Client care letter

Our aim Justdivorce.co.uk is a trading name of Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP. You will be a client of Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP, which is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and this client care letter relates to legal services that we will provide to you via justdivorce.co.uk. Our goal is to provide clear and effective legal advice to you at a competitive fixed price. It is important for us to explain exactly what we will do for you if you order one of our services (also referred to as 'our products'), and how we will do it. Please read the following Terms & Conditions carefully to ensure you understand them, as they form part of our contract with you. Please note that our marriage certificate translation and trouble shooter services do not directly involve contact with the court - see below for additional specific terms relating to each service.   Our charges and refund policy Our charges for carrying out the agreed work will be the agreed fixed fee set out on the justdivorce.co.uk web site (see 'What our services cost') for the service which you order, provided that your case proceeds to conclusion. These charges include VAT at the applicable rate, save where stated otherwise. These charges do not include expenses payable to others, such as court fees (often referred to as 'disbursements'), save where stated. You will be responsible for paying all such expenses relating to your matter to third parties, save where expressly stated otherwise on the justdivorce.co.uk web Site. You will pay the agreed fee to us on account of costs at the commencement of your matter, but we will not be entitled to take these monies from our client account until your matter is completed, or our agreement is otherwise terminated. If you wish, you can try to agree with your spouse that he/she will pay a contribution towards these fees.   If this agreement is terminated by you or us for any reason before your matter is completed, then our charges will be calculated by reference to the actual work carried out on your behalf as at the date of termination, at the applicable hourly charging rates of Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP ie solicitor - £220.00 per hour plus VAT, and paralegal £120.00 per hour plus VAT. In most situations this will result in no monies being repayable to you on termination. However, in no circumstances will our final charges exceed any agreed fixed fee that you pay on account, except with your prior consent in writing.   It is always possible in any court proceedings that the court may order one party to pay a contribution towards the legal costs of the other party eg if a party behaves badly during the conduct of the proceedings. This is highly unlikely in your case, since our services depend upon the cooperation of both spouses, and you will be acting as a litigant in person without incurring substantial legal fees. However, if an order for costs is made either against you or in your favour for any reason, we will explain to you the consequences of any such order.   Back to top Our hours of business Our offices at Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP are open from 9:30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday apart from Bank Holidays. Justdivorce.co.uk should be available to you online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but will only be manned by our staff during our office hours.   People responsible for your work Bryan Reed, will be in overall control of your matter. Bryan Reed is a solicitor specialising in family law matters, with over 30 years experience of such cases. He is a member of the Law Society's accredited Family Law Panel, and the Resolution group of family lawyers.   Work will be delegated to members of our staff as appropriate, including staff members who are not solicitors, but who are suitably trained and experienced to deal with your matter. All such staff will be properly supervised in accordance with the standards required by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority.   What we must do - our commitment to you    1. We will advise you with regard to every step of the court or other process relating to each service that you order, from preparation of the initial documentation right through to grant of any final order. At each stage we will explain to you exactly what you need to do, why and when you need to do it, and what the legal consequences of your actions will be.    2. We will arrange for court documents to be sent from the court direct to us rather than to you whenever possible, to save time and possible confusion.    3. We will prepare from information provided by you all necessary court documents required at each stage of the process, and will ensure that they are fully compliant with all court requirements.    4. We will prepare all letters that you need to send to the court at each stage of the process, plus all relevant enclosures. You will simply need to print them off, sign and date them, and post them to the court.    5. We will explain to you what information you need to obtain from your spouse, if any, and what action your spouse needs to take, and when.    6. We will respond promptly to all reasonable enquiries made by you relating to your matter.    7. We will advise you fully if any queries or objections are raised by the court with regard to any documentation lodged on your behalf, to enable you to respond. We will do our best to resolve any such difficulties, depending on the nature of the issue raised.    8. We will provide our service promptly and efficiently, to ensure that your matter is progressed at all times with reasonable speed and diligence.    