Terms and Conditions of Business
Version: 5 June 2025
1. About Us
1.1 Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd, trading as Louisa Ghevaert Associates, is a limited liability company registered in England and Wales under Company Number 11787088. Its registered office is Towngate House, 2-8 Parkstone Road, Poole, BH15 2PW. A list of members is open to inspection at the registered address.
1.2 References in these Terms and Conditions of Business and in our Letter of Engagement to “we”, “our’, “us” are references to Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd.
1.3 References in these Terms and Conditions of Business to “you” means our client/s as identified in our Letter of Engagement, which accompany this document at the outset of any matter.
2. Our Services & Contract With You
2.1 Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd will provide its clients with specialist legal services upon the terms set out below. Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under number 656538. The SRA’s address is The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN. The SRA is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society of England and Wales, our professional body. We must comply with the SRA’s Standards and Regulations in force from time to time. You can access the SRA’s standards and regulations on the SRA’s website at www.sra.org.uk or by calling 0370 606 2555.
2.2 We are registered for VAT purposes and our VAT registration number is 316250140.
2.3 The contract between you and us for the provision of any legal services by us shall comprise (1) the Letter of Engagement sent by us to you in relation to your matter and any written updates or variations thereto; and (2) these Terms and Conditions of Business (together “the Contract”). By accepting that we proceed in accordance with the Letter of Engagement, you will be deemed to have accepted these Terms of Business. In the event of a conflict between the Letter of Engagement and these Terms and Conditions of Business, the Letter of Engagement shall prevail.
2.4 If we have commenced the provision of legal services (for example by gathering information, project planning or giving initial advice) prior to you receiving a Letter of Engagement or these Terms and Conditions of Business, then notwithstanding that the Contract is made after the provision of such services, the Contract shall be deemed to apply retrospectively from the commencement of such services.
2.5 These Terms of Business replace any previous Terms of Business applicable to the engagement between us and unless varied will apply to any future instructions we carry out on your behalf.
2.6 From time to time, we may change or replace these Terms of Business. If so, we may notify you in writing of the proposed changes and unless you object within 14 days of receiving notification, the new Terms of Business will come into effect and will apply to all instructions we carry out for you.
3 Our Business Hours
3.1 Our normal business hours are between 9.00 am and 5.30 pm Monday to Friday. Appointments may be arranged at other times by agreement. Telephone messages can be left outside of our normal business hours.
4 About You
4.1 Where we refer to you or your in these Terms of Business, we mean the client or clients identified in the Letter of Engagement and with whom we contract. ‘You’/’your’ does not include any other persons or entities connected to you (e.g. relatives, employees, directors, officers, shareholders, subsidiaries, parent companies or any representatives authorised to give instructions on your behalf (authorised representative).
4.2 If we are notified that you have a duly authorised representative, subject to any express agreement to the contrary, we may treat them for all purposes as authorised to act on your behalf, including for the purposes of providing instructions and notices, giving consents and receiving updates, notices, costs information and invoices from us.
5. Our Service Standards And Responsibilities to You
In respect of your legal matter, we will:
5.1 Provide legal advice and services to you with reasonable skill and care. However, the nature of many types of legal work is such that it is not possible to guarantee a particular outcome.
5.2 Explain and update you in person, by video conference, by telephone or in writing (including by email) with progress in your case and explain the legal work as your case progresses.
5.3 Update you at appropriate intervals on the likely timescale for each stage of your case and any changes to these timescales. Whenever there is a material change in circumstances in your case, we will update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks.
5.4 Provide you with a written estimate of costs at the outset of your case. We will throughout your case provide you with regular written reviews and updates about your costs and update you promptly should our estimate change. If appropriate, we will continue to review whether there are alternative methods by which your matter can be funded.
5.5 We will:
5.5.1 Treat you fairly and respectfully;
5.5.2 Use plain English wherever possible when speaking or corresponding with you;
5.5.3 Only provide you with legal advice and assistance under English Law and advise you of any changes in such law that affect your matter;
5.5.4 Promptly deal with your questions or queries;
5.5.5 Not provide you with financial or tax advice. We are not qualified as accountants and the interpretation of financial information should be undertaken on your behalf by specialist advisers qualified to provide such advice;
5.5.6 report on the outcome of your matter and any further action which needs to be taken. Our engagement in relation to your matter will then come to an end. We recommend that you review completed matters from time to time; for example, agreements may require further action or there may be changes in relevant law. Unless we agree otherwise in writing, we shall not be responsible for advising you of any important dates which may arise after completion of a matter (such as the date by when a notice under an agreement should be given or upon which rights may expire or may need to be renewed).
6 Your Responsibility To Us
You will:
6.1 Provide us with clear, accurate and prompt instructions, detailing your objectives and you will deal with all queries in a timely manner.
