Caroline Coats Solicitors

The office is open from Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. until 5.00pm. In the case of special need, appointments may be made at other times.

 

When writing or telephoning us, it is helpful if you can mention the file reference, which is shown on our letters to you. This enables us to pass your letter or message quickly to the right person.

 

We mainly visit clients in their own homes, so set times for appointment are not usually given.  Appointments held in your own home throughout Hampshire are at no extra charge, between the hours of 10 and 4.

If you would like to see one of her assistants, whenever possible, please telephone beforehand to make an appointment. This will help avoid you having an unnecessary wait, or not being able to see the member of the firm you had hoped.

 

The telephone and facsimile numbers and email and web addresses are shown on the firm’s letterhead. We do not guarantee to respond to email communications the day they are sent.

 

The office has an answering machine on which messages can be left outside normal hours.

 

The Firm is departmentalised, with each member of the Firm practising in a particular field of legal work. We outline on page 2 the types of work undertaken by the firm, with the names of the person who normally deals with that work.

 

Sometimes conveyancing or probate work involves investments. We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority and so may refer you to someone who is authorised to provide any necessary advice. However, we can provide certain limited services in relation to investments, provided they are closely linked with the legal services we are providing to you, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

 

If you have any problem with the service we have provided for you then please let us know. We will try to resolve your problem quickly and operate an internal complaints handling system to help is to resolve the problem between ourselves. If for any reason we are unable to resolve the problem between ourselves then we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and complaints and redress mechanisms are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Complaints Service.

 

This firm is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority. However, we are included on the register maintained by the Financial Services Authority so that we can 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 Authority website www.fsa.gov.uk/register.

 

The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purpose of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the LCS is the independent complaints handling body of the Law Society.

 

It is the aim and policy of the Firm to give speedy and efficient service to our clients. We make the greatest possible use of facsimile, email and computerised systems. However, these are only aids to the people whose skills are at your disposal.

 

We ask that you remember that there are some delays over which we have no control, and that the speed at which we can complete business is often in the hands of Local Authorities (particularly where Local Searches and Enquiries are involved), Local Land Registries, the Courts, Tax Offices (particularly in the winding up of Estates) and others.

 

The person with whom you are dealing will always be pleased to discuss the question of fees, and to provide an estimate of them. Further details are given below.

 

It is not our practice to accept cash payments in excess of £500.

 

There is normally space available for parking at the front of the building. 

 

 

Upon accepting your instructions, we are under a professional duty to inform you of the status of the individual who will be handling your matter. For that purpose, we set out below the identity of the members of our team, their qualifications and the areas of work in which they specialise.

 

 

 

Caroline Coats and Gillian Linford are members of ‘STEP’ which is the society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and as such is registered as a Trusts and Estates Practitioner.

 

Caroline Coats and Fiona Heald are appointed to the Panel of Deputies.

Caroline Coats, Gillian Linford and Fiona Heald are all full members of Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE) and Caroline is chair, Gillian is the Secretary and Fiona is the Treasurer of the south central regional group (covering Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire)

 

Fiona Heald is a member of this organisation which is the leading professional body for those providing tax compliance services and related activities in the UK

 

If at any time, you feel that your affairs are not being dealt with as you would expect, in the first instance please raise the matter with the member of the Firm with whom you are currently dealing. If you are not able to resolve the question satisfactorily with that person, please immediately refer the matter to Caroline Coats. 

 

On behalf of a Client, we will be pleased to retain in our Strong Room (free of charge) any Deeds or Documents of title (whether or not prepared by this firm). At the conclusion of any matter which results in the production of any such documents of title (subject to any contrary instructions from you) we will, as a matter of course, place these in our Strong Room for safe keeping.

 

As to working paper files, we will keep these for such period after the conclusion of any matter as we consider to be appropriate. This is on the understanding that we have your authority, at the expiry of such period and without further reference to you, to destroy all the contents of such file (other than any documents which, at the conclusion of the matter, you specifically ask us to deposit in safe custody or to return to you).

 

If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act in connection with your business, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. We may charge for reading and implementing instructions given by you or on your behalf in that regard.

 

The terms upon which the Firm will accept your instructions to act on your behalf are set out below. They may be varied from time to time.

It is important that all our Clients are aware of our arrangement for rendering invoices for legal services, and also of the various ways in which payment of such fees may be made.

 

It is a Statutory requirement that Solicitors’ charges should be fair and reasonable. If you feel that ours are not, you have the right to have our bill reviewed by a Court (or alternatively, in the case of a non-contentious matter, by the Solicitors Regulation Authority).

