Terms of Engagement
1. Our terms
1.1. Parties. In these terms, A Father’s Friend Limited® is referred to as “A Father’s Friend/we/our/us/I”. The clients of A Father’s Friend are referred to as “you/your”. This includes those authorised to provide instructions on the client’s behalf.
1.2. Our status. We are an English limited liability company trading as A Father’s Friend Limited® in Europe.
1.3. Professional titles. We use professional titles to designate the seniority and the role of our colleagues. Those we call ‘Partners’ are solicitors, barristers, trademark attorneys, and other legal professionals with at least eight years’ standing as such. The title ‘Partner’ is a professional title only. Our Partners are not partners in the legal sense. They are not liable for the debts, liabilities, or obligations, nor are they involved in the management of any entity in our company.
1.4. Entire terms. These terms (and any conditional fee agreement) are the only terms between us. Save as explained below, they will not change unless we replace them in their entirety.
1.5. Invalidity. If any term is invalid, then it shall be deemed changed just in so far as necessary to make the term valid. Where that is not possible, then the invalid term shall be deleted. No change or deletion shall affect any other term.
2. Our charges
2.1. Fees. The way we charge for our services is set out in our engagement letter and may be varied by us in writing. We may offer a fixed or a capped fee. If so, we will set out the scope of work we will deliver at that price. A fixed or capped fee will be based on assumptions and conditions. We review all rates annually and will give you one month’s written notice of any increase.
2.2. Estimates. Any estimates we provide are based on conditions, assumptions, and our understanding of the work we are to undertake. An estimate is not a cap and we may exceed our estimates.
2.3. Support services. Our Price Guide sets out our charges for support services. We update our Rate Card annually.
2.4. Disbursements. In connection with your matter, we may incur expenses in your name (“disbursements”). We will do so as your agent and you will be bound to pay the relevant third party for the relevant goods or services (For example fees for application to court). We may also engage third parties in our own name as part of our service provision to you. If so, we will not charge these to you, though in some cases we will make a linked charge for our related services.
2.5. VAT. We quote prices exclusive of Value Added Tax (“VAT”). We may add VAT to our invoices at the prevailing rate as applicable.
3. Costs on account
We may need to ask you for a payment on account of costs, disbursements and VAT. If so, we will send you a costs on account statement requesting payment of an appropriate sum into our client account. From time to time, we may ask for a top-up payment. At the end of our engagement, we will return any balance to you. If we ask for costs on account, we are not obliged to do any work or incur any disbursement until they are received. Unless we specifically say so, we do not cap our fees at the level of the costs on account we request.
4. Payments
4.1. Invoices. You agree we may deliver interim statute invoices. Unless clearly stated on the face of an invoice to the contrary, all our invoices are self-contained final accounts for the period they cover. We may invoice periodically and at any point. Disbursements-only invoices are payable on receipt, regardless of the payment terms we agree. We can only address an invoice to you, even if someone else is to pay it.
4.2. Settling invoices. You can pay us by bank transfer or card payment. Card payments normally take three working days to reach our account. Our refund policy applies to all card payments. We accept debit cards and credit cards.
4.3. Payments in. You must quote our reference number with every payment. Sending money without our reference may delay our receipt of your payment. On request, you must confirm the source of the payment and your source of wealth. We may return the funds at your cost and we may charge you for any checks required as a result of a breach of this paragraph 4.
4.4. Payments out. Money will only be paid from our client account with your instructions, except to pay our fees and disbursements or following a court order.
4.5. No liability. We are not liable for any loss whatsoever (including, but not limited to, losses arising from our returning funds and our delay in applying or sending funds) arising from any breach of this paragraph 4 or from our compliance with any applicable law governing the transfer of funds.
4.6. No cash. We do not accept or make cash payments.
4.7. Currency conversion. If you pay us in another currency (not the currency in which payment was requested), we will convert the payment at TIDE’s standard exchange rates and deduct any charges we incur in receiving such funds. You remain liable for any shortfall after conversion and deductions.
4.8. Interest and costs. We will not charge you interest on payments. We trust not, but if we ever need to incur costs in recovering unpaid amounts, you agree to pay our costs in full.
4.9. Payment from money we hold. If we hold any money for you, we may use it to settle anything you owe us, even if you tell us not to.
