TERMS OF BUSINESS

EUROLEXPARTNERS LLP

  • The terms in this document, as expressly supplemented and/or amended apply to your employment matter in relation to which Euro Lex Partners LLP undertakes work for you (“the Terms”). See Schedule 1 -“Instructions”.
  • Who we are?
    • Euro Lex Partners LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in respect of regulated claims management activities (FCA 835899).
  • What we expect from you?
    • We care about our standards of services. We shall act in your best interest thus it is paramount that you present your matter clearly and diligently. The information provided is, to the best of your knowledge, complete, accurate and up to date, and is supplied as quickly as practicable, without any unreasonable delays. Please tell us of any subsequent changes to the information provided, as well as about any further information which might be relevant.
    • We shall not be liable for any loss or damage resulting from or in connection with your failing to provide information or evidence as per paragraph 3.1.
    • We have the right to decline to act or to cease to act in cases we cannot act in your best interest. If we have to cease acting for you, we will explain your possible options for pursuing your matter.
    • The services are provided to you and may not without our prior written consent be disclosed to any other party or be referred to in any public document or communication.
  • Communications
    • Please let us know if you have a preferred method of communication e.g. telephone, email or fax. Unless we hear from you, we will use whatever mode of communication appears appropriate in the circumstances. We used to communicate with clients via email message.
    • We shall not be responsible for any loss or damage arising from the unauthorised interception, re-direction, copying or reading of emails including any attachments.
  • Confidentiality
    • We will keep confidential any information which we acquire about you, your business and affairs. We may disclose such confidential information and any advice, report or opinion given by us to you or any third party in connection with your affairs to:
      • our auditors, regulator, external assessors or other advisers;
      • our insurers (i) for the purposes of our professional indemnity insurance renewal; or (ii) in order to assist us to comply with the terms of our professional indemnity insurance cover.
    • We may be required to disclose such confidential information and any advice, report or opinion given by us to you or any third party in connection with your affairs, by law or other regulatory authority to which we are subject.
    • If you or we engage other professional advisers to assist with a matter we will assume, unless you notify us otherwise, that we may disclose any such information, advice, reports or opinions to such other advisers as necessary.
    • This document is confidential. You shall not disclose it to others.
  • Data protection and our use of your information
    • We will use the personal information we receive about you for the administration of our relationship with you, billing (and, where necessary, debt collection). Please see our Privacy Policy in accordance with the Data Protection act 2018, available at eurolexpartners.eu.
  • Papers and documents
    • We store papers for clients, normally without charge. We also do not normally make a charge for retrieving stored papers in response to continuing or new instructions to act for you. However, we reserve the right to make a charge based on the time we spend on reading papers, writing letters or providing other services necessary to comply with the instructions.
    • On completion of a matter and payment of any outstanding bills we shall return to you, on request, any documents lent to us by you for the purposes of the matter. Where we are acting for joint clients and one joint client asks us to transfer documents lent to us for the purposes of the matter, we will deliver them to, or to the order of, the joint client who delivered them to us.
    • We do not agree to retain files for any particular period of time but generally keep hard copy files for a period of six years. We reserve the right to destroy files without further reference to you six years after completion of a matter.
  • Duty of care
    • The services provided by us are for your benefit alone and solely for the purpose of the matter to which they relate. They may not be used or relied upon for any other purpose or by third parties. Our duty of care is to you as our client and does not extend to any third party.
    • No third party shall have any right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of the
  • Exclusions and limitations of liability
    • If we are prevented by circumstances beyond our reasonable control from providing the services, we have undertaken to perform for you, we will immediately notify you of the nature and extent of such circumstances. If as a result of those circumstances we are unable to meet any deadline or complete the services by any estimated date of completion or at all:
      • any such failure on our part will not constitute a breach of the agreement between us;
      • we will not be otherwise liable to you for any such failure to the extent that it is attributable to any such circumstances notified to you; and
      • any estimated date for completion of the services will be extended accordingly.
    • We shall not be responsible for any failure to provide services on any issue which falls outside the scope of our engagement and shall have no responsibility to notify you of, or the consequences of, any event or change in the law (or its interpretation) which occurs after the date on which the relevant service is provided.
    • We shall not be liable for any direct and indirect loss or damage or any loss of profit, income, anticipated savings or accruals arising in any circumstances whatsoever, whether in contract, tort, negligence, for breach of statutory duty or otherwise, and howsoever caused subject to the circumstances where liability may not be limited or excluded under any applicable law or regulation.
  • Our fees
    • Our fees are normally either fixed or based on the time spent dealing with a matter. We refer to our Pre-contract information and Summary Information you have already been provided with. We may also consider other factors, for example, complexity, value, importance to the client and urgency. We reserve the right to add uplift to our hourly rates or our fixed costs to take account of these other factors. We are willing to provide services on an urgent basis, and will endeavour to be available outside normal hours, if necessary and if so instructed in writing.
    • Time spent will include meetings with you (and perhaps others); any time spent travelling; considering, preparing and working on papers; file opening and compliance procedures; attending employment tribunal/employment appeal tribunal; conducting settlement negotiations, legal research; correspondence (including emails); preparing attendance notes; making and receiving telephone calls. You will be notified of any changes to the rates or the method of charging (fixed or hourly rate). If you wish to cease instructing us as a result of any increase in rates, you are free to do so.
    • You are advised to check whether other methods of pursuing the claim or financing the proceedings are available, including legal expenses insurance, pro bono representation or trade union representation.
  • Disbursements and expenses
    • By instructing us, you are authorising us to incur such disbursements as we consider necessary. However, we will consult you before incurring any significant disbursements.
    • Disbursements may include the fees of counsel and other experts, translators, interpreters, investigators etc.
    • We reserve the right to charge you a fee (which will cover any actual cost to us and an administration charge):
      • for arranging the additional services, postage services etc.;
      • for travelling expenses, online meeting and webinar services, computer-based legal research, providing data on electronic media, photocopying, scanning, printing and incoming and outgoing faxes.
    • Clients’ money
      • We receive and hold your money as trustee on the following terms:
  1. For the purposes and on the terms of the claim management client money rules and the claim management client money distributions rules,
  2. Subject to c), for the customers for whom that money is held, according to their respective interest in it,
  3. On failure of our company, for the payment of the costs properly attributable to the distribution of the client money in accordance with b),
  4. After all valid claims and costs under b) and c) have been made, for the company itself.
    • Where we make payment of money to you or to another person on your behalf, it will usually be by an electronic funds transfer or by cheque. Whichever payment method is used we do not accept any responsibility or liability for any losses arising in respect of any interception, appropriation, misuse or delay in receipt. You authorise us to send any cheque in the ordinary post and, on posting, property and risk in the cheque will pass to you.
  • Billing and payment terms
    • Unless otherwise agreed, we will be entitled to bill you in respect of fees, disbursements and expenses in advance.
    • Our charges are due for payment on receipt without any deduction, set-off or counterclaim. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate the provision of further services until payment is received. In addition to our legal right to hold on to your papers in our possession until all sums outstanding to us are paid, we have a contractual right to do the same (whether in relation to the services for which payment has not been made or any other services).
    • If you have any problems with our charges, please see the guidance in paragraph 15 (Complaints handling).
    • If a third party agrees to be responsible for payment of some or all of our fees, disbursements and other charges on your behalf, and payment is not made in accordance with these Terms, you will be responsible for paying to us any outstanding amount.
  • Early termination of services and your right to cancel
    • You or we may bring the provision of all or any services to an end at any time by giving written notice to the other. We will not do this without giving you reasonable notice and without a good reason such as:
      • your failure to pay to us any amount due; or
      • the discovery or creation of a conflict of interests; or
      • your requesting us to break the law or any professional requirement; or
      • the relationship of trust and confidence necessary between advisor and client ceasing to exist between us; or
      • your failure to give us adequate instructions or relevant information; or
      • any other breach by you of the Terms.
    • If the provision of services is terminated you will be liable only for fees arising and payments made or committed up to the date of termination, together with any fees or payments for services necessary in connection with the transfer of the matter to another adviser. If this happens, we shall charge for services provided in accordance with the hourly rates prevailing at the relevant time or due fixed costs. All our rights set out in the Terms shall continue to apply even if we or you terminate the agreement between us.
    • If our services were arranged and agreed “at distance” only (e.g. via email or telephone) you have the right to cancel this contract within 14 calendar days from its date (Cooling off period). You shall do so in writing within the prescribed time.
    • If you requested us to provide our services during the cancellation period and later decided to cancel, you shall pay us the charges for the services until cancelation is communicated to us.
    • Subject to individual circumstances, you shall not terminate the agreement—

