Terms and Conditions

1. Application of Terms

Subject to any variations specifically agreed in writing when accepting your instructions, these terms shall apply to all advice given and work undertaken by the directors and staff of Rove Legal Limited to or for each of our clients (‘you’).

In these terms of business ‘we’ or ‘our’ or ‘us’ or ‘the firm’ refers to Rove Legal Limited (‘the company’), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 12216589 having its registered office at Holborn Gate, 330 High Holborn, London, WC2A 1HL. Our VAT registration number is GB 390 6896 48. Any business conducted with us is solely with the company and the company has sole legal liability for the work done for you and for any act or omission in the course of that work. No director, principal, employee, associate, or consultant of the company will have any personal liability for work undertaken for you. If a director, principal, employee, associate, or consultant signs in his or her own name any letter or other document in the course of carrying out that work, it does not mean he or she is assuming any personal legal liability for that letter or document. A list of the directors of the company is available at the above address.

2. Office Hours

Our offices are open between the hours of 09:30am and 6:00pm from Monday to Friday, except public and bank holidays and for certain days around the Christmas and New Year period. Urgent messages outside these hours may be left by email.

3. Our Service to You

We will exercise due skill, care and diligence in carrying out legal work in accordance with your instructions. In performing our services, we shall use reasonable care to:

Represent your interests, and keep your business confidential;
Explain to you the legal work which may be required and the prospects of a successful outcome;
Explain any likely degree of financial risk in relation to legal costs which you will be taking on;
Inform you regularly of progress or, if there is none, let you know when you are likely to hear from us;
Deal promptly with your queries.

Our normal opening hours are from 9.30am to 6.00pm but individual fee-earners may advise you directly of their availability and how to contact them outside these hours.

4. Responsibilities

4.1. Our responsibilities to you as our client

During the course of our retainer:

We will review your matter regularly.
We will advise you of any changes in the law relevant to your matter.
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.

4.2. Your responsibilities as a client

Whilst acting for you, you are responsible for:

Providing us with clear, timely, and accurate instructions;
Providing all documentation required in a timely manner;
Safeguarding any documents which are likely to be required for disclosure;
Paying our fees and expenses in accordance with these terms and the client care letter;
Providing us with all necessary information to enable us to fulfil our legal obligations under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

5. Professional Indemnity Insurance

5.1. Details of our Professional Indemnity Insurance providers

Our Professional Indemnity Insurance is provided by Travelers Insurance Company Limited. Our policy number is UC SOL 5645171 and covers our activities in England & Wales.

5.2. Limitation of Liability

Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall be limited to £3 million, unless we expressly state a higher amount in the client care letter accompanying these terms of business.

We can 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.

Please ask if you would like us to explain any of the terms above.

5.3. Information which may be Disclosed in the Event of a Claim

If the firm has to make a notification under the terms of our professional indemnity policy, information about you and your client matter file may be seen by our insurers. Your client matter file may, therefore, be seen by an assessor or another person unconnected with the firm in the future, unless you notify us that you do not agree to such disclosure being made.

6. Our Fee Structure

Unless you simply wish to have an initial one-off consultation, you will be notified in our client care letter at the commencement of each matter that we undertake on your behalf, the basis upon which we will charge you. There are three bases of charge which may be referred to in our client care letter.

6.1. Agreed fee

This is a fee that cannot be varied either upwards or downwards and is not repayable or refundable in the event that you terminate the agreement.

6.2. Fixed fee

This will be a stated fixed amount which is payable at agreed stages. Where instructions have been withdrawn prior to the matter concluding, we will charge our fee on a standard time spent basis.

6.3. Subscription basis

This will be a fixed stated monthly amount which is payable at the end of every month.

6.4. Standard basis

Our charge will be calculated by reference to all time spent on the matter. This will include meeting you and others where appropriate, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence, making and receiving telephone calls, research, internal consultations, and travelling. Such time is recorded and charged in six-minute units at the hourly rates applicable to the relevant individual. Where less than six minutes is taken on a matter, a full unit of six minutes will be charged. You will be notified by letter of the rates chargeable by fee-earners dealing with your matter. These rates are exclusive of VAT at 20%. Charging rates will be reviewed from time to time and you will be notified of any changes as soon as reasonably possible. Jay Moghal’s current hourly rates are £350 per hour plus VAT.

