Terms of business

Responsibility for your work

  1. CAM Legal Services Limited is an alternative business structure which trades as “Scooters & Bikes Legal”. Its company registration number is 05221702. Its VAT Registration number is 184 3182 04. It is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). As such CAM Legal Services Limited is subject to the Solicitors Code of Conduct which can be accessed on the SRA website at www.sra.org.uk. All references in these terms and conditions to “we”, “us” or “our” are to CAM Legal Services Limited. Your instructions are given to CAM Legal Services Limited which will undertake all work on your behalf.
  2. The members of the team working for you and their status are outlined in the Client Care Agreement (CCA). Occasionally the people working for you may change.

Client care agreement and case plan

  1. The CCA sets out the following information:
    1. Our core terms of business (although these may be amended/supplemented by correspondence).
    2. The name and status of the individuals who are likely to be involved in your matter.
    3. The basis on which you will be charged.
  2. The CCA sets out the different possibilities for the funding of your matter and will record the method that applies to you.
  3. You should read through the CCA and sign and return it to us. If you have any queries on it, please do not hesitate to contact us.
  4. We reserve the right not to commence any work on your behalf or to cease work on any matter started until the signed CCA is in possession.

Case plans

  1. The case plan records your instructions on the matter and sets out the immediate tasks that we will need to undertake and a guide as to the costs of doing so. It also provides the best estimate we are able to give at the time as to the likely total costs of seeing your matter through to its conclusion. We will, of course, inform you if any additional work becomes necessary and will let you know the likely costs of that additional work (see paragraphs 16 and 17).
  2. The case plan will be reviewed, revised and updated including the cost estimates during your case as appropriate and in any event, every six months.
  3. Please read through the case plan and sign and return one copy to us. Again, please feel free to contact us if you have any queries.
  4. We reserve the right not to commence any work on your behalf or to cease work on any matter started until the signed case plan is in our possession.

Charges and expenses

  1. Our charges are based on the categories shown in the CCA.
  2. When we quote hourly rates we charge in units of 6 minutes (1/10 of an hour) so that for example someone charging £200 per hour will undertake work for you in unit costs of £20 per unit. Our charging rates are subject to regular review by the Advisory Committee on Civil Costs, and you will be informed of any change before we charge you.
  3. VAT at the standard current rate will be added to our charges and on certain Disbursements (expenses) incurred by us on your behalf.
  4. The time spent includes the time we spend dealing with a case, setting up your file, meeting with you and others, travelling, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence, notes and reports, research, photocopying and making and receiving telephone calls including calls to and from you, accounting to you and third parties for money due and all other actions necessary whilst acting on your behalf. It will also include our SRA and money laundering compliance obligations.
  5. In addition to the time spent we may increase our fees to take into account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issues, the value and importance to you, the speed at which action must be taken, work outside normal office hours, the expertise and specialist knowledge that the case requires and, if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved, the size of the estate and amount of responsibility that we accept.
  6. We charge for our travelling at 45p per mile and for photocopying at 15p per sheet. We charge £50 plus VAT for each file we are asked to recover from our archive store. There is an additional expense of £15 if you require monies to be remitted by BACS the same day. If you choose to pay by credit card then a surcharge of 2.5% will be added to the sum due.
  7. The charges agreed between us may exceed the costs recoverable from another party. This means that in practice there may be a proportion of your costs which you will have to bear yourself irrespective of any order for costs which may be made against the opposing party or parties.
  8. As between the parties to litigation or arbitration in England and Wales, the usual position (which is subject to exceptions) is that the losing party will be ordered to pay a significant part, at least, of the winning party’s legal costs (as well as the losing party’s own costs). An order for payment of costs as between the parties will usually be made at the end of proceedings but may also be made during the course of proceedings, for example following pre-trial hearings. Costs ordered to be paid during the course of proceedings may have to be paid within a specific time, typically within 14 days of the order.
  9. If you obtain an order for costs in your favour against any other party or parties at any stage it does not vary or alter these Terms and Conditions. Whether a party awarded costs in fact recoups any costs will depend on the ability of the other party or parties to pay. You will be liable to us to pay our fees, Disbursements and VAT (if added) in full in accordance with these Terms and Conditions irrespective of whether an order for costs is made against the other party or parties and whether or when you are able to recover any costs from your opponents. You agree that you shall not be entitled to withhold or defer payment to us pending receipt of funds from the party or parties against whom an order for costs has been made.
  10. If any order for costs is made in your favour against any other party or parties, the amount of those costs will either be agreed with the party or parties against whom the order is made or will be assessed by the court or arbitrator(s). If an assessment by the court or arbitrator(s) is required, you will have to meet all our fees, Disbursements and VAT incurred in conducting the assessment proceedings on your behalf. Depending upon the outcome of the assessment, the court may order the paying party or parties to meet part of the costs of the assessment. This does not affect your liability to us to meet our costs, Disbursements and VAT incurred in pursuing the costs recovery in accordance with these Terms and Conditions or entitle you to withhold or defer payment to us pending receipt of funds from the party or parties against whom an order for costs has been made.
  11. If the court hearing a costs assessment decides that you have unreasonably refused a proper offer in respect of costs awarded to you, it may in its discretion order you to meet all or part of the paying party’s costs of the assessment proceedings.
  12. We will give you the best possible information about the likely overall costs of the matter. We will tell you as soon as possible if we think our charges might be higher than any estimate or other indication of costs that has been given. An estimate is only a guide. You should not treat it as a binding quotation.
  13. If for any reason we do not complete the work, we will charge you for the work done and expenses incurred.
  14. In all matters we reserve the right to deduct our profit costs and expenses from monies held by us on your behalf.
  15. Except for conditional fee cases where we will charge you at the conclusion of your case, we will invoice you at regular intervals even if the matter has not been completed. We will try and agree these intervals to suit you but they will normally be monthly. Unless otherwise specifically stated each bill that we submit will be a final bill for the work done during the period stipulated (known as an interim statute bill).

