Terms and Conditions for Forms

www.divorcelawscotland.com (“the Website”) is a website operated by Thorntons Law LLP (“the Firm”), a limited liability partnership, registered in Scotland no. SO300381 whose registered office is Whitehall House, 33 Yeaman Shore, Dundee, DD1 4BJ, telephone number 01382 346204, email divorcelaw@thorntons-law.co.uk. Our VAT number is GB268327436. The following terms (as amended by us from time to time) (“Terms”) will apply to the service supplied by the Firm to you and as described on the Website and, unless otherwise agreed by us in writing, to all other work carried out by the Firm on your behalf (”Services”). By engaging the Firm to provide Services you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms you should not click the ‘I accept’ button. In that event, we will be unable to provide you with Services.  You should print or save a copy of these Terms for your own records as we will not automatically save or file a copy for you.

About you
By engaging us to provide services you warrant that you are at least 18 years of age and capable of entering into a legally binding contract. The Website is only intended for use in relation to legal issues in the jurisdiction of Scotland.

Engaging us to provide Services
In order to engage our Services you must complete and submit a Detailed Enquiry Form, purchase a DIY Divorce Package or Telephone Advice Line call.  This constitutes your offer to engage our Services. You must also make an initial or full payment towards fees (“Initial Payment”). All offers are subject to our acceptance. Your offer is accepted when we answer your detailed enquiry or send you a DIY Divorce Package “Service Confirmation”. Until that time, we may, at our sole discretion and without explanation, refuse to provide Services. Any Initial Payment made by you will be refunded in full.

We normally provide Services within 3 working days of the date upon which we send you Service Confirmation. If we are unable to do so, we shall endeavour to commence providing the Services within 30 days of Service Confirmation. In the unlikely event that we are unable to commence providing Services within 30 days of Service Confirmation, we will inform you and you shall have the opportunity to cancel the Services.

Cancelling Services
If you are using the service as a private individual acting outwith the course of your business, the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 give you the right to cancel the service up to 7 working days from placing your order. By engaging us to provide the services, you are agreeing to us commencing work on your behalf immediately and you thereby waive the 7 working day cooling off period and your right to cancel the order, contained in the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.

Communication with you
You accept that we may communicate and take instructions from you by email, post, telephone, fax and in person. We may require you to confirm in writing any verbal instructions given. Written notice under these Terms may be by email.  To allow us to advise you fully, we need to have full details of the matter. You can help us by giving clear instructions, providing all relevant documents, acting promptly and informing us of any time limits that you consider relevant.  Our advice is personal and confidential to our clients only. If you pass that advice on to a third party or ask us to do so, that third party will not have an enforceable right against the Firm or any of its members, staff or other agents (whether under these Terms, or otherwise).

Authority to Act
It is important that we are able to identify our client. We shall be entitled to assume, unless otherwise instructed in writing, that the person providing us with the initial instructions in relation to a piece of work is our client. In particular, we shall be entitled to assume that if there are joint clients, we can take instructions from either or any of them.

Where we do act for more than one person, each person for whom we do work is jointly and severally liable for the instructions given to us and for payment of our fees and outlays in connection with that matter. If you do not understand what this means, please ask us to explain.

Proceeds of Crime Act, Money Laundering & Other Reporting
To meet our statutory requirements under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and the Terrorism Act 2000, we are required to confirm our client’s identity.  This may involve passing certain personal details (i.e. name, address & date of birth) to an external organisation specialising in identity verification, such as credit reference agencies/fraud prevention agencies. Such organisation will use the personal details provided for the purposes of verifying identity only and will retain such information they require by law in order to show that a search of identity has been undertaken on the Firm’s behalf. The undertaking of such a search will not affect the credit history of the individual searched against and the external organisation will not use the personal details provided for any other purpose.

In certain circumstances, we are legally obliged to provide confidential information to certain authorities without prior reference to you. In such a situation, we may be required to (and we shall be entitled to) cease work on a matter until such time as we receive formal authorisation from such authorities to continue.

Responsibility for the Services
The partner who has responsibility for the service is Stephen Brand (“the Responsible Partner”) but the Services may be provided by any suitably qualified employee of the Firm. We shall try to maintain continuity with the people who are handling your work.  Our services shall be provided using reasonable skill and care.

Fees and Payment
The Website sets out our fees for the work it relates to. Fees for any other work will be estimated in advance or, if no estimate is given, the work will be charged at the hourly rates (based on the level of experience of the person(s) carrying out the work) prevailing for our general business from time to time. In addition to time spent, other factors that will be taken into account by us in determining our fees include the urgency, complexity, novelty and materiality involved in the work in question.

If you are dissatisfied with the amount of our fees, you may ask the Auditor of Court to formally assess these. The Auditor is independently appointed. If the Auditor reduces the amount of our fees, we shall only charge that reduced amount and we shall pay the Auditor’s costs. If the Auditor confirms that our fee is appropriate, you will be responsible for the Auditor’s costs.