We do not undertake work which is publicly funded. Should it appear to us that any work that you may instruct us to undertake is eligible for public funding, we will advise you of this and the implications thereof.

If you have legal expenses insurance, it is your responsibility to advise us of this fact. Further, you should check whether your household insurance or any other policy provides cover for our fees and notify us if applicable. You may also have cover under a scheme relating to your employment. In all such instances where you advise us that you have cover from a third party, we shall consider the terms of the cover and advise you whether we are prepared to continue our retainer on the basis of third-party cover. You may also have cover in respect of your liability to another party’s costs and you should check any insurance policy you may have for this should you be involved in a contentious matter. Should it be appropriate for you to take out such cover, you will be specifically advised of this.

You are entitled to set an upper limit on the firm’s costs, which may be reached without further authority. Fees in excess of that limit may only be incurred with your specific further authority.

On all matters that are being charged on the standard basis, we will, at least every 6 months, update you as to the current costs position.

7. Fee Estimates

Unless you are being charged on a fixed fee, agreed fee, or subscription basis, any indication of fees is an estimate only (whether stated to be an estimate or quotation). Whilst we endeavour to estimate fees as accurately as possible, the actual fees that are incurred are subject to factors outside our control and you should therefore treat any estimate as a guide only. We cannot guarantee that the final charge will not exceed the estimate.

8. Engagement Terms

We will send you a client care letter at the outset of the retainer. This client care letter will specify the scope of work we will undertake on your behalf and the basis of our charges in addition to any other information relevant to your individual matter. The client care letter will specifically incorporate these Terms of Business and you will be asked to sign and return a copy of the engagement terms to confirm your agreement to the terms of our retainer. In the event of you instructing us to take any action or give any advice having received our written engagement terms but not having signed and returned the copy, you will be deemed by instructing us to have accepted our engagement terms and will be bound by them.

9. Lien

Without prejudice to any other rights or remedies we may have, we shall have a general and particular lien (a right to retain documents or other items) over any of your property coming into our possession or under our control as security for all amounts and liabilities of whatever sort due or becoming due to us from you. The lien may be enforced by sale by auction or private treaty of all or any part of your property in our possession. If for any reason we permit you or any other person to have possession or use of any property subject to the above lien, it shall be held at all time subject to that lien and shall be returned to us immediately upon request.

10. Interest on money we hold on your behalf

We will hold any money we receive on your behalf in our general client account. In accordance with the SRA Accounts Rules 2019, we will account to you at the conclusion of your matter for interest due on cleared funds held within our general client bank account at the rate prevailing on the Banks Business Bank Account.

No interest is payable if the amount due to you is less than £20.

11. Client Bank Account – Protection of Client Money

Unless otherwise notified, any client money held on your behalf will be held with Lloyds Bank in our general client bank account.

In the event of the failure or a financial institution such as Lloyds Bank, Law Society advice indicates that it is unlikely that the company will be held liable for any losses resulting from the failure of a financial institution. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protects the first £85,000 deposited, with an authorised deposit-taking institution, on behalf of a client. However, it should be noted that the FSCS limit applies to you as a client overall, and if you hold other monies in a personal capacity with Lloyds Bank plc, the limit remains £85,000 in total.

In certain situations, the FSCS will provide cover for temporary high balances of up to £1 million. This cover is related to specific life events including sale of your main residence, personal injury compensation, inheritance and in relation to divorce proceedings but is limited to natural persons only.

In order to pursue a claim against the FSCS, information about you and your client matter may need to be seen by an assessor or another person unconnected with the firm in the future, unless you notify us that you do not agree to such disclosure being made.

12. Preventing Banking Fraud

Solicitors firms holding client money and their clients are increasingly a target for scammers. We are under an obligation to monitor the risks to money and assets entrusted to us by clients and take steps to address issues identified. As part of this process, we ensure that everyone in the firm keeps their knowledge of the techniques used by criminals and the firm’s risk management policy up to date, to prevent criminals accessing client account details. However, clients also need to be aware of the risks and are responsible for ensuring that your own data and bank account details are kept secure.

You should be aware of the dangers of social engineering scams and IT manipulation to steal data.

Please be aware that we do not notify changes to important business information, such as our client bank account details, by email.

