Terms of business

We pride ourselves on competitive fee rates and clear estimates wherever possible. We keep costs down by regular billing and we do require bills to be paid within 30 days.

Standard Fees

Paul Milligan’s standard fee is £200 an hour plus vat. Fees can be affected by matters such as work complexity, responsibility, urgency or value of the transaction. If this is so you will be notified.

The fee includes all administrative costs of the Company, except photocopying which will be charged at 19p per sheet; faxes which will be charged at 28p per sheet and car travel which will be charged at 45p plus vat per mile.

We reserve the right to require a payment in advance of anticipated future fee charges, where appropriate.

Basis of costs

In accordance with the professions normal standards each hour is divided into 10, 6-minute units of time. An attendance with a Solicitor for an hour is straight forward, namely you will be charged 10 units which is 1 hour at £200 plus vat.

1-page letters will equate to 1 unit and cost of £20.00 plus vat. 2-page letters will cost £40 plus vat. Letters received will be charged as 1 unit, namely £20.00 plus vat. We charge for emails on the same basis as letters. The telephone calls will be timed and charged for on the same 6 minute/1 unit basis.

Please remember you will not see all the work we do. Preparing for meeting, preparing for court, preparing documents, considering your case. All of this is charged for.

Estimates

Wherever possible we try to give an estimate for the work to be undertaken. If you wish to discuss likely charges for any matter, or indeed a different billing basis to suit your requirements, do let us know. We shall accommodate your needs if possible.

Equality and Diversity

Milligan Law is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealings with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you require a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

Data protection

We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:
 Updating and enhancing client records
 Analysis to help manage the practice
 Statutory returns
 Legal and regulatory compliance

Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 1998 and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as expert witnesses and other professional advisors. You have a right to access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.

Storage of documents

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all of your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses. We will keep our file of papers for a minimum of 6 years from the date your matter concludes, except for those papers that you ask to be returned to you. We keep all files on the basis that we can destroy them 6 years after the date of the final bill. We will not normally charge for the retrieval of files and papers but reserve the right to do so.

Vetting of files and confidentiality

External firms or organisations may conduct audit or quality checks on the company. These external firms are required to maintain confidentiality in relation to your files.

Limiting liability

Milligan Law’s liability to you for breach of your instructions or for negligence will be limited to £3 million, unless we expressly state a higher amount in the letter accompanying these terms of business.

The Company holds professional indemnity insurance from Aon in the total sum of £3 million for any claim in the United Kingdom.

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

Terminating the retainer

You may end your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example if you do not pay an interim bill or there is a conflict of interest. We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.

If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up until that point. These are calculated as previously set out.

Money Laundering

The law requires Solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because Solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their clients can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.

To comply with the law, we may need to get independent evidence of your identity. If you cannot provide the documents that we have requested from you, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways of verifying your identity.

Making a disclosure

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