Terms and Conditions of Client Agreement

Terms and Conditions of Our Client Agreement to Act Version 4 (Effective 27.01.11)

GENERAL

1 In these terms and conditions ' You ' means the client identified in the Letter of Engagement We issue.

2 ' We ' means Haftke Ltd or its successor practice. ' Yours ', ' Ours ', ' Us ' shall be construed accordingly. These are our terms and conditions of trading referred to in the Letter of Engagement. These terms and conditions can be amended by the Letter of Engagement but not otherwise.

3 We may vary these terms and conditions in the future and will post them on this website with a new version number and effective date. The new terms and conditions will only apply to new matters which We commence after they have been published and only affect Your new matters if We have drawn them to your attention.  New terms and conditions will not apply to existing or old matters at all.

4 Nothing in these terms and conditions or the Letter of Engagement shall have effect so as to exclude or limit our liability for loss or damage arising out of our acts of misrepresentation or fraud or out of death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

5 We do not undertake litigation, conveyancing, family, probate or tax matters or company work involving investments. We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority to undertake investment work and do not do so. We do not accept or hold client monies or monies on account without prior written agreement.

6 We are open during normal business hours other than on weekends and public holidays.

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH AND LIABILITY TO YOU

7 Your relationship is with Haftke Ltd, and You have no contractual relationship with any employee or officer of Haftke Ltd. You agree that as regards Our work for You only Haftke Ltd owes You a duty of care in tort and that none of its employees or officers shall be personally liable to You in contract tort or otherwise.

8 We carry professional indemnity insurance in line with the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, but You agree that our liability to You in aggregate, in respect of any claim or series of claims made by You or on Your behalf during each 12 calendar month period shall be limited to the sum of £3,000,000.

YOUR DOCUMENTS AND FILES

9 We do not accept and do not hold original documents on behalf of You or third parties except for the transitory and temporary purpose of delivering them on to You or others in accordance with Your instructions during a matter.

10 We do not retain paper/hard copy versions of any documents created or received by Us whether correspondence, agreements or otherwise whether or not originals or copies. If We do receive them then We shall pass them on to their intended recipient. We may but need not keep a copy which we may at any later time destroy and We may but need not scan them to make a digital copy to be kept or deleted as We see fit. Copies of documents are held by Us in digital form only. It is Your obligation to retain paper versions of any and all documents, and We shall have no responsibility to provide You or Your agents with paper/hard copy versions thereof during the conduct of a matter or after its conclusion. Please see point 22 regarding file destruction.

HOW WE COMMUNICATE

11 We communicate with You and third parties on Your behalf electronically only. In acting for You We are under no obligation to receive and/or send documents by fax. We shall ensure that You are kept fully copied on all material communications so that You may print off paper copies if You wish. If We receive on Your behalf or otherwise, original documentation that is required to be kept by someone then We shall send it to You for safekeeping if We still represent You. If at the time of receipt of such documentation We no longer act for You, then We shall return it to the sender if We have such details, and it is practical to do so. Whether or not We receive or send such documentation We shall have no obligation or liability for its safe-keeping or delivery.

12 We shall communicate with You and others on Your behalf by e-mail, SMS, mobile telephone and wired and/or wireless internet including for the purposes of Voice over Internet Protocol. Although We may communicate with You and or others on Your behalf, by other means, We shall have no obligation to do so.  You acknowledge that these means of communication and files transmitted using them may be insecure, unreliable, harmful, contain viruses, and/or lack the integrity of confidentiality. We shall have no liability to You of any description whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the use of these or similar means of electronic communication or for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with their use, interception, unreliability, lack of privacy or confidentiality or their failure.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND CONFIDENTIALITY

13 To comply with laws on money-laundering, We need to obtain evidence of Your identity or that of Your officers as soon as practicable by receipt of documents verifying it and Your/their address. As solicitors, We are under a professional and legal obligation to keep your affairs confidential subject, however to a statutory exception relating to money-laundering by which We may be required to disclose information to the authorities without informing You that such disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it.

