Terms of Business for About Divorce
About Divorce offers three fixed-fee divorce options which have been developed to provide you with a low-cost quality divorce package. You can choose which option is best for you depending on your individual needs, budget and circumstances.
As About Divorce is provided by national family law experts at Irwin Mitchell LLP, you can be sure that you are receiving a quality divorce service, handled with sensitivity and professionalism by lawyers with many years of experience.
Solicitors must comply with the rules and principles of professional conduct. Irwin Mitchell LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The following link is to the website of the SRA which provides the relevant code of conduct.
www.sra.org.uk
Where the code of conduct is not available on this website, the link provides contact information for the SRA which should provide details upon request.
In addition there is certain information that we must provide you with in accordance with the requirements of the Solicitors Code of Conduct. The points relevant to this service are set out below:
Fees
The About Divorce service is based on a fixed fee for the work that we do in non contested Divorce cases that are being progressed in England and Wales is as follows:
Under Option 1 £99 (including VAT) is payable to Irwin Mitchell LLP. It is important to note that two Court fees are payable by you to the Court directly in the sum of £340 and £45, bringing the total cost to you to £484.
Under Option 1 you will receive:
• All the forms you need.
• A handy guide to divorce.
• A free initial consultation with a lawyer for up to thirty minutes.
Please note for Option 1 we will not receive any money from you other than your legal fees of £99. We will not consider any documentation from you.
Under Option 2 £299 (including VAT) is payable to Irwin Mitchell LLP. Again, two Court fees are payable by you to the Court directly in the sum of £340 and £45, bringing the total cost to you to £684.
Under Option 2, you will receive:
• All the forms you need.
• A handy guide to divorce.
• A free initial consultation with an experienced family lawyer for up to thirty minutes.
• Your lawyer will complete the forms for your non contested divorce for you.
• Email and telephone support from your lawyer.
Please note for Option 2, we will not receive any money from you other than your legal fees of £299.
Under Option 3 - £399 (including VAT) is payable to Irwin Mitchell LLP in relation to our legal fees. In addition to this amount you must pay us the Court fees of £340 and £45 respectively so that we can lodge your divorce / dissolution papers with the Court at the appropriate time. This brings the total amount payable to Irwin Mitchell LLP to £784.
Under Option 3:
• Your lawyer will deal with the whole non contested process for you including filling in the forms and sending them to the court, dealing with correspondence with the court.
Please note for Option 3, we will not receive any money from you other than your legal fees of £399 plus your Court fees of £340 and £45 respectively so that we can lodge your divorce / dissolution papers with the Court at the appropriate time.
Under each About Divorce option the fee is payable in one single payment prior to us starting work on your behalf and an invoice will be sent to you upon receipt of payment of your fees. In some situations we may not be able to act for you. This may be because of professional conduct reasons, for example there is a risk of a conflict of interest. If this happens we will advise you promptly and provide you with a full refund of the fees that you have paid.
If your case becomes more complex and you require extra support outside of the scope of the fixed fee services we will charge an hourly rate set depending upon the level of experience of the person dealing with your case. In this instance, which will include when the divorce becomes contentious, when your spouse does not respond to your application for a divorce or if there are additional difficulties with children and/or finances we would discuss your options, hourly rates and the likely costs involved with you prior to undertaking any additional work.
If we are carrying out extra work which is subject to an hourly rate, a revised Terms of Business will be sent to you and we will normally request a payment on account before work starts. We will not carry out any additional work without your prior agreement.
The Family Law department at Irwin Mitchell LLP does not offer public funding (legal aid). If you believe that you may be eligible for public funding (legal aid) you may check your eligibility on the Legal Services Commission website and you may also wish to consider instructing a Solicitor who can advise you of your eligibility and apply for public funding (legal aid) on your behalf. Obviously, if you do require public funding (legal aid) or would like to explore this funding option further we will not be able to represent you and you will need to appoint alternative solicitors before you proceed to purchase an About Divorce product.
Contact with us
At About Divorce we understand and respect the need for discretion which is why you can contact us in a number of ways or request us to call you back at a time that is convenient to you. We aim to be pro-active, approachable and responsive.
Who is dealing with the case?
On your initial contact with us you will speak to one of our experienced family lawyers.
If you select Option 1 as soon as your payment has been processed we will send you a divorce pack for you to manage your own divorce. With the exception of an initial thirty minute consultation this option does not include additional support from our family lawyers.
For Options 2 & 3 as soon as your payment has been processed you will be contacted by one of our experienced family lawyers either by email or telephone. Peter Morris, a Family law partner, is ultimately responsible for all work done.
If your lawyer is not available at any time you will be able to leave a message by email at hello@aboutdivorce.co.uk or telephone on 0113 2206238 and we will contact you in accordance with our commitment above.
Complaints
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, our regulator, requires us to notify clients of our complaints procedure, a copy of which is available on request from our Client Care Manager, Maria Kesterton at Irwin Mitchell, 31 Temple Street, Birmingham, B2 5DB, or by telephone on 08701500 100. Although he will not have principal conduct of your matter, the Partner with overall responsibility for it is our Chief Executive, Personal Legal Services, Andrew Tucker. If you have a problem, you are entitled to complain and this can include a complaint about the firm's bill. You should contact the person dealing with your case in the first instance, whose contact details have been provided separately.