What we require from you

  1. We are required to comply with the law on Money Laundering. This is an ongoing requirement throughout your instructions. At the outset of your matter, we will, as a minimum, require proof as to your identity in the form of an original passport or a photo driving licence and residential address in the form of an original utility bill not more than 3 months old. We may verify any information electronically and you agree that we may use personal information provided by you in order to conduct appropriate anti-fraud checks. Personal information you provide may be disclosed to a credit reference agency, which may keep a record of that information.
  2. We may require you to let us have money a) on account of our profit costs (money on account of profit costs can be applied against any bill issued but will usually be retained and offset against your final bill) and b) for expenses that we incur or might incur on your behalf e.g., court fees, medical reports, expert’s fees, barrister’s fees. We have no obligation to incur or make such payments on your behalf unless you have provided us with cleared funds for that purpose.
  3. Save as varied, if at all, by paragraphs 31 and 31.3 below, we require you to pay your bills promptly as our terms require settlement on delivery of our bill. Please note our right to charge interest (paragraph 39 below), and our right to cease acting for you (paragraph 41) even if you have an arrangement with another person for payment. We will not accept any payment to us in cash over £150, we will only accept payments to us made by cheque to CAM Legal Services Limited, credit/debit card, telegraphic transfer or other bank transfer providing such payments are drawn on or made via a London clearing bank unless otherwise agreed by us beforehand.
  4. We require you to keep us informed and respond to our enquiries as quickly and accurately as possible and notify us of any change in your circumstances or case.
  5. We require you to safeguard any documents that are likely to be required for discovery.
  6. In contentious matters we will in addition:
    1. Consider with you whether the likely outcome of your matter will justify the expense or risk involved including, if relevant, the risk of having to pay an opponent’s costs.
    2. Limit the extent of disclosure of documents to reflect the proportionality of the duty to the size and the value of the claim.
    3. Two weeks before any court hearing require you to have: (a) paid all outstanding bills; (b) placed us in cleared funds in the sum requested to reflect our profit costs to be incurred; (c) placed us in cleared funds for any expenses to be incurred including barrister’s fees.

