STANDARD TERMS OF BUSINESS
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1. About us
Hampshire Legal Services “HLS” or “we/us” is the in-house legal practice of Hampshire County Council (“the County Council”). HLS not only provides legal services to the County Council but also to a wide range of “external” clients: primarily public and third sector organisations that are involved in the delivery of public services.
The County Council is not authorised to provide “reserved legal activities” (as defined by the Legal Services Act 2007); rather our lawyers are personally authorised to undertake this work and/or to supervise colleagues.
In most cases, our lawyers are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) and we accordingly adhere to the SRA Code of Conduct 2011 (“the SRA Code”) as it applies to in-house and/or local government solicitors. The County Council is registered with the SRA as an employer of in-house solicitors (SRA ID: 64065). Our lawyers may also be regulated by the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives or the Bar Standards Board.
HLS complies with the County Council’s equality and diversity policy. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees: this includes the provision of reasonable adjustments for disabled clients.
2. Our agreement with you
As HLS is part of the County Council, your agreement for legal services is with the County Council. The County Council makes all taxable supplies (VAT No: GB 189406822) and raise all invoices for payment.
Our agreement with an external client is with the legal person that constitutes that client (in these Standard Terms, “you”) and/or is with that client as agent for others. The legal person with whom we contract will be treated as our client for contractual and all other purposes (e.g. legal professional privilege) unless we agree otherwise.
When we provide legal services to an external client our agreement with you (“our Legal Services Agreement”) comprises these Standard Terms as supplemented and/or varied by any:
· “General Retainer Letter” or “Service Level Agreement” (or “SLA”) setting out the terms on which we are generally retained to provide legal advice and support. This would cover any general advice that we provide that is not covered by a separate Matter Confirmation;
· any confirmation of your instructions in respect of a substantive case or matter (“a Matter Confirmation”) in which we set out terms that are specific to that work (e.g. a fee estimate for a particular assignment); and/or
· any other agreement between us that these Standard Terms should be varied or not apply in whole or part.
Our intention is that where practicable our Legal Services Agreement will expressly address those issues that are specific to our relationship with you, or to the particular work that you have asked us to undertake.
3. Services that we provide
The services that we provides will be as described in our Legal Services Agreement to the extent that such services are within our expertise and are of a sort that we would normally provide to our clients: for further information in this respect please see our web site.
If you ask us to provide additional or ancillary services that fall outside the scope of our Legal Services Agreement, we will not be obliged to do so, but if we do then such services will be provided on the basis that they form part of the services to be provided under the Legal Services Agreement unless we agree otherwise.
We cannot accept responsibility for any other advice that may be provided to you unless it has been expressly agreed that we and/or other specialist colleagues in the County Council will provide that advice. In particular, we do not provide advice about investment, accounting or taxation issues and you are strongly advised to take separate professional advice in this respect.
4. Conflicts of interest
Where the work that you ask us to undertake would raise a conflict of interest, we will only undertake that work (or continue to do so if the conflict emerges subsequently) where this is permitted by the SRA Code.
Normally where there is a conflict between the interests of two external clients, we will work with both clients to manage the issue. This may mean that we can continue to work for both if there is a “substantial common interest”, as defined in the SRA Code.
By contrast where one of the clients is the County Council, we would not be able to act for an external client whose interests are in conflict, given that that this would be an “own interest conflict”, as defined in the SRA Code.
5. Communications
Unless you advise us to the contrary, we will be entitled to assume that all of your employees and agents are authorised to give instructions on your behalf.
You can contact us in writing, which can be by means of a letter, fax or email. You can also contact us by phone or (by prior arrangement) in person. You will find all the relevant contact details on the HLS web site. We will be entitled to send emails to you using the addresses that you use to communicate with us, unless we agree otherwise.
When you instruct us to provide legal advice or support, your instructions will be confirmed in writing as soon as practicable. Where you are a new external client we will agree a client care letter or SLA for our general retainer. In addition in all cases there will be a separate matter confirmation for any substantive request for legal services. Whilst we would ask you to confirm your agreement to these in writing we will be entitled to assume your agreement where we have commenced work with your knowledge.
We will normally provide advice by email or by telephone, although we may also advise in person. When we advise by telephone or in person, we will keep an appropriate note of significant advice provided or issues agreed (which may be incorporated in a confirmatory email).
6. Timescales and case progression
You should respond to all requests for information and supporting documents promptly to avoid any delay in case progression and/or the provision of advice.
Provided that we have been provided with all necessary information then for routine or other non-urgent matters we aim to provide you with a substantive response to a request for advice within five working days. If this is not possible, the aim is to provide the advice as soon as possible, but in any event within 15 working days. Where it has been agreed that a matter is urgent, we will always aim to provide a substantive response as soon as reasonably practicable.
