Terms & Conditions

Please let us know if you require a hard copy of our Terms & Conditions.

Standard Terms of Business

  1. General

    1. We are committed to providing you with a professional service and to give your affairs prompt and proper care, skill and attention.
    2. We will rely on you to provide us with all information when needed to enable us to deal efficiently with your matter.
    3. It is your obligation to tell us promptly of any change in, or addition to, any information you have provided to us.
    4. We will not have any obligation to verify or check the accuracy of any information you provide to us unless it is specifically agreed in writing that we should do so.
    5. Unless otherwise specifically agreed in writing these Standard Terms of Business shall apply to all matters in respect of which you retain us.
    6. We will provide you with a separate Client Care Letter which you will be asked to sign and return to us. In doing so you will be agreeing to the specific matters set out in the letter as well as these Standard Terms of Business.

  2. Our fees

    1. Our fees will be charged to you in accordance with the Client Care Letter.
    2. Subject to what we agree with you in our Client Care Letter, we will be entitled to invoice you for our fees and any payments made by us on your behalf on a monthly basis and require those fees to be paid within 30 days.

    3. Abortive Matters

      Unless we have been retained by you on a conditional fee basis, when our fees will be governed by a separate fee agreement, abortive matters and transactions will be charged on a time cost basis up to but not exceeding the level of any estimate or fixed price quotation given. We may however in our absolute discretion agree to accept less than such costs.

  3. Interest on Late Payment

    Under the Solicitors’ Remuneration Order 1972 we have a statutory right to charge interest on the amount outstanding under any bill delivered to you after the expiry of one month from the delivery of the bill. The interest applied will be that equivalent to the statutory judgment rate (currently 8% per year).

  4. Client Monies

    1. We may, from time to time, hold money on your behalf. Such money will be held in trust in a general client bank account, segregated from our own funds. The account will be operated, and all funds dealt with, in accordance with the Solicitors’ Accounts Rules 1988.
    2. Payment of interest to clients is made in accordance with the provisions of Rule 24 Solicitors’ Accounts Rules 1998.
    3. Interest will only be paid to you where the amount of interest that would be earned on the balances held on your behalf exceeds £20.00. Any such interest will be calculated using the prevailing rate applied by HSBC Bank PLC for small deposits subject to a minimum period of usually 1 week, depending upon the value of the deposit.
    4. The obligation to pay interest depends upon both the size of the sum and period for which the funds are held by us.

  5. Small Client Account Balances

    Although we shall at all times strive to ensure that our financial dealings with you are conducted with the utmost efficiency and accuracy, there may be rare occasions when on closing a file a small credit balance is discovered. In circumstances where it is uneconomic to account to you for these balances we propose periodically to make a donation comprising all such accumulated sums to a nationally recognised charity. You have our assurance that we shall at all times do our best to avoid such an eventuality. However if the amount owed to you is not more than £5.00 we will (unless you inform us in writing to the contrary) include the amount in the payment to the charity. If the amount due to you is more than £5.00 we will pay that to you as soon as practicable.

  6. Financial Services Act

    1. Status Disclosure

      1. This Firm is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of The Law Society. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.
      2. If we consider you need investment advice but we are unable to provide it we can refer you to someone who is authorised by the FSA to provide you with that advice. You are however entirely free to obtain advice from any other party if you prefer not to consult with the party we refer you to.
      3. If you ask us to dispose of shares or other investments then we will act in accordance with those instructions but we are unable to provide any advice whatsoever as to whether or not you should dispose of any such investments and you must seek advice from an expert who is authorised by the FSA.

    2. Insurance Mediation

      As mentioned above at paragraph 5.1.1 we are not authorised by the FSA. We are however included on the Register maintained by the FSA so that we can carry on Insurance Mediation activity, which is broadly advising on selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business is also regulated by The Law Society. Complaints or concerns about out conduct or if something should go wrong are regulated by The Law Society. The Register can be accessed via the FSA website www.fsa.gov.uk/register. Like any other complaint the problems may be dealt with via our complaints procedure and complaints policy.

  7. Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)

    Where land is transferred it is now a legal requirement that a detailed return is made to HM Revenue and Customs. We will assist you with the preparation of the statutory return form. Please note however:-

    • The onus and obligation is on you to pay any SDLT;
    • The return must contain all relevant information all of which must be wholly accurate;
    • There is a strict time limit (currently 30 days) within which the return must be submitted and any SDLT paid;
    • There are penalties for late submission;
    • The transaction cannot be registered and legal title will not vest in a purchaser until the above requirements are complied with;
    • HM Revenue and Customs may review transactions at a later date.