Our entitlement

  1. By instructing us you have authorised us to take the steps we consider appropriate and/or necessary on your behalf including incurring reasonable expenses on your behalf.
  2. We reserve the right to make such enquiries of and to conduct such credit worthiness checks against you as we deem appropriate and/or necessary for our compliance obligations and generally.
  3. We agree to treat you fairly and reasonable and recognise that some of you may be vulnerable.
  4. We will advise you of any changes in the law.
  5. We will advise you of any circumstances and risks of which we are aware or consider to be reasonably foreseeable that could affect the outcome of your matter.
  6. We may have to give extra advice or undertake further work on your behalf. If we do we then have the right to request additional payment from you which may be more than any guide given. The same applies if work proves more complex or time consuming than might at first have been reasonably anticipated by us.
  7. We reserve the right to charge interest 30 days after the date of delivery of the bill at 8% APR on outstanding balances. If a bill remains unpaid (in whole or part) we will send out reminders and then proceedings are issued to recover the outstanding monies owed.
  8. We reserve the right to retain any interest on costs which may accrue and be paid by a third party.
  9. In the event of any bill payment or request for payment on account not being made we reserve the right upon the giving of reasonable notice to cease or suspend further work for you on all matters in respect of which you have instructed us. It is accepted an agreed that such non- payment constitutes good and reasonable grounds for such cessation and/or suspension of work. We will have no liability to you or any 3rd party for any resulting delay or losses caused by such delay as a result of the cessation or suspension of work.
  10. You agree that we may communicate with you through the medium of email (if you have access to email) in either rich text or HTML encrypted technology, including the ability to receive electronic bills.
  11. Subject to our right to retain your papers if any bill has not been paid, we will (a) dispose of your papers within 14 days of our final bill to you if you do not ask for them; (b) destroy our file after 6 years from the date of closing it. We may terminate this agreement and stop acting for you if you do not keep to your responsibilities as set out above, by giving reasonable written notice including if we consider to continue acting on your behalf would amount to a conflict of interest as defined by the SRA and in such circumstances reserve the right to invoice and be paid for all work undertaken up to the date of such termination.
  12. We reserve the right to disclose to anybody or person, without obtaining consent, any confidential matter relating to a client or a client’s circumstances if required to do so by matter of law. This includes reports to the Serious Organised Crime Agency if we suspect that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering or terrorist financing. Our duty of client confidentiality is subject to the following statutory exception regarding money laundering and terrorist financing “…. in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure.” If this happens, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it (see paragraphs 53, 54 and 55).
  13. Unless we hear from you to the contrary we are entitled to refer to you and the work we do for you in all of our marketing initiatives and/or materials.
  14. We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, carrying out an analysis to help us manage our practice, for statutory returns and legal and regulatory compliance. Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties, such as expert witnesses and other professional advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to personal data we hold about you. We may, from time to time, send you information which we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information, please notify us in writing.

Liability

  1. We have our primary professional indemnity insurance for all legal work undertaken in England and Wales with W R Berkley Insurance (Europe) Limited who can be contacted at 2nd Floor, 40 Lime Street, London, EC3M 7AW telephone 020 7280 9000. Whatever the circumstances, our liability will not exceed £3,000,000 (excl. VAT and Disbursements). Unless agreed by us in writing.
  2. Nothing in these terms and conditions of business exempts us from liability arising from our negligence resulting in death or personal injury or other liability that cannot be limited or excluded as a matter of law.

Interest

  1. CAM Legal Services Limited will hold money on behalf of a client relating to instructions received in a general client account. We will account to the client for interest or a sum in lieu thereof (Interest) on their money held (providing we are not owed money) where it is fair and reasonable to do so in all the circumstances.
  2. Client money is held in our general client instant access account to enable funds to be accessed at all times. Clients are therefore unlikely to receive as much Interest as might have been obtained if they held and invested the money themselves. The rate of Interest we will pay will vary from time to time. Clients are invited to contact CAM Legal Services Limited if they require further details or if they wish to opt out of the policy.
  3. Interest will be paid on a client’s cleared funds in excess of £1,000 providing that no Interest will be payable if the amount calculated on the monies held is £65 or less.
  4. Interest will be paid on a client’s cleared funds in excess of £1,000 providing that no Interest will be payable if the amount calculated on the monies held is £65 or less.
  5. If we receive or hold money for you or on your behalf, we will deposit that money in a client account at a bank which is permitted by the Financial Services Authority to accept such deposits. In particular, we shall not be responsible for any losses whatsoever suffered, sustained or incurred by you or any third party by reason of any failure or collapse of any bank at which client monies are deposited.