All solicitors must attempt to resolve problems that may arise with their services. If you have any concerns, it is important that you raise them with us as soon as possible. We value your instructions and would not wish to think that you have any reason to be unhappy with us.
If, for any reason, we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then it is open to you to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within twelve months of you realising there was a concern and within six months of your last contact with our firm.
Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
From overseas: +44 121 245 3050
Minicom: 0300 555 1777
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Irwin Mitchell maintains Professional Indemnity Insurance cover in accordance with the Solicitors' Indemnity Insurance Rules, as set out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Minimum Mandatory Cover is provided by Underwriters at Lloyds (Syndicate 1955), care of Libra Managers, New City Court, 20 St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RR. Our professional indemnity insurance covers all legal jurisdictions. This cover together with the Compensation Fund operated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority provides clients with significant protection. Details of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Compensation Fund are available on request.
Money Laundering
We are required to apply procedures to guard against money laundering and for Option 3,we will need to confirm your identity, which we are normally able to do using an electronic system. There are occasions where we may need to have items to prove your identity (such as a passport and utility bill). We will have to make detailed enquiries of you if you send to us any cash or money from an account other than your own.
We reserve the right to cease to represent you if you do not satisfactorily respond to our requests for information required to comply with our obligations.
In addition to the information that you provide, we may also obtain information about you from other individuals, partnerships, companies or other organisations (e.g. a credit reference agency) in order to verify your identity.
Financial Services Regulation
Irwin Mitchell LLP is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Financial Services Authority. We are included on the FSA’s central register and you can verify this by checking our entry at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/register/. Where in connection with our legal work we provide investment services which are integral and incidental to that work, those investment services are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In addition, we can refer you, in appropriate cases to IM Asset Management Limited which is a separate business owned by Irwin Mitchell LLP. IM Asset Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and offers a wide range of specialist investment services. Our investment management services are covered by separate terms and conditions (and not these standard terms and conditions) and a separate complaints procedure, and these will be supplied to you when appropriate.
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 Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society. On 6 October 2010, the Legal Ombudsman took over the complaints-handling function from the Legal Complaints Service, which was the independent complaints-handling body of the Law Society.
Data Protection
In order that we may provide you with legal services, we need to record and maintain information about you which we may hold in hard copy and in electronic form. We may obtain information about you from other individuals, partnerships, companies or other organisations (e.g. a credit reference agency) in order to verify your identity, for example by carrying out credit checks.
We may use all information that we hold about you, including sensitive personal information such as information relating to your health, your racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious or other beliefs, trade union membership, sexual orientation and criminal convictions, for the purposes of providing our services to you and your insurers and maintaining records about you that we must keep by law or under regulatory requirements.
We may use the information that we hold about you, other than sensitive personal data, for our internal market research purposes and to send you information from time to time on services provided by Irwin Mitchell LLP which we think may interest you. If you do not want us to send information to you in relation to Irwin Mitchell LLP's other services then please contact the person in charge of your matter and let them know.
We do not pass any information about our clients to third parties for commercial exploitation. We pass client information to third parties only where it may be necessary or beneficial in carrying out the work for which you have instructed us or where we have to disclose information to third parties because of our legal or regulatory obligations or to prevent fraud or money laundering. By way of example, documentation and information containing your personal details (such as your name, address and details of your claim) may, on occasions, have to be sent to your insurers, the person you are making a claim against, their lawyer or their insurer. This may take place before or after you decide to issue court proceedings, but any such action is taken in accordance with our standard practices and protocols. We may pass relevant information to our insurers if we are concerned that our work for you may have given rise to a possible liability to you on our part.
We share information with other entities which directly or indirectly control, are controlled by, or are under direct or indirect common control with Irwin Mitchell LLP from time to time or entities with which we are associated. For example, if you ask us for legal advice on a matter in Scotland this may be provided by the firm with which we are associated in Scotland, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP.
Any third party to whom we disclose information about you will be under an obligation to keep your information secure and not to use it for any other purpose than that for which it was disclosed. Some third parties to whom we disclose information may be situated outside the European Economic Area and you agree to our disclosing such information to such third parties where reasonably necessary.
Where you are a trustee, you agree to advise any beneficiary of the trust that their personal information will be dealt with on these terms, as if each reference to "you" or "your" in this section is a direct reference to the beneficiary. Unless you inform us otherwise, by disclosing any personal information to us about a beneficiary, we will assume that you have obtained consent to enable the use of such information on these terms.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are entitled, (on payment of a fee and subject to some exceptions), to a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like to obtain this information, please contact the data protection compliance officer in writing, stating what personal information you wish to access.
As part of our commitment to quality, Irwin Mitchell LLP is certificated to the international quality standard BS EN ISO 9001:2008. The system ensures consistency and continual improvement of our working practices so we can provide a quality service to all our clients. As part of that process we are subject to regular external audit by a third party. The auditors review our files to ensure that they are being properly administered. However, solicitors owe a duty of confidentiality to their clients and without your consent we cannot allow inspection of your files. To do so we need your consent, which you will be deemed to have given by agreeing to these terms and conditions. Please note that you may withdraw your consent at any time, and that as your solicitors we are under a continuing duty to act in your best interests and to consider whether you should be advised to withdraw your consent. The external auditors have given an undertaking of confidentiality to this firm. If you decide not to give your consent to the audit of your files for ISO purposes this will not affect the conduct of your matter or the quality of service we will provide. If you do not wish to consent to your files being audited please contact the person in charge of your matter and let them know.