  8. File Retention Policy

    1. After completion of our retainer we will retain your file of papers in storage but it is our policy to destroy most working papers, files and correspondence (although not original documents) which are more than 7 years old. Other papers that relate to property matters or wills will be retained for a minimum of 12 years.
    2. If you would prefer your records not to be destroyed you should notify us in writing at which stage your records will be forwarded to you for safe custody.
    3. Where stored papers (files and documents) are retrieved from storage by us in connection with continuing or new instructions received from you, no charge will be made for such retrieval. In other circumstances we may levy a reasonable retrieval charge based on the cost to us of the retrieval and any other work necessary to comply with your instructions. In all cases it will be of assistance to us when requesting papers to identify (if you can) the matter reference number for your file and the name of the person who was responsible for managing your file.

  9. Notice

    1. Pursuant to Article 4 of the Solicitors (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 1994 (“the Order”) you may within 1 month after receiving an invoice in respect of non-contentious business where the fee element charged does not exceed £50,000 require us to obtain a certificate (“Remuneration Certificate”) from The Law Society stating whether the fee charged is fair and reasonable.
    2. Pursuant to Article 11 of the Order you must, on application for a Remuneration Certificate, pay to us all disbursements paid out by us on your behalf and all of the value added tax comprised in the invoice together with 50% of the fee element shown on the invoice. If you can show that exceptional circumstances apply you may ask for The Legal Complaints Service at 8 Dormer Place, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire,CV32 5AE to waive the requirements of Article 11. More information can be found at www.legalcomplaints.org.uk.
    3. Your rights are more fully set out in the Order.
    4. Pursuant to sections 70, 71 and 72 of the Solicitors Act 1974 you also have a right (in accordance with the provision of those sections) to make an application for taxation which is an assessment by the Court as to the reasonableness of any costs claimed in any invoice delivered to you in respect of work undertaken on your behalf.

  10. Confidentiality

    1. Everything you tell us about your affairs is treated by us as confidential but we may disclose that information if:
      • You instruct us to disclose information; or
      • We are compelled to disclose information by the courts; or
      • We are compelled to disclose it by law, for example under Money Laundering Regulations and/or where fraud or other crime is involved.
    2. In addition we may from time to time be called upon to demonstrate maintenance of professional and/or quality standards as set by appropriate authorities and/or to satisfy our auditors and/or to comply with regulations in relation to money laundering or other statutory requirements. Unless you notify us in writing to the contrary it will be a term of our retainer with you that we have your authority to produce your file for that purpose only and conditional upon your confidentiality being maintained to the people to whom we produce it. In some cases we may be obliged by law to make information available to lawful authorities (see 12 below).
    3. When we have completed work on your file it will then be placed into storage until destruction (see 7. File Retention Policy). Like most solicitors firms, this storage is offsite in a third party commercial secure storage facility, to ensure your file is stored securely and to maintain confidentiality.

  11. Termination of Instructions

    1. We may decide to stop acting for you on giving you reasonable written notice where we have good reason to do so including without limitation any conduct on your part which appears to us to be improper, dishonest or deliberately misleading or any failure on your part to:
      1. Make a requested payment on account;
      2. Pay any interim bill;
      3. Discharge any billed disbursement;
      4. Provide instructions following a request from us;
    2. You may withdraw your instruction from us at any time. If you do withdraw your instructions and request delivery of your papers we shall co-operate with such request and comply with it subject to our right (“lien”) to retain all or any of your deeds documents and papers pending settlement of all outstanding fees and disbursements.

  12. Money Laundering

    1. We have a duty under section 330 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘the Act’) to report to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) if we know, or have reasonable cause to suspect, that you, or anyone connected with your business, are or have been involved in money laundering. Failure on our part to make a report where we have knowledge or reasonable grounds for suspicion would constitute a criminal offence.
    2. Money laundering is a criminal offence defined by section.340 (11) of the Act and includes concealing, converting, using or possessing the benefits of any activity that constitutes a criminal offence in the UK. It also includes involvement in any arrangement that facilities the acquisition, retention, use or control of such a benefit.
    3. This definition is very wide and would include such crimes as:
      • Deliberate tax evasion;
      • Deliberate failure to inform the tax authorities of known underpayments or excessive repayments;
      • Fraudulent claiming of benefits or grants; or
      • Obtaining a contract through bribery.

