Terms of Business : Campbell
Smith W.S.
Solicitors & Estate Agents
Edinburgh Solicitors
General Terms of Business Instructions
(i) As your Agents, we can only act on information and instructions given to us. You should not assume that we have knowledge of any factual matters. You can instruct us either verbally or in writing, although we may ask you to confirm verbal instructions to us. If there is any change in your instructions, you must notify us immediately.
(ii) Your business will be handled by < > to whom your instructions should be addressed. He/She can be contacted during the office opening hours (Monday-Friday 9.00am to 5pm). If you have any difficulty in making contact, then you should leave a message with his/her secretary who will pass it on for action.
CHARGES
(i) Unless negotiated and agreed in advance, fees are charged on the basis of time spent on the work, together with an element for responsibility which can vary according to a number of matters, such as urgency, importance of the work to you, amount or value of money or property involved, complexity, difficulty or novelty of the matters, length, number or importance of documents or papers. In the present matter, the hourly charge rate will be < >.
(ii) Any estimate given will be for a probable fee based on our experience of the general amount of work involved in a typical transaction of the type involved. If the work turns out to be more complex than normal, then our estimate may require to be amended. You will be kept advised of any such changes.
(iii) Fees which are not agreed in advance are subject to independent assessment by the Auditor of Court. This process is known as "Taxation". You are entitled to require our file to be taxed if you are not happy about the fee charged. In such a case the file is passed to the Auditor who will fix what he considers to be a fair and reasonable fee in all the circumstances, including those factors outlined above. The Auditor can fix a fee higher or lower than the fee charged. If it is lower, then we will pay the cost of taxation. If, however, he assesses a higher fee or confirms the fee as charged, then you will be responsible for that fee as well as the Auditor's costs.
(iv) Along with our fee, we will issue a statement detailing financial dealings on your behalf. This will include outlays which may have been incurred. Where outlays have been incurred, we will require repayment of them within seven days of receipt by you of a request.
(v) We may require you to settle accounts and repay outlays during the course of the transaction. In such a case, interim statements will be issued. Large outlays will require to be paid to us before they are due to be paid out by us.
(vi) Unless otherwise agreed, we would normally expect payment of our business accounts within thirty days of rendering. In the event that payment is not made within that time, we have to reserve our entitlement to charge interest on any outstanding account from the date of the account until payment at an interest rate of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc's base lending rate plus 4%.
COMPLAINTS
(i) Our aim is to provide an efficient service, but if you are unhappy about any aspect, then please discuss your concerns in the first instance with the person dealing with you. However, if that would cause you difficulty or embarrassment please speak to our Senior Partner, John Crawford. If the matter cannot be resolved then you are always entitled to refer it to the Law Society of Scotland, 26 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, EH3 7YR.
(ii) Information provided to us will be dealt with in confidence and will only be disclosed to parties authorised by you or as required by the Law Society of Scotland or any other authorised body.
(iii) An actual or potential conflict between your interests and the interests of another client of the firm may arise during the course of a matter. If this situation arises during our dealings with you, we will discuss the position with you and determine the appropriate course of action. In order to protect your interests, we may not be permitted to continue acting.
MONEY LAUNDERING
The Money Laundering Regulations require to be satisfied as to the identity of our client and as to the source of any funds passing through our hands. In order to comply with these Regulations we may need to ask you for proof of identity and other information in relation to these matters. In particular, if you make a payment to us by means of a direct bank transfer or Banker's draft, we may have to ask you to provide a letter from your Bank, Building Society or other financial institution containing the account details for which the payment is being made. We reserve the right to withdraw from acting for you if you fail to provide us with the information requested of you and required in connection with the Money Laundering Procedures.
LITIGATION
There are a number of specific points which you should be aware of when involved in litigation whether as pursuer or defender:
(i) You are responsible for paying our account even if the Court eventually orders another party to contribute towards your legal costs. You should be aware that there are sometimes difficulties and/or delays in assessing and recovering these costs.
(ii) The Court has wide-ranging discretion to determine which party(ies) should bear the cost of the proceedings and in what proportion. This is usually exercised to order an unsuccessful litigant to pay a proportion or all of the successful litigant's costs.
(iii) Only in exceptional cases will the Court make an award which gives the successful litigant a right to the full reimbursement of the costs of the proceedings. You should therefore assume that even if your action is successful there will be additional costs payable to us over and above anything recovered from the other side. In cases where another party is legally aided it is unlikely that you will be able to recover any costs.
(iv) If you lose an action, you will be liable to pay our fees and disbursements. In addition the court is also likely to exercise its discretion to order you to pay a proportion or all of your opponent's costs.
(v) If you have legal expenses insurance you should be aware that insurers rarely pay bills before completion of the case and you will remain liable to pay our bills when rendered during and at the end of the case even if you have not yet been indemnified by the insurers.
(vi) If you withdraw an action, the other party is entitled to seek an order by the Court for you to pay costs.
(vii) In any action you will be required to disclose to the other parties all documents, correspondence, notes, memoranda and other items which are or have been in your possession, custody or power and which relate in any way to the issues in the dispute. This duty covers documents which may be prejudicial to your case but which, subject to certain exceptions such as communications with ourselves, you are nevertheless obliged to reveal. The obligation of disclosure is ongoing until the action is over and therefore all such documents must be kept in safe-keeping. This obligation is onerous and you may be liable for penalties including fines and/or imprisonment in cases of deliberate non-disclosure.
If you are in any doubt as to whether to preserve documents, you should always err on the side of preservation.
CAMPBELL SMITH, W.S.,
21 YORK PLACE,
EDINBURGH,
EH1 3EN.
18th October 2006
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