Terms and Conditions

We are:

FOX WHITFIELD

Adamson House
Towers Business Park
Wilmslow Road
Didsbury
Manchester, M20 2YY

Tel: 0161 283 1276
Fax: 0161 2102914
Email: info@foxwhitfield.com
www.foxwhitfield.com

Terms of website use

This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website www.foxwhitfield.com/www.foxwhitfield.co.uk (our site). Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please refrain from using our site.

Intellectual property rights

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it.  Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world.  All such rights are reserved.  Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us.

Reliance on information posted

Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed.  We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

Our site changes regularly

We aim to update our site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

Our liability

The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, we, hereby expressly exclude:

  • All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.
  • Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for loss or damage of any kind.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Links from our site

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only.  We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Variations

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

Transactions concluded through our site

Contracts for the supply of services formed through our site or as a result of visits made by you are governed by our terms of engagement below.

Our standard terms of engagement as required by the SRA/Law Society are set out below:

Website Terms of Engagement

All work carried out by Fox Whitfield (also referred as “we” or “us”) for you as our client is subject to these Terms and Conditions of Business, except to the extent that changes are expressly agreed with you in writing.

1. Fox Whitfield

Fox Whitfield’s central office is at Adamson House, Towers Business Park, Wilmslow Road. Didsbury, Manchester M20 2YY United Kingdom. Fox Whitfield is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority [Law Society Roll Number – 524972].

2. Fees and other charges

Our fees and charges will be calculated on the basis set out in on the website or in our Letter of Engagement or as otherwise agreed with you.

Our hourly rates are subject to periodic review, normally on an annual basis. If, as a result of a review, our hourly rates are varied, we will notify you of the changes. The revised rates will take effect from the date of the notification or as otherwise agreed with you. Our hourly rates are also adjusted periodically to reflect the increase in seniority of the fee earners working on your matter.

When we incur expenses and disbursements on your behalf you agree to reimburse us. These may include, for example, court fees, document preparation and photocopying expenses, external conference call charges, courier, and guaranteed delivery expenses, travel, subsistence and accommodation expenses. When incurring these charges we will aim for the lowest reasonably available cost. Additional costs that we incur on your behalf will be clearly identified in our invoices. Substantial or unusual expenses such as barristers fees, specialist IT services will be discussed and agreed with you in advance.

Any VAT chargeable upon amounts invoiced by us is payable in addition to our fees and charges. We will deliver an appropriate VAT invoice to you. If you have arranged with a third party for the payment of our fees, the third party will not normally be entitled to recover any VAT element and you will remain responsible to Fox Whitfield for payment of our fees and charges.

4. Billing and payment terms

It is our standard practice to bill all outstanding fees and disbursements/expenses on a monthly basis unless otherwise agreed with you. A breakdown of any invoice will be provided on request.

If an invoice remains outstanding after 30 days from the date of delivery of the invoice, we reserve the right to charge interest at the rate of 8% over the Bank of England base rate (as varied from time to time)on any amount outstanding after 30 days from the date of delivery of the invoice until payment. We also reserve the right to suspend work on all matters on which we are advising you and/or to terminate our retainer. In the event of such termination all our invoices will become immediately due and payable.

You have a right to complain about a bill first to us and then to the Legal Complaints Service (or the Office for Legal Complaints) and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part lll of the Solicitors’ Act 1974.

5. Client money

We do not operate a client account and will not hold any client money on account.

6. Authority to give instructions

You should tell us, at the outset of a matter, who is properly authorised to give us instructions. Unless advised otherwise, we will assume that we are authorised to accept instructions from any person whom we reasonably believe to have your authority to give instructions to us (this will include, in the case of a body corporate, any of your directors, officers and employees) and that we may act on instructions given orally.

7. Electronic communication

Unless otherwise directed by you, we may correspond by means of electronic mail. We each agree to accept the risks of using electronic mail, including but not limited to the risks of viruses interception and unauthorised access.

We each agree to use commercially reasonable procedures to check for commonly known viruses in information sent and received electronically, but we recognise that such procedures cannot be a guarantee that transmissions will be virus free.

8. Confidentiality and disclosure

We will keep confidential information received from you while acting in connection with any matter unless:

  • we have your authority to disclose it; or
  • we are required to disclose it by law; or
  • the information is in or comes into the public domain without any breach of confidentiality on the part of Fox Whitfield; or
  • we are required to disclose it by any regulatory authorities, in which case, to the extent that we are permitted to do so, we will endeavour to give you as much advance notice as possible of any such required disclosures.

We owe the same duty of confidentiality to all of our clients. Therefore we will not disclose to you any information given to us in confidence in relation to any other matter even if it is material to yours, without that client’s prior consent.

You agree that, subject always to applicable rules and with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure that access to the relevant confidential information within Fox Whitfield is restricted, we may act for you even though we hold confidential information relating to another party which may be material to your matter.

We may in the past have advised, or may now or in the future advise, other clients whose interests differ from yours. In advising such other clients we may come into possession of confidential information which would be material to your matter. In addition, confidential information we hold about you may be material to such other clients’ matters. You agree that our duty of confidentiality to you will be satisfied by putting appropriate safeguards in place, in accordance with applicable rules, to ensure that access to your relevant confidential information within Fox Whitfield is restricted. Where such measures are in place, you agree that you will not seek to prevent us from acting for other clients by reason of our holding your confidential information.

9. Conflicts

We have procedures designed to prevent our acting for one client in a matter where there is or could be a conflict with the interests of another client for whom we are acting. If you are aware or become aware of a possible conflict of this type, please raise it immediately with us. If a conflict of this nature arises, then it will be up to us, taking account of legal constraints, professional rules and your and the other client’s interests and wishes, to decide whether we should continue to act for both parties, for one only or for neither.

10. Intellectual property rights

You will have the full right and licence to use copies of materials we create for you for the particular purpose for which they were prepared. However, all copyright and other intellectual property rights in all documents, reports, written advice or other materials provided by us to you remains with us. If you wish to use copies of these materials for purposes other than those for which they were prepared, this will require our permission.

11. Storage of papers and documents

You agree that we may store documents and papers electronically.

After completing any matter on your behalf we are entitled to retain all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. Subject to this we will retain our files of papers (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for a minimum of 6 years from the completion of the matter, after which they may be destroyed. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody but we will make a charge to cover our costs.

We will not charge for retrieving papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions for us to act on your behalf.

12. Limitations and exclusions of liability

The aggregate liability of Fox Whitfield, whether to you or any third party, of whatever nature, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, for any losses whatsoever and howsoever caused arising from or in any way connected with each matter upon which we are instructed and/or advice on for any claim in respect of services provided to you (whether in contract, negligence or otherwise) shall in no circumstances exceed £2,000,000.

Our responsibility shall only extend to the advice and services we provide on matters upon which you have actually instructed us. We will be reliant upon you for the accuracy of the information and/or documentation you provide. We will not be liable to you for any Losses caused wholly or in part by the provision by you of false, misleading or incomplete information or documentation or due to the acts or omissions of any persons other than this firm or arising from any cause beyond our reasonable control.

In addition to any other limitation agreed with you (and subject to professional rules), the liability of Fox Whitfield for any claim in respect of services provided to you (whether in contract, negligence or otherwise) shall be limited to the proportion of the total of all damage, including costs, which may be fairly attributed to Fox Whitfield (having regard to any contribution to such loss or damage by any other person) in proceedings for a contribution under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 in England and Wales, and Section 3 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1940 in Scotland.

14. Data protection and marketing

We are the data controller of personal information (personal data) relating to individuals who are either a named client or through whom we conduct our relationship with you. We may use such personal data for providing legal services, marketing, administration, and training, and we may disclose it to our service providers and agents for these purposes. We may retain it for marketing purposes, to contact you about our services, but you can choose not to receive such material at any time. We also process personal data for purposes required by law (eg evidence of identity checks in respect of money laundering) and for commercial purposes (eg creditworthiness checks).

