Our terms of business are set out below. Please read them carefully, and let us know if you need any clarification. Your continuing instructions will amount to your acceptance of these terms and conditions of business. Unless otherwise agreed, these terms of business apply to any instructions you give us. We reserve the right to update these terms from time to time and we will notify you if we do so.
THE SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED
1. SCOPE OF WORK
1.1 The scope of our work will be as set out in the relevant engagement or retainer letter sent to you by us or as we may otherwise have agreed with you in writing (“Engagement Document”).
1.2 Unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing, our responsibilities do not include:
2. PERSONNEL
2.1 The individuals carrying out work on your behalf will include:
3. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
3.1 We rely on you to provide us with all the information we need to perform work for you and inform us of any significant changes in your circumstances. You should also provide us with any relevant documents and any additional information we may need.
CHARGES, INVOICING AND PAYMENT
4. CHARGES
4.1 Our charges for professional services consist of our legal and other fees, reimbursable expenses (“disbursements”) and (where applicable) Value Added Tax (“VAT”).
FIXED RATE / MONTHLY RETAINER PLANS
4.2 We provide our professional services for a clearly defined scope of work at an agreed fixed hourly rate or on the basis of a Monthly Retainer Plan (for more details please click here “Fees”). Our chargeable work will include drafting documents, advising, reporting, dealing with correspondence, telephone calls, preparing for and attending meetings and preparing notes of those meetings, reading papers, researching the law, and travelling. The applicable hourly rates will be included in the Engagement Document.
4.3 Our rates also cover routine secretarial services, postage, and telephone calls within Cyprus. However, we may charge separately for certain support services, including photocopying, printing, scanning, faxing, CD creation/copying, and international telephone calls.
PROJECT SPECIFIC FLAT FEE PLAN
4.4 For certain types of project based work, we may agree a fixed fee at the outset for the legal element of our charges.
4.5 An estimate, quotation or other indication of fees is not intended to be fixed unless otherwise agreed in writing.
DISBURSEMENTS
4.6 In addition to any legal fees charged, our invoices will also seek reimbursement of payments made to third parties on your behalf or for your benefit. The expenses incurred will depend upon the type of work we are carrying out for you but may include experts’ fees, Land Registry fees, local authority and Registrar of Companies and other company registry search fees, legal database search fees, translation fees, courier charges, and the fees of e-document management providers.
VAT
4.7 If appropriate, we will add VAT to our charges at the applicable rate.
5. INVOICING AND PAYMENT OF INVOICES
5.1 To enable you to budget we may send our invoices from time to time before the conclusion of your matter. An invoice will either be the only and final invoice for the charges and expenses incurred for the period and/or matter to which the invoice relates or will represent a request for a payment on account of our total fees for the matter in question.
5.2 Unless instructed otherwise we will deliver our invoices to you electronically.
5.3 Payment is due within 30 days of your receipt of any invoice and we have the right to charge interest on any invoice after 30 days at the applicable rate until payment of all monies owed.
6. PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT AND RETAINER PAYMENTS
6.1 It is our standard practice to seek payments on account of our legal and other fees and/or disbursements before starting work and, if appropriate, at intervals during the course of the matter. This money will not be withdrawn until we deliver an invoice to you, or incur disbursements on your behalf. A request for a payment on account of our fees does not constitute an estimate, quotation or other indication of likely fees. Note that if we request payments on account and these are not made by the dates required, we shall not be able to continue to act on your behalf.
6.2 We may also seek a retainer at the outset of a matter. This is an amount which is held and is set against our final invoice or repaid on the conclusion of the matter.
7. DATA PROTECTION
7.1 During the course of performing work on your behalf and for as long as is necessary we will need to keep information about you, some of which may be considered sensitive. This information will be processed and kept securely in accordance with our Privacy Notice and prevailing data protection legislation, your instructions to us and our duty of confidentiality. We may also hold copies of your personal data on computer servers hosted by third parties within the EEA.