14 However, You agree that We may identify You as a client whilst You remain one and use Your name for that purpose.  For that sole purpose We may also reproduce Your logo in connection with the use of Your name, subject to any conditions You may wish to impose from time to time to protect it and always subject to Your right at any time and in Your sole discretion to terminate Our right to reproduce it.

PRIVACY POLICY FOR CLIENTS

15 In the course of acting for You, We may collect personal data about You or persons within Your organisation ("Personal Data"). We do so for a variety of purposes for which we have registered with the Information Commissioner which you can see on its website. These purposes include but are not limited to rendering to You the services We (and any other companies whom we may in the future control or be controlled by) offer including invitations to seminars, events and communication of information including newsletters and other informational material that is not individually solicited. We shall be free to process the Personal Data for all registered purposes worldwide. We will not share such Personal Data with third parties with whom we are unconnected by common ownership or control unless it is necessary to do so to carry out Your instructions or unless required to do so by law or unless such third party is an actual or potential successor practice to, investor in, acquirer or target acquisition of, employee, officer or member of Haftke Ltd and then only for the purposes strictly necessary in connection therewith. We may export Your Personal Data to our servants, agents and/or contractors worldwide solely for the purposes described in these terns and conditions.

CHARGES

16 Where we are requested to do so and it is not impractical for reasons of speed We will discuss with You the likely costs of carrying out Your instructions. Any failure to do so shall not relieve or reduce Your liability to pay Our charges.

17 We do not distinguish between 'estimate' and 'quotation' since they tend to mean different things to different people. In these terms and conditions the word estimate is used synonymously with the word 'quotation'. If We provide an estimate of the costs of work to be undertaken by Us that shall not constitute a limit on the amount We may charge but We shall attempt to notify You in the event that we expect our actual charges to be greater than the amount estimated.

18 All estimates of fees or fixed fee arrangements are expressed exclusive of VAT and disbursements which shall be added where appropriate. Unless otherwise agreed We invoice monthly and all invoices are payable Net 30 days from the date of invoice. We send out Our invoices in .pdf format by email only. We reserve the right to charge interest at the highest permissible statutory rate on all sums due but unpaid from the time they fall due to the date they are paid.

19 On certain matters it may be necessary for us to ask for monies to be provided on account. It is a condition of our continuing to act that monies are forthcoming when requested and invoices are paid on time. In the event that any monies are not paid by You to Us when due we shall have the right to stop acting for You without further liability immediately upon giving reasonable notice to You which may be sent by email and if so sent shall be deemed received not later than 12 hours after it is sent in the absence of any delivery failure notification. You and We agree that 48 hours shall be a reasonable notice period. We shall exercise a lien and be entitled (but not obliged) to retain possession of files and documents relating to You until we have been paid all monies due to Us. You are not entitled to possession of our attendance notes and/or internal memoranda in any event.

TERMINATION

20 You may terminate Your relationship with Us at any time and if You do so We shall cease acting on Your behalf immediately.

21 If when You terminate Your relationship with Us or when We do so because You have breached Your obligations to Us then, if We have entered into a fee arrangement by which You have agreed to pay minimum amounts then all such amounts then unpaid (whether or not services have been rendered in consideration for such charges) shall become immediately due and payable.

22 We shall have the right to destroy and dispose of all records held on Your behalf or in connection with any matter after the expiration of one year from the matter closing or in the absence of formal instruction that it has closed then after the expiration of one year from the day We last heard from You in connection with it.

23 Our agreement with You shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales whose courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any and all disputes arising out of or in connection with it.

COMPLAINTS

24 In the event of a problem, whether or not about a bill, You are entitled to complain by writing to Our Managing Director at Our registered office address. We have a written complaints procedure which is available on request. If You are not satisfied at the conclusion of Our complaint process You may have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. Full details of their service, applicable timeframes and contact details may be found at www.legalombudsman.org.uk. There may also be a right to object to Our bill by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Please click here to confirm you have read and understood these terms and conditions.

Doing so will not subject you to any obligation. However, a confirmation will be necessary should you wish us to act for you. That is because these terms and conditions will form the terms of our agreement to act for you and will be referred to in the Terms of Engagement we send to you. If you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss please do not hesitate to Contact Us.