OUR AIM

• We aim to offer our clients quality legal advice with a personal service at a fair cost. As a start, we hope it is helpful to you to set out in this statement the basis on which we will provide our professional services.

OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

We will:-

• 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.
• MAKE SURE that you understand the likely degree of financial risk which you will be taking on.
• KEEP YOU regularly informed of progress or, if there is none, when you are next likely to hear from us.
• TRY to avoid using technical legal language when writing to you - tell us when we fail in this aim!
• DEAL with your queries promptly; for example, we will always try to return your telephone calls on the same day.

OUR HOURS OF BUSINESS

• The normal hours of opening at our offices are between 8.00am and 6.00pm on weekdays. Messages can be left on the answerphone outside those hours and appointments can be arranged at other times when this is essential.

PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR WORK

• The responsible for dealing with your work will be the Fee Earner. The assistant/secretary who may be able to deal with your queries and who will be pleased to take any message for you is . We will try to avoid changing the people who handle your work but if this cannot be avoided, we will tell you promptly of any change and why it may be necessary.

• The partner of this firm with final responsibility for work done in this department is         .

CHARGES AND EXPENSES

• Our charges will be calculated mainly by reference to the time actually spent by the solicitors and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf. This will include meetings with you and perhaps others, reading and working on papers, correspondence, preparation of any detailed costs calculations, and time spent travelling away from the office when this is necessary.

• Routine letters are charged as 6 minute units of time and we charge for the time spent on making and taking telephone calls in 6 minute units and considering incoming letters and emails at units of 3 minutes per page.

• The current hourly rates are as attached. We will add VAT to these at the rate that applies when the work is done. At present, VAT is 17.5%.

• These hourly rates have to be reviewed periodically to reflect increases in overhead costs and inflation. Normally the rates are reviewed with effect from 1 January each year. If a review is carried out before this matter has been concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes effect.

• In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors including any need to carry out work outside our normal office hours, the complexity of the issues, the speed at which action has to be taken, any particularly specialist expertise and which the case may demand. In particular, in property transactions, in the administration of states and in matters involving a substantial financial value or benefit to a client, a charge reflecting, for example, the price of the property, the size of the estate, or the value of the financial benefit may be considered. The value element reflects the importance of the transaction and the consequent responsibility falling on the firm. Where a charge reflecting any value element is to be added we will explain this to you. In Probate matters the Law Society recommends that a fair way to measure the value of the matter is to add 1.5% of value of gross estate less residence and 0.75% of value of the residence where we are Executors and 1% and 0.5% respectively for the items where we are not.

• Solicitors have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from Land or Probate Registry fees, Court fees, experts' fees, and so on. We have no obligation to make such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain expenses. We refer to such payments generally as 'disbursements'. Photocopying of more than 50 pages per matter may be charged at a rate of 10p per sheet plus VAT. If we are travelling on your behalf, where appropriate, we will get taxis where this saves time and thus proves a saving to you

• If, for any reason, this matter does not proceed to completion, or if another firm completes the work, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred at the applicable hourly rate.

PROPERTY PURCHASES

• In a purchase we expect to receive instructions to also act for your lender. We will have to advise them of any matter relevant to their decision whether to finance the purchase. If you tell us things you do not wish the lender to know we may have to stop acting for the lender and possibly also for you.

LITIGATION

• If this is a litigation matter then please see the separate note on funding and costs.

PROBATE

• If this is an estate matter there are prescribed charges in addition to the hourly rate as explained above

PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS

• Property transactions. We will normally send you our bill following the exchange of contracts and payment is required on a purchase prior to completion; and at completion on a sale. If sufficient funds are available on completion, and we have sent you a bill, we will deduct our charges and expenses from the funds.

• Administration of estates. We will normally submit an interim bill at regular stages during the administration, starting with the obtaining of a Grant. The final account will be prepared when the Estate Accounts are ready for approval.

• Other cases or transactions. It is normal practice to ask clients to pay sums of money from time to time on account of the charges and expenses which are expected in the following weeks or months. We find that this helps clients in budgeting for costs as well as keeping them informed of the legal expenses which are being incurred. If such requests are not met with prompt payment, delay in the progress of a case may result. In the unlikely event of any bill or request for payment not being met, this firm must reserve the right to stop acting for you further.