      This list is by no means exhaustive.

    4. We are obliged by law to report any instances of money laundering to SOCA without your knowledge or consent. In fact, under section.333 of the Act we may commit the criminal offence of tipping off if we tell you that a report had been made. Accordingly, we cannot enter into any dialogue or discussions with you at any time in relation to such issues.
    5. We are not required to undertake work for the sole purpose of identifying suspicions of money laundering. We shall comply with obligations under the Act in line with the guidance published by The Law Society.

  13. Receipts of Cash

    We will generally refuse to accept payments by clients of cash amounting to £500.00 or more.

  14. Electronic Communications

    1. Internet communications are capable of data corruption and therefore we do not accept any responsibility for changes made to such communications after their dispatch. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. We do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication and all risks concerned with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your business are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication.
    2. It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received from us, or forwarded by us.

  15. Data Protection Act 1998

    We may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you in order that we may discharge the services agreed under our retainer by you, and for other related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance. You have a right of access, under data protection legislation, to the personal data that we hold about you. We confirm that when processing data on your behalf we will comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Data Controller in relation to personal data supplied about you is Smithson Law Firm LLP.

  16. Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999

    1. Persons who are not party to our contract with you shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of our agreement with you. This does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.
    2. The advice that we give to you is for your sole use and does not constitute advice to any third party to whom you may communicate it. We accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.

  17. Applicable Law

    Our relationship with you is governed by, and construed in accordance with English Law. The Courts of England will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning our retainer by you and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those courts do not have jurisdiction.

  18. Limitation of Liability

    Your attention is specifically drawn to this term.

    1. This term 17 sets out our entire financial liability (including any liability for acts or omissions of our employees, agents and sub-contractors) to you in respect of:
      1. any breach of our retainer or otherwise any contract by us to supply legal services to you or to any third party on your behalf (“Retainer”);
      2. any use made by you of the legal services or any part of them; and
      3. any representation, statement or tortuous act or omission (including negligence) arising under or in connection with the Retainer.
    2. All warranties, conditions and other terms implied by statute or common law are, to the fullest extent permitted by law, excluded from the Retainer.
    3. Nothing in these Conditions limits or excludes our liability:
      1. for death or personal injury resulting from negligence; or
      2. for any damage or liability incurred by you as a result of fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by us.
    4. Our liability in contract, tort (including negligence or breach of statutory duty), misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of the Retainer shall be limited to FIVE MILLION POUNDS STERLING or if higher the current amount of our (or should the case arise any successor’s practice’s) Policy of Professional Indemnity Insurance in force at the date of any claim made by you.

  19. Jurisdiction

    These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. Each party irrevocably agrees to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales over any claim or matter arising under or in connection with this agreement or the legal relationships established by this agreement.

Terms of use of this website

This legal notice applies to the entire contents of the Website under the domain name www.smithsonlawfirm.com (Website) and to any correspondence by e-mail between us and you. Please read these terms carefully before using the Website. Using the Website indicates that you accept these terms regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us. If you do not accept these terms, do not use the Website. This notice is issued by Smithson Law Firm LLP (Firm) please also see our Privacy Policy and Standard Terms of Business.

  1. Introduction

    1. You may access most areas of the Website without registering your details with us. Certain areas of the Website are only open to you if you register.
    2. By accessing any part of the Website, you shall be deemed to have accepted this legal notice in full. If you do not accept this legal notice in full, you must leave the Website immediately.
    3. The Firm may revise this legal notice at any time by updating this posting. You should check the Website from time to time to review the then current legal notice, because it is binding on you. Certain provisions of this legal notice may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at the Website.

  2. License

    1. You are permitted to print and download extracts from the Website for your own use on the following basis:
      1. No documents or related graphics on the Website are modified in any way;
      2. No graphics on the Website are used separately from the corresponding text; and
      3. The Firm’s copyright and this permission notice appear in all copies.
    2. Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material on the Website (including without limitation all draft and final form documents photographs and graphical images) are owned by the Firm or its licensors. For the purposes of this legal notice, any use of extracts from the Website other than in accordance with clause 2.1 for any purpose is prohibited. If you breach any of the terms in this legal notice, your permission to use the Website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed extracts from the Website.
    3. Subject to clause 2.1, no part of the Website may be reproduced or stored in any other website or included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or service without the Firm’s prior written permission.
    4. Any rights not expressly granted in these terms are reserved.

