The following statement represents the terms and conditions under which this firm supplies professional services to its clients.

If you are or are desirous of being a registered user of our online debt recovery letter system , condition 17 below will also apply.

1. WHERE YOU CAN SEE US AND WHEN

Our head office is at Herbert Street, Redditch, Worcestershire B98 8BL. Our associated Practice, Sampson & Co., is at 12 Church Green East, Redditch, Worcestershire B98 8BP. Normal hours of business are between 9.00am and 5.30pm on weekdays.

2. WHO WILL YOU SEE

2.1 You should be notified by letter of the member of this firm who will be responsible for your work and if you have not received such a notification please advise us immediately.

2.2 If, during the course of the matter, difficulties arise please discuss these problems with the person responsible; if your discussions do not resolve the difficulties then you should please communicate with Rhona A. Lavender, who will do her best to help.

2.3 If Rhona Lavender is unable to satisfy you on the particular matter which is causing difficulty (not being a matter
directly related to the amount which you are being charged for work done) she will explain to you how you may address the matter to the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors.

2.4 As to difficulties directly related to the amount which you are being charged for work done the procedure for review is set out in paragraph 5. below.

3. OUR CHARGES

3.1 In relation to either contentious or non-contentious matters we may be able to provide you with a firm written quotation for work to be carried out on your behalf, in which event our charges will not exceed the amount quoted plus VAT; however, to the extent that your requirements or the circumstances change during the course of the work we reserve the right to review the amount of our charges. In that event, we will keep you advised from time to time as to costs which are being incurred. In the case of non-contentious matters in respect of which the full extent of the work required is likely to be unusual or perhaps difficult to assess at the outset, we will proceed on the basis of an hourly rate. That hourly rate will be notified to you before we start working for you on any particular matter and, where possible, we will place an upper limit on the cost of the job and notify you of that upper limit.

3.2 Where we are involved with volume debt recovery or bulk issue of proceedings for a client we will attempt to enter into a fee agreement/ service level agreement (SLA) intended to cover all eventualities. This may take the form of either a fixed fee arrangement or a monthly or annual retainer and our general terms and conditions will only apply to the extent that any such agreement so provides or does not conflict with any particular term or condition contained in our general terms and conditions.

3.3 Where it is not practicable to fix the amount of our charges in advance but only the basis upon which our charges will be made, the following criteria will apply:-
(a) the basis for calculation of our charges is principally by reference to the time spent by the person dealing with the matter and this may include attendances upon you and others; time spent travelling; obtaining evidence; perusing and considering papers; researching the law; preparing correspondence and documents and making and receiving telephone calls; routine letters despatched on your behalf are charged at 6 minutes per page; telephone calls made and received are charged in 6 minute units and letters received are charged on the basis of 3 minutes per page; documents and non-routine letters will be charged on the basis of time actually spent.
(b) different members of the firm are charged out at different hourly rates which are principally divided into the
following categories on a sliding scale:
Partner / Assistant Solicitors / Associate Solicitors / Executives / Trainees
(c) the hourly rates are reviewed annually and please ask the person responsible for your matter to advise you of the
up-to-date rates;
(d) the precise hourly rates from time to time will be determined by reference to (inter alia) the following factors:-
(i) the complexity of the matter and difficulty or novelty of questions it involved;
(ii) skill, specialised knowledge and responsibility required of time and labour expended by the Solicitor or Counsel;
(iii) number and importance of documents prepared or perused;
(iv) importance of the cause or matter to the client;
(v) where money or property is involved, its amount or value etc;
(e) unless we have entered into a written contract with you which otherwise provides, our charges are payable whether or not a case is successfully concluded or a transaction completed; we will be happy to discuss with you any abatement of our normal charges where it is agreed that the circumstances merit special consideration.

