Terms & conditions of engagement

1. Introduction
The following explains our terms and conditions whilst working for clients. It is important, to prevent any misunderstandings at a later stage, that you know what to expect and understand what our service involves. Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. Note: throughout these Terms and Conditions the word “you” and “your” refers to our client.
These Terms and Conditions supplement the accompanying Letter of Engagement for clients of J S Gollogley Solicitors which incorporates these terms. In the event of any inconsistency between the Letter of Engagement and these Terms and Conditions, the Letter of Engagement will prevail.

2. Discussing expectations
We will discuss your expectations and tell you whether we think they are realistic. It is important to us that you understand at all times what is happening in your case. To assist with this, we will give you general information and explain any procedures regarding your case as it progresses.

3. Instructions
It is important that you give us clear and accurate instructions from the very beginning and when you get any new information as the case develops. We will do our best to carry out the agreed instructions and to give you a confidential, cordial and business like service.
When we receive your instructions, we will explain your legal options to you. If there is anything you do not understand, please tell us right away so that we can answer your questions. We will then agree with you the actions to be taken.

4. Updating your instructions
We may need to update your instructions from time to time, for example, if:

• New issues or information arise.
• Events take an unexpected turn,
• We need more information from you, or
• Fees or expenses have not been paid.

It is important that you give us instructions when they are needed. If you fail to do this, we cannot make progress. This may affect the outcome and, in some cases, may mean we have no choice but to stop acting for you.

5. Acting on your behalf
When you give us instructions, we assume that you are giving us permission to take various actions on your behalf. For instance, our role as your solicitors may involve:

• Making a payment to a bank or building society for you,
• Holding information for our records, including ‘sensitive data’, such as your Personal Public Service (PPS) number or medical reports,
• Employing barristers and other experts, such as doctors and engineers, on your behalf,
• Obtaining information from third parties to help us with your case, without seeking your permission in advance, and
• Using information technology (IT), including email, to guarantee the best quality and most effective service.

Important: 

• If you instruct us to repay money on your behalf, you cannot change these instructions later, if we have given a professional promise to others to do so.
• We will hold any money we receive on your behalf strictly in line with the Solicitors’ Accounts Regulations. 
• We will only use any personal or ‘sensitive’ information to help your case.
• We will only employ experts with your permission. We will select professionals who we believe to be competent, but we are not responsible for the negligence of anyone we employ on your behalf.

6. Confidentiality 

Unless otherwise specifically stated in the Engagement Letter we are authorised by you to speak to or meet with any other persons whom we may need contact to perform the engagement or who you request we contact. We may release to such persons for the purpose of that engagement any information, whether confidential or not, which they have obtained during the course of the engagement and shall not be liable for any use subsequently made of that information.

You acknowledge our legal obligations to keep confidential any relevant information from or on behalf of any other client (or potential client) and you agree that, if we have or obtain any such confidential information, we will not disclose it to you or make use of it for your benefit.

Save as set out above or as authorised by you or as required by law, court or arbitration proceedings, regulations, professional duty or as is requested by regulatory authorities as is necessary to protect our own legitimate interests (including disclosure required on account of anti money laundering regulations, we shall not disclose any confidential information relating to you which we obtain during the course of the engagement to any other person (except the Client’s own advisers).

Where appropriate, on your behalf, we may be able to obtain advice in matters of foreign law from suitably qualified foreign legal advisers and for this purpose we shall be deemed to be authorised by you to disclose all relevant information to the foreign legal adviser. In such circumstances our role will be limited to obtaining and communicating the advice rendered by the foreign legal adviser without responsibility or liability on our part for the accuracy or content of such advice.

7. Costs of services 

As soon as practicable after the beginning of your case, as required by law, we will give you information, in writing, about our fees and other expenses that may be incurred. If we fail to agree the fees for our services with you, we will not act on your behalf.

• We take into account many factors when determining our fee charges such as:
• How complicated, urgent and important your matter or case is;
• How difficult or new the questions about your matter or case are;
• The skill, specialised knowledge and responsibilities of the solicitor and staff involved;
• The number of hours the solicitor and staff spend on your matter or case;
• The number and importance of documents prepared or examined;
• The value of any transaction that might be involved;
• Whether travel is required to deal with the matter; and
• The circumstances in which we deal with the matter or case, including any extraordinary efforts required to meet special constraints or other requirements imposed by you or the specific circumstances of the case.