9. As a firm of solicitors, we will comply with all professional obligations placed upon us by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or otherwise. Back to top What we won't do for you    1. We will not become your solicitors acting for you on the court record (although we will arrange for court papers to be sent direct to us). You will act for yourself in any proceedings as a Litigant in Person.    2. We will not contact your spouse or the court or any other third parties on your behalf, save where expressly stated. You will contact those parties direct yourself as and when necessary, but using court forms and letters etc prepared by us on your behalf.    3. In accordance with our professional obligations, we will give advice to you alone. We will not give any advice to your spouse, since a solicitor is not allowed to advise both parties to divorce proceedings.    4. We believe that the free information and detailed questionnaires on the justdivorce.co.uk website should assist you to decide whether or not you should order one of our services, bearing in mind your own circumstances. Therefore we will not provide any additional advice, other than that contained on the justdivorce.co.uk website, before you order one of our services. By ordering one of our services we do not provide any warranty that you qualify for any court order which you may be seeking. We will not owe you any duty of care unless and until you become a client of Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP. Back to top What you must do - your commitment to us    1. Before ordering one of our services you must ensure that your spouse will provide his/ her full co-operation and consent - our services depend upon this. If your spouse fails to cooperate then we will be entitled to terminate our agreement. If you are not certain that your spouse will cooperate but you still want a divorce or other order, then you may wish to consider instructing Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP.    2. Using the extensive free information provided on our website and the detailed questionnaires, you must satisfy yourself that you are legally entitled to seek the court order or other service which you will be applying for.    3. You must give us clear, honest and accurate instructions, firstly by completing the relevant questionnaire as fully as possible, and then at all further stages when asked to do so.    4. You must give us instructions and provide documentation promptly and efficiently when asked to do so. Back to top Additional terms for specific services Undefended divorce This service is designed to deal with simple undefended divorces where both spouses agree to the divorce, and there are no disputes in relation to jurisdiction, the grounds for the divorce, or any child of the family etc. We have set out detailed information on the justdivorce.co.uk website and the linked questionnaire concerning these issues. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are legally entitled to a divorce, based on this advice.   The service covers the undefended divorce court process only. It does not include disputes concerning any child of the family, or any issues relating to the financial consequences of the breakdown of the marriage. You may be able to order our financial clean break order service to deal with such matters. If your situation is more complicated you may wish to obtain expert advice from Josiah-Lake Gardiner LLP.   The service depends upon the full co-operation of your spouse as the Respondent to the petition. We will be entitled to terminate our agreement with you if he/she fails to co-operate. So, for example, our service would end or be suspended in the following circumstances:    1. If your spouse fails to lodge an Acknowledgement of Service of the divorce petition then our service would end, unless you order our bailiff service (see below), in which case it would be suspended. If our bailiff service is successful, then our undefended divorce service would continue.    2. If you order our bailiff service but the bailiff is unable to serve the petition upon your spouse, then our undefended divorce service would end.    3. If your spouse serves an Answer to your divorce petition, so that it becomes a defended cause, then our undefended divorce service would end.    4. If your spouse claims that the English courts do not have jurisdiction to deal with your divorce petition then our undefended divorce service would end.    5. If your application for a decree nisi of divorce under the Special Procedure is ultimately rejected by the court then our undefended divorce service would end, although we would do everything reasonably possible to overcome any such objections.    6. If the court orders that the decree nisi of divorce shall not be made absolute until issues relating to any children of the family are resolved, then we reserve the right to end our undefended divorce service, depending on the circumstances.    7. If your spouse issues an application for financial orders under s.10(2) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, then we reserve the right to end or suspend our undefended divorce service, depending upon the circumstances. In any event our undefended divorce service will not include any work involved in dealing with such an application.    8. If, after reviewing your answers to our questionnaire, we decide that you are not legally entitled to a divorce on the basis that you are seeking, then we reserve the right to end our undefended divorce service. In that situation we will explain to you why we have reached that conclusion, and we will endeavour to advise you as to any alternative ways of obtaining a divorce. You may then be able to re-order our undefended divorce service. Back to top Bailiff service The divorce petition will be sent to your spouse by post from the court, and he/she should then lodge at court a form acknowledging receipt of the papers, and confirming that he/she will not defend the petition. If your spouse fails to return the Acknowledgement of Service to the court your petition could not proceed, and it may then be necessary to instruct the court bailiff to hand a copy of the petition personally to your spouse.   