Terms of Business

Welcome to Else Solicitors LLP Else Solicitors LLP is a commercial law firm based in Burton on Trent. We provide legal advice and solutions to businesses throughout the UK and also advise individuals on Wills & Probate and private client matters.

We act for PLCs, private companies, partnerships and individuals on the following subjects:

  • Banking and Business Recovery
  • Commercial Dispute Resolution
  • Construction and Engineering
  • Corporate Services
  • Debt Recovery
  • Employment
  • Intellectual Property
  • Commercial Contracts
  • Property
  • Healthcare
  • Licensing
  • Wills & Probate

We bring a jargon-free, professional approach to all legal issues that clients encounter and are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
We value our clients and their needs and thus are committed to achieving the best possible standard of service with the following objectives:

  • Proactive and timely advice;
  • Commercial advice that leads to the best possible outcome for the client’s business issues;
  • A confidential and personal service to all private clients.

This Terms of Business is designed to provide you with more information on how we operate as a firm and aim to achieve the above objectives. We are always looking to improve the services that we offer our clients and therefore welcome any feedback from our clients to help us achieve this.

Hours of Business

The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. Messages can be left on the fee earner’s voice mail outside these hours, and appointments can be arranged at other times when necessary.

Contact and Client Care

At Else Solicitors LLP we offer a personal service to our clients. This means that once you have formed an initial working relationship with any of our Fee Earners, they will be available to assist you with any queries that you may have in relation to the services that we provide as a firm. It may be that you require services from a number of departments across the firm, and if this is the case the most appropriate Fee Earner or Team will be assigned to provide you with the necessary advice. We try to avoid changing the person who is the main contact for your work, although if this becomes necessary we will notify you promptly of the new Fee Earner dealing with your matter, and why the change has been made.

If you have any problem with the services provided you may wish to discuss this with the Fee Earner handling your matter, or otherwise with Chris Else who is a partner in the firm. Further details on our Complaints Handling Services can be seen below under the Complaints section.

When instructing Else Solicitors LLP to act on your behalf, you are authorising us to act in your best interests, unless you instruct us to the contrary. We cannot be responsible for failing to advise you for any matter outside of your instructions to us or for any matter for which you decline our advice.

Money Laundering

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 require us to take steps to assist the authorities in detecting whether any certain activities are taking place with our clients. We must assess whether there may be a risk that clients may be involved in money laundering or the financing of terrorism. This is a standard requirement for all solicitors in the United Kingdom and especially applies to all clients instructing solicitors in relation to certain types of work such as the sale or purchase of a property. Further, we are obliged to report suspicious transactions to the National Crime Agency.

To assist the firm in complying with this legislation it is our policy to undertake checks to confirm and verify your identity. This policy applies to all clients who instruct us. We may request the following information from you in order to check your identity:

  • for a limited company, a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation is required together with personal identification of the instructing Directors;
  • for a partnership or individual “trading as” personal identification is required;
  • for individuals, personal identification is required.

Personal identification must include the original driving licence or passport of the individuals in question, together with a utility bill showing your address.

We may alternatively carry out an electronic search at our sole discretion. The electronic search involves checking identity information provided by you by reference to different databases. The cost of carrying out an electronic search will be shown as a disbursement on your bill.

We are unable to commence any work on your behalf without sight of the above specified identification documentation or satisfactory results from the electronic search described above.

Financial Services and Markets Act 2000

If while we are acting for you, you require advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. 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.

We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry on insurance mediation activities, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. Insurance mediation activities and investments services, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, are regulated by the Law Society. The register can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website at https://register.fca.org.uk .

Legal Fees

Our policy is to charge you our fees for professional services which are fair and reasonable in the circumstances. We attempt to be flexible in our charging approach and are happy to consider with you a variety of alternatives as detailed below. The method of funding that we agree upon will be confirmed in our Client Care Letter. Where no specific basis is agreed, our charges will be based on hourly rates.

Fixed Costs

Our fees for carrying out work may be fixed at a certain amount plus expenses and VAT. If the matter does not proceed to completion, we will charge a proportion of this fixed fee based on the time spent and our hourly rates as set out below. This fixed fee will not be subject to change unless either you change your instructions to us in any way and/or the matter does not complete within a reasonable period of the expected timescale. In these cases we reserve the right to agree with you either a revised fixed fee or an alternative basis of charging. If we are not able to agree any revisions with you then we may cease to act and invoice you on the original basis.

Estimated Costs

Our fees for carrying out work may be estimated at a certain amount plus expenses and VAT. This estimate is not fixed and may be subject to adjustment. If the matter does not proceed to completion we will charge a percentage of this estimate based on our hourly rates as set out below.

This estimate may be subject to change if:

you change your instructions to us in any way;

  • the matter does not complete within a reasonable period of the expected timescale;
  • we encounter unforeseen or unexpected difficulties;
  • the circumstances change; and/or,
  • information comes to light of which we were not aware when determining the estimate.

In these cases we may agree with you either a revised estimate or an alternative basis of charging. If we are not able to agree any revisions with you then we may either cease to act and invoice you on the original basis or continue acting and charge you based on our hourly rates as set out below.

Capped Fees

Where work is carried out on an hourly basis, we may on occasion agree to cap our fees to a certain amount plus expenses and VAT. Our costs will not exceed this amount without your prior agreement. If the matter does not proceed to completion we will charge a proportion of this estimate based on our hourly rates as set out below.

This cap may be subject to change if:

  • you change your instructions to us in any way;
  • the matter does not complete within a reasonable period of the expected timescale;
  • we encounter unforeseen or unexpected difficulties;
  • the circumstances change; and/or,
  • information comes to light which we were not aware of when determining the estimate.

In these cases we may agree with you either a revised cap or an alternative basis of charging. If we are not able to agree any revisions with you then we may either cease to act and invoice you on the original basis or continue acting and charge you based on our hourly rates as set out below.

Hourly Rates

Where our charges will be based on a time basis they will be based on an hourly rate. We will also charge you for expenses and VAT. Our time is recorded and charged in units of 6 minutes. Time spent on your affairs will include meeting with you and third parties, time spent travelling, considering, discussing the position with colleagues, preparing, working on papers, attendance notes, correspondence and making and receiving telephone calls. All fees and expenses are quoted exclusive of VAT. The hourly charge out rates for fee earners are as follows:-

Partners £220 – £350
Associate Solicitors £190 – £300
Assistant Solicitors £160 – £250
Fellows of Inst of Legal Executives/Senior Executives £180 – £250
Trainee Solicitors £115 – £150
Litigation Executives/Paralegals £115 – £150

The above hourly rates are reviewed with effect from 1st January each year and the new rates will take effect from that date. We also review these rates periodically during the year. We will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes place.

Monies paid on account of costs

We will usually require you to make a payment(s) on account of our charges and expenses to be incurred prior to any work being carried out and regularly upon request during the currency of the instructions. It is important that any request for payments on account are paid promptly within a reasonable period of time. In the event that such requests for payments on account are not met by you then we reserve the right to suspend working on your matter and to terminate the retainer, if the refusal to make the payment on account continues. We will not accept any liability for any adverse consequences that may arise as a result of such suspension or termination of work in these circumstances.

Money held by us for you, whether on account or otherwise, will be placed in our client account and you will be entitled to the interest which has been earned on that sum, unless the amount of interest is less than £20.  Money held by us (and accrued interest) may be taken by us in payment or part-payment of our invoices.  We will not be held responsible for any loss due to any mistake made by the relevant account holding institution.

Additional Expenses

It is often inevitable that we have to pay additional expenses (also known as disbursements) on your behalf. Examples include court fees, counsel’s fees, search fees, registration fees, courier fees, travel and accommodation expenses, arbitrator and mediator fees, witness expenses and bank transaction costs.

Unless you instruct us to the contrary we will assume you have authorised us to pay such expenses as we consider necessary in respect of any particular matter. Some expenses may be substantial and in these cases we may require money on account to be paid to us before we incur any liability.

We have outlined below the firms policy in relation to such additional expenses:

  • We do not charge for the use of our meeting facilities although the cost of lunches and other meals may be recharged in order to cover our costs incurred;
  • Travel by road is charged at our standard rate of 40p per mile. Travel by public transport and the cost of parking will be charged at cost;
  • We reserve the right to charge separately for postal and telephone costs incurred on your behalf in appropriate circumstances. They will usually be where they are international rather than domestic;
  • We charge for any specialist technical requirements which we may be required to pay to support staff at cost when they are required to work additional hours solely in relation to your matter. An example of this may be providing support during meetings outside of our normal office hours. We will agree this with you in advance;
  • Outgoing Telegraphic Transfers are charged at a fixed cost of £20.00 plus VAT per transfer. There is no charge for incoming Telegraphic Transfers;
  • Outgoing Faster Payments are charged at a fixed costs of £5.00 plus VAT per transfer. There is no charge for incoming Faster Payments;
  • We charge for photocopying at 25p per sheet of A4 paper for black and white copying and £1.00 per sheet of A4 paper for colour copying;
  • We charge for facsimile transmissions at a rate of £1.00 per sheet of A4 paper.

We also may need to instruct other professionals such as legal counsel, foreign lawyers, expert witnesses, actuaries or agents. You will be responsible for payment of their professional charges and we will agree the appropriate professional advisor with you in advance whilst acting on your behalf. It may be that you will be required to pay the relevant external professional direct for their services.

Key Dates

Unless we agree to the contrary, it is your responsibility to diarise key dates which require action from you. You are responsible for ensuring that you have adequate systems and procedures in place for ensuring that such dates are not missed or overlooked. Such dates may also be dependent upon other matters which we are not aware of. This however does not apply to key dates which we are directly involved with as a result of us carrying out legal services on your behalf upon your instructions.

Dispute Resolution/Arbitration/Mediation

There are a number of specific points which you should be aware of when involved in litigation, arbitration or mediation. You are primarily responsible for paying our fees and expenses even if the Court or arbitrator eventually order another party to pay or contribute to your legal costs. You should be aware that sometimes there are difficulties or delays in assessing and recovering these costs.

A court or arbitrator has a wide-ranging discretion to determine which party(ies) should bear the costs of the proceedings and in which proportions. This is usually exercised to order an unsuccessful litigant to pay a proportion of the successful litigant’s costs.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the court or arbitrator make an award which gives a litigant full indemnity for his costs. You should therefore assume that, even if you are successful, there will be additional costs payable to us over and above those which are recoverable from another party. In cases where the other party is legally aided, it is highly unlikely you will recover any costs. If you lose an action you will be liable to pay not only our fees and disbursements but the court or arbitrator is likely to order you to pay your opponents costs. If you withdraw an action the other party is entitled to have an order made by the court or arbitrator for you to pay their costs.

In any action you will be required by the court or arbitrator to disclose to the other party(ies) all documents, correspondence, notes, memoranda or other items which are or have been in your possession, custody or control and which relate in any way to the issue in the dispute. This duty covers the documentation which may be prejudicial to your case but which, subject to certain exceptions such as communications with us, you are nevertheless obliged to disclose. All relevant documents must be passed to us at the outset. The obligation of disclosure is ongoing until the action is concluded and all relevant documents must be handed to us.

This obligation is onerous and you may be liable to severe 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 treat such a matter with caution and seek advice.

We may discuss with you, where appropriate, alternative means of resolving particular issues, such as mediation, conciliation, adjudication or expert adjudication. Your lawyer will discuss this in more detail with you where appropriate.

Statement(s) of Truth – Indemnity

In a litigation matter, we may be required to sign a statement of truth on your behalf. The statement of truth may be contained within a court form, pleadings or in a statement made on your behalf. The statement of truth confirms that you believe the contents of that document to be true. There are serious consequences in the event that a statement of truth is signed by you, or by us on your behalf, and it later transpires that you knew or ought to have known that the contents were not true or correct. Such consequences may include you being held in contempt of Court which may result in imprisonment or a large fine. There may also be serious cost sanctions made against you, or against us if a statement of truth is signed on your behalf.

You authorise us to sign such a statement of truth on your behalf. You further agree to indemnify us and keep us indemnified against, including but not limited to all costs, orders for costs, claims, demands, liabilities and legal and/or other professional costs arising out of or in connection with our signing of a statement of truth on your behalf.

Invoices and Payment Terms

It is our standard practice, unless agreed with you otherwise, to raise an invoice for all outstanding fees, disbursements/expenses on a monthly basis. Our invoices are due immediately and payment is due upon delivery of the invoice to you. Our invoices should be treated as final for the period covered by them or immediately due and payable. A breakdown of any invoice will be provided upon request.

In property, share or business sales and purchases payment is due immediately prior to or upon completion unless we have informed you that interim invoices will be rendered to you.  In addition, we may require that we are placed in adequate funds prior to completion to ensure payment of any purchase price, our fees, any agents fees and any taxes such as Stamp Duty. We reserve the right to delay completion of your matter until such funds are received by us. In all other matters, payment is due upon delivery of the invoice to you, (without any deduction by way of set-off, counterclaim or otherwise).  In the event that any invoice payable by you to us is overdue for payment we may, having given you prior notice, cease to act on your behalf and represent you.  This applies to the matter to which the invoice relates and any other matter for which we may be working for you.    In addition, all invoices that have been rendered and which remain unpaid on that or any other matter will immediately fall due for payment.  Interest will accrue on a daily basis from the date 14 days after the date of this invoice until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment, and compounding quarterly.

We reserve the right to charge you interest on outstanding invoices at the rate of 2% per calendar month, or part thereof being treated as a whole month for the purpose of calculating interest, together with an administrative fee of £100 plus vat per outstanding invoice.   Interest will accrue on a daily basis from the date 14 days after the date of this invoice until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgment, and compounding quarterly.

Any amounts are net of VAT.  VAT will be charged at the appropriate rate on our fees and on those expenses that are subject to VAT.  If you are outside the EU you may not need to pay VAT.  If you have arranged for a third party to make payment of the fees, the VAT element may not be recoverable by the third party and you will remain responsible for payment of our fees and other additional charges.

Taxation

We will assume that, unless you notify us to the contrary, you have taken the appropriate advice as to the taxation implications of any matter. If taxation may be a relevant issue then you should seek separate tax advice. We do not provide taxation advice.

Lien

The common law entitles us to retain money, papers or other property belonging to you which properly come into our possession pending payment of our costs, whether or not the property is acquired in connection with the matter for which the costs were incurred. This is known as a “general lien”. We are not entitled to sell property held under a lien but we are entitled to hold property, other than money, even if the value of it greatly exceeds the amount due to us in respect of costs.

If we are conducting litigation for you, we have additional rights in any property recovered or preserved for you whether it is in our possession or not and in respect of all costs incurred, whether billed or unbilled. We also have a right to ask the court to make a charging order in our favour for assessed costs.

Insurance, Liability and Third Parties

We shall not be responsible for any failure to advise or comment on any matter which falls outside the scope of your instructions, or the services we have agreed to provide. We shall only have a responsibility to the named person who has instructed us to act on their behalf. We shall not have any responsibility to any other person in connection with your matter, unless that person is also a client of ours in relation to the same matter.

We exclude any and all liability for damages, claims, actions, proceedings, awards, compensation, costs (including legal costs), expenses and all other losses and/or liabilities which exceed the amount covered by our professional indemnity insurance from time to time.

This limit applies to the level of the claim and not the value of the transaction or the work to which a claim may relate. This limit and the level of insurance is reviewed annually.

We exclude, to the extent permitted by law, any and all liability for damages, claims, actions, proceedings, awards, compensation, costs (including legal costs), expenses and all other losses and/or liabilities to third parties who are not a client of ours in relation to the relevant matter.

All third party rights are excluded and no third party may enforce the contract between you and us. We may accept liability to third parties in appropriate cases. We do this only where we expressly agree to do so in writing. Our fees may be adjusted to reflect this additional risk.

If you wish us to extend the limit of our liability for any particular matter please discuss this with us and we may agree a revised pricing structure in order to provide the revised limit for you to reflect this additional risk.

In acting for a company we do not assume a separate legal responsibility for advising shareholders and/or directors and/or employees of the company unless specifically requested by such individuals to do so and the giving of such advice is the subject of a separate letter of engagement.

