Terms of Business

1. Our Promise to You

We are delighted that you have instructed us. In this clause we set out our responsibilities to you.
We promise to:

• treat you fairly and with respect;
• communicate with you in plain language;
• handle your matter in accordance with the professional standards of the Solicitors’ profession;
• review your matter regularly;
• advise you of any changes in the law that affect your matter whilst we are working on your matter; and
• advise you of any reasonably foreseeable circumstances and risks that could affect the outcome of your matter.

2. Our Service Level Promise

• We will regularly update you by telephone or in writing with progress on your matter.
• We will explain to you by telephone or in writing the legal work required as your matter progresses.
• We will update you on the likely timescales for each stage of this matter and any important changes in those estimates.
• Our normal business hours are between 9.00am and 5.30pm from Monday to Friday. We monitor emails and website contacts outside these times and will strive to respond as soon as we know you have made contact.

3. Your Responsibilities

You agree to:

• provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions;
• provide all documentation and information that we reasonably request in a timely manner; and
• safeguard any documents that may be required for your matter, including documents that you may have to disclose to another party.

4. We are Proud to be Regulated

Lincoln Green Solicitors Ltd is a firm of solicitors and not a claims management company. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and are governed by a Code of Conduct and other professional rules which you can access on the SRA’s website (www.sra.org.uk) or by calling 0370 606 2555.

As a regulated solicitors firm we are obliged to hold comprehensive professional indemnity insurance cover in order to protect your interests if something goes wrong.

5. Your Information

We treat everything that you tell us about yourself and about your case as strictly confidential.

We comply with the data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 2018 and in the GDPR. We will only hold your personal data for the purposes of your case and will only hold that personal data for as long as we need to in order to comply with the law.

For more information please see our privacy policy.

6. Storage and Retrieval of Files

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses. Thereafter, we will close your file and electronically store your file for up to 16 years. The paper file will be destroyed apart from original documents which we will return to you or store in safe custody if you wish us to.

If we retrieve the electronic copy of your file from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not charge for the retrieval.

If we retrieve your file from storage for another reason, we may charge you for:

• consideration of your closed file, correspondence with you or others, or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved file; and
• printing paper copies of any documents.

Upon your request we will provide you with an electronic copy of the file (rather than paper) unless it is inappropriate to do so.

7. External Auditing And Due Diligence

Our regulator the SRA is empowered to conduct checks and reviews on our client files and our business processes to ensure that we are complying with the Code of Conduct and applicable rules of law.

External firms or organisations apart from the SRA may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice from time to time. It is a specific requirement imposed by us that these external firms or organisations fully maintain confidentiality in relation to any files and papers which are audited or quality checked.

Your files may also be reviewed in a due diligence exercise relating to the sale or transfer of all or part of our business, the acquisition of another business by us or the acquisition of new business. In this case we will again impose confidentiality requirements on those carrying out due diligence.

8. Terminating your Instructions

You may end your instructions at any time by giving us notice in writing. We can keep all your papers and documents while our charges or disbursements are outstanding.

Please note that where we are working for you on a “no win – no fee” basis we may charge you a fair fee if you end your instructions after we have started working for you. Please see the client agreement that we gave you when you instructed us as this will explain more about a “no win – no fee” arrangement if this applies to you.

We may stop acting for you if you don’t co-operate in the conduct of your case or if you don’t pay our fees or costs (if those apply to your case).

9. Paying us

We do not accept cash. Please try to pay us by bank transfer – our bank details are on all our invoices. Please phone ahead before you make the transfer to check that the details are correct – this is to limit the risk of fraud.

In special cases after discussion with us we may accept payment by debit card or credit card.

Bills must be paid within 30 days of the date they were sent to you. After that time we may charge you interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum.

10. Complaints

Lincoln Green Solicitors Ltd is committed to giving high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bills we have sent to you, please contact first the person dealing with your matter. If you would prefer not to speak to that person or are not satisfied with the outcome of that contact then please contact David Dees by post to our office, by telephone or email (01908 662277 david.dees@lincolngreenlaw.com). We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which is available from David Dees.

We have eight weeks to consider your complaint. If we have not resolved it within this time, you may complain to the Legal Ombudsman. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Please see our complains procedure page for more details.

11. Consumers – Rights to Cancel

• “Consumer” means an individual acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that individual's trade, business, craft or profession.
• If you are a “consumer” you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days of you entering it without giving any reason.
• To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or email).
• Our details are: Lincoln Green Solicitors Ltd, Artemis House, 4 Bramley Road, Mount Farm, Milton Keynes, MK1 1PT United Kingdom. Tel: 0300 303 3819. Email: info@lincolngreenlaw.com.
• Please note that we will give you the option to give up your right of cancellation if you wish us to start work immediately. This is set out in the client agreement.

12. Equality and Diversity

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.

13. Applicable Law

Any dispute or legal issue arising from our Terms of Business will be determined by the law of England, and considered exclusively by the English courts.