If we agree to charge you based on the time spent on your case, our current hourly rates will be furnished to you in writing. Please note that our hourly rates are subject to alternations from time to time.

Time spent on a transaction includes all time spent by any solicitor and staff member in progressing the transaction and includes (but without limiting the general principle:

• Considering the contents of incoming and outgoing letters, emails, notes and documents;
• Preparing file and other notes of meetings and telephone calls and summaries of documents or correspondence;
• Regular transaction reviews;
• Transaction checklists, inventories and bibles of completed documents.
• Preparing for meetings and telephone calls;
• Liaising and communicating as between different teams and individuals within our firm involved in discharging instructions; and
• Travelling to and from meetings.

The law allows us to keep a client’s file as security for any costs until we have been paid for our services. We will issue our bill of costs to you without delay.

Upon issuing any bill to you for services provided, our requirement is that the bill must be discharged in full within 30 days of issue. In default of payment within 30 days we reserve the right to charge interest on any unpaid sums at the rate then currently stipulated under Section 8 of the Courts Act 1981 (as may be amended or varied). No fees are due and payable until we issue a bill to you.

We will be entitled to charge for copying, printing and other incidental services properly provided, and to recover incidental expenses properly incurred in carrying out the engagement. Unless otherwise specifically stated in the Engagement Letter, estimates of fees and charges given by us we only non-binding estimates and or fees may be lower or higher.

We will endeavour to let you know during the performance of the engagement if we consider the estimate is likely to be exceeded.

All fees and expenses will be subject to VAT where applicable.

If it is necessary for us to terminate the engagement for the reasons set out in the Engagement Letter or for any other reason that we consider justifies the termination of the engagement, we will be entitled to our fees accrued or incurred until the date the engagement is terminated.

8. Timescale of case 

We will estimate how long your case is likely to continue, including, as your case proceeds, what stage we have reached and what and when the next steps will be. If any event occurs that will delay your case, we will let you know and give you are best estimate of a new timescale.

9. Legal requirements 

Under anti-money laundering regulations, we need to be sure of your identity and source of assets before we can take on your case.

Identity – you will need to give us evidence of your identity. For corporate clients this means a copy of its memorandum and articles of association and certificate of incorporation, and a list of directors’ names, occupations, residential and business addresses and dates of birth. For individuals and company directors this means evidence of your identity, such as your driving licence or passport, even if we already know you. We will also need you to give us a document showing your permanent address, for example an ESB or telephone bill or a bank statement.

Source of assets – any funds or property that you ask us to deal with must have been legally obtained. If we become aware or suspect that these assets come from an illegal source, we must notify the Gardai and the Revenue Commissioners without telling you, except in limited circumstances. We will immediately stop acting for you if we have to report illegal assets.

Even when we are not obliged to report to the authorities, we cannot transfer any assets or property funded by the proceeds of crime. This includes funds that have not been declared for tax purposes or that have been obtained by false means. In this situation, you would have to legalise your position before we could act on your behalf.

10. Limitation of liability 

Our liability (and that of or present and former partners and employees) to you arising out of, or in connection with, our engagement (whether for breach of contract or statutory duty, negligence, or otherwise) will be limited to the higher of (a) the minimum amount of the professional indemnity insurance cover from time to time required to be maintained by us under applicable law; or (b) such other limit as expressly agreed with you. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall limit our liability to you (a) for fraud or fraudulent concealment or (b) to the extent that under any applicable law liability may not be limited.

11. Systems and Equipment 

We accept no responsibility for ensuring that our systems or equipment or any other system/or equipment are free of viruses or other latent problems.

12. Email. 

As you will be aware, internet and email are the preferred means of communication in many areas of business life. We are committed to the use of the Internet and email where appropriate. Although the majority of Internet messages (including email) reach their destination safely, the Internet is neither wholly private or secure, nor are these services guarantees for correct message routing or promptness of delivery. For that reason you are advised to monitor carefully all emails that you send to us. If you do not receive a response within an appropriate time you should contact us by telephone or other means to check that we have actually received your email. Where you are concerned about security of your email or its contents then please do not hesitate to use fax or normal post.

