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns
with either of these bodies.

13. Limitation of Liability
It is the business that is liable for any claim, not an individual Partner, member of staff or
consultant; the client agrees to make no claim against an individual except for fraud.
Our total liability is limited to £3,000,000 in respect of any one claim or series of claims, arising
from any breach of conditions, representation, statement or negligent act or omission.
We will not be liable for any pure economic loss, loss of profit, loss of business, depletion of
goodwill or other similar loss arising from any breach of conditions, representation, statement or
negligent act or omission.
Please note that we will not be liable to repay money lost through a banking failure and our
insurance will not cover such losses.

14. Quality Audits
We are committed to providing a quality service to our clients, and to that end submit ourselves to
an audit of our files and procedures by outside assessors. There is a possibility that during that
audit, the assessor may wish to inspect client files, to assure themselves that our procedures are
being followed.
By signing this form you are consenting to your file being inspected by an external assessor, who
will maintain full confidentiality. If you do not want your file to be available for inspection, please
indicate this at the end of this form before signing it.
We will always consider carefully, prior to supplying your file, whether it should be protected from
inspection. You continue to have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by writing to that
effect.

15. Electronic Communication

During the retainer, we may (unless you expressly ask us not to do so) communicate with you
(and with others for the purposes of the retainer), electronically. You accept that the electronic
transmission of information cannot be guaranteed to be secure or free from error and it remains
your responsibility to carry out virus checks of any attachments before launching any document
(howsoever received).
Internet communications are capable of data corruption and therefore we do not accept any
responsibility for changes made to such communications after their dispatch. It may therefore be
inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it.
We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of
internet communication and all risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information
relating to your business are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should
notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication.

16. Agreement
By signing and returning these terms of business, you agree to us starting work immediately.
This does not remove your right to cancel the contract within 14 days but it does mean that
you agree to pay any reasonable charges incurred by us during this period. However, you will
lose your right to cancel the service contract if the service has been fully performed within this
14 day period at your request and you acknowledge that you would lose your right to cancel
once the contract had been completed.
We trust that you fully understand the terms upon which we shall act for you. Your continuing
instructions in this matter will amount to your acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.
This is an important document please keep it in a safe place for future reference.