We are a data processor acting on your behalf in respect of any other personal data supplied to us by you or on your behalf in the course of our relationship with you. In relation to such personal data, we will:

  • act only in accordance with your instructions in relation to the processing of that data;
  • take appropriate organisational and technical measures against unauthorised or unlawful processing of those data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, that data; and
  • provide appropriate training to personnel who process that data on our behalf.

You agree that we may disclose that we are acting for you in our marketing and similar materials and, if in the public domain, the Matter on which we have acted or are acting for you. If the Matter is not in the public domain, we may only disclose the Matter for marketing purposes in a generic form (and without reference to you) unless otherwise agreed between us.

15. Rights of third parties

For the purposes of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, it is confirmed that our services are provided solely for the benefit of you as our client and our terms of engagement are enforceable only by you and us, and not by any third party.

Fox Whitfield shall not be under any duty to, nor have any responsibility towards, any other person (including without limitation your holding company, subsidiaries, affiliates or third parties) in connection with any matter (unless that person is also a client of Fox Whitfield in relation to it), even if the objective of your instructions is to confer a benefit upon that other person.

16. Resolving complaints

To raise a concern or to make a complaint please raise it with Paul Whitfield.

We hope and expect to be able to reach a satisfactory solution with you. However, if you are still not satisfied, please ask to have the matter reviewed. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Office for Legal Complaints on 0300 555 0333 to consider the complaint.

17. Termination

You can ask us to stop work on any of your matters at any time by writing to us. We can also cease work on any of your matters by written notice, but we will only do this when there are good reasons for our ceasing to work on the matter. Such reasons include, but are not limited to circumstances where we may consider that:

  • there is a credit risk to us; or
  • there is a reputational risk to us; or
  • a conflict of interest arises; or
  • we are required by law to cease working for you.

Charges and expenses properly incurred by us in relation to the Matter up to the date of termination will be payable by you.

18. Severance

If any provision of our agreement with you is invalid or unenforceable for any reason, that shall not affect the remainder of our agreement with you.

19. Application and prevailing terms

These Terms and Conditions of Business supersede any earlier terms of business we may have agreed with you.

If there is a conflict between these Terms and Conditions of Business and any specific terms agreed with you in relation to an individual matter (for example, any terms set out in a Letter of Engagement), then the specific terms will prevail.

It may be necessary to amend these Terms and Conditions of Business from time to time. We will notify you of any such proposed changes and unless we hear from you to the contrary within 14 days following such notification, the amendments and/or new terms will come into effect from the end of that period.

21. Force majeure

It is understood and agreed that neither of us will be liable to the other for any delay or failure to fulfil obligations caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control.

22. Governing law and disputes

The contract between you and Fox Whitfield is deemed to be made in England and is governed by English law. Unless any alternative dispute resolution procedure is agreed with you from time to time, any dispute between Fox Whitfield and you shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Additional Terms relating to Online Purchases of Documents

23. Document Purchases

Documents purchased from the website will not cover all specific circumstances. If you have any specific concerns with regard to the documents or require specific legal advice you should seek advice from a lawyer, we have fixed fee arrangements to cover such advice. Any document purchased from the website and used without legal advice is entirely at your own risk, and you accept full responsibility should it prove to be unsuitable to your circumstances.

Documents are designed to be used in England and Wales only and should not be used outside that jurisdiction, if you do use them outside of England and Wales, they may be ineffective or expose you to liabilities that we have no liability for.

Communication with you will be by email alone. You are responsible for ensuring that your software does not block emails from us and to act on instructions issued to you or any comments which we may make to you.

Any amendments to purchased documents are made at your own risk.

The legal effect of documents may change following any change in the law. We can accept no liability in respect of the accuracy of the documentation following any change in the Law.

24. No Right to Cancel

Documents  purchased from the website will be sent to you in electronic format and are therefore non-returnable. The Office of Fair Trading Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to these purchases. Once the document has been sent to you, you will have no right to cancellation and, other than at the our sole discretion, you will not be entitled to any refund. You do have the right to cancel the purchase before work has commenced on any documents you have purchased.

© Fox Whitfield – 2012

VAT Reg No: 985 1458 81