Unless you specifically advise us in writing to the contrary, we will assume that you wish communications between yourselves and ourselves to be conducted via the Internet and email notwithstanding the security and reliability issues mentioned above. We will not be responsible where email or other Internet communications have not been properly transmitted, have been intercepted by unauthorised third parties or have failed to arrive promptly or fail to do so at all.

In common with most organisations using email and Internet communications, we reserve the right to monitor all email and Internet traffic passing through our network and to comply with our legal obligations. You accept our right to do so.

13. Data Storage & Privacy 

We use all reasonable endeavours to protect the security of Data, ie the personal information you supply to us, together with your client files and all relevant emails and other correspondence. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Data from unauthorised access and use. As effective as modern security practices are, no physical or electronic security system is entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the complete security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us. We have implemented strict internal guidelines to ensure that your privacy is safeguarded at every level of our organisation. We will continue to revise policies and implement additional security features as new technologies become available. If we give you a password which enables you to access certain parts of our web site (www.jsgollogley.ie), you are responsible for keeping that password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

The transmission of information via the internet is not secure and may involve the transfer of Data to countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Those countries may not provide an adequate level of protection in relation to processing your Data. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing.

Although we will do our best to protect your Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Data transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of Data is at your own risk. Once we receive your Data, we use appropriate security measures to seek to prevent unauthorised access but we cannot accept liability in any case where those security measures prove insufficient to safeguard your data.

14. Corporate and other Entities 

When the Client is a corporation or entity which is not a natural person, and unless the Client specifically advises us to the contrary in writing, we will be entitled to assume that everyone within the organisation (which term for this purpose includes any parent, subsidiary or associated company) who actually gives instructions to us has requisite authority to do so on behalf of the organisation. You should therefore ensure that you have appropriate systems and procedures within your organisation to ensure that everyone who issues instructions to us is properly authorised to do so

15. Obtaining your file 

Once you pay us for our services, and provided that we have done everything we promised to do, you can take your original file. We are entitled to copy this file to comply with solicitors’ regulations. Usually we keep a clients’ file for at least six years and then destroy it. However, we never destroy deeds and wills. If we store deeds and/or wills for you, we reserve the right to recover the costs of storage incurred from our clients.

If you need your file or information from the file, we can send this to you. We will charge you a fee for this service, based on the current rates at the time of your request.

15. Making a complaint 

Good communication between us will guarantee the best possible outcome. If you wish to make a complaint about any aspect of our service, however, please send it in writing to us addresses to the Principal/Managing Partner and we will review your file without delay. We will then send you a written reply to any requests for information, advising you of any actions that we will be taking in relation to your case.

16. Transferring to another solicitor 

We hope to reach a successful result on your behalf. If you decide for any reason to transfer to another solicitors’ firm, we will require payment for any work done up to that point.

This requirement includes certain litigation cases, even if we might have agreed to seek a fee only if your case was successful. If you change to another solicitor, this agreement automatically ends and we will require payment for the work we have actually done.

17. Professional insurance 

We confirm that we have professional insurance in place, as required by law.

18. Acceptance Clause 

The terms and conditions described here will come into effect on the commencement of our engagement with you upon receiving instructions. Please note that we do not claim to have any particular expertise outside of a solicitor’s general expertise.

19. Defined Terms 

In this document the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings, save where the context otherwise requires:-

Anti-money-laundering regulations– a set of laws aimed at preventing and detecting money laundering by encouraging businesses to ‘know the customer’ before entering a business relationship with them. See ‘money laundering’.

Client- a person or group receiving the services of a solicitor.

File- all legal documents relating to a client’s case, including any letters or emails.

Money laundering– illegal hiding the true origin and ownership of the proceeds of a person’s or group’s activities.

Negligence – failure to exercise the care towards others that would reasonable be expected in the same circumstances or taking action that a reasonable person would not take, both of which causing loss or damage.