4.10. Retention. Until all payments due to us have been made, we may keep your property and documents. We may also keep your funds up to the amount of your unpaid bills and any work in progress.
4.11. Each client is liable. When two or more clients together engage us, each client is jointly and separately liable to pay the full amount of our fees, disbursements and VAT.
4.12. Security. Before sending us funds, you must reconfirm our bank details by telephoning the number on our website and speaking either with your primary contact or our cashiers. We will not change our bank details. If you receive any correspondence suggesting that our bank or contact details have changed or raising any concerns in this respect, you should take no action save contacting your primary contact at A Father’s Friend. We reserve the right not to make any transfers without adequate proof that the transfer is properly authorised, lawful and correct.
4.13. Bank default. Money paid into our client account is held at our bank on trust for you. If our bank becomes insolvent or does not carry out our instructions, we are not liable for any loss or damage caused to you. You may qualify for some limited protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. See www.fscs.org.uk.
5. Liability
5.1. Our liability. We are only liable for the foreseeable losses caused directly by a breach of our obligations. We are not liable for any harm to your reputation, loss of profit or any other indirect loss. We are not liable for matters outside our control. We are not liable to the extent that any loss is due to the provision to us of false, misleading or incomplete information. We are not liable for any loss arising from our compliance with what we reasonably understand to be our statutory or professional obligations.
5.2. Liability of others. Where you or others contribute to your loss, then we will be liable only for a fair proportion of your loss, taking into account yours or such other’s actions.
5.3. No liability to anyone but you. The services we provide are only for you and to be used only in connection with the matter on which we are instructed. Nobody else can rely on our services for any purpose, without our written permission, save where permitted by law. We owe no duties to anyone but you. You may not assign all or any part of your rights and benefits in tort or under these terms.
5.4. No one is liable except us. If a claim arises, connected to our work, you can only claim against us, not against any of the following (even if they have been negligent): our shareholders, members, partners, directors, officers, associates, employees, consultants, barristers, solicitors, assistants, agents or other legal professionals (“staff”) or any of the same at a firm in our network. If anyone signs a document in his own name, that does not mean the signatory accepts any personal legal liability. Each person mentioned in this paragraph can enforce it under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
5.5. Earlier statements. We make this agreement on the basis that you have not relied on any statement or promise from us or from any of our staff. If that is wrong, please write to us straight away to say so.
5.6. Liability that cannot be limited. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot legally be limited, such as (without limitation) for fraud on our part, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
5.7. Proportional liability. Where you claim against multiple advisers engaged on the same matter, and where your loss exceeds any liability limitation you have agreed with any other adviser, we shall not be liable for anything you could have claimed from another adviser, had it not been for that agreed limitation.
5.8. Claims by others. You shall indemnify us against all loss, costs, and expenses we incur as a result of acting properly for you.
6. Our legal support.
6.1. Jurisdiction. We provide support only on matters of law in England and Wales. Our network does not provide a service in any other jurisdiction. Any support we or they may give you in relation to other jurisdictions is generic advice only applying English law and common legal principles; it is not legal advice and you must not rely on it as such. If you require legal advice, you must tell us in writing. We will then introduce you to a law firm authorised in the relevant jurisdiction.
6.2. Relevant information. You must ensure you, and anyone else you instruct on this matter to work with you, tell the consultant working on this matter everything they need to know in order to work for you without delay. This includes anything you have told us in the past if we worked for you before. You must always be truthful and open with us.
6.3. Changes in law and your situation. We will provide support to you according to your situation as you explain it to us and the law in force when we give our advice. We will not update our support once we have delivered it to you unless you ask us to do so in writing. If you believe your situation may change after we give our support, you should tell us how in writing and ask us to factor this into our support. Changes in the law and to your situation can be especially relevant to any tax you may be required to pay.
6.4. Purpose of our support. You shall only instruct us for proper lawful purposes.
7. Work done by others
7.1. Engaging others. Where we believe it is in your interests, we may introduce you to third parties to work for you. We make no recommendation and the decision to engage them is yours alone. If you wish to engage them, you would usually do so directly. Where appropriate, we may provide recommended third party services and, if so, they will appear as a disbursement on your bill (see paragraph 2.4). In all cases you alone are responsible for their fees.
7.2. Reliance. We will rely on the work and advice prepared by you and your other advisers (including those you may engage through us).