• Payment is due to us within 14 days of our sending you a bill. Interest will be charged on a daily basis at 4% over Royal Bank of Scotland Plc's base rate from time to time from the date of the bill in cases where payment is not made within 14 days of delivery by us of the bill. Cash cannot be accepted in payment but we do accept payment by credit card.

OTHER PARTIES' CHARGES AND EXPENSES

• In some cases and transactions a client may be entitled to payment of costs by some other person. It is important that you understand that in such circumstances, the other person may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses which you incur with us. You have to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any amounts which can be recovered will be a contribution towards them. If the other party is in receipt of legal aid no costs are likely to be recovered.

• If you are successful and a court orders another party to pay some or all of your charges and expenses, interest can be claimed on them from the other party from the date of the court order. We will account to you for such interest to the extent that you have paid our charges or expenses on account, but we are entitled to the rest of that interest.

• You will also be responsible for paying our charges and expenses of seeking to recover any costs that the court orders the other party to pay to you.

• A client who is unsuccessful in a court case may be ordered to pay the other party's legal charges and expenses. That money would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses. Arrangements can be made to take out insurance to cover liability for such legal expenses. Please discuss this with us if you are interested in this possibility.

INTEREST PAYMENT

• Any money received on your behalf will be held in our Client Account. Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors' Accounts Rules 1998, interest will be calculated and paid to you at the rate from time to time payable on Royal Bank of Scotland Plc's Designated Client Accounts. The period for which interest will be paid will normally run from the date(s) on which funds are received by us until the date(s) of issue of any cheque(s) from our Client Account.

• Where a client obtains borrowing from a lender in a property transaction, we will ask the lender to arrange that the loan cheque is received by us a minimum of 4 working days prior to the completion date. If the money can be telegraphed, we will request that we receive it the day before completion. This will enable us to ensure that the necessary funds are available in time for completion. Such clients need to be aware that the lender may charge interest from the date of issue of their loan cheque or the telegraphing of the payment.

STORAGE OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS

• After completing the work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. In addition, we will keep your file of papers for you in storage for not less than 1 year. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable or to make a charge for storage if we ask you to collect your papers and you fail to do so. We will not of course destroy any documents such as Wills, Deeds, and other securities, which you ask us to hold in safe custody. No charge will be made to you for such storage unless prior notice in writing is given to you of a charge to be made from a future date which may be specified in that notice.

• If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your affairs, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However, we may make a charge based on time spent for producing stored papers or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions.

TERMINATION

• You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses. If at any stage you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf, you must tell us this clearly in writing. If we decide to stop acting for you, for example if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with the request for a payment on account, we will tell you the reason and give you notice in writing.

LIMITED COMPANIES

• When accepting instructions to act on behalf of a limited company, we may require a Director and/or controlling shareholder to sign a form of personal guarantee in respect of the charges and expenses of this firm. If such a request is refused, we will be entitled to stop acting and to require immediate payment of our charges on an hourly basis and expenses as set out earlier.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND US

• Our aim is to offer all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. Our clients and our staff are of first importance to us. We hope that you will be pleased with the work we do for you. However, should there be any aspect of our service with which you are unhappy, please raise your concern in the first place with the person responsible for your transaction or case. If you still have queries or concerns, please contact the Senior Partner Paul Sheils; he is the Client Care Partner to whom any final difficulty can be reported.

• We will aim to communicate with you by such a method as you may request. We may need to virus check discs or email. Unless you withdraw consent, we will communicate with others when appropriate by email or fax but we cannot be responsible for the security of correspondence and documents sent by email or fax..

• The Data Protection Act requires us to advise you that your particulars are held on our database. We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information which we think might be of interest to you.

THE CONSUMER PROTECTION (DISTANCE SELLING) REGULATIONS 2000

• Under the regulations, for some non-business instructions you may have the right to withdraw, without charge, within seven working days of the date on which you asked us to act for you. However in such a case if we start work with your consent within that period, you lose that right to withdraw. If you seek to withdraw instructions, you should give notice by telephone, email, fax or letter to the person named as being responsible for your work. As required by the regulations this provision informs you that the work involved is likely to take more than thirty days unless the contrary is specified in writing by the letter or memorandum enclosing these terms and conditions.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS

• Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of the then current hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to this firm.

• Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business, it may not be possible for us to start work on your behalf until one copy of them has been returned to us for us to keep on our file.

RATES ARE AVAILABLE ON APPLICATION

VAT Number:  232712101