6.2 Provide all relevant documentation and information to complete our work in a timely manner.
6.3 Avoid drip-feeding or providing us with piecemeal instructions and information as this increases legal work and associated costs.
6.4 Not ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way or give us instructions which you know or ought to know are inconsistent with the law or illegal.
6.5 Be open and honest with us about all circumstances relating to your case and not deliberately mislead us or withhold information from us.
6.6 Co-operate fully with us, including any checks we need to make in relation to your identity, ownership, status, source of wealth so these can be completed promptly.
6.7 Treat us with courtesy and respect.
6.8 Attend meetings and court hearings as necessary.
6.9 Notify us if your contact details change.
6.10 Keep password details for any account you use to communicate with us secret and secure, change your password for any account if you receive any indication that security for that account may have been compromised.
6.11 Tell us immediately if your expectations change or if you are not sure you understand what we have discussed.
6.12 Advise us of any time limits or objectives that might not be obvious to us.
6.13 Notify us immediately if you become aware of any conflict of interest or any other reason which you believe may restrict or prevent us in acting for you or any third party.
6.14 Inform us about any other changes that may affect the way we deal with your case.
6.15 If you are a company, we shall be entitled to assume that these terms are accepted by all directors and authorised officers of the company.
6.16 Notify us immediately if you receive any email or communication purporting to be from us stating that we have changed our bank details or payment arrangements.
7 Responsibility For Your Matter
7.1 Our Letter of Engagement enclosing this document will inform you of the identity of the person or persons dealing with your matter, along with their status and who will have overall supervision of the services provided to you. We will try to avoid changing the person/s dealing with your matter. If this cannot be avoided, we will promptly inform you of any changes.
7.2 The person with day-to-day responsibility for your matter will explain to you the issues raised and keep you updated about case progression.
8 Joint Clients
8.1 Where you instruct us jointly with another individual or entity your right to confidentiality and your ownership of our file is joint and common. We will be obliged to share with your joint client(s) all information and any instructions that you provide to us. This will remain the case after your contact with us has come to an end.
8.2 We may agree with you that one of you may give instructions on behalf of you all. You may, however, revoke consent to this agreement at any time and require us to seek instructions from you all. Where such an agreement is in place, we reserve the right to require confirmation of instructions from all of you where we deem this to be appropriate.
8.3 If you request information or documentation held by us on the conclusion of your case, we can provide any one of you with such information or documentation without the consent of your other joint clients, but we can only release original documents on receipt of instructions from all of you.
9.Conflict Of Interest
9.1 Professional rules prevent us from acting where there is a conflict of interest, or a significant risk of a conflict of interest arising between:
9.1.1 us and a client;
9.1.2 two (or more) of our current clients (except in limited circumstances which we can discuss with you where appropriate);
9.1.3 joint clients; or
9.1.4 our professional obligation to keep confidential current or former client information and our professional requirement to act in your best interests and advise you of anything that relates to your case.
9.2 We carry out screening before accepting client instructions to identify situations where a conflict exists or there is a significant risk of a conflict arising. However, this does not guarantee that a conflict or a significant risk of a conflict will not arise at any stage of a case through no fault of yours or ours.
9.3 You must immediately inform us if you become aware of any circumstances that might give rise to a conflict of interest in your case.
9.4 Where a conflict of interest arises (or there is a significant risk of a conflict of interest arising) in the course of our work for you, we will likely have a regulatory requirement to cease acting for you and terminate our contract with you.
9.5 Where you instruct us jointly with one or more clients and a conflict arises between you, you must inform us immediately. If the issue is capable of being resolved we may pause acting whilst you each obtain independent legal advice to resolve the matter. Otherwise, we may be required to stop acting for both of you and our contract will then be terminated.
9.6 Where our contract with you is terminated as a result of a conflict of interest arising, we are entitled to raise an invoice for the work we have undertaken in your case up to point of termination.
10 Charges and Expenses
10.1 You are responsible to pay legal costs as set out in the Letter of Engagement. Your legal costs include our fees, disbursements (costs we incur with third parties during your case, such as barristers or experts), expenses and VAT where this applies.
10.2 Unless otherwise specified in our Letter of Engagement, our charges will be calculated by reference to the time spent by us in undertaking work on your behalf. Short emails, letters and telephone calls are charged at a minimum of 1/10 of an hour (i.e. one six-minute unit). All other work is timed in six-minute units and charged at the relevant hourly rate to include: discussions and meetings with you and others, reviewing, considering and working on documents, correspondence, preparation of any detailed costs calculations, attendance at court and time spent travelling away from the office.
10.3 Details of our current hourly charges for your matter are stated in our Letter of Engagement. Our hourly rates are reviewed annually with effect from 1 April each year. If our hourly rates change during the course of your matter, we will inform you of any changes before they take effect.
10.4 We may also 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, and any particularly specialist expertise which the case may require. Where a charge reflecting any value element is to be added we will explain this to you.