7.3. Responsibility. We are not responsible for any action, omission, error or deficiency of anyone you engage whether directly or through us.
8. Use of information
8.1. Source of information. We may receive information about you and other individuals directly from you, from a third party connected with you and from a third party connected with us.
8.2. Confidential information. We safeguard all the confidential information you disclose to us. We may share your information within our network. We will also share your information with others where you allow it, where required by law or regulation, as part of a file audit, where required by our insurers or where we think it allows us to give you a better service.
8.3. Multiple clients. When two or more clients together engage us, each client authorises the sharing with the other(s) of any information it provides. If one or more clients terminate our services, we may still use all the information provided to us during the service for the benefit of the remaining client(s).
8.4. Personal data and Privacy Notice. We comply with applicable data protection laws to protect your data. These terms and our Privacy Policy explain how we use personal data. We recommend you read our Privacy Notice.
8.5. If you are a data controller or data processor. If you are a data controller or data processor for others, and you provide to us personal data relating to others, then you confirm to us that you have a lawful basis for doing so under data protection law and where that basis is consent, then you confirm you have secured the consent of the data subject to our using their data as part of our acting for you.
8.6. Special category data. During the course of providing our services to you, we may need to use special category data. Your acceptance of these terms is your explicit consent to our processing any special category personal data as part of your instructions to us. Special category data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health, or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
8.7. Data controller. When we use personal data about you or others in connection with providing our services to you, we do so as data controller. Our contact details are set out on page 1 of our engagement letter and communications relating to data protection should be addressed to info@afathersfriend.co.uk marked for the attention of the Privacy Manager.
8.8. Use of personal data. Our core purposes for processing personal data are to operate our business, to provide legal support services to our clients, to maintain our client and business records and to comply with law and regulation. In relation to you (or the organisation on behalf of which you instruct us) this primarily involves: providing you with legal support or other information that you have requested from us; invoicing you for services we have undertaken for you; keeping records of the work we have carried out for you; and fulfilling our anti-money laundering obligations. These terms deal with our use of your data as part of your instructions to us. In all other respects, our use of data is set out in our Privacy Notice.
8.9. Lawful basis of processing. Before accepting your instructions, we may need to carry out certain checks. When we are providing our support service to you, we process your personal data to provide legal support services to you and to comply with our practice guidance to provide such services. We will also process personal data where it is in our legitimate interests to do so (for example, as part of the administration of our business and keeping our systems secure).
8.10. Categories of personal data obtained. The core categories of personal data which we use to provide our legal support services to you are: name, email address and other contact details; correspondence with us; bank account details and/or other billing details; and copies of your passport, driving licence, birth certificate, national identity card, utility bills and/or other identifying information required to be provided to us for anti-money laundering purposes.
8.11. Sharing your personal data. If we share your personal data, we will require the recipient to safeguard it. We may share your personal data with our insurers, our bankers, our regulators, our professional advisors, our auditors, our staff and the staff of our network firms. In order to provide you (or your organisation) with our services, we may provide personal data to the courts, to lawyers advising other parties in your matter, or to other professionals. We will not otherwise share your personal information with any third party except where permitted by data protection law.
8.12. Data retention. We store some files digitally and others in hard copy. In each case we may use third parties to store your files. We keep files for six to eight years, or longer if required by law. This is explained in more detail in Information Retention Policy. You can request a copy of this any time.
8.13. Destruction and retrieval. We will destroy your files at the end of their storage period, or earlier with your and our consent. Please write and tell us if you object to this. We will charge you if you want us to retrieve your files after we have completed our work.
8.14. Your rights. If the UK General Data Protection Regulation applies to you, you have the following rights: the right to be informed; the right of access; the right to rectification; the right to erasure; the right to restrict processing; the right to data portability; the right to object; and certain rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. Where our lawful basis for processing your personal data is consent, you have the right to withdraw consent. You can find out more about your rights on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website at www.ico.org.uk.
8.15. Supervision (personal data). If you have any questions or concerns, or if you want to exercise your legal rights regarding your data, then you should email us at info@afathersfriend.co.uk (marking your email for the attention of the Data Manager). We would ask you to use that address as well should you have a complaint. We are supervised by the ICO and if you prefer, you can make a complaint to them at any time.
8.16. Failure to provide personal data. We may find it hard to provide you with support you if you do not provide us with information we request (which may include personal data).