Where appropriate, we will agree a timetable, which will be kept under review, for the progression of your matter. This will include a “case plan” for complex instructions or otherwise as appropriate. If it is necessary to change any previously agreed course of action, we will contact you to discuss our recommendations.
Apart from providing formal legal advice, we aim to keep you advised about progress at appropriate intervals. In particular, we will discuss key decisions with you and will report promptly in respect of important developments, such as the outcome of court hearings or where settlement offers are received. If you advise us about additional reporting requirements, perhaps reflecting an issue of particular sensitivity, then we will take these into account where possible.
7. Responsibility and concerns
We will identify the “case lawyer” who will have day to day responsibility for dealing with your instructions, as well as his/her “supervisor” and you will be provided with contact details. These individuals should normally be your first point of contact for the work in question, but in the event that they are not available you can speak with any other member of their team.
You will also be advised in your Legal Services Agreement of the identity of your “client relationship manager” who will be a senior member of HLS with responsibility for ensuring that our overall support for you is joined-up, coordinated and delivered in a way that meets your needs. Your client relationship manager welcomes all comments and suggestions about our services and we approach all such comments in a positive way to assist with the continuous improvement of services.
Whilst we are confident that you will be delighted by the service that you receive, if you have concerns then you can discuss these with your client relationship manager. If you have a complaint that cannot be resolved by your client relationship manager then you should refer to our Complaints Procedure in the Schedule.
8. Third party support
It may be necessary or more cost effective to instruct counsel (i.e. a barrister), in particular to appear in a court or tribunal. In some cases we may also need to instruct an expert witness to provide advice on specialist issues.
Whenever any third party support is required, we will discuss the arrangements with you and the selection of any expert will where possible reflect your preferences, as well as the particular strengths, experience and cost of the proposed expert.
Where counsel or an expert is appointed, you will be responsible for prompt settlement of their fees, which will normally be included as a disbursement on our invoice.
9. Charges and disbursements
Unless we agree to the contrary, the services that we provide will be charged for by reference to the time that legal staff who charge for their time (“fee earners”) spend in dealing with your work, with time being recorded by individual fee earners in units of 6 minutes (so 10 units is equivalent to one hour).
For the period to which our invoice relates, the time recorded will be charged by reference to the hourly rates for the relevant grades of fee earner that record the time. Our charging rates are as notified to you from time to time with our appropriate standard rates applying unless other rates have been agreed with you. All rates are reviewed annually with amended rates applying for time recorded on or after 1 April in each calendar year.
We will normally invoice you in arrears on a monthly basis, but exceptionally by agreement invoices will be issued less frequently and/or on some other basis (e.g. on completion of a specific matter). We will normally only issue interim invoices where unbilled costs are more than £500. All invoices are payable within 30 days: if any amount remains unpaid after 30 days, we reserve the right to charge interest at 2% above the Bank of England’s Official Rate.
Our charges are exclusive of VAT and any disbursements or other expenses (e.g. counsel, expert, court fees and search fees) which you are responsible to pay in full.
10. Confidentiality and information
We do not make use for our own purposes, or disclose to any person (except as may be required by law or as referred to below), of information contained in any material provided by you or prepared for you which is of a confidential nature.
Files may need to be produced to external quality assessors for audit or quality checks: in particular as part of our Lexcel accreditation. Where this is the case, we ensure that the assessor is required to maintain confidentiality in relation to the files.
The County Council, and accordingly HLS, complies with the requirements of data protection legislation and accordingly we do not disclose personal data to third parties other than to employees and sub-contractors to whom such disclosure is reasonably necessary in order to provide services to you, or to the extent required by law.
The County Council, and accordingly HLS, is, and its external clients may be, subject to the freedom of information legislation. Accordingly, we both recognise that we may be under an obligation to provide information to third parties that may include matters relating to your instructions. We agree that we will assist each other to comply with freedom of information obligations and, in particular, if either party receives a request for information then the other party will respond to any request for assistance at its own cost, promptly and, in any event, within seven days.
We keep our case files (electronic and/or paper records) in respect of services provided for a period of seven years from the end of a matter, after which they will be deleted and/or destroyed. Documents which you ask to be returned, or stored in safe custody (for which there may be a charge), will not be destroyed.
11. Legal liability
We will both conduct all our affairs in a reputable manner and observe all legal requirements in our dealings with each other. Whilst solicitors employed by the County Council are not subject to anti-money laundering regulations, we reserve the right to obtain information about your identity and the source of any funds.
We will each be liable for the consequences of any breach of our obligations in respect of our Legal Services Agreement, including any injury to, or death of, any person, or loss of, or damage to, any property, except and to the extent that such consequences are a direct result of the act, omission, default or negligence of the other party, or except and to the extent that such breach is a direct result of circumstances beyond the party's control which could not reasonably have been avoided by that party.
We will each maintain such insurances as are necessary to cover our liabilities and so far as our liability to you is concerned, evidence of our current professional indemnity insurance can be provided to you on request.