Where an estimated fee has been provided, this is an indication only, made in good faith and on the basis of the information we have available to us at the outset. Estimates are subject to revision and are not a commitment by us to carry out the work for the fee stated. We undertake to notify you if it becomes apparent that our fee will exceed any initial estimate.

In addition to our fee, the costs of all (if any) outlays and expenses incurred by us on your behalf (such as Counsel’s fees, search fees, registration/recording fees, stamp duty, stamp duty land tax, bank charges, currency exchange costs, travel and accommodation costs, photocopying costs, courier and other third party accounts) will be payable by you. Unless you notify us in writing to the contrary, we shall assume that we have your authority to incur those outlays and expenses which we regard as being reasonable to incur in carrying out our work for you.  VAT will be charged on our fee and certain outlays/expenses we incur on your behalf at the rate which applies when the work is done or the outlay/expense incurred.

We shall issue an invoice for our fees, outlays and/or expenses to you when we, in our absolute discretion, determine it is appropriate to do so. This may be done on an interim basis where the work instructed by you has not been finalised.  Details of  outlays/expenses will be itemised separately. 

If we are holding funds on your behalf, including an Initial Payment, our fees, outlays and/or expenses may, at our sole discretion, be deducted from the sums held. Otherwise, payment is due within 14 days of the date of the invoice and requests for payment of outlays incurred should be met within a similar period or earlier, if required. Interest will be charged from the 28th day on any amounts which are overdue, at the rate of 5% above the base lending rate of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc. Should payment not be made when due, we reserve the right not to carry out further work for you (after intimation to you to this effect) in which case we shall issue a final account to you.

Payment may be made by credit/debit card or by sending a cheque to us. If sending a cheque, please quote your full name, address and invoice number or enclose a copy of the invoice. We do not accept cash payments in excess of £500 in aggregate.

Complaints
We value our good relationships with clients. However, we accept that, from time to time, difficulties and misunderstandings may arise. If you are dissatisfied with the service you receive from us, you should take the matter up, in the first instance, with the Responsible Partner. If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, your comments should be referred to our Client Relations Partner (in writing) who will review the matter. Our current Client Relations Partner is Mr Scott Milne whose contact details are Whitehall House, 33 Yeaman Shore, Dundee, DD1 4BJ (Telephone No. 01382 229111). A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.

Conflict of Interest
A conflict between your interests and those of another client of the Firm may arise. If we become aware that a conflict of interest exists, or may exist, in our acting or continuing to act for you, we will take immediate steps to advise you (and, if appropriate, the other party in conflict) and will ensure no conflict prevails if we continue to act for you. Where appropriate, we shall facilitate you making alternative arrangements and can help you to instruct other solicitors. All fees and outlays/expenses (and related VAT) up to the date of termination of our engagement will be charged and become due.

Confidentiality
In carrying out work on your behalf, our first responsibility will be to you as our client. We will not, without your permission, disclose to any person any confidential information relating to you or to any matter handled by us on your behalf, except in the proper course of the work carried out or if we are required to do so by law or any regulatory authority. We are audited by a number of organisations which monitor standards of performance. We have a duty of confidentiality to you and, therefore, need your permission for your files to be inspected. We will assume that you have given us this permission by your acceptance of these Terms.

E-mail & Mobile Communication
We wish to make you aware that e-mails and mobile telephones are potentially insecure channels of communication. Information communicated in this way may be intercepted and e-mails may be lost, amended, destroyed, delayed or unsafe to use. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that confidentiality is maintained in all our communications with you and we will check for computer viruses before sending information electronically. However we shall not be liable for any loss or damage which you may suffer or incur as a result of using such communication channels (and, without prejudice to that generality, it is your responsibility to scan e-mails and attachments received from us for viruses). If you do not wish us to use such channels of communication, please advise us accordingly.  E-mail entering or leaving the Firm’s system may be subject to monitoring and recording for business and other lawful purposes.

Our Liability
The aggregate liability of the Firm, its members, partners, employees and other agents (collectively,“Thorntons Parties”) for losses, damages, costs, claims and/or expenses (whether arising under contract, tort, delict, statute or otherwise) in relation to the Services done for you shall not exceed £2,000,000.

None of the Thorntons Parties shall have liability for losses, damages, costs, claims and/or expenses which arise as a consequence (whether direct or otherwise) of:-

  • information provided by you and/or on your behalf being incomplete, inaccurate, illegible, out of sequence, misleading, missing, late or deficient in any respect whatsoever; and/or
  • any other failure attributable to you and/or a third party;

and you shall indemnify each of the Thorntons Parties, on demand, in respect of the same. None of the Thorntons Parties shall have liability to you in respect of any indirect or consequential loss or damage (whether in the form of loss of profit or otherwise) howsoever arising. None of the Thorntons Parties shall have liability to a third party for losses, damages, costs, claims and/or expenses which arise in connection with (whether directly or indirectly) services provided to you and you shall indemnify each of the Thorntons Parties, on demand, in respect of the same.