(a) after settlement negotiations have begun and/or compensation has been discussed and/or agreed / awarded; or

(b) within seven days before the tribunal hearing.

  • Complaints handling
    • We do our utmost to treat all our clients fairly. If you have any problem with our services (including any problem with a bill) you have a right to complain. If you are unable to resolve the problem with the individual dealing with the matter or the person managing our relationship with you, you should write without delay to the managing partner setting out the nature of your
    • In accordance with our Complaints procedure, we will endeavour to deal with any complaint as soon as practicable. If we are unable to resolve the complaint between us, you have a right to refer the issue to the Financial Ombudsman at Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange, London, E14 9SR. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint but not later than within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it). For further information you should contact the Financial Ombudsman on  0800 023 4567 or at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/.
  • Dispute resolution
    • All disputes not resolved under paragraph 15 shall be determined by the courts of England & Wales. You and we irrevocably agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales over any claim or issue arising under or in connection with the Terms and you and we waive any objection to proceedings being brought in these courts on the grounds of venue or on the grounds that such proceedings have been brought in an inappropriate forum.
  • Non-waiver
    • Any failure by us to insist upon strict performance of any of the Terms, or any failure or delay by us to exercise any rights or remedies whether under the Terms and/or at law or otherwise, shall not be deemed a waiver of any right of us to insist upon the strict performance of the Terms or of any of its rights or remedies as to any default under the Terms.
  • Governing law
    • The Terms are governed by and will be construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.
  • Severability and amendments
    • If any of the Terms is found by any court of competent jurisdiction to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable then that provision shall, to the extent necessary, be severed and shall be ineffective but without affecting any other Term.
    • Any amendment to this agreement to cover additional causes of action or additional instructions must be in writing and signed by the parties.

 

Declaration

I acknowledge and confirm that I have read, understood and accepted the above Terms and the Pre-contract Information and Summary Information referred to in paragraph 10.1.

 

SIGNED:

 

DATED:

 

 

 

SCHEDULE 1

 

Your Instructions are:

 

Our advice is:

 

The agreed actions are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SIGNED:

 

DATED: