Terms and Conditions

We aim to provide you with high standards of service at all times. We will:
• keep you informed in writing of progress with your case at each stage
• communicate with you in plain language
• explain to you in writing the legal work involved in progressing your case
• keep you advised of the likely timescales for each stage of the litigation process by information on our website (if clients do not have access to the internet, a hard copy can be provided on request)
• continue to review the possibility of alternative methods funding/insurance.

To achieve the best possible outcome for you, we need to work with you. So we will:
• review your case with you regularly
• advise you on the law
• follow your instructions
• up-date you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks associated with your case whenever there is a material change in circumstances

We would expect you to:
• provide us with clear and timely instructions
• keep safe any documents which the Court or the solicitors for the opposing party require and provide them to us when requested.

Our office hours are as follows, but you may leave recorded messages if you phone out of hours:
Monday to Friday 9am- 5pm.

We are under a professional and legal obligation to keep your affairs confidential. However, this obligation is subject to a statutory exception which may require a solicitor who knows or suspects that a transaction instructed by a client may involve money laundering or terrorist financing to make a disclosure to the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

If we are required by law to make a disclosure in relation to the work which you instruct us to undertake for you, we may not be permitted to inform you that we are doing so. We may also have to cease acting for you for a period of time and may not be able to tell you the reasons for this.

5.1 Interest on money owed to you

Any money we may receive on your behalf will be held in our firm’s client account.

Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors Regulation Authority Accounts Rules 2011 (SRAAR) which forms part of Edition 3 of the Handbook, which came into effect on 18 April 2012, interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate being paid at the relevant time.

The period for which interest will be paid will normally run from the date(s) on which funds are received by us until the date(s) that cheque(s) are issued, as per Rule 23 of SRAAR 2011.

5.2 Charges
5.2.1 How we calculate charges

Our charges will be calculated by reference to the time we actually spend working on your case. This will include:
• attending meetings and negotiations
• reading, preparing and working on papers
• making and responding to telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and letters
• preparing estimates, schedules and bills of costs
• attending at court (including travel time)

5.2.2 Hourly rates

Our hourly charging rates are set out below. We review these rates each year to take account of any increases in the costs we have to incur. We will notify you in writing if we propose to increase the rates you are being asked to pay and the date from which any such increase would apply.

Grade of Fee Earner – Hourly Rate

Solicitors, over 8 years qualified experience – £201.00

Solicitors or Legal Executives (FILEX) over 4 years qualified experience – £177.00

Other qualified Solicitors or Legal Executives – £146.00

Trainee solicitors, paralegals or equivalent – £111.00

These rates will normally be reviewed with effect from 1st January each year.
All our fees are subject to VAT at the rate applicable when the work is completed. Currently, VAT is charged at 20%

Road Traffic Accidents
If your claim remains in the portal scheme (rapid claims settlement process) fixed fees will apply:
Stage 1 costs: £400
Stage 2 costs: £800 plus success fee of 12.5% of Stage 1 and Stage 2 costs

In the event your claim does not proceed in the portal scheme
If your claim is settled before proceedings are issued, for less than £10,000, instead of the above hourly rates our basic charges will be £800 plus 20% of the damages agreed up to £5,000, and 15% of the damages agreed between £5,000 and £10,000, or such other amounts as may be prescribed from time to time by the Civil Procedure Rules.
Success fee
In exchange for us taking the risk of not being paid for any of our work if you are unsuccessful, we are entitled to a success fee if you win. The success fee is calculated as a percentage increase on our basic charges.
In such cases where the success fee may be prescribed from time to time by the Civil Procedure Rules, our success fee shall be the prescribed amount. These include road traffic accidents and employment liability claims which have fixed success fees: 12.5% and 25% respectively.
In all other cases our success fee shall be:-
(a) 100% if the matter proceeds to a trial on liability and/or quantum.
(b) 75% if the case is settled after the issue of proceedings but before trial.
(c) 50% if the claim is settled before the issue of proceedings.

We also charge additional success fee for the postponement of our charges and disbursements at a rate of 5% per annum for delay of receipt of costs and 2.5% for delay of receipt of disbursements..

Untraced Drivers
If your accident was caused by the negligence of an untraced driver, we shall make a claim on your behalf to the Motor Insurer’s Bureau (MIB) under the provisions of the Untraced Driver’s Agreement. If such a claim is successful, the MIB will only pay a fixed contribution towards your legal costs. In that event we shall reduce your liability under this agreement so that the total costs payable by you (after recovery of any fixed costs paid by the MIB) will not exceed 25% of the total compensation you are awarded.

Small Claims
If your claim is successful and you recover less than £1,000 general damages for your pain and suffering, it is likely that your claim will be classed as a small claim. In that event, it is likely that we will not be able to recover our fees and expenses from your opponent. Accordingly, if your claim is deemed to be a small claim and we are unable to recover our fees and expenses from your opponent, we shall reduce your liability under this agreement so that the total costs payable by you shall not exceed 25% of the total compensation you are awarded.

Value added tax (VAT)
We add VAT, at the rate (now 20%) that applies when the work is done, to the total of the basic charges and success fee.
• We are obliged to keep your records on file for a period of 6 years wherever your file will be destroyed

• AJR Solicitors has a complaints procedure in place, which enables the client to contact the Legal Ombudsman Service if a complaint cannot be settled with the firm.

• AJR Solicitors is under an obligation to provide client information to the SRA if requested to do so.

• The Principal is responsible for reviewing if there is a conflict of interest in each new case

• AJR Solicitors will not be responsible for any action taken without the firm’s advice

5.2.3 Other expenses/Disbursements

There may be other expenses which we need to pay on your behalf. These can include:
• court fees
• fees for expert reports
• barristers’ fees

5.3 Other parties’ costs

If your case is unsuccessful, it is likely that the court will order you to pay your opponent’s costs in addition to your own. The court will assess your opponent’s costs to make sure that these are reasonable, and you would have the opportunity to instruct us to ask the court to reduce them.

At the inception of your claim, you will be asked for information regarding any insurance policies that you might have which provide legal expense insurance. We will look into these policies to determine if you have a Before the Event Policy. If you do not hold the relevant insurance, we will take out an After the Event Policy to protect you against any adverse costs.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. We will be pleased to provide you with a copy of our equality and diversity policy on request.

Under the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules 2011, solicitors are required to take out insurance to meet any claims against them which they are unable to meet from their own resources. Details of the insurance which we have arranged in accordance with these rules can be found at our offices, and you can contact us to ask for details.

We use the information you provide to us primarily for the purpose of providing legal services to you. This includes:
• up-dating and extending our client records
• analysing information for management purposes and making statutory returns
• legal and regulatory compliance.

We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) Ref: Z998147X.

The use we make of this information is subject to your instructions, our duty of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. However, our work for you may necessitate our sharing some of this information with third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have the right under the data protection legislation to access the personal information we hold about you.

When we have completed our work for you, we are required to store your papers for a period of 6 years, after which your file of papers will be destroyed.

From time to time we may need to delegate typing and photocopying work to outside firms which we have vetted for suitability and which have agreed will be subject to inspection by our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, in the same way as ourselves. However, if you do not want us to delegate the typing and photocopying of material relating to your own case, please let us know as soon as possible.

At the inception of your claim, you were required to sign a document allowing us to disclose your personal information to third parties such as medico-legal agencies and medical experts.

Our firm is subject to audit or quality checks by outside firms or organisations which are subject to similar confidentiality requirements as ourselves.

Our liability to you for any breach of your instructions would be limited to £3 million. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities. These limitations apply only to the extent that they are permitted by law, and in particular they do not apply to any liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Any dispute or legal issue relating to these terms of Business will be determined by English Law and will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

(a) Paying us if you end this agreement
You can end the agreement at any time. We then have the right to decide whether you must:
• pay our basic charges and expenses including barristers’ fees but not the success fee when we ask for them; or
• pay our basic charges, and expenses including barristers’ fees and success fees if you go on to win your claim for damages.

(b) Paying us if we end this agreement
(i) We can end this agreement if we believe you are unlikely to win. If this happens, you will only have to pay our expenses. However, these will normally be covered by any after the event insurance policy.
(ii) We can end this agreement if you do not keep to your responsibilities or if you reject our opinion about making a settlement with your opponent. You must then:
• pay our basic charges and expenses, including barristers’ fees;
• pay the success fee if you go on to win your claim for damages.

(c) Death
The agreement automatically ends if you die before your claim for damages is concluded. We will be entitled to recover our basic charges up to the date of your death from your estate. If your personal representatives wish to continue your claim, we may offer them a new conditional fee agreement, as long as they agree to pay the success fee on our basic charges from the beginning of the agreement with you.