10.5 We reserve the right to charge you any additional costs incurred in file opening and undertaking anti-money laundering searches, enquiries or online identity checks, screening, source of funds and source of wealth enquiries and any other enquiries we are required to make under applicable laws and regulations.
10.6 Any cost estimate we provide as to the total of our fees is provided only as a guide on the basis of the information then known to us and may not be regarded as fixed and binding and is subject to periodic review, unless otherwise agreed.
10.7 We may, at any time, ask you for a reasonable sum to hold in respect of incurred or anticipated fees or disbursements (including court fees and experts’ fees, out-of-pocket expenses). We have no obligation to make or commit ourselves to incurring such fees or making such payments unless you have provided us with the funds for that purpose. VAT is payable on certain expenses. If the requested payment is not paid within the time specified we might cease to act for you.
10.8 We reserve the right to make additional charges for any disbursements or expenses incurred in your matter, which will normally apply at cost. These include:
10.8.1 Postage costs on letters and documents weighing more than 100g or thicker than 5mm and parcels/packages requiring guaranteed delivery times.
10.8.2 Courier charges.
10.8.3 Travel costs.
10.8.4 Conference facilities.
10.8.5 Banking charges.
10.8.6 Telephone charges.
10.9 Photocopying is charged at 10p plus VAT per sheet.
11 Payment Arrangements
11.1 Clients are required to pay requested sums of money in advance of us carrying out work and incurring any expenses on your behalf. We may invite you to set up a banker’s standing order to fund our work on your behalf and any expenses. We reserve the right not to undertake work or to commit ourselves to incurring any fees or disbursements (and you agree that we shall have no liability to you for any consequences arising from such suspension) and to cease acting for you in the event our requested payments and invoices are not met in full on demand.
11.2 Our invoices will be issued monthly or more frequently as required. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, all interim bills will be final accounts for our fees for the work undertaken during the periods to which they relate (known as interim statute bills). These are not final accounts in relation to disbursements that we have incurred on your behalf.
11.3 Our bills will be sent to you electronically unless you instruct us of any alternative requirements.
11.4 Our invoices become due for payment immediately after you receive them in the currency in which they are submitted by bank transfer, cash (subject to the maximum £500 limit), debit or credit card. Interest will be charged at 8% per annum (compounded daily) above the base rate from time to time of HSBC if any invoice remains unpaid for more than 28 days from its date.
11.5 We will not send information about changes to our bank details by email. In the event you receive an email claiming to be from Louisa Ghevaert Associates advising you of a change in our bank details please notify us immediately and do not reply or act upon those email instructions.
11.6 If you instruct us jointly with someone else, you will be jointly and severally responsible for the full amount of our charges.
11.7 Please advise us if you would like a third party to be responsible for paying our invoices or any part of them. We must agree this in advance and we will require the party’s name, contact details and any other information or identification we request. It remains your responsibility at all times to pay our invoices even if someone else has agreed to pay some or all of them, or has a legal obligation to pay your legal costs. If someone else does pay some but not all of our legal costs, you are responsible for paying the remainder of these.
11.8 If a bill (including any interim bill) is unpaid after 30 days from the date of the invoice, we reserve the right not to undertake further work on your matter and retain all data, papers and documents in our possession (by way of a lien) until all outstanding invoices and disbursements have been paid in full.
11.9 We reserve the right to charge an administration fee to cover our costs associated with recovering outstanding invoices in the sum of £100 per invoice, for any invoice that is unpaid more than thirty days or more.
11.10 In the event our invoices are unpaid, action will be taken against you for recovery of our costs. You will be liable for payment of the original amount outstanding and any additional costs on an indemnity basis in pursuing you for repayment. These costs will include all expenses and sums paid to agents or independent contractors in enforcing our rights under our Terms of Business.
11.11 You are entitled to make a complaint to us about your invoice if you are dissatisfied with it (see complaints section below). You may object to the invoice by making a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman and/or by applying to the court for an assessment of the bill under Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. The Legal Ombudsman may not consider a complaint about the invoice if you have applied to the court for an assessment of the bill.
11.12 In some instances, a client may be entitled to payment of costs by another person or organisation. Please note that in such instances, the other person or organisation may not be required to pay all the charges and expenses you have incurred with us. You have to pay our charges and expenses in the first place and any monies recovered will be a contribution towards them.
11.13 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.
11.14 A client who is unsuccessful in a court case may be ordered to pay the other party’s legal charges and expenses. Those legal charges and expenses would be payable in addition to our charges and expenses.
11.15 If you have legal fees insurance that may cover your legal costs for your matter, please confirm this to us as soon as possible. You should be aware that insurers rarely pay invoices before completion of the case, and you will remain liable to pay our invoices when delivered during and to the conclusion of the case, even if your insurers have not paid you.
