:: Client Care Guide ::
We always put client care as our first priority so that we endeavour to provide you a quality legal service at a fair price. All matters will be dealt promptly and efficiently.
This guide will give you a clear understanding of how and on what basis legal services are provided.
Who is responsible for your Matter?
Practice Standards
Charges and Retainer Terms
Client Money held by us
Limit of liability
Help with legal Costs
Proceeds of Crime Act
Complaints
Location
Data Protection Act
Money Laundering
Financial Services Authority
Jurisdiction
Who is responsible for your Matter?
All work will be carried out by Robert Meaton LL.B personally who is the sole principle of the firm with the support of his office manager and secretary.
Practice Standards
In order that we provide a quality service and demonstrate that we regard your matters as important to us we have set standards that we endeavour to meet at all times save when circumstances beyond our control prevent us.
We endeavour to use IT technology to expedite all matters both in the conduct of the matter and communicating with you.
You will be given either a fixed fee price together with details of disbursements (money to be paid out on your behalf), or
details of our charging rates with an indication of likely cost, you will be kept informed of costs as the matter progresses.
You will get a risk/benefit analysis for any matter where there is no fixed fee and the out come is uncertain.
All calls will be returned within 1 working day
All emails replied to within 1 working
All letters dealt within 3 working days
We will confirm your instructions in writing and you will be given details of what action we will be taking and likely time scale of those actions
We will advice of any delay and explain the reasons.
We will account to you at the end of the matter and remit any monies due to you together with our fees account and a break down of those charges
We will encourage our clients to ask at anytime about any matter of which they are uncertain or require further explanation.
Charges and Retainer Terms
The main factors in solicitors’ charges are laid down by law they are:
- Time spent
- Value to the client
Other factors may be relevant such as:
- Speed if the matter is particularly urgent
- Complexity of the matter or the need for specialist knowledge
Fixed fee work is what it says you pay only the fixed fee quoted plus any disbursements most commonly used for property transactions or wills
Variable fee work this is where you are quoted an hourly rate often it is not possible to give a clear indication of the likely cost as for example in litigation. Therefore these fees are based on the actual time spent on the matter plus any value to client element. We operate a computerised time recording system and details of a client’s time record will be provide to the client at anytime on request
The current hourly charge rate for Robert Meaton LL.B is £110
Time is recorded in 6 minute units
A letter in/out up to one page = 1 unit
A letter in/out over one page = 1 unit per half page
Telephone calls 1 unit per 6 minutes
Emails are charged as per letters
Preparation drafting consideration research 1 unit per 6 minutes
Meetings/traveling/waiting 1 unit per 6 minutes
Value element
This applies only to variable fee work
Litigation a percentage is added to the value of the actual time spent based on the “care and control” factors this varies from 5-10% depending on the circumstances but usually between 25-40%.
Commercial leasehold matters we use the Law Society’s accepted formula. Half of the annual rent is multiplied by the term of the lease or by two0 which ever is the lower. The value element is then 0.5% of the calculated figure.
Probate matters value of the gross estate less residence 1%
Value of residence 0.5%
Commercial freehold property transactions value of property up to £400000 @ 0.5% excess above £400000 up to £1000000 @ 0.3% excess over £1000000 @ 0.2%
Costs in Litigation matters – if you are successful you may be awarded costs however they only pay party and party costs not solicitor and own client. These usually amount to about 2/3. You are responsible for all of our costs although we will work hard to recover any costs due from a third party.
Conditional fees this firm does not operate condition fee arrangements.
Payment terms
Most work is concluded in a short time frame and we will normally issue our account at the end of the matter if however the matter is going to be of a long duration we will render interim accounts. This helps clients plan and spread the cost.
Disbursements save for minor disbursements we ask the client for cleared funds before they are expended.
On account costs quite often we ask clients to make a payment on account of costs at the start of a matter.
All bills are due on the date of receipt. Interest is charged on all bills not paid within 28 days. The rate charged is 5% above the base lending rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland
If we are holding client monies then any costs due will be deducted from the amount held before remitting them to the client
After completion of the work I am entitled to keep all your papers and documents until money owed by you to me is paid. You can terminate your instructions to us at any time in writing, but we may retain the papers until you have paid all charges and expenses owing. I reserve the right to stop acting for you in certain circumstances such as where you cannot give proper instructions or you lose confidence in me or do not pay an interim bill. I will give you reasonable notice of this and you must then pay sums owing.