Nothing in the preceding terms shall exclude or restrict any rights you may have in respect of fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation or operate to exclude or restrict liability in respect of breach of contract and/or negligence which results in death or personal injury and the preceding terms shall be subject to this condition. Similarly, nothing contained in the preceding terms will exclude or restrict a liability of the Firm to the extent that the same cannot be excluded or restricted by law or the professional rules of the Law Society of Scotland.

By your acceptance (whether deemed or actual) of these Terms, you:-

  • agree not to make a claim against any of the Thorntons Parties other than the Firm in respect of the Services ;
  • acknowledge and agree that any advice given to you by a member, employee or other agent of the Firm is given on behalf of the Firm and not in his/her capacity as an individual; and
  • acknowledge and agree that no special duty is owed to you by a member, employee or other agent of the Firm.

The Firm accepts the benefit of this Clause for itself and as agent of and trustee for each of the other Thorntons Parties.

Ownership of Correspondence Files
All correspondence, attendance notes, file notes, internal memoranda and draft documents (whether or not in writing or electronically held) pertaining to the Services carried out on your behalf will remain the sole and absolute property of the Firm. You will have the right to inspect correspondence in which you have an interest and also to receive copies. Any papers provided by you and any deeds or documents provided by us in connection with the Services carried out will become your property.

Destruction of Correspondence Files
It is our normal practice to destroy our correspondence files in accordance with Law Society of Scotland guidelines (details can be provided on request). In the absence of contrary agreement in writing, we shall assume you are content with this arrangement.

Data Protection
During the course of carrying out the Services on your behalf and for as long as is necessary at the end of that matter, we shall need to keep information about you. This information will be processed and kept securely in accordance with the data protection legislation prevailing from time to time. By your acceptance (whether deemed or actual) of these Terms, you are consenting to our use of personal data as appropriate (including any transfers of such data outside the EEA).

We value the relationships we have with our clients and we would like to keep you informed about legal and other commercial developments that may affect you, send you invitations to seminars/events that we feel may be of interest and keep you up to date with any developments at the Firm. In order to do this, we shall add your contact details to our marketing database. If you do not wish to receive any of this material, please advise the Responsible Partner.

Third Parties
If we have engaged the services of others on your behalf as approved by you (such as Counsel, overseas lawyers and/or expert witnesses) or services are provided by other professionals (such as accountants or surveyors) engaged by you, we are not liable for any service/advice provided (whether or not such service/advice is provided directly to us) and we will not be responsible for any act or omission of such other persons.

Termination of Services
Either you or the Firm may terminate our professional relationship at any time by giving written notice to that effect. In the event that you choose to terminate our professional relationship, we will render an account showing all fees, outlays and expenses incurred prior to the termination and due to the Firm. Should you wish any correspondence file (or a copy) or any other documents sent to another solicitor, an additional charge may be made by us in connection with this request. Delivery of the file and any other documents may, at our option, be subject to payment of this charge and settlement of all outstanding fees, outlays and expenses. We will not terminate our professional relationship without good reason (eg. where a conflict of interest has arisen, if the action you are requesting us to take is contrary to our professional rules of conduct or if a breakdown in our relationship occurs), whether in its entirety or with respect to a particular piece of work .

Variation
These terms may be amended by us, in our absolute discretion, from time to time without notice to you. The form prevailing at any time shall be available at the Website.

Governing Law
Our engagement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of Scotland and, by your acceptance (whether deemed or actual) of these Terms, you agree that in the event of any dispute, the matter may be dealt with only by the Scottish courts.

Law Society of Scotland, SLCC and PI Insurance
We are members of the Law Society of Scotland, and subject to its professional rules including the Solicitors (Scotland) (Standards of Conduct) Practice Rules 2008 and Standards of Service. The Law Society of Scotland can be contacted at 26 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, EH3 7YR or at http://www.lawscot.org.uk/contact_us

The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 provides recourse to a non-judicial dispute resolution process through the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC). The SLCC can be contacted at The Stamp Office, 10 - 14 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG or at http://www.scottishlegalcomplaints.com

As a Scottish solicitors' practice, we have cover under the Law Society of Scotland's compulsory Master Policy for Professional Indemnity Insurance, which cover is provided by a panel of insurers, the lead insurer being Royal and Sun Alliance plc of 200 St Vincent Street, Glasgow G2 5SG. The territorial cover of our policy is worldwide.

Financial Services Authority
Thorntons Law LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Thorntons is a trading name of Thorntons Law LLP, a limited liability partnership, registered in Scotland No. SO300381 whose registered office is at Whitehall House, 33 Yeaman Shore, Dundee DD1 4BJ. A list of members' names is available for inspection at this address. All correspondence signed by a named individual is signed for and on behalf of Thorntons Law LLP.