12 Interest Payments and Client Deposits
12.1 In the event that we hold money on your account on a particular matter, as a necessary but incidental consequence of your instructions, we will invest it in our general client funds and remit to you an amount in lieu of interest which is both fair and reasonable.
12.2 Interest will be calculated daily by reference to the amount and the length of time we hold money on your behalf and in relation to instant access rates offered by our company bankers HSBC. Such rates are reviewed annually or more often if necessary.
12.3 No interest is paid if an amount calculated quarterly is less than £20.
12.4 Where you deposit money with us in our client account, we will ensure that the money is held with an authorised clearing bank or building society in accordance with the SRA Accounts Rules.
12.5 We cannot guarantee the safety of deposited funds. In the event that any bank or building society with whom we have placed deposits is unable to repay or delays repayment of any monies, you agree that you will not bring any claim or proceedings of any nature (whether in contract, tort or otherwise) against us in respect of or in connection with the deposit of monies with us or the choice of bank or building society holding these monies. Unless specifically requested by you, we will take no further action to protect monies deposited with us.
12.6 Monies deposited with us in our client account may not be subject to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the UK’s statutory protection fund for customers of banking institutions. The FSCS can make compensation payments of up to £85,000 if a banking institution is unable or likely to be unable to pay claims against it. The limit is £85,000 per banking institution per customer. If you deposit other personal funds with the same banking institution as our client accounts, the limit remains £85,000 in total. The FSCS provides up to £1 million short-term protection for some high value balances e.g. for property purchase/sale, divorce, inheritance, redundancy, unfair dismissal and personal injury compensation and qualifying balance protection lasts for up to a maximum of six months.
12.7 We will not open individual client accounts to protect your money unless requested. Any limit of compensation will apply to an individual client’s total amount deposited with a particular bank or building society either by us or you. Banks and building societies may operate under several names or brands and a single compensation limit may apply to that bank and its brands.
12.8 We do not charge for payments made by credit card.
12.9 If we receive money in connection with your case from an unexpected source (or a cash payment has been accepted by our bank from you or a third party) this may delay your case whilst we verify the source of these funds. We may charge you for any additional checks we deem required and we may terminate our contract with you if you or any third party fails to cooperate and provide us with the information we require to verify the funds within an appropriate timescale. We will not be able to use or return such funds until they have been adequately verified by us. Our policy is to only accept cash up to a limit of £500 into a client account in any 28-day period.
12.10 Where we need to pay or return funds to you this will be done by bank transfer to an account in your name. We are unable to make such payments to third parties. Please advise us immediately if you do not have a bank account in your name.
12.11 If at the conclusion of a case we hold less than £20 in our client account, we may donate such funds to a charity of our choice without recourse to you. This helps save us and you the administrative costs associated with handling small amounts of money.
13 Cancellation Rights for Consumers
13.1 Under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, where you are an individual not acting for your trade, business, craft or profession and where this is deemed to be a distance contract, you may have the right to withdraw without charge within 14 days of when you entered into the retainer with us. If you so cancel within the 14 day period, we will promptly return to you all payments received from you, unless you gave us your consent to start work within that period, in which case you will have to pay for the work done up to the date of cancellation.
13.2 Under The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, where you are an individual not acting for your trade, business, craft or profession and where we visit your home, your place of work or elsewhere away from our premises for the purpose of you signing a retainer with us, we will be obliged to give you a written notice of your right to cancel your contract with us. If so, you will be entitled to cancel the contract within 14 days of receiving details of our Letter of Engagement and Terms and Conditions of Business, by serving upon us a cancellation notice. If you so cancel, we will promptly reimburse to you all payments received from you, except for sums due as a result of you requesting us to start work.
14 Choice of Counsel, Experts and Lawyers
14.1 We will only assist you where we can in the selection of counsel, experts and lawyers in the UK or overseas on the basis that we will not be liable for any act or omission of such counsel, experts and lawyers.
14.2 You will be responsible for all costs of such counsel, experts and lawyers in the UK or overseas.
15 Confidentiality
15.1 Subject to the exceptions mentioned in these Terms and Conditions of Business, we will keep all information that we acquire about you and/or your affairs in the course of our work confidential unless you consent to the disclosure of that information.
15.2 External entities or organisations may from time to time conduct audit or quality checks on our practice and may review your file and related papers for this purpose (e.g. the SRA, the Law Society and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). We may also outsource compliance audits and investigations of complaints to external auditors or consultants. In doing so, we will take reasonable steps to ensure such external parties maintain confidentiality in respect of the information disclosed.
15.3 Our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses, barristers or other solicitors acting as our agents. We may also outsource functions including printing, document production, translation services, IT and certain legal processes to third party organisations. These external entities, organisations and third parties are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your matter and affairs.
