Introduction

Monro Fisher Wasbrough LLP is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England with number OC340902. Our registered office is at 8 Great James Street, London WC1N 3DF.

As an LLP, the owners and managers of the firm are correctly known as "Members", but we have decided to retain the term "Partner" as this is the term which is traditionally used in solicitors' practices. Whenever we use the term "Partner" that person is a member of Monro Fisher Wasbrough LLP.

In these terms we refer to Monro Fisher Wasbrough LLP as "the Firm".

Our Client Care Commitment

There will be a Partner - your Principal - who will be responsible to you to ensure your instructions are carried out to your satisfaction from the start to the finish of the job concerned.

All of our Partners are qualified Solicitors. We also have a team of Assistants who are either Solicitors, Legal Executives, Trainees or non-qualified fee earners experienced in a particular field.

Your Principal may, where it is appropriate to do so, ask one or more Assistants to work on the day to day conduct of the matter or on particular aspects of it. The Assistants concerned and their status will be identified to you. They will be under the supervision of your Principal, who will at all times continue to be closely involved.

We will up-date you periodically on your matter, and will explain to you the work required in a clear manner. You should please let us have your own clear instructions and provide us with copies of all documents required for us to complete the matter.

If at any time you have any queries or concerns about how the Firm is acting for you, then please contact your Principal in the first instance. If you would prefer not to do this, or if he or she does not resolve the matter to your satisfaction, you may contact our Senior Partner, David Monro, or if he is your Principal then David Pow.

We pride ourselves on giving our clients the very highest level of service, but if there is anything you are not happy about we would rather you let us know straight away.

Office hours

Our normal office hours are 9.00 am to 5.30 pm, though we can often be contacted by telephone outside these hours.

Our Charges

These will be in accordance with our Scale of Charges, details of which will be given to you by your Principal. In certain cases there may be exceptional factors (such as urgency, complexity or value) which will give rise to additional charges, in which event your Principal will advise you of the basis of charging.

Please note that any reference to time spent in an estimate or invoice will include time spent in meetings, on the telephone, on research, on the drafting and consideration of documents and letters and any other time spent by your Principal or an Assistant in relation to the transaction. Time will be charged in five minute units.

Where it is possible to do so, we will give you an estimate of the total time we anticipate we will have to spend and what we anticipate the total charge will be. This is not intended to be a fixed estimate but the best information that can be given at that time. We will let you know if the estimate is likely to be exceeded because your requirements change, charging rates increase, the time spent is greater than anticipated, or for any other reason.

There may be circumstances in which it is not possible at the outset to give you an estimate of the total time to be spent or the total legal fees. Your Principal will let you know if this is the case and will provide an estimate as soon as he or she can do so. In the meantime fees will be based on the Scale of Charges identified to you and you will be given an estimate of the time and fees for each stage of the transaction until an overall estimate can be reasonably assessed.

Our clients normally prefer to avoid costs building up and find it convenient to pay these by instalments. This also assists our Firm's financial control. Therefore we normally ask for our fees to be paid at regular intervals, and when major steps have been taken. Your Principal will indicate the likely regularity of payments appropriate to the particular transaction concerned. Interim bills will be calculated on the basis of fees incurred up to the date of the invoice. We will be happy to let you know the time spent and charges accrued at any time, but will not inform you of this unless you so request.

Our invoices are payable on presentation, and if we hold funds for you, to ensure compliance with the Solicitors Accounts Rules, the bill will be paid (or partly paid up to the amount held) from those funds seven days after the invoice is sent to you.

The charge for credit will be calculated on a daily basis at the rate of one per cent per calendar month where amounts are outstanding for more than thirty days from the date the invoice is sent to you. If you have any queries about a bill you should contact your Principal straight away.

If this Firm for whatever reason does not complete the matter, you will be charged for the work we have done and expenses which have been incurred on your behalf.

We reserve the right to suspend work, including preparation for and attending a court hearing, if our charges have not been paid in accordance with these Terms. In the event of non-payment of any invoice or of a request for payment on account we reserve the right to treat our retainer as terminated and to submit a final invoice.

Sometimes it is agreed that our invoice will be paid by a third party, but you will remain liable if that third party fails to make payment.

If you are successful in court proceedings and the court orders your opponent to pay all or part of our costs, we will still require payment from you first and will reimburse you with such costs as we can recover from your opponent.

In conveyancing or other matters, if sufficient funds are held by the Firm when the bill is presented, we will usually reserve a sum equal to our charges from these funds before accounting for the balance.

VAT will be added to our fees and will be charged at the rate that applies from time to time when the work is done.

Disbursements

These are necessary expenses additional to our Firm's fees. We will try to identify these to you in advance. We may if they are modest in size incur these on your behalf and ask you to reimburse them later. Otherwise such expenses will need to be covered by you before they are paid.

Client Account Interest

Interest will be credited to you in respect of your money held by our Firm in accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors' Accounts Rules. Under the Rules very small amounts of interest are not payable. Details of the present rate of interest can be given to you by your Principal on request.

Timescale

We will give to you at the outset our estimate of the likely timescale for the matter and let you know if this changes to a significant degree.

Documents

After completion of the matter, or if our instructions are terminated at any time, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while money is owing to us.

To maintain control over the volume of papers we hold, and to avoid charging separately for storage costs, we will (on the understanding that we have your authority to do so without needing to ask you for such authority at the time) destroy all files and documents six years after sending you our final bill.

If you wish us to keep any papers for a longer period please let us know. We will not destroy documents you ask us to keep in safe custody without your express written authority at the time.

We do not normally make a charge for retrieving stored papers or deeds in response to continuing or new instructions to act for you. However, we reserve the right to make a charge based on the time we spend on reading papers, writing letters or other work necessary to comply with your instructions concerning them.

E-mail

In accordance with modern business practice we communicate extensively using electronic mail. E-mail is not a secure medium and the confidentiality of E-mail messages cannot, therefore, be guaranteed. We shall, however, assume we are authorised to use E-mail to communicate with you or with relevant third parties concerning your affairs unless you expressly advise us in writing that you do not wish us to do so.

Data Protection Act

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;
• analysis to help us manage our practice;
• statutory returns;
• 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 the personal data that we hold about you.

Audit of Files

Our accountants and others may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice which may require disclosure of your file. These parties will be required to maintain confidentiality in relation to such files.

Money Laundering Regulations

We are obliged to comply with any regulations relating to Money Laundering which shall be in force for the time being by having evidence of your identity. In exceptional circumstances we may have to disclose information to the authorities notwithstanding the usual rules relating to legal professional privilege. We may not be able to tell you when a disclosure has been made and we may have to suspend work on your matter without telling you why.

Third Party Rights

In relation to services provided by our Firm, no rights or benefits shall be conferred on any person other than you, our client.

Limitation of Liability

Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall be limited to £20 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.

We only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

We will not be liable for any services outside the scope of the work which we have agreed to perform.

Termination

Either of us may terminate our engagement in writing at any time.

In conveyancing transactions, we would normally expect to receive instructions from your lenders to act on their behalf. If so we will have to give them information you give us that might be relevant to their decision whether to finance the purchase. If you tell us things which you do not want the lenders to know and they are relevant to the lenders, we may to have stop acting for the lenders, and possibly also for you.

Applicable Law

Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms of business will be determined by the law of England and considered exclusively by the English courts.

Written: April 2009