Money laundering

  1. Where we consider it necessary to make any notification of any kind to any outside organisation, we cannot be held responsible for any delays or losses caused by such notification.
  2. We shall not be responsible for any losses whatsoever suffered, sustained or incurred by you or any third party by reason of our compliance with obligations imposed on us by:
    1. Money Laundering Regulations 2007 or any amendment thereto and/or
    2. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 or any amendment thereto and/or
    3. Other legislation relating to or connected with the Prevention of Crime and/or
    4. The instructions of any Law Enforcement Agencies
  3. We shall not be liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss including loss of profit and business.
  4. Where you require us to send documents on disk or by electronic mail we do not accept any liability whatsoever for damage caused by computer viruses or as a result of unauthorised access to the documents by third parties.
  5. If any message is left on voicemail, we do not accept any responsibility to you to act on it unless you have confirmed it in writing to us or you have received confirmation of its receipt from or on behalf of its intended recipient.
  6. No individual working on or in connection with the work you instruct us to do assumes personal responsibility or owes a duty of care in their personal capacity in relation to the work we do for you. All responsibility is solely that of CAM Legal Services Limited and any duty of care arising in relation to such work is owed solely by CAM Legal Services Limited.
  7. No term of this Agreement is intended for the benefit of any third party, and you agree that no term of this Agreement is to be enforceable by a third party either under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.
  8. CAM Legal Services Limited is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However, we are included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we can carry on insurance distribution activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the SRA. The register can be accessed via the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register.
    1. If you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the FCA. However, as we are regulated by the SRA, we may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you.
    2. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The SRA is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society, and the Legal Complaints Service is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.
  9. These terms and conditions of business shall be construed in accordance with the Laws of England and Wales.

Notice of the right to cancel

  1. In the event that this contract is entered into either in your home or place of work the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 may apply and you may be entitled to 14 days in which to cancel the contract (“Cancellation Period”). During the Cancellation Period we will not undertake any work on your behalf.
  2. If you consider your instruction to be urgent and you require us to undertake work during the Cancellation Period, you should then sign and return these terms of conditions and we will be entitled to charge for such work even if you subsequently cancel the contract.

Other notices

  1. Should you wish to address any formal notice to CAM Legal Services Limited, then please write to us at Suite U, Diss Business Hub, Diss Business Park, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4GT, marked for the attention of The Directors.
  2. If we need to give you notice then this will take effect after being despatched by us by post to the address stated in the CCA, or any address of which we are aware, or by electronic mail.
  3. There may be circumstances where you may have a right to object to your bill by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the Court for an assessment of the bill under Part lll of the Solicitors Act 1974.
  4. You can ask us to cease acting for you at any time, if you do you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated on the hourly basis as set out in the client care agreement and these terms and conditions of business.

Our complaints procedure

  1. At CAM Legal Services Limited we are committed to providing you with the very best legal service but we recognise that, on occasion, things may go wrong and are here to assure you that we take your complaint very seriously and have a set out the enclosed procedure which we follow when considering your complaint.
  2. We consider a complaint as a significant oral or written expression of dissatisfaction about the manner in which the claim is being dealt with.
  3. You may complain to the fee earner in charge of your matter or direct to the complaints handling manager, Darren Draper.

What will happen next?

  1. If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you, then please inform us immediately so that we can do our best to resolve the problem for you. We will then take steps to investigate your complaint. This will involve our complaints handling manager reviewing your file and speaking to any members of staff involved with your matter or mentioned in your complaint.
  2. You will be contacted, by your stated preferred method (such as phone, e-mail or letter) within 7 days with details of the results of the investigation and a suggested remedy;
  3. You can either respond by your preferred method or call our office and arrange a convenient appointment time when our complaints handling manager can telephone you to discuss your complaint and try and reach a resolution.
  4. Within seven days of the discussion, Darren Draper will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions he has agreed with you.
  5. If you did not request a discussion but you responded to the investigation letter then Darren Draper will send you a response within 7 days of receiving your response.
  6. If we are unable to resolve your complaint then you can have the complaint independently looked at by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within six years of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within three years of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you. However, please note that from 1 April 2023 these time limits are changing. From the 1 April the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern. The requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you remains the same.
  7. You may contact the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ or on telephone number 0300 555 0333 or enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. Their website is https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Before you make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, it is a requirement that you have raised the complaint with us first and we have had 8 weeks to deal with your complaint. If you are not satisfied with our reply after the 8 weeks has expired you can complain to the Legal Ombudsman.
  8. If we have to change any of the above timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.