15.4 We reserve the right to disclose information and files concerning you and your matter to any person or authority having the legal right to inspect solicitors’ files or having the function of monitoring our practice management standards. We also reserve the right to disclose information and files concerning you and your matter to our professional indemnity insurers, brokers and professional advisers (including our legal advisors, accountants and auditors) in order to protect/defend ourselves in any actual or threatened legal, civil or regulatory proceedings and where in our absolute discretion we consider it appropriate to do so. Examples of organisations we may be required to disclose your information to include: the SRA, the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), domestic and international tax authorities and other legal or regulatory authorities.
15.5 By accepting these Terms of Business you consent to such outsourcing arrangements to include transfer of any personal data to such organisation, entities or individuals.
15.6 Unless you provide instructions to the contrary, we will communicate with you by email. We deploy a range of information security measures, but we cannot guarantee the security of information or documents sent by email. If you do not want us to communicate information by email, please advise us of this.
15.7 We may give your name and provide details of the work we undertake for you to a potential successor practice (another practice which we may merge with or transfer our business to or another organisation or entity created by us) or to regulated individuals intending to form such a successor practice so that conflict checks can be carried out and to enable continuation of business service should a merger, transfer of our business or sale to a successor practice take place. Your files and papers may also be reviewed for due diligence purposes relating to a sale or transfer of part or all of our business, the acquisition of another business or new business by us. If you do not want your file to be used for these purposes please inform us as soon as possible.
15.8 If we seek to rely on work that we have carried out for you to promote our services we will seek your consent except where details of your case are in the public domain in which circumstance you agree that we can publicise our involvement as well as any related information in the public domain.
16. Copyright
16.1 We retain the copyright for any documents we draft for you including agreements, precedents, letters of advice, reports and legal opinions (collectively referred to as Documentation). If you have paid our fees in full for the Documentation we have drafted, you are granted a licence by us to use the Documentation for the purposes for which it was communicated by you to us and to copy it for record purposes. If you ask that we use documents drafted by a third party, you agree to indemnify us against any copyright claims brought by the author.
17 Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
17.1 We may utilise AI tools, including large language models, generative AI models and machine learning models (AI Tools) in providing our services to you.
17.2 The copyright licence granted to you in relation to our Documentation does not permit you to input any Documentation into any AI Tools without our advance express permission.
17.3 Any information, data or advice generated by AI Tools is not a substitute for professional legal advice. We will not be responsible or liable for any errors or inaccuracies resulting from your use of AI Tools to review, interpret, summarise, comment or act upon our advice to you. AI Tools may change, misinterpret or misrepresent our advice. If you have any questions or are uncertain about our advice you should seek clarification from us.
18 Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering
18.1 In order to comply with the law on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, counter-proliferation financing requirements and our Know Your Client requirements, we need to verify and obtain confirmation of our clients’ identities at the outset of your matter and in certain circumstances other persons such as directors or beneficial owners or others associated with you and to keep this information updated. You agree that we may make checks using online electronic verification systems or other databases as we may decide. It may also be necessary for us to ask you for documentation to prove your identity if, for example, the results of the request for online confirmation is inconclusive.
18.2 At the outset of any matter we will ask you to explain to us the source of any funds you will be using, for example a UK bank or building society account in your name. If the source is an unusual one, such as an account in another country or in the name of someone else, please advise us of this as soon as possible and explain why. We may require you to provide evidence of your source of wealth and/or source of funds and we may continue our enquiries until we are satisfied as to our understanding of this.
18.3 You are not permitted to send us any money until we have confirmed to you that our checks have been completed to our satisfaction.
18.4 We will charge you for identification and verification checks and these will be confirmed in our Letter of Engagement.
18.5 We may ask you to explain and confirm the source of any funds you have or will send us. If you do not provide use with this requested information, there may be delays in your case or we may have to cease acting for you.
18.6 As solicitors, we are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. However, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 as amended and analogous legislation we are also required to report to official agencies any information that comes to our attention whilst dealing with a matter on your behalf which gives rise to money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing concerns.
18.7 If, while we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or of the reasons for it, nor confirm or deny that a report has been made. If we make a report to the National Crime Agency or analogous authority, we may be prohibited from continuing with your work while the authorities undertake their own investigations. We may also be ordered to stop your work altogether. In those circumstances, we will not be able to accept responsibility for any resulting loss or inconvenience. A report may result in an investigation by the Police, the Inland Revenue or other authorities. If you are concerned about how this may affect you, please speak to us.
18.8 You agree to reimburse us for any costs we reasonably incur in complying with any legal disclosure requirement referred to above.
18.9 We will not be liable for loss or damage arising out of any delays or failures caused by our compliance with any statutory or regulatory requirements.