The above limitations apply to any matters arising due to liability in contract, tort (including negligence), statutory duty and/or common law. The above limitations do not limit and/or exclude our liability for death or personal injury due to our negligence, liability for our fraud and/or any other liability of ours which it is not permitted to limit and/or exclude as a matter of law.

Confidentiality

All information regarding your business and affairs will be kept confidential at all times unless you instruct us to disclose information or we are compelled by law to disclose it.

In order to protect your interests we cannot act or continue to act in circumstances where there is an actual conflict of interest. The rules regarding conflicts of interest are complex. In simple terms, we are not able to act where we are unable to fulfil our obligations to you because doing so would mean we are unable to fulfil our obligations to another client. We may also be prevented from acting where there is a potential conflict of interest. Where a potential conflict of interest is at an acceptable level you can consent to allow us to continue to act. To the extent permitted by law and our Professional Rules of Conduct, you give consent to our continuing to act in such circumstances. If a conflict arises during our dealings with you we will discuss the position with you and determine the appropriate course of action.

From time to time representatives from external organisations, such as the Law Society or Solicitors Regulatory Authority may conduct audit or quality checks on our Firm. Such representatives are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your file. Unless specifically directed by you, we shall assume that should your file be selected, you give your permission for it to be inspected.

Data Protection

When acting for you we will treat all of your data and any ancillary data that comes into our possession in accordance with the “Data Protection Legislation” means (i) unless and until the GDPR is no longer directly applicable in the UK, the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) and any national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK and then (ii) any successor legislation to the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 2018. “Personal Data” is as defined in the Data Protection Legislation.

You consent to Else Solicitors LLP sub-contracting to a third-party processor of Personal Data under this engagement- for example to a process server. Else Solicitors LLP confirms that it has entered or (as the case may be) will enter with the third-party processor into a written agreement. As between you and Else Solicitors LLP, Else Solicitors LLP will remain liable for all acts or omissions of any third-party processor appointed by it pursuant to this section, as prescribed under statute.

We may use your Personal Data with other data to provide you with our legal services, undertake marketing activities, administration and training and we may authorise our supporting service providers to use such data for these purposes. If you have opted-in to receiving marketing material and you decide you wish to stop receiving any form of marketing material from us, please let us know on 01283 526200, click “unsubscribe” on any marketing email sent by us or email tracey.marsh@elselaw.co.uk..

We will also use your data for reasons required by the law, such as client identification checks and money laundering risk assessments as explained earlier in this document. We will not pass your data to any third party for any reason other than the reasons explained in this document without your consent.

Whilst we will use our reasonable endeavours to avoid any personal data breaches, we do have in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you where we are legally required to do so.

Complaints and Termination

We aim to provide a service which matches your expectations and instructions and have an excellent record in providing client care of an exceptional standard. If however you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service, please let us know as soon as possible. To resolve swiftly any client dissatisfaction, we operate a complaints handling procedure. If you want to discuss any aspect of the way your instructions are being undertaken please speak to the Client Partner responsible for your matter. If your complaint is unresolved please ask for the matter to be referred to Christopher Else and/or Andrew Hickman. A copy of our Complaints Handling Procedure can be made available to you upon request. If your complaint relates to Christopher Else and/or Andrew Hickman or we are unable to resolve the complaint then we operate a complaint system through a local firm of solicitors who will try to resolve the matter – details of this is available at www.legalombudsman.org.uk. You may contact them on tel No: 0300 555 0333 (Overseas: +44 121 245 3050); email them enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or write to them at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ You can also refer the matter to the SRA and details are available at www.sra.org.uk.

Any complaint will be investigated promptly and thoroughly and an explanation of the investigation will be given to you. This will be in writing if required. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a written response from us about your complaint or 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). Alternatively if your complaint relates to a specific solicitor you can also refer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and details are available at www.sra.org. Our relationship is based on mutual trust and confidence. In the event of that coming to an end, it would be undesirable for us to continue to act. Accordingly, we believe it is right that you should be entitled at any time to cease instructing us and similarly we should be entitled to cease acting for you at any time (subject in our case to any overriding professional requirement to continue acting).

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason. For example this may be if you do not pay an interim bill, if you do not make a payment on account when requested, if you do not pay any invoice of ours or we are subject to a conflict of interest. We will, where possible, give you advance notice of our ceasing to act for you.