  3. Service Access

    1. While the Firm endeavours to ensure that the Website is normally available 24 hours a day, the Firm shall not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
    2. Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond the Firm’s control.

  4. Visitor Material and Misconduct

    1. Other than personally identifiable information, which is covered under our Privacy Policy, any material you transmit or post to the Website shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. The Firm shall have no obligations with respect to such material. The Firm and its designees shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes.
    2. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the Website any material:
      1. that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience; or
      2. for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals; or
      3. which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party, in any country in the world; or
      4. which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data).
    3. You may not misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking).
    4. The Firm shall fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing the Firm to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material in breach of clause 4.2 or clause 4.3.

  5. Links to and from Other Websites

    1. Links to third party websites on the Website are provided solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the Website. The Firm has not reviewed all of these third party websites and does not control and is not responsible for these websites or their content or availability. The Firm therefore does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any material found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to the Website, you do so entirely at your own risk.
    2. You may create links to the Website at the Firm’s absolute discretion provided you have first entered into a Website Linking Licence a copy of which will be made available upon request.
    3. The Firm expressly reserves the right to revoke the right granted in clause 5.2 for breach of these terms and to take any action it deems appropriate.
    4. You shall fully indemnify the Firm for any loss or damage suffered by the Firm for breach of clause 5.2.

  6. Registration

    1. Each registration is for a single user only. The Firm does not permit you to share your user name and password with any other person nor with multiple users on a network.
    2. Responsibility for the security of any passwords issued rests with you.

  7. Disclaimer

    1. While the Firm endeavours to ensure that the information on the Website is correct, the Firm does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the material on the Website. The Firm may make changes to the material on the Website, or to the products and prices described in it, at any time without notice. The material on the Website may be out of date, and the Firm makes no commitment nor does it have any obligation to update such material.
    2. The material on the Website is provided “as is”, without any conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Firm provides you with the Website on the basis that the Firm excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill which, but for this legal notice, might have effect in relation to the Website.

  8. Liability

    1. The Firm, any other party (whether or not involved in creating, producing, maintaining or delivering the Website), and any of the Firm’s partners, employees, or agents or any of any of them, exclude all liability and responsibility for any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result to you or a third party (including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damages, or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data, contracts, use of money, or loss or damages arising from or connected in any way to business interruption, and whether in tort (including without limitation negligence), contract or otherwise) in connection with the Website in any way or in connection with the use, inability to use or the results of use of the Website, any websites linked to the Website or the material on such websites, including but not limited to loss or damage due to viruses that may infect your computer equipment, software, data or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing the Website or your downloading of any material from the Website or any websites linked to the Website.
    2. Nothing in this legal notice shall exclude or limit the Firm’s liability for:
      1. death or personal injury caused by negligence (as such term is defined by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977)
      2. fraud; or
      3. misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter; or
      4. any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
    3. If your use of material on the Website results in the need for servicing, repair or correction of equipment, software or data, you assume all costs thereof.

  9. Copyright

    We assert copyright in the documents we produce. Advice given and documents prepared are for your use only and may not be used or copied for or by any third party without our express written consent.

  10. Governing law and jurisdiction

    This legal notice shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this legal notice shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Privacy Policy

Smithson Law Firm LLP (”We”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the data controller is M J Smithson of SMITHSON LAW FIRM LLP Ward’s Building 31-39 High Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1EW

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you respond to any news sheet sponsored by us and when you report a problem with our site.
  • If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
  • We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
  • Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of your instructions.
  • Details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.

IP Addresses and Cookies

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

For the same reason, we may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service.

They enable us:

  • To estimate our visitor frequency size and usage pattern.
  • To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
  • To speed up your searches.
  • To recognise you when you return to our site.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (”EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your instructions, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Uses made of the Information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

  • To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  • To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
  • To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
  • To notify you about changes to our service.

We may also use your data, or permit selected third parties to use your data, to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you and we or they may contact you about these.

If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale to you.

If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.

If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data.

Disclosure of your Information

We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

If we are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.

Your Rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at law@smithsonlawfirm.com

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of other websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to Information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to law@smithsonlawfirm.com