19 Data Protection
19.1 The storage and use of personal details that we hold about you or other individuals related to your matter is governed by your instructions and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), any other relevant UK legislation that relate to the protection and processing of personal data and privacy. By instructing us to provide services to you, we, our suppliers, advisers and subcontractors, will use these details solely to provide you with our services, to comply with our reporting and client verification obligations and to monitor, develop and improve our services including the IT systems used in relation the provision of such services. Where you provide us with personal details about other individuals, authorised representative, officers or staff related to your matter, you confirm that you have obtained the appropriate consents or there is another lawful basis for you to share such personal data with us for the reasons set out above.
19.2 We may use your personal data to provide you with publications, newsletters, legal updates or details of events that we believe may be of interest to you (by post, email, text or telephone). If you do not wish to receive this information and wish to opt out please confirm this in writing to us by email Louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk.
19.3 Under data protection legislation, you are entitled to access the personal data we hold about you.
19.4 We may carry out credit reference checks about you using online or other data bases and keep records of those searches. These agencies may also keep a record of these searches.
19.5 The Firm’s Privacy Policy contains more details about how we process personal data and your rights and can be found on our website www.louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk.
19.6 We are committed to a policy of continuous improvement in the quality and efficiency of the legal services we provide to our clients. To assist us in achieving this we may, from time to time, be subject to inspection by independent assessors in connection with recognised quality assurance schemes, such as Lexcel who may wish to inspect a sample number of files.
19.7 Unless you advise us in writing to the contrary, we will assume that you agree to our permitting such an inspection in relation to files we may open for you. Any such inspection will be on the understanding that the information and the file remain strictly confidential and will not be released by the assessor or auditor to any other person.
19.8 For training, regulatory and monitoring purposes, we may record telephone and video conference conversations and meetings.
19.9 We may use information you provide to us to undertake all reasonable steps to check that neither you nor us are victims of attempted or actual fraud, financial or cyber crime to include undertaking online searches and checks as we think fit.
19.10 We use third party service providers (including ‘cloud’ service providers) to deliver our services as efficiently as possible. These include document/information hosting, sharing, transfer, analysis, processing or storage. We may also use artificial intelligence tools (including large language models, machine learning models and generative AI models) within third party software or developed for us. We ensure all such third-party providers are under service agreements that meet our legal obligations to include confidentiality, privacy and data protection. If you require us to use any other provider for sharing or exchanging documents or information we are not responsible for such data security.
20 Client Onboarding Process
20.1 We use the services of Minerva (developed by Law Firm Services), to provide secure digital identity verification (via Credas), online payments, and to share key documents as part of our client onboarding process via our digital and biometric portal, in line with the SRA’s Standards and Regulations. Such third party agencies may keep a record of this personal information and provide it (and the fact that a search was made) to others for the purposes of verifying identity, prevent fraud, assess credit risk and money laundering.
20.2 All information provided is securely processed by Minerva to encrypt your details and keep your personal data safe.
20.3 Where we use Minerva, you will receive a link to start your client onboarding, and you will be redirected to our digital and biometric portal where the verification will take place. You will receive email confirmation once the relevant steps are completed.
20.4 You can find Minerva’s Terms of Use here https://www.minervaportal.com/minerva-terms-requirements/ and Privacy Policy here https://www.minervaportal.com/minerva-terms-requirements/privacy-policy/.
21 Email and Fax
21.1 We will contact and correspond with you or others by email during the course of your matter. This may include providing details of your email address to others where we think this will be of assistance to your matter, or when forwarding emails. Although we endeavour to deploy virus checking software, we cannot be responsible for the security or consequences of correspondence and documents sent by email.
21.2 We do not accept service of documents or correspondence by fax.
22 Termination
22.1 You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time but we will be entitled to keep all your data 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 clearly in writing.
22.2 We may stop acting for you, but only with good reason. For example: if you do not pay an interim invoice, or comply with our request for a payment on account, or if we are unable to obtain instructions from you, or if a conflict of interest arises, or where we decide the relationship of trust and confidence has broken down between us or for other substantial reason. If we decide it is necessary to stop acting for you, we will give you notice in writing.
22.3 If we become aware that you are a designated person or acting for the benefit of a designated person under any sanctions regime we may stop acting for you with immediate effect.
22.4 If a Court case is involved, you or we may need to file with the Court a “Notice of Acting in Person”. In the absence of this, it may be necessary for us to apply to the Court to come off the record and you will be liable for the costs of that application.
22.5 If our appointment comes to an end for any reason you will pay our charges, including for transferring your case to another adviser at your request, calculated where there is no other applicable basis by reference to time spent together with all expenses and disbursements incurred to date.
22.6 In the event we merge with a successor practice or transfer our business to another entity, or LLP or company (any of which are called a successor firm) then the engagement between us will not be terminated. You agree that we may assign the benefit of our contract with you to the successor firm and that firm will be appointed by you to ensure continuity of service. You and the successor firm may rely on the Letter of Engagement and these Terms of Business for the continuing terms of the engagement. We will take any reasonable steps to enable continuity of service, e.g. by the appointment of the successor firm to go on the record as acting for you the purposes of litigation.
