Terms of Business

AGREED TERMS

1. Definitions and interpretation

Definitions

In this Agreement, unless otherwise provided:

Advocacy:

means appearing for you at court hearings;

After-the-event Insurance:

means the insurance policy you purchase to provide indemnity against the risk of paying Disbursements and/or the Opposing Party's legal costs;

Base Costs:

means our charges for the work we do on your Claim (to include any applicable tax thereon) calculated in accordance with clause 4;

Claim:

means your claim as set out in clause 2.1 whether or not court proceedings are issued;

Counter Claim:

means a claim the Opposing Party makes against you in response to your Claim;

Damages:

means money you Win whether by a court decision or settlement;

Disbursements:

means expenses incurred on your behalf in the course of your Claim, including court fees, experts’ fees, surveyors’ fees, barristers’ fees, travelling expenses; land registry searches and any applicable tax thereon;

Insurance Premium:

means the cost of the After-the-event insurance policy;

Injunction:

means a form of court order that compels the Opposing Party to do or refrain from specific acts

Interim Damages:

means money a court says the Opposing Party must pay or the Opposing Party agrees to pay to you towards or on account of Damages while waiting for a settlement to be agreed or the court's final decision on Damages;

Interim Dispute:

means a dispute or matter arising in the course of your Claim that is the subject of an interim application whether or not it proceeds to an Interim Hearing;

Interim Hearing:

means a court hearing that is not the final hearing;

Lien:

means our right to keep all papers, documents, money or other property held on your behalf until all money due to us is paid. A Lien may be applied after this agreement ends;

Lose:

means the court has dismissed your Claim or you have stopped it on our advice;

Opposing Party:

means the party against whom the Claim is made by you;

Part 36 Offer or Payment:

shall have the meaning set out in Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998;

Proceedings:

includes any sort of proceedings (and is not confined to proceedings in a court) whether commenced or contemplated, subject to the terms of section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990;

Trial:

means the final contested hearing or the contested hearing of any issue to be tried separately;

VAT:

means value-added tax;

Win:

Your Claim for Damages or an Injunction is finally decided in your favour, whether by a court decision or an agreement to pay you Damages or in any way that you derive benefit from pursuing the Claim.

'Finally' means that the Opposing Party is not allowed to appeal against the court decision; or has not appealed in time; or has lost any appeal.

2. What is covered by this Agreement

This agreement covers the following work:

• Your Claim for Damages and/or an Injunction against the Opposing Party (the Opposing Party) arising from potential or actual loss of light to your property. This agreement applies to any work done and Disbursements incurred even if this happened before this agreement was made.

• Any application for pre-action or non-party disclosure.

• Any claim related to this matter that needs to be issued.

• Any interim applications that may be required.

• Any interim appeal by the Opposing Party.

• Any Proceedings you take to enforce a judgment, order or agreement.

• Negotiations about and/or a court assessment of the costs of this Claim.

3. What is not covered by this Agreement

This agreement does not cover:

• Any Counter Claim against you.

• Any appeal you make.

4. Base Costs

• Base Costs are calculated on the basis of time engaged on your Claim. Routine letters and telephone calls will be charged as units of one tenth of an hour. Other letters and telephone calls will be charged on a time basis. We will add VAT at the prevailing rate. The hourly rates are as follows:

5. Paying us if You Win

• If you Win your Claim, you become liable to pay our Base Costs and Disbursements together with VAT (as assessed or agreed). However, you only pay our Base Costs and Disbursements to the extent that they are recovered from the Opposing Party.

• You will seek to recover from the Opposing Party all or part of our Base Costs and Disbursements. You hereby irrevocably agree that we can pursue such a claim against the Opposing Party on your behalf. You cannot claim from the Opposing Party the Insurance Premium for any After-the Event Insurance you take out. You, not the Opposing Party, pay the Insurance Premium.

• You agree that any Damages due to you from the Opposing Party shall be paid to us in full. You authorise us to deduct from your Damages any Insurance Premium plus IPT (if applicable) of the Damages recovered.

• You agree to send to us any cheque received by you from the Opposing Party and made payable to you.

• You have the right to apply to the court for assessment of our costs. If you make such an application, the court will have regard to all the relevant factors as they reasonably appeared to us when this agreement was entered into or varied.

• We will keep any interest the Opposing Party pays on any costs.

• If the Opposing Party does not pay any Damages, legal costs, other costs or Disbursements and VAT owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce a judgment, order or agreement. The costs of this action become part of the Base Costs.

• If the Opposing Party makes a Part 36 Offer or Payment which you reject on our advice, and you pursue your Claim to Trial or agree settlement where you recover Damages that are less than or equal to the Part 36 Offer or Payment , this is still a Win and:

  (a) We will charge our Base Costs and VAT (to the extent that they are recovered from another party);

  (b) You will remain liable for our Disbursements and VAT; and

  (c) You will usually be ordered to pay the Opposing Party's costs from 21 days after the offer or payment was received—After-the-event Insurance may be available to cover any such order and this is explained at clause 12 below.

• If, under Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules, you are awarded an increased sum in respect of any costs for the Claim, it is agreed that such sums are to be retained by us.

• If you receive Interim Damages, you are required to pay any Disbursements we have incurred up to that point and a reasonable amount for our future Disbursements.

6. If You Lose

• If You Lose, you do not pay our Base Costs, but you will be liable to pay:

  (a) Our Disbursements and VAT thereon;

  (b) the Opposing Party’s costs with VAT if applicable.

• However, you may be able to take out an After the Event Insurance policy to protect you against this risk.

7. Payment for advocacy and barrister’s fees

• The cost of advocacy and any other work by us, or by any solicitor agent on our behalf, forms part of our Base Costs.

• Barristers’ fees are not included in our Base Costs. If it becomes necessary to instruct a barrister, we will discuss with you the choice of barrister and arrangements for payment of the barrister's fees, including whether the barrister is willing to enter into a conditional fee agreement.

8. Interim costs

• If on the way to Winning or Losing you are awarded any costs, by agreement or court order, we are entitled to payment of our Base Costs and Disbursements covered by that award at that time, to the extent that they are recovered from the Opposing Party.

9. Our responsibilities

• We must:

  (a) always act in your best interests, subject to our duty to the court;

  (b) explain to you the risks and benefits of taking legal action;

  (c) give you our best advice about whether to accept any offer of settlement;

  (d) give you the best information possible about the likely costs of your Claim.

10. Your responsibilities

• You must:

  (a) give us instructions that allow us to do our work properly;

  (b) not ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way;

  (c) not deliberately mislead us;

  (d) co-operate with us;

  (e) go to any court hearing.

11. Termination

If You terminate the Agreement

• You can end this agreement at any time. Unless you have a right to cancel this agreement and do so within the 14–day time limit (see schedule 1), you must pay our Base Costs and Disbursements when we ask for them.

If We terminate the Agreement

• We can end this agreement if you do not keep to your responsibilities in clause 10. You must pay our Base Costs and Disbursements when we ask for them.

• We can end this agreement if we believe you are unlikely to Win. If this happens, you will not have to pay our Base Costs or Disbursements. However, if you subsequently go on and Win your Claim by utilising another Solicitor, you will then be liable to pay our costs as set out in clause 5.

• We can end this agreement if you reject our opinion about making a settlement with the Opposing Party. This includes a situation where you reject our advice to accept a Part 36 Offer or Payment made by the Opposing Party. You must then pay our Base Costs and Disbursements.

12. After-the-event-Insurance

• You may be able to take out an insurance policy against the risk of paying Disbursements if you Lose, or some or all of the Opposing Party's costs. This is called After-the-event-Insurance.

13. Death

• In the event of your death, we can end this agreement or continue it with your personal representatives.

• If we or your personal representatives chose not to continue with this agreement, then we will be entitled to recover the Base Costs and Disbursements up to the date of your death from your estate. If your personal representatives do not provide instructions, this agreement will be deemed terminated by the personal representatives.

14. What happens after this agreement ends

• After this agreement ends, we may apply to have our name removed from the record of any Proceedings in which we are acting, unless we enter into another form of funding with you.

• We have the right to preserve our Lien, unless another solicitor working for you undertakes to pay us what we are owed under this agreement.

15. Variation

• No amendment or variation of this Agreement will be valid unless confirmed in writing by an authorised signatory of each party.

16. Miscellaneous

• The parties acknowledge and agree that this Agreement is not a Contentious Business Agreement within the terms of the Solicitors Act 1974.

17. Our Interest Policy on Client Account Funds

When a client’s settlement monies are received, it will be paid into the firm’s general client account. The general client account will hold pooled amounts for different matters for its clients. These are held on an instant access account to facilitate the transaction.

It is the firm’s policy to transfer any money due to a client on the day received or as soon as possible thereafter. Therefore, we consider that any interest that is accrued on any monies for a particular client will be minimal. However, if for any unforeseeable reason, there is a delay in transferring funds to a client and these funds accrue any interest then we will account to that client for a sum in lieu of interest subject to the following situations/ restrictions:

1. If the amount calculated is £35 or less. Below that sum we consider that the administrative costs of dealing with the funds would exceed the interest due;

2. On money held for the payment of a professional disbursement if the person to whom the money is owed has requested a delay in the transfer of those funds;

3. On an advance from us into our general client account to fund a payment on your behalf in excess of funds already held for you in that account;

4. if there is an agreement to contract out of the provisions of this policy.

In calculating interest, we will apply a rate that we believe reflects the current market rate of interest paid on an instant access current account offered by a UK high street bank.

In determining the period over which interest is to be calculated, we will look at the period between the date when the relevant funds received by us clear our account and, if we send the funds electronically, the date when the funds are sent or, if we send the funds by cheque, five days after a cheque is raised.