13. E-mail Communication

We are constantly reviewing and upgrading our e-mail technology to ensure that we can communicate with you as effectively as possible by e-mail with the minimum risk of virus infection. However, e-mail carries some inherent risks, namely potential lack of security and lack of authenticity. Further, where sender and recipient use different internet service providers, there can be no guarantee of prompt transmission and incompatibility may also create delivery problems. Notwithstanding these potential problems, the vast majority of e-mail communication is secure and prompt, but we are nevertheless required to advise you of these potential risks.

If you request us to communicate by e-mail or send us an e-mail, you will be deemed to have accepted the inherent risks in e-mail communication and we shall have no liability for any losses arising from such risks.

14. Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Money Laundering Regulations 2017

In order to comply with the law on anti-money laundering, we will need to obtain evidence of your identity. We are entitled to refuse to act for you if you fail to supply appropriate proof of identification, verification and source of funds for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent.

By virtue of this legislation and regulations, we are required to abide by the following procedures:

To verify your identity on the basis of documents, data or information from an independent source;
To identify any person who is classified by the regulations as a ‘beneficial owner’;
To obtain information on the proposed and intended nature of the retainer and business relationship and so far as it is reasonable satisfy ourselves that the funds which relate to the matter we are instructed upon are legitimate;
To report to the relevant authority if we have any knowledge or suspicion that an offence under the above legislation or regulations may be or has been committed.

We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, solicitors may be required by statute to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency where they know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering or terrorist financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why.

We cannot accept cash receipts in excess of £500 for any purpose.

15. Investment Advice

We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice. However, we may provide certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. This is because we are members of the Law Society of England and Wales. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services Markets Act 2023. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman handles complaints independently by virtue of the Legal Services Act 2007. If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of those bodies.

16. Use of our advice

You agree not to make our work available to third parties without our written permission.

17. Confidentiality

We will at all times keep your business confidential, subject to:

Any disclosure obligations which may be imposed on us by law, such as the money laundering legislation;
Regulatory requirements such as audit provisions under the SRA Accounts Rules;
Quality audits undertaken by independent inspectors; and
Documents and information relevant to any claim or potential claim will be supplied to our professional indemnity insurers in the event of our having to inform our insurers of any notifiable circumstances under the terms of our policy.

By accepting these terms, you consent to disclose in the above circumstances on the basis that the third parties will be required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

In common with many law firms, we sometimes engage other companies or people to provide certain support functions and to provide secretarial, paralegal, clerical or administrative services on our files. We may also refer our files to counsel, an expert or a costs draftsman for specialist advice. We will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If you do not want your file to be outsourced, please tell us as soon as possible.

You agree to waive confidentiality in respect of your name, address and details of unpaid invoices in so far as such waiver of confidentiality is necessary to enable the firm to charge its book debts or enter into any factoring agreements or instruct other solicitors to collect any debt.

18. Termination

Unless stated otherwise in the Client Care Letter, you may terminate your instructions by writing to us at any time. The firm is entitled to determine its retainer for good reason, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, we shall be entitled to terminate our retainer if you instruct us to take any course of action which we advise is inappropriate, you decline to accept our advice, we consider that the potential outcome does not justify the expense being incurred or that it is not in your best interests for us to continue to act, or you are in breach of your responsibilities under clause 4.2 above or you make unwarranted complaints about the firm or the level of service or it is evident to us that the necessary mutual trust and confidence no longer subsists.

Further, we may terminate the retainer in the event of any of our accounts being outstanding for more than 30 days. We will give you such notice as is reasonable in the circumstances to determine the retainer, but such notice shall be no longer than 28 days. We shall have no liability to undertake any work or actions on your behalf once the period of notice has terminated. We will release papers relating to your matter once all fees for which you have become liable have been paid by means of cleared funds.

19. Unpaid Costs

If a bill is not paid within 30 days of the bill date, we reserve the right to charge interest on the total amount payable at the lower of the rate payable for the time being on judgment debts at the rate of 4% from time to time of Lloyds Bank Plc from the bill date until payment in full is made.

We may recover amounts due to us from your money we hold, money received in litigation or otherwise (and whether money is held for the purposes of this matter to which the invoice related on another matter). We will also be entitled to keep all your papers, documents and any other items we hold while there is still money owing to us for our costs and expenses on any matter.