23 Files, Storage of Data and Key Dates
23.1 We may create and store files in hard copy (paper), electronically or another form.
23.2 On completion of our work and payment of our fees in full, we will return to you any original documents you have provided to us for that work.
23.3 We will retain files for a minimum period of six years (other than for matters where the client is a child under 18 when they will be retained until the child reaches the age of 24), but after that we may destroy them without any further reference to you.
23.4 We may retain your due diligence information (e.g. your identification documents and related checks) for the same length of time we retain your most recent case and destroy it at the same time as that case.
23.5 At the end of your matter, we will explain the outcome and any further actions required and endeavour to remind you of any relevant future key dates. Our retainer with you in relation to your matter will then end. It is your responsibility to take any further actions required and record and act upon key dates and we will not keep a record or remind you of these.
23.6 In the event we retrieve your files or documents from storage 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 and/or charges incurred for producing stored files or documents to you or another at your request. We may also charge for reading and reviewing correspondence and documents or for the work required to comply with your instructions. We will also provide you with a copy of the file in electronic format unless it is inappropriate to do so.
24 Complaints
24.1 We want to give our clients the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service or about the bill we have provided then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem. Please contact Louisa Ghevaert, Director at Louisa Ghevaert Associates, by email Louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7965 8399 who will aim to acknowledge your complaint within two working days and investigate the issues within 14 days of receiving the complaint. We have a procedure in place, which explains how we handle complaints which is available on our website or on request to us. On conclusion of the investigation, Louisa will invite you to a meeting or discuss the issues by telephone. Louisa will then confirm the outcome of the meeting or telephone conversation in writing within three working days. Alternatively, if a meeting or telephone discussion is not possible or required Louisa will investigate the issues and write to you confirming the outcome within 21 days. If it is not possible to adhere to the deadlines indicated above, Louisa will write to you explaining why and will provide a new date by which you will receive further contact. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.
24.2 The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority – www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.
24.3 The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves within eight weeks, including complaints about the reasonableness of our charges. The Legal Ombudsman service will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case. It is only available to members of the public, small businesses, charities, clubs and trusts.
24.4 Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman effective from 1 April 2023:
24.4.1 Within six months of receiving our final response to your complaint, and
24.4.2 No more than one year from the date of act/omission being complained about; or
24.4.3 No more than one year from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.
24.5 If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them. Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Call: 0300 555 0333 between 10am to 4pm. Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The Legal Ombudsman postal address is PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 OEH.
25 Equality and Diversity
25.1 We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us in writing if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.
26 Insurance Cover and Limitation on Liability
26.1 In this section, references to: a “Claim” includes claims, actions and proceedings of any nature, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) and/or otherwise; and
“Loss” includes damages, costs, interest and loss (whether direct, indirect or consequential) incurred by or otherwise affecting you or any third party and whether arising under contract, in tort or otherwise.
26.2 We maintain Professional Indemnity Insurance and we limit our liability for Claims against Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd to £3 million. You agree that our total liability for any Loss or Claim is limited to a maximum of £3 million in relation to your matter or connected matters, or any lesser level specified in our Letter of Engagement or confirmed in writing to you by us. If we specify a lower level, our liability will not exceed that amount.
26.3 Our Professional Indemnity Insurers are HDI Global Speciality SE – UK Branch, c/o Lockton Companies LLP, The St Botolph Building, 138 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7AG. Territorial coverage is worldwide (up to £3 million).
26.4 It is a requirement of our professional indemnity insurance that we notify our insurer and/or broker of any claim against us or circumstance that may give rise to a claim against us. We may disclose documents and information to our insurer, broker and professional advisers on a confidential basis. We are further obligated to provide information about existing claims and circumstances and other regulatory information that may include your confidential information when we seek to renew our professional indemnity insurance. Our insurers, brokers and professional advisers are regulated entities and must keep all information we provide to them on a confidential basis.
26.5 Your relationship is solely with Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd. Legal responsibility and liability for all legal services carried out by any of our Directors or employees, and any act or omission in the course of your matter, is solely undertaken by Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd. No individual director, officer, employee, agent or representative of Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd accepts any personal obligations or legal liability for any Loss or Claim towards you or any client in respect of such services. In particular, the fact that any individual director, officer, employee, consultant, agent or representative signs in his or her own name any letter, email or other documents in the course of carrying out that work does not mean he or she is assuming any personal liability.
26.6 You agree not to bring a Claim against any individual director, officer, employee, consultant, agent or representative of Louisa Ghevaert Associates Ltd in respect of or in connection with services provided to you under the Contract or otherwise. In this regard, each individual director, officer, employee, agent, representative or consultant shall be entitled to the benefits of these provisions under the Contracts (Right of Third Parties) Act 1999.