 

In fixing our charges, we are required to take into account a number of factors. These include the complexity of issues, the speed at which action must be taken, the value of any property being dealt with, the skills involved and the importance of the matter to the client. One of the factors (but not always the most important one) is the time expended by Caroline Coats and other relevant members of staff, but a fair charge may be more or less than one based solely on hourly rates.

 

The Solicitors Regulation Authority requires us to make known to our Clients the hourly rates which we use as our yardstick for calculating our charges, where the time involved is an important factor. With effect from 1^st April 2007, these (which have been calculated using a formula recommended by the Solicitors Regulation Authority), are £195 per hour.

 

This rate will be applied to all the time spent on your matters by the relevant member of the Firm (including meetings with you and other necessary parties; any time spent travelling; considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence; and making and receiving telephone calls). They are inclusive of normal secretarial time, other overheads, and a margin of profit, but additional charges are made for substantial amounts of copying, overseas and other unusually costly telephone charges, and other out of pocket expenses.

 

VAT is payable on all fees at the rate which applies when the work is done. The present rate of VAT is 17.5%.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority require us to provide a written estimate of our charges and expenses at the outset of, and at appropriate stages throughout, any matter or, where it is not reasonably practicable to do this, to explain the reason for it and invite a Client to set a total fee which will not be exceeded without their consent (even though it may not be possible for us to complete the required work without exceeding the stated limit.) We will deal with the issue in the initial letter confirming the Client’s instructions. In any matter where, at the outset, we are able only to give our best assessment of the likely fees, we will always give a client sufficient warning when that figure is in danger of being exceeded. The person with conduct of your matter will review the estimate of costs at least every 6 months or sooner if your matter requires it. However, in an urgent matter where the client requires us to take action at short notice it is not always possible to provide an estimate as to the cost of such instructions.

 

As far as the Conveyancing charges are concerned, the Firm will normally expect to adhere to any written estimate which is given. However, such estimates are always given on the assumption that the transaction concerned is reasonably straightforward and the Firm reserves the right to revise any such estimate in the event of the transaction proving to be more time consuming or complex than originally anticipated. The value of the property is a factor in calculating conveyancing fees. Other factors which may be taken into account in settling conveyancing fees will be the time expended, the complexity of the transaction, and any particular urgency with which the matter has to be handled. A charge is always made for work carried out on transactions which subsequently abort.

If Clients request services that are outside the scope of the original instructions, the eventual bill will exceed any estimate based on those original instructions.

 

All accounts rendered to the Client for Legal Services are due for payment on the day that the relevant invoice is rendered to the Client. Interest will be charged on any accounts which remain unpaid 30 days after being delivered. Interest will at the rate allowed by the Courts on Judgement Debts (currently 8%) or at such other rate as is, for the time being, reasonable in the light of the general level of interest rates. After completing any work, we are entitled to keep all your papers and documents so long as there is any money owing to us for our charges and expenses.

 

On accepting instructions to act on behalf of a Company, we will regard as our Clients both the Company and the individual(s) from whom instructions are received. This means that in addition to the Company, the instructing individual(s) will be personally liable to us for the payment of the legal fees and expenses incurred as a result of those instructions.

 

It is the Firm’s normal practice to render regular interim invoices in respect of matters which are not likely to be completed within a period of three months.

All Clients will, in any event, be informed periodically (at least every six months) of the approximate amount of costs incurred to date. Unless otherwise stated, any such interim invoice will constitute no more than a request for a payment generally on account of services rendered; it will not necessarily represent the actual cost of the professional work performed during any particular period.

 

The Firm will require to be put in funds to cover disbursements to be incurred on behalf of a Client. In addition, the Firm reserves the right in all cases to require payment in advance in respect of professional fees.

 

Where our dealings on behalf of a Client also involve us in dealing with third parties for whom we are not acting, we regret that we cannot accept any liability to such third parties.

In some cases, the size or value of a particular matter is such that this Firm’s professional liabilities are potentially too large for us to risk accepting instructions to act concerning the matter. Where this is the case, we will agree with the Client such limitation of liability as is reasonable in the circumstances.

 

Unless otherwise agreed at the outset, where a commission or fee of any size or description (including those of a repetitive nature) becomes payable to this Firm as a result of our introduction of a Client to any financial institution or other organisation, such receipts shall be passed on to the client unless otherwise agreed with the client that the receipt may be retained by us towards our professional charges.

 

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. In some circumstances, you may consider that we ought to stop acting for you (for example, if you cannot give clear or proper instructions on how we are to proceed, or if it is clear that you have lost confidence in how we are carrying out your work).

 

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason (for example, if you do not pay an interim bill or comply with our request for payment on account). We must give you reasonable notice that we will stop acting for you.

 

If you or we decide that we will no longer act for you, you will be liable to pay our charges on an hourly basis, and expenses, in the manner described above.