3.4 Litigation
(a) Payment of our account is your responsibility even if the court orders another party to contribute to your legal costs. The amount of recoverable costs is a matter for argument and the court’s discretion. In many cases there is a delay between the Order made and the costs recovered due to the system of assessment applied.
(b) It is usual for a successful party to obtain the benefit of a Costs Order from an unsuccessful litigant. The court can make a Costs Order against any party at any stage of the proceedings.
(c) A Court Order entitling a successful litigant to recover all of its legal costs of the proceedings is rare. It is usual for a successful litigant to be left with a residual liability for costs. It is not correct to assume that if your Action is successful you will be relieved from all costs liability.
(d) If recovery action is needed to recover any costs subject to a Court Order you will be responsible for our charges and expenses in respect of such recovery.
(e) If you withdraw from an Action, your opponent is entitled to an Order from the court for you to pay costs. You would be entitled to have those costs assessed.

3.5 Disclosure of Documents
You have a duty in any Action to disclose to the other parties any stored information, documents, correspondence, notes, computer records, video and audio tape recordings which are or have been in your possession or control and which relate to the issues in the Action. There are certain categories of information which you are entitled to withhold on legal advice. Your duty extends to records which may be damaging to your case unless you have legal advice to say they need not be revealed. Your duty of disclosure is a continuing one until the Action is concluded and any of the categories of information referred to above must be preserved. There are very severe penalties including fines and imprisonment if this duty is breached. You must not use any information disclosed to you in an Action for any purpose outside of the Action.

4. PAYMENT OF OUR CHARGES

4.1 Where it is necessary for us to incur disbursements on your behalf (e.g. payment of court fees or search fees) then (subject to any arrangement which may have been made under a fee agreement/ SLA) you will be
asked to put us in funds to enable us to make these disbursements on your behalf.

4.2 Subject to any arrangements made in a fee agreement or SLA , in protracted matters carried out on your behalf it will be our practice to deliver interim accounts; delay in settling interim accounts may result in delay in progress.

4.3 The amount of each account rendered to you by the firm is a debt due from you and where no agreement has been reached to the contrary (or where the mater is a transaction whereunder payment is due on completion) payment should be made within 28 days; where payment is not so made interest will be charged in respect of the period commencing one month after the date of delivery of the account and continuing up to the date upon which the same is paid at the rate for the time being payable on judgment debts.

5. IF YOU WISH TO CONTEST OUR CHARGES
Please try to resolve any such difficulty with the person responsible for dealing with your matter and/or Rhona Lavender. If these attempts fail to resolve the difficulty then:-

5.1.1 in the event that you wish to contest an account from this firm relating to non-contentious work carried out on
your behalf you have the right under Solicitors’ (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 1994 to require us to obtain a remuneration certificate from the Law Society within one month from delivery of the bill and the right under Sections 70, 71 and 72 Solicitors Act 1974 to have the bill taxed at court. If we are required to obtain a certificate you must pay all the paid disbursements and VAT comprised in the bill together with 50% of the costs unless it has been agreed by the Law Society that this requirement may be waived;

5.1.2 in the event that you wish to contest an account from this firm relating to contentious work carried out on your behalf you have the right under the provisions of Solicitors Act 1974 to have the bill taxed at court.

5.2 The right to require us to obtain a remuneration certificate does not apply in the event that we have entered into a non-contentious business agreement with you. Such an agreement can be entered into under Section 57 Solicitors Act 1974 and we will be happy to discuss with you the circumstances under which it may be appropriate to enter into such an agreement.

6. COMPLAINTS
(in relation to the manner in which this firm has carried out work for you)
If you are not satisfied with the manner in which you are being dealt with or your matter is being handled by this firm you are invited to invoke the firm’s complaints procedure, viz:-

6.1 if possible try to resolve the difficulty with the fee-earner who has the conduct of your matter;

6.2 if a discussion with the fee-earner does not resolve the difficulty the fee-earner will refer the difficulty to the head of the department with which you have been dealing;

6.3 if the person with whom you have been dealing is the head of the department then the fee-earner will refer the difficulty to Rhona Lavender who is our Complaints Officer;

6.4 the person investigating your complaint will acknowledge your complaint in writing and will then investigate the
complaint by discussing the matter with the fee-earner concerned, review the file and, if necessary, obtain any further information from you;

6.5 the person investigating the complaint will then pass all the information to the senior partner who will then respond to your complaint in writing;

6.6 if appropriate you will be asked to comment upon our response; all attempts will be made to resolve the difficulties;

6.7 if we have been unable to satisfy you we will advise you of the procedure for making a formal complaint to the body appointed to deal with such complaints.