Our undefended divorce service does not include the additional costs of instructing the court bailiff to arrange personal service of your divorce petition, because that service depends upon your spouse's full co-operation with the court process. If this does become necessary you will need to order our separate court bailiff service, and pay an additional fee. A further court fee will also be payable.   Our bailiff service only relates to personal service of divorce petitions by the court bailiff at addresses in England and Wales. It does not include personal service of papers outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales, nor personal service in England and Wales by private process servers not employed by the court.   Back to top Financial clean break We cannot guarantee that the court will grant a clean break order, because this is ultimately a matter for the court to decide. The court is not bound by any agreement reached between you and your spouse.   No part of our fee will be refundable if your application is ultimately rejected by the court, although we will advise you with regard to any objections or queries raised by the court, and endeavour to resolve them if possible. Our service will end when the court reaches its decision, and we have reported to you on the outcome of the application. Disclaimer Our service is limited to assisting you to apply as a litigant in person for a financial clean break order from the court, setting out the terms of a private financial settlement reached between you and your spouse. We cannot advise you as to whether or not any such agreement is fair and reasonable, since it is impossible to do so without consideration of the full background to your particular case, and the related statutory factors. We offer no warranty or guarantee that the proposed financial consent order reflects what the court might order after a contested ancillary relief application, or that the order is fair.   Back to top   Troubleshooter We will carry out an initial brief assessment of the problem, based on your own description, on payment of a small fee which is non-refundable in any event. We may then notify you that we cannot assist further, in which case our service will end.   Alternatively, we will confirm that we can deal with your query, upon payment of a further non-refundable fee. You must then send to us promptly upon request copies of all relevant court papers, including a copy of any letter or other document received from the court to which the problem relates. You must also supply to us a full explanation of the problem so far as you understand it, unless this is apparent from the court papers.   We will then provide to you a clear and full report in plain English. In that report we will confirm what stage your divorce petition has reached, and the precise nature of the difficulty which has arisen. If in our opinion the problem cannot be overcome we will tell you this, and explain why. Where possible we will also give you further advice as to how you may be able to obtain a divorce on some other basis. If your problem can be solved we will explain what steps you need to take, and what additional documentation, if any, you need to send to the court.   We do not guarantee that we can offer you a solution to the problem which has arisen. We only agree to explain to you the nature of the difficulty, and to propose solutions where appropriate.   Our service relates to divorce petitions only, and not to any other legal process or situation.   Our service relates to one particular problem alone, or more than one problem only if they are all raised by the court at the same time, and in the same letter or other document. If you encounter more than one problem in relation to your divorce petition, then you would need to order our service again in respect of each problem.   Our service is limited to providing a report as described. We will not take any further steps afterwards, and for example we will not prepare any additional documents or letters, or contact the court on your behalf. You will need to take all such steps yourself, and our service will end when our report is sent to you.   Back to top   Divorce decree search If you order a personal search of the Register, we will carry out the search at court within two working days of you approving the relevant court form. The result of the search should be available the same day, and we will email you promptly to let you know the outcome.   If you order a postal search of the Register we will post the application to the court within two working days of you approving the relevant court form. The result of the search should be sent back to us within 10 to 15 working days, and we will email you promptly to let you know the outcome.   If as a result of the search we also receive a decree absolute of divorce we will send the original to you within two working days, by normal first class post. We cannot accept any liability for any document lost in the post.   We will ensure that the details which you supply to us are set out correctly and accurately in the relevant court form. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information provided, and we accept no liability in that regard.   