Compliance
Fenwick Elliott does not accept the service of legal proceedings by fax or email unless by prior agreement.
Fenwick Elliott is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales Partnership number OC306894. VAT registration number GB429744325.
Fenwick Elliott is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority SRA number 400116.
This firm maintains professional indemnity insurance in accordance with the rules of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Details of the insurers and the territorial coverage of the policy are available for inspection at our offices.
Client care procedure
We operate a client care procedure. If you have any complaints or concerns at any time as to the service you are receiving or the amount of our costs, we would ask you to:
- contact the partner with overall responsibility of your matter, explaining your concerns. You will receive a prompt response in writing to clarify and/or explain the position and we will do our best to address your concerns;
- if you remain concerned after our initial response, then we shall refer the matter to two partners from the practice including our Partnership Manager. The matter will be investigated further, and a meeting will be arranged with you to discuss the basis of the complaint, in an attempt to resolve the matter;
- if you remain concerned, then you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider the complaint. The contact details are: The Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ: telephone 0300 555 0333: website www.legalombudsman.org.uk. Please note, however, that there are limitations to the availability of this service for organisations in particular and you may wish to consult their website for further information as to your eligibility.
Details of the professional rules that apply to solicitors’ firms can be found at https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/.
Equality and diversity
We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity and respect for diversity in all our dealings with clients, colleagues and third parties. A copy of our Equal Opportunities and Diversity policy is available on request.
Data protection and using data
Under the Data Protection Act 2018, we have given the information commissioner formal notice that we handle personal information.
As part of providing our services to you, and because we have to follow the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017), you acknowledge that we may need to reveal personal information about you to other people. Examples of such persons might include:
- the court;
- other people who are involved in your legal action;
- experts;
- barristers;
- legal agents or inquiry agents; or
- other service providers.
We may have a legal duty to release information about you. We will only release what is reasonable and appropriate.
We would like to contact you with regard to promoting our services. We will ask you to identify what information you would like to receive from us in the future. If you would prefer not to receive any such information please let us know.
In order to comply with court and tribunal rules, all documentation relevant to any issues in litigation, however potentially damaging to your case, have to be preserved and may be required to be made available to the other side.
We may also make your file about your case available to our current or any future professional indemnity insurers. Subject to this, we will not reveal confidential information about your case except as provided by these terms of business.
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 us manage our practice
- statutory returns
- legal and regulatory compliance
Our use of that information is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018 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 advisers. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.
We may from time to time send you information that we think might be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive that information please notify our office in writing.
Financial services
We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. If, while we are acting for you, you need advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice. However, we may provide certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. This is because we are members of the Law Society of England and Wales, which is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman provides an independent complaints handling service for clients of law firms. If you are unhappy with any investment advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either of these bodies.
Insurance mediation
We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we may carry on insurance mediation activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the Financial Services website at www.fsa.gov.uk/register/home.do.
If you are unhappy with any insurance advice you receive from us, you should raise your concerns with either the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Legal Ombudsman www.legalombudsman.org.uk as detailed under "Financial services".
Interest
We believe that our policy on the payment of interest is fair and reasonable. It is kept under continual review, in the light of changing interest rates in particular. When we are in receipt of large sums of money we will place such funds on specific deposit, in which case you will receive all interest received. General payments of interest are made without deduction of tax, but tax is deducted at source on specific deposits. Please bear in mind that the rates of interest that we receive from our bankers are lower than might otherwise be achieved because of the need for us to have instant access to funds in most cases.