6.8 (in relation to complaints by third parties about action which this firm is taking for its clients)
Such matters are not ‘complaints’ in the nature of those referred to above but are usually complaints by third parties (eg debtors or defendants) either about the manner in which HL Legal’s client has dealt with the debtor/ defendant or perhaps the manner in which HL Legal has dealt with the debtor/defendant. Where there are complaints about the manner in which HL Legal’s client has acted, this firm will always pass these complaints on to its clients and, if appropriate, attempt to assist the client in resolving the issues. Where the complaint relates to the manner in which HL Legal has dealt with a debtor/defendant, the complaint will be passed immediately to our Complaints Officer who will report the matter to the client and investigate the nature of the complaint and attempt to resolve the same.

7. COSTS RECOVERED
In the event that you are successful in a litigation case you may be entitled to the payment of costs by some other party to the proceedings. However it is rare for the system of ‘taxation’ (or ‘assessment’) of costs, as it is known, to result in the other party having to pay the full amount of your costs. Any interest received on costs payable by another party will be retained by us.

8. TERMINATION
8.1 Otherwise than in cases where there is an agreement/ SLA in place between us which refers either to a specific term or a specific notice period, you may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all of your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses.

8.2 In some circumstances it may be that we ought to stop acting for you, for example, if you cannot give clear or proper instructions on how we are to proceed or if it is clear that you have lost confidence in how we are carrying out your work.

8.3 We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example, if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with our request for payment on account. We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.

8.4 If you or we decide that we will no longer act for you, you will be required to pay our charges up to the date upon which we cease to act.

9. YOUR AGREEMENT TO INDEMNIFY US
You agree to indemnify us against any liability and against any expense which we are legally obliged to pay or incur as a result of acting for you.

10. THIRD PARTIES AND OUR LIABILITY
Advice given by us in the course of the matter is provided to you and you alone and only in relation to the particular circumstances of your instructions. We do not accept any liability for the use of any such advice by any other person without our express prior written consent.

11. COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH US
We retain copyright in documents prepared by us but where documents are prepared for your use, we grant you an irrevocable, royalty free licence to use those documents for the purpose for which they were prepared.

12. STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DEEDS
12.1 Following the conclusion of a transaction or case on your behalf we will retain in specie your file or papers for such a period as we shall deem appropriate in our absolute discretion. If you require such records to be kept for any specific period you should give notice in writing to that effect and in the event of such notice being given, we reserve the right to require you to take personal custody of the papers.

12.2 Where stored papers are retrieved from storage by us in connection with new or continuing instructions to act in connection with your affairs, normally no charge will be made for such retrieval. However we reserve the right to make an administration charge based on time spent in retrieval and any perusal, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with the instructions give by you or on your behalf.

12.3 In cases where you supply us with papers, we shall require you to accept the return of those papers at the conclusion of the transaction or case.

13. AFTER INSTRUCTIONS
Unless otherwise agreed and subject to the application of the current hourly rates these terms and conditions of business shall continue to apply until any notification to the contrary is given to you.

14. STAFF AND PRACTICE DETAILS
Practice details, together with details of Solicitors and non-solicitor staff are available from our office.

15. DATA PROTECTION
We will need to store personal/ corporate information about you in order to provide you with legal services, and may use that information in the course of acting for you. We will also keep some of your personal/ corporate information so that we can contact you with legal updates and information about our services which may be of interest to you. This information will not be passed to any third party for marketing purposes, but if you would prefer us not to keep it at all, please inform us.

In the case of limited companies and similar organisations, please note that we may keep personal information about individuals involved in the company for the same reasons. Please ensure that any staff to whom this may apply are informed of this. Information stored for our own marketing purposes will only be used as a means of contacting your organisation, but if you would prefer us not to keep it at all after a job has been completed, please tell us.