20. Tax advice and Foreign Law Excluded

Please note that this firm will not be providing you with advice in relation to any financial or tax matters. Similarly, we are only able to advise on English Law, therefore if any foreign law may apply to this matter, we are unable to give advice in relation to such matters and you will need to take advice from a foreign qualified lawyer.

21. Storage of papers and Retention of Data

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep your papers whilst there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses. Except those papers that you request to be returned to you, we will retain papers arising from our work for you in storage for six years from the date of the final bill, after which time they may be destroyed by us without reference to you. You should make special arrangements with us to ensure the permanent retention of papers such as deeds and wills. We may make a charge for the production or delivery of any deeds or other papers not connected to continuing instructions and for dealing with any correspondence in respect of papers held in storage.

We will retain all electronic data for at least 6 years after which we will take all reasonable steps to destroy such data unless we are satisfied that there is good reason for retaining it or you instruct us to do so. You may instruct us to retain data at any time. This provision may change without reference to you if there are changes to the relevant legislative or regulatory requirement.

22. Privacy & Cookie Policy – Website

Please see our Privacy and Cookie policy posted on our website.

23. Service Quality/Complaints

If any difficulty or unhappiness should arise relating to any aspect of the matter or about our bill you should in the first instance raise this with the person who is stated to have responsibility for the matter in our client care letter. If that person fails to resolve matters in a satisfactory manner, then you should write to us and address your comments to the Managing Partner, Jay Moghal (email jay@rovelegal.com) who thereafter will respond to your concerns.

A copy of our formal complaints procedure will be made available to you on request. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our complaints procedure, you may refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman at PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. Where you have been provided with full information about your right to take a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, you must make your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months from the end of our complaints process. We will inform you when our internal complaints process has been concluded.

Most of the time, complaints about solicitors are about poor service, and therefore should be sent to the Legal Ombudsman. If the Legal Ombudsman thinks your case involves a breach of our Principles, they will refer your case to the SRA. Likewise, if you report a solicitor for poor service, the SRA will refer you to the Legal Ombudsman.

The SRA does not have the power to award compensation for poor service, or to reduce or refund your legal fees. However, you should report the matter directly to the SRA if you think the firm or anyone regulated by the SRA has breached an SRA Principle.

If you consider that we have breached a regulatory obligation, you may refer the matter directly to the SRA here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor. The postal address is Solicitors Regulation Authority, The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B11RN. You may also telephone them on 0370 606 2555 or email them at report@sra.org.uk.

24. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013

Under the above regulations, for some instructions, you may have the right to withdraw if our contract to provide you with legal services is concluded prior to meeting you. This right to cancel without charge will subsist for 14 days after the contract was concluded. Notice of cancellation should be sent by email or fax to the person named in our client care letter as being the person responsible for the matter.

25. Credit References

Before entering into a formal engagement with you we may obtain a report on your credit status from a regulated credit agency and in those circumstances, we will obtain your consent prior to requesting the report. Once we have entered into an engagement with you, we may seek such a report if we deem it necessary for our business interests. By agreeing to our terms of engagement you consent to us obtaining a report on your credit status should we require to do so.

26. Requests from Third Parties

If we receive requests for information from third parties duly authorised by you (such as accountants requesting information to complete an audit) we will charge on a time basis (subject to minimum charge below) for researching the information and supplying such information as we are able to provide and there will be a minimum charge of £100 exclusive of VAT at 20%.

27. Novation

We may transfer all rights and obligations under any contract with you to any successor to the firm in the context of its business. In the event that such a successor, whether it be a partnership, limited liability partnership, or body corporate, takes on the business of Rove Legal Limited. By continuing to instruct us having been notified of these Terms of Business you agree to the future novation of any contract you have with us in favour of the successor entity.

28. Third Party Rights

No person other than a contracting party may enforce any provisions of our engagement by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

The firm and you or other contracting party may rescind or vary the engagement terms without reference to any third party.

29. Severance of Terms

If all or any part of any individual provision of the retainer between us and you is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any respect then the remainder of the terms of the retainer will remain valid and enforceable.

30. Entire Agreement

These terms and our client care letter(s) form the entire agreement between us and you as to the terms of our appointment by you, to the exclusion of all other correspondence and discussion.

31. Governing Law

This agreement is governed by English Law and by accepting these terms you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.