26.7 The limitations and exclusions referred to in this section do not apply to our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by our negligence, any losses caused by dishonesty or for any other liability which cannot lawfully be excluded.
26.8 Various searches carried out by us (for example the Register of Companies, the Land Registry and Know Your Client and Risk Profiling providers) are carried out online using independent third parties. We accept no responsibility or liability arising from reliance upon results of such searches, if they should subsequently be found to be inaccurate or incomplete.
26.9 You agree that our liability for Loss is excluded (and we will not accept any liability for Loss) in relation to any single matter or any group of connected matters which may be aggregated by our insurers in excess of either: the amount specified in the scope of work or, if no such amount is specified, the minimum of professional indemnity insurance cover required by the SRA for limited liability companies from time to time (currently £3,000,000) including interest and costs.
26.10 These limits are considered by us and by you to be reasonable taking into account the level of our fees and the nature of the work to be carried out and the cost and availability of professional indemnity insurance and its long term sustainability.
26.11 Subject to the minimum amount of professional indemnity set out above, the total liability of the firm and its representatives, directors, officers, employees, agents or consultants in respect of each and every Claim will not in any circumstances exceed the level of professional indemnity insurance applicable to the relevant Claim.
26.12 We may agree with you in writing a lower level of liability and in that event our liability will not exceed whatever lower level we have agreed with you.
26.13 The legal advice we provide is confidential and for your exclusive use. We do not accept responsibility to any third party who is not our client for the advice or legal services we provide to you.
26.14 We rely on you for the accuracy of the information and documentation that you provide to us. We shall not be liable for errors, loss or damages which arise as a result of false, misleading, fraudulent, incomplete information or documentation by you or a third party or which result from any act, delay or omission by you or by any third party, including without limitation, any fraudulent representation relating to a property value, ownership or the identity of a party to a transaction unless caused by our negligence.
26.15 The advice we provide and the documents we prepare are for use only in connection with the specific matter on which we are instructed and state or comply with the law as in force at the relevant time. We are not responsible for any failure to advise or comment on matters falling outside the scope of our instructions as set out in these Terms of Business and the Letter of Engagement.
26.16 We will not be liable to any client for any delay or failure in providing legal services, where that delay or failure is caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
26.17 We will not be liable for your use of a method of communication with us that is insecure or not compatible with our systems (e.g. WhatsApp).
26.18 We will not be liable for your use of AI Tools, including but not limited to any omissions, errors, hallucinations or misrepresentations of our advice processed by AI Tools and any breaches of confidentiality or data protection obligations arising from your use of AI Tools.
26.19 We will not be liable for the failure of any UK bank or building society regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with which we have held a client account, or the freezing or rejection of any funds you pay at our direction into our client account, or any delay by the bank operating our client account in releasing such funds.
26.20 Any liability for any Claim or Loss we may have to you in relation to our provision of legal services (subject to statutory exceptions) shall be limited to what is fair and reasonable, taking into account the extent of our responsibility for such Loss between you (including your directors, officers, partners, employees or agents), us and any other person or entity who is jointly and/or severally liable for some or all of the Claim or Loss. The inability of any co-liable person to meet a claim for any reason will not increase the amount of our liability and our liability will not be increased as a result of any exclusion or limitation of liability of any other liable person.
26.21 If you are a consumer client (i.e. not an individual instructing us in connection with your business, trade, craft or profession) we will not be liable for:
26.21.1 Losses not foreseeable by you or us when this contract was formed;
26.21.2 Losses not caused by any breach by us; and
26.21.3 Business losses, including losses sustained by any individual not acting for purposes of their trade, business, craft or profession.
26.22 If you are a business client, we will not be liable for any of the following (directly or indirectly):
26.22.1 Losses not caused by any breach of contract or tort on the part of the Firm;
26.22.2 Loss of revenue or profit;
26.22.3 Loss of use, production, contract, opportunity, savings, discount or rebate (actual or anticipated);
26.22.4 Loss or corruption of data; and
26.22.5 Harm to reputation or loss of goodwill.
26.23 To the extent permitted by the law, we do not accept responsibility to any third party in relation to the legal services provided by us to you. In the absence of express written agreement to the contrary, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply.
27 Terms and Conditions of Business
27.1Unless otherwise agreed, and subject to the application of the current hourly rates, these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to Louisa Ghevaert Associates Limited.
27.2 Your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business.
28 Law and Jurisdiction
28.1 If any provision of these Terms and Conditions of Business is found by a court or other competent authority to be void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be deleted from this document and the remaining provisions of this document shall continue to apply.
28.2 These Terms of Business and any dispute, claim or obligation (whether contractual or non-contractual) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the Law of England and Wales.
28.3 The English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim (whether contractual or non-contractual) arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Business.
Version: 5 June 2025