You will be liable to pay us for all work carried out up to that time when we cease to continue acting for you. We reserve the right to keep all papers, documents and funds, irrespective of the matter they relate to, until all fees and expenses due to us an all your matters are paid in full.

Complaints regarding our charges

In addition to the matters referred to above, you are entitled to complain regarding our charges. This may include:-

(a) You making a complaint about the firm’s invoices, such complaint to be made as set out above; and/or

(b) You exercising the right to object to an invoice by making a complaint to the Legal Complaints Service or the Office of Legal Complaints; and/or

(c) You making an application to Court for an assessment of the invoice under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Notice of the Right to Cancel (for Consumers)

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, if you are a private individual instructing us on a matter outside of your trade or profession, you may have the right to cancel, without charge the contract between us, where you have instructed us to act on your behalf by some means of distance communication, for example by telephone or e-mail, or at a meeting that did not take place at our offices.

You have the right of cancellation within the shorter period of:

  • 14 days from the date of receipt of this Terms of Business; or
  • 14 days from the date of our contract with you for the provision of our legal services.

If you would like to cancel the contract between us, you should give notice by telephone, email or letter to the person responsible for your work. Alternatively, you can cancel the contract by filling in, and returning to us, the Cancellation Notice that is attached to our Client Care letter.

Subject to the terms set out below, if you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you. We will make any such reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we receive your notice of cancellation. If you requested us to begin the performance of our services during the cancellation period, you shall be responsible for payment of our reasonable charges for any work completed by us before such notice of cancellation is received by us.

File Storage

You irrevocably authorise us to store your file. The means by which we store your file is at our discretion, and may include scanning onto CD-ROM/DVD. In the event that your file is stored electronically, the original file will be confidentially destroyed. Your file (or electronic copy) will be retained for a minimum of 6 years after conclusion of the case. Arrangements are made thereafter for confidential destruction without further reference to you. The fee for storing files is £25 + VAT. Unless otherwise agreed in writing this fee will be charged on all matters and upon final invoice. You are entitled to retain certain contents of the file. Should you wish to retain these items at the conclusion of your case, you must inform us in writing.

Please note that any original deeds, title documents or original paperwork or documentation provided by you will be returned to you at the conclusion of the matter.

Fax Transmissions and Post

Communication by fax and post is a part of business. Whilst all communications between a solicitor and client are confidential, you must accept that transmission via fax and/or post is not an entirely confidential method of communication. You are responsible for ensuring that, when fax and/or post are used as a method of communication, the necessary safeguards are in place at the receiving point to maintain the confidentiality of the items sent to you.

Email and Internet

We may communicate with you in relation to work being carried out by email unless you specifically request that we must not do so. Please note that emails and any attachments sent to you will not have been encrypted. They may therefore be liable to be compromised. Please also note that it is your responsibility to scan an email and attachments for viruses. Viruses and compromises of security are inherent risks in relation to email. We do not, to the extent permitted by law, accept any liability (whether in contract, negligence or otherwise) for any virus infection and/or external compromise of security and/or confidentiality in relation to transmission sent by email.

If you use any on-line internet service provided by us you agree and accept that it will be provided subject to the conditions of business relevant to that service which will be available to be accessed at the relevant website.

General

Else Solicitors LLP is a limited liability partnership constituted in accordance with the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000, partnership number OC346132, registered office First Avenue, Centrum 100, Burton on Trent, DE14 2WE.

Any references to a “Partner” in the firm should be construed to mean a “Member” or other senior representative of the firm. The use of the term “Partner” is one which clients and staff are comfortable and familiar with, and does not mean that the firm is a partnership constituted in accordance with the Partnership Act 1890.

Any contract entered into and/or advice provided by any of our Partners, Members, Staff and/or Consultants is entered into/provided on behalf of Else Solicitors LLP and not the individuals in question personally.

Unless otherwise agreed, these Conditions of Business apply to any future instructions you give to us. Your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Conditions of Business. Even so, we ask that you sign and return a copy of these Conditions to us. The arrangements between us are governed by English Law. We both agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English Courts in the event of a dispute.