16. IDENTITY OF CLIENTS
In light of current legislation we are required for risk assessment analysis and money laundering regulations to require proof of identity from potential clients who do not have an established business relationship either with this firm or its associated Practice prior to 1 March 2004.

16.1 In those circumstances (if you are an individual), we will require some or all of the following information from you before we can commence work on your behalf:-
(a) a copy of the section of your passport containing your photograph, certified as being a true copy by a professional person such as an accountant, doctor or member of the police force; or
(b) a copy of a current full U.K. driving licence or EEA photo-card driving licence, duly certified as at 16.1 above; and
(c) some evidence of your personal address e.g. recent utility bill, recent local council tax bill, recent bank or building society statement or passbook.

16.2 If you are a company, then we will require some or all of the following:
(a) a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation, certified as at 16.1(a) above;
(b) evidence of the company’s lawful occupation of any correspondence address we are given by you which is not the company’s registered office; and
(c) evidence of identity in relation to the director, shareholder or other employee of the company who will customarily be giving instructions to this firm. (The evidence required will be the same as that set out under 16.1 above).

17. ONLINE DEBT RECOVERY LETTER SYSTEM

17.1 Definitions
(a) ‘Account Detail’ means the information about yourself or your organisation with which you have provided us;
(b) ‘Debt’ means an amount due to you or your organisation which you wish to recover using the System;
(c) ‘Debt Recovery Letter’ means templates of debt recovery letters provided in the Letter Library;
(d) ‘Debtor and Invoice Information’ means the information which you provide to us about the Debtor, the Debt and the invoice;
(e) ‘Editing’ means inserting the Debtor and Invoice Information into the amendable fields of the Debt Recovery Letters.;
(f) ‘Letter Library’ means the area of the Website where Debt Recovery Letters can be previewed and selected;
(g) ‘Payment and Payment Methods’ means the charges and the methods of payment for using the System set out on the costs page of the Website;
(h) ‘Registration’ means provision by you of Account Detail and the acceptance of these Terms and Conditions;
(i) ‘System’ means the system by which we provide you with access to our Online Debt Recovery Letter System;
(j) ‘Website’ (for this purpose of this condition 17) means the area of HL Legal & Collections’ website which deals with online Debt Recovery Letters.

17.2 Interpretation

(a) This condition 17 should be read in conjunction with our general Terms and Conditions of Business which will apply save where the context of this condition 17 otherwise provides; and
(b) Access to and implementation of the System is in accordance with the detailed information provided on the Website.

17.3 Your obligations

(a) It is your obligation to ensure that all the information with which you provide us is accurate and that you maintain and update the Account Detail and any other changes;
(b) You warrant that all Debtor and Invoice Information provided to us through the System is true and accurate;
(c) You acknowledge that the System enables you to edit the Debt Recovery Letters in accordance with the facilities provided on the System but not further or otherwise;
(d) Late payment interest and compensation may only be claimed using the System strictly in accordance with the guidance and recommendations which appear in the Website; and
(e) You acknowledge that breach by you of any of your obligations hereunder will (without prejudice to any other rights to which we may be or become entitled) entitle us to suspend or terminate your access to the System.

17.4 Our obligations
We will permit you to have access to and use the System on the basis of our General Terms and Conditions and we will use all reasonable efforts to keep the System available to you at all times PROVIDED ALWAYS that we do not represent or warrant that access to the Website and the System will be uninterrupted.

17.5 Exclusions and limitations

(a) We shall have no responsibility for incorrect information provided to us by you including (but not limited to) information relating to Account Detail, Debt and Debtor and Invoice Information;
(b) The maximum liability which we will have to you in respect of your use of the System shall be the amount of any charges for the use of the System paid by you during the month ending with the date upon which any liability to you arises. You agree that we shall have no liability for indirect of consequential losses, loss of profits or loss of data and you agree that each of these limitations is reasonable having regard to the level of the charges and the nature of the System;
(c) None of the exclusions or limitations in this condition 17.5 shall exclude or restrict our liability for death or personal injury arising as a result of our negligence; and
(d) Each of the above exclusions or limitations shall be regarded as separate and severable provisions of our General Terms and Conditions of Business.

January 2007