7.2 We will use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for the following related purposes:
7.3 Further information about our data processing activities is available on our website.
7.4 You may object to any of these processing activities by emailing us at info@solonchristoulaw.com.
8. FILE STORAGE
8.1 We will keep a file relating to your instructions in either hard copy or electronic format or both. After completing your work, we are entitled to keep the file if you owe any money to us. We will normally keep the file (except for any of your papers which you ask to be returned to you) for 10 years. We keep the file on the understanding that we have your authority to destroy it 10 years after the date of the final invoice we send you on the matter in question. We will not destroy documents you ask us to keep in safe custody but we may return these to you or any lawyers named by you.
9. CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY AND LEGAL PROFESSIONAL PRIVILEGE
9.1 Our advice to and communication with you is confidential and may be legally privileged in certain circumstances. At any time in the future we may, however, be under a duty to disclose certain facts or information to third parties and to cooperate with any official investigations or enquiries relating wholly or in part to any work we have done for you. We will endeavour, where possible and unless prevented by law, to notify you of any such event and to take all reasonable steps to protect your interests.
9.2 From time to time we may instruct third parties to perform services on our behalf including expert advice or consultancy, auditing services, photocopying, scanning and other similar work on our files. Any such provider we engage will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement.
10. COPYRIGHT
Copyright in all documentation and materials we produce for you in the course of our work remains our property, but you are licensed non-exclusively in perpetuity to use those materials for the purpose for which they were provided to you by us. This licence is conditional on your having paid our fees in full for the work concerned. You may assign this licence to any successor to the relevant part of your business or activities. The licence may be terminated by us if any unauthorised use of our copyright is made.
COMPLIANCE AND REGULATION
11. MONEY LAUNDERING
11.1 All advocates must comply with anti-money laundering legislation. We must establish the identity of all our clients by requesting identity documents and may request additional information from you. If you are unable or unwilling to provide adequate information we will cease to act for you and will accept no liability for any delay or loss which may result.
11.2 If we receive funds while acting for you we are required to ascertain their source and may require an explanation and supporting documents from you or any third party by whom funds are transferred to us.
11.3 In certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose otherwise confidential information about you to law enforcement agencies or other regulated organisations. Our duty to report may override the duty of confidentiality that we owe to you. Legal professional privilege may not apply in these circumstances. We accept no liability for any delay or loss which may result.
11.4 By instructing us you expressly consent to our complying with our statutory obligations in relation to the prevention and detection of money laundering.
12. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE (PII)
12.1 We maintain PII in accordance with the rules of the Cyprus Bar Association. Details of the insurers and the territorial coverage of the policy are available on request.
12.2 We are required under the terms of our PII Policy to notify our insurers immediately of any instance which appears to be or could potentially become a claim against us. If we do, then your rights to confidentiality are automatically waived and full details of the matter will be disclosed to our insurers.
MISCELLANEOUS
13. COMPLAINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
13.1 We aim at providing a service of high quality in all respects. However, if you are not satisfied with our work, please raise the matter with us.
13.2 We seek to resolve any problems arising with our services. If you have any concerns we would very much like to know about it. We value your business and are always aiming to improve our services. If you have any suggestions as to how we could do better, please let us know.
14. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
14.1 Our liability as a legal practice for any claim in respect of our services provided to you shall be limited to the lower of any amount specified in our Engagement Document.
14.2 Furthermore, we will not be liable (whether in tort, contract or otherwise) for:
14.3 In relation to our liability for any claim in respect of our services, the provisions of this section and of our Engagement Document shall continue to apply notwithstanding the termination of our engagement for any reason.
15. TERMINATION
15.1 You may end your instructions to us or any Engagement Document in writing at any time, but we can retain all your documents until final payment of any monies you owe to us relating to work we performed for you.
15.2 We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example if you do not pay an invoice or effect payment on account of our costs or there is a conflict of interests. We will give you reasonable notice if we decide to stop acting for you.
15.3 If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, you will pay our charges up to that point.
16. VARIATION
16.1 Any variation of these terms of business or the terms of any Engagement Document must be in writing.
16.2 The terms of the Engagement Document override these terms of business to the extent of any inconsistency.
17. JURISDICTION
These Terms of Business shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with Cyprus law. The Cypriot courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Business.