Client Money held by Us
If we hold client monies we are required to account to you for interest earned. The guidelines are that we are to pay you what ever we receive.
We are not required to account to you for interest on the following sums:-
- £1000 unless held for more than eight weeks
- £2000 unless held for more than four weeks
- £10000 unless held for more than two weeks
- £20000+ unless held for more than one week
Save if the amount earned is under £20 then the de minimis provisions will apply and we will not account to you for any sum earned less than £20.
The overall guideline for the payment of interest is what fair and reasonable having regard to the circumstances.
The amount of interest we pay is 3.5% below the base rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland subject to a minimum of 0.5%
Any monies placed in a designated deposit account will earn interest at the appropriate rate for such an account and we will account to you for all interest earned. Monies are only placed into such an account when it is anticipated that the monies will be held for more than the minimum periods shown above.
Limit of liability
This firm's liability to clients is limited to £2 million UK pounds sterling for each and every claim, save for contentious business where such liability may not be limited by s60 of the Solicitors Act 1974. Nothing in this agreement shall benefit any third party and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply.
Help with legal Costs
You may be entitled to help with your legal costs from the Community Legal Service we will tell you if we think you qualify however this firm does not carry out work under that scheme and you would be referred to another practice.
Proceeds of Crime Act
Under the Proceeds of Crime Act two00two I may be obliged, without reference to you, to make a disclosure to the National Criminal Intelligence Service unless it is information received so that advice may be given about it or unless it comprises the advice itself (privileged information). I therefore reserve the right to give such NCIS notices as I deem appropriate without notice to or discussion with you.
Office Hours
From 9.00am to 5:30pm each weekday
When the office is closed you can call our mobile phone which is 0781 202 1439 there is an answer phone facility on that number if busy or unavailable.
Complaints
We are committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. If something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will also help us to maintain and improve our standards as well as seeking to resolve your problems.
We have devised a simple and quick procedure to resolve any problems.
Our complaints procedure is as follows:
If you have or wish to continue with a complaint, please let us have in the full details.
What will happen next?
1. Robert Meaton will deal with your complaint in the first instance. He will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and ask you to confirm or explain the details. You can expect to receive his letter within two working days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint within a day of receiving your complaint.
3. When we acknowledge your reply we will confirm what will happen next.
4. We will then start to investigate you complaint. This may involve one or more of the following steps.
- If you agree, we will investigate your complaint within ten working days and send you our detailed reply or invite you to a meeting to discuss the matter. Or
- If you agree we will ask another independent solicitor to investigate your complaint and report to us. The referral to another solicitor will be done within three working days of you requiring this. That solicitor will be asked to report back within ten working days.
5. Will then write inviting you to meet us and discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
6. Within two days of the meeting we will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions that have been agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Robert Meaton will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include our suggestion for resolving the matter. We will do this within five working days of completing his investigation.
7. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you can write to us again. Robert Meaton will then arrange to review our decision.
8. If you are still not satisfied with your complaint we will either with your consent, ask a member of the Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group or our local Law Society or another solicitor to review your complaint and respond to us within ten days. We will let you know how long this process will take.
9. We will let you know the result of the review within five days of the end of the review. At this time we will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. We will also give you the name and address of the Consumer Complaints Service. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact them about your complaint.
Location
We are based in Manchester and our contact details can be found in the Contact Us section of this site. We are willing to meet you in your office, at an agreed location or at your home.
Data Protection Act
The law requires us in the case of individuals where we record on our files and also on our computer system certain personal details to be registered under the above act. We are registered and you are entitled at any time to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you or your business. We will not pass on these details to any third party without your expressed consent unless it is essential to do so in the course of dealing with the matter you have instructed us upon.
We will place you name on our mailing list but if you do not wish receive information from us about our services please let us know and we will immediately remove you from our mailing list.
Money Laundering
Proof of Identity
The law now requires solicitors, as well as banks, building societies, and others, to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients. We use on-line ID checking service CALLML. This is a service provided by Callcredit PLC and it is registered Credit Reference Agency which is subsidiary of the Skipton building Society. This allows us to check individuals identity to the level required under the Money Laundering Guidelines. A charge is made by us to our clients of £5 per name per search plus VAT
Confidentiality
Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the National Criminal Intelligence Service. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure. If this happens, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it because the law prohibits “tipping-off”.
Financial Services Authority
We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by The Law Society. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services Authority web site at www.fsa.gov.uk/register.
Jurisdiction
The agreement between us is subject to English law and the English courts have non-exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any dispute.