Back to top   Marriage certificate translation Our service relates to marriage certificates and entries in a Register of Marriages only, and not to other documents. Our charges include all translator's fees, and all fees payable to the solicitor or notary public for providing the notarial certificate or authenticating affidavit. We will ensure that the translation we provide to you is an accurate translation of the document that you send to us. If you order an authenticating affidavit or notarial certificate for use in divorce proceedings in England and Wales, we will ensure that the documentation that we provide to you is in a form that will be acceptable to the court.   All translations will be into the English language unless we specifically agree with you in writing beforehand that the translation will be into a different language, in which case we may need to negotiate a one off price with you for that bespoke service. We will only translate one document per order. You will need to make a separate order for each document that you wish to have translated.   Barring unforeseen circumstances, the translation and all supporting documentation will be sent to you by normal first class post within seven to fourteen days from receipt of your payment and our properly completed questionnaire, plus a copy of the document to be translated. Our agreement will then end. If your situation is urgent we may be able to arrange the translation more quickly by prior written agreement. This may involve payment of an additional fee, which will be confirmed beforehand.   You must send to us a complete, clear and legible copy of the document that you wish to have translated, preferably as a scanned attachment to an email. We prefer not to receive any original documents, and you must not send an original document to us without our prior written agreement. We do not accept liability for any document which is lost in the post.   You yourself must decide whether you need a notarial certificate to accompany the translation, or an authenticating affidavit, or a simple translation alone. To help you make that decision we have set out relevant information on the justdivorce.co.uk website. By providing a notarial certificate or an authenticating affidavit we do not thereby provide any guarantee or warranty that this is the correct form of document required to meet your particular needs.   Back to top Termination - When you are entitled to end our agreement    1. You are entitled to end our service by terminating our agreement with you at any time, for whatever reason. However, once you order one of our services, your payment (or any part of it) will not necessarily be refundable to you upon termination, even if your case has not reached a conclusion (see above - 'Our charges and refund policy').    2. If you do terminate our agreement, we will not carry out any further work after the date of termination, but you will be entitled to retain and make use of any documents which we have prepared and sent to you up to that date. Termination - When we are entitled to end your agreement    1. If you fail to comply with any of your obligations contained in these terms of business.    2. If your spouse fails to co-operate fully and within a reasonable period by taking any step necessary to progress your matter, or otherwise obstructs your matter.    3. Depending upon your answers to certain questions in our questionnaires, we may advise you not to proceed with our services, based on our belief that you do not qualify for the outcome which you are seeking. If you choose to order our services despite these warnings, then we reserve the right to terminate our agreement with you, for example if the court raises objections. We will however endeavour to assist you as far as possible before taking this step.    4. If you fail to make a required payment on account of costs promptly upon request.    5. If your spouse instructs a solicitor then we reserve the right to terminate our agreement, if this results in significant work being required which is beyond the scope of our services as described on our website. Storage of papers and documents Once your matter has been completed and closed we will keep your file of papers for you in storage for not less than one year. After that, storage is on the clear understanding that we have the right to destroy it after such period as we consider reasonable.   If we retrieve your papers or documents from storage to deal with new instructions from you 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. The current charge for doing this is £20. We may also charge for reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions, at the hourly rate then applicable.   Back to top   Money laundering The law requires solicitors, as well as banks, building societies and others, to obtain satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients in certain specified circumstances. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their clients can be used by criminals wishing to launder money. In order to comply with the law on money laundering, we may need to obtain evidence of your identity from you. You must provide us with documents to verify your identity and your address promptly upon request, failing which we may need to terminate our agreement.   Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to certain statutory exceptions. Recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organized Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure.   If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it.     Communications between you and us Our aim is to provide to all our clients an efficient and effective service at all times. We hope and expect 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 in writing with Bryan Reed.     Terms and conditions of business Your placing of an order for one of our services and making the related payment shall constitute your acceptance of our terms and conditions of business. Back to top