9. Insurance and regulation
9.1. Insurance. We maintain public liability insurance with an insurer. Please ask if you would like a summary of this insurance.
9.2. Legal support services. We are a limited liability company led by the practice guidance of McKenzie Friends in civil and family courts by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls Sir Nicholas Wall, President of the Family Division 12 July 2010. This guidance can be found in our Practice Guidance notes.
9.3. No investment advice. We do not give advice on the merits of investment transactions or act as a broker or an arranger of investment transactions. No communication from this company should be interpreted as an invitation or inducement to engage in any investment transaction or other investment activity. We are not entitled to communicate invitations or inducements to engage in investment activity on your behalf.
9.4. Undertakings. By engaging us to work for you, you authorise us to:
a.) give any undertaking that is a normal part of our work for you, and to
b.) take the necessary action to fulfil our undertaking.
If a proposed undertaking is particularly important or not a normal part of our work, then we may refuse to give it until you give us express written authority in our usual format.
9.5. Reporting. You will promptly report to us if you think we, or any of our colleagues may have acted improperly or breached any practice guidance.
10. Proof of identity
10.1. Proof of your identity. Before we can start work, we must have documentary proof of your identity and, where relevant, that of your beneficial owner(s). This information may be renewed every three years. We may verify your identity by asking you for original documents or for copies certified.
10.2. Proof of others’ identity. We will rely on you to check that others involved in our service to you are who they claim to be. Or, if you ask us in writing, we will be happy to check this for you.
10.3. Storing identity documents. We will keep copies of all documents provided to us as proof of identity for between five and eight years after we finish working for you on any matter. After that, if you ask us in writing, we will destroy them.
10.4. Reporting. We are professionally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, where permitted, we may make disclosures to applicable regulators, tax authorities, and law enforcement. If we are required to make such a disclosure, we may need to stop work and may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made.
11. Complaints
11.1. Ombudsman. If you are not satisfied with our handling of a complaint, then, subject to eligibility, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint (see here). Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within six years of the relevant act or omission.
11.2. Fees. If you are unhappy about our fees at any point, then, in addition to the remedies set out in our Complaints Policy,
12. Communications
12.1. Communicating with us. You agree to communicate with us by email. That includes getting our invoices by email. (Our Complaints Policy makes an exception.) We may assume emails sent from your email account(s) are from you and are received as you sent them. You must notify us without delay of any unauthorised use of your email accounts(s).
12.2. File sharing. We can provide secure methods of file sharing. We are not responsible for any other method of file sharing we use at your request and you accept it may not be secure.
12.3. Accepting service. Unless expressly agreed in writing, we do not accept service of documents by email.
12.4. Authority. It is your responsibility to tell us any limits on the authority of those who tell us what to do for you. We may accept instructions from anyone we reasonably believe you have authorised.
12.5. Irrevocable instructions. Where you provide an irrevocable instruction, then we may rely on it even after the end of our service or if you purport to revoke it.
13. Termination and suspension
13.1. Your rights. You may end this agreement at any time by writing to us. Termination takes effect one clear working day after we receive your notice or on our written acceptance of your notice. You will still have to pay for all work done before we receive your notice of termination. Where we were engaged under a fixed fee, we will invoice the entire fee. If that would be unprofessional, then we will invoice on the basis of time incurred and this shall override any other provision we agree.
13.2. Our rights. We may suspend or end our services at any time if we have good reason. If so, we will write to you and will explain why and from when we will no longer work for you. Examples of a good reason to end our services would be if:
a.) you have not done as agreed in this letter and terms.
b.) you have not paid an invoice when due.
c.) you have not provided costs on disbursements when requested.
d.) you have not provided adequate instructions.
e.) you and we no longer have trust and confidence in each other.
f.) our work for you conflicts with our duties.
13.3. If we end or suspend our services, we may:
a.) invoice all our work in progress and disbursements which shall be payable immediately.
b.) suspend or end any other work for you or anyone you control.
13.4. Effect of termination. Once terminated, we will no longer provide support for you. These terms will survive termination.
14. Law and claims
14.1. English law. English and Welsh law governs this and all future agreements and any dispute or claim arising out of it or in connection with them. Any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) regarding their subject matter or formation shall also be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
14.2. English jurisdiction. The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this and all future agreements or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).