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These Terms and Conditions contain standard terms and terms and conditions which supplement the information contained in our engagement letter

1. Our Aim

1.1. We aim to offer all of our clients the highest possible standard of service as well as provide accurate, relevant and timely legal advice, assistance and representation.  This document sets out our Terms and Conditions of Business that we will act for you, subject to the further information that you will be provided with during the course of your contract with us from time to time.

2. General Information

2.1. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd is a Limited Company (Company Number: 15870616) in England and Wales and is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number 8010451. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd is the relevant legal entity with which you are contracting, and these Terms and Conditions of Business apply in all cases.

2.2. We undertake a range of legal services, more details of which can be found at our website at www.ryanandcosolicitors.co.uk

2.3. We are obliged to carry professional indemnity insurance up to the value of £3 million.  Further details can be made available to you if required and the geographical limits of our cover relate to work undertaken in the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales. Our primary insurer is Travelers Professional Risks Ltd.  

2.4. Our opening hours are between 9.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday. However, appointments can be arranged outside those hours if necessary. Our offices are also closed on Bank Holidays. You can contact us at any time of the day or night by using the email address enquiries@ryanandcosolicitors.co.uk or by calling either 01772 447777 during normal office hours, or 07976245000 after office hours.

3. Conflicts

3.1. We conduct routine checks for conflicts of interest upon accepting instructions from clients as we can only accept your instruction if no conflict exists or is likely to develop. If that situation changes during your case then we will discuss how to resolve it with you.

3.2. If a conflict arises we may have to stop acting for you. This may occur because we have discovered or are aware of information obtained whilst acting for another client which we would normally have to tell you about. However, telling you about that information would conflict with our duty of confidentiality to the other client.  In this event, we reserve the right to withhold this information and stop acting for you. In certain cases, we may continue to act for you and the other client, but only if we are able to observe our duty of confidentiality to you both.

3.3. A conflict may also arise if, for example, you provide us with guilty instructions but then wish to plead not guilty, as we have a duty not to mislead the Courts. Again, should that situation arise we will of course discuss how the matter can be resolved.  

4. Our Obligations to You

4.1. If we are able to act for you, then in order to deliver the best possible service to you we promise to:

4.1.1. Always act in your best interests;

4.1.2. Explain to you the risks and benefits of taking a particular course of action;

4.1.3. Explain to you any alternative courses of action available to you;

4.1.4. Give you our best advice;

4.1.5. Give you the best information possible about any likely costs of the action which you are proposing to take;

4.1.6. Give you the best information possible about any likely costs of the work you are asking us to undertake.

5.    Your Responsibilities to Us

5.1. In order for us to provide you with the best possible service, it is important that you:

5.1.1. Give us instructions that allow us to do our work properly;

5.1.2. Provide prompt and realistic instructions within the range of options available to you;

5.1.3. Don't ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way;

5.1.4. Don’t deliberately mislead us;

5.1.5. Safeguard any documents which are likely to be required;

5.1.6. Provide promptly all requested documents in connection with your matter;

5.1.7. Attend all appointments that are made for you or contact us to arrange an alternative date or time. We require your detailed instructions in order to progress your case and if you do not attend our offices to give those instructions it will impede the preparation of your case.

6. Charges and Expenses

6.1. There are different funding options that may be available to you.

6.2. The fee earner responsible for your case will discuss these with you and will provide you separately with details of which funding arrangements apply to your case and our respective obligations in relation to our fees. The following general information applies in most cases, however:

6.2.1. Our charges are calculated mainly by reference to the time actually spent by the Solicitors and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf.  Fixed fees may be offered to you.  However, these are usually based, in any event, on a genuine estimate of the time that it is likely that we will need to spend on your case.

6.2.2. When assessing a fixed fee quotation or the level of our hourly fee rate, regard will be had to all the circumstances, including (in addition to time spent):

6.2.2.1. The seniority of the lawyer undertaking the work;

6.2.2.2. The complexity of the matter and/or the difficulty or novelty of the legal questions raised;

6.2.2.3. The importance of the work to you;

6.2.2.4. The skill, responsibility and knowledge involved;

6.2.2.5. The number and importance of the documents prepared or perused;

6.2.2.6. The place where the work is carried out.

6.2.3. Our recognised hourly rates range from £141.00 per hour for preparation and attendances for any trainee Solicitors or paralegals we may employ, to £350.00 per hour for our senior Solicitors / Directors. Travelling and waiting is charged at one half of the relevant hourly rates. Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/solicitors-guideline-hourly-rates. Please note that the rates quoted are exclusive of VAT (at the prevailing rate) which must also be added.

6.2.4. Each new client matter has a unique file number and a fee earner’s time is recorded in 6 minute units on a computerised case management system. Routine letters are charged as 6 minute units of time. We also charge for the time spent on making and taking telephone calls in 6 minute units and considering incoming letters in units of 6 minutes.

6.2.5. Please also note that our fixed fee quotations are also exclusive of VAT, at the prevailing rate.

6.2.6. Work undertaken on your files might include time spent:

6.2.6.1. Meeting with you and attending upon you on the telephone, or with other people with whom we need to communicate with in respect of your case;

6.2.6.2. Considering and working on papers that relate to your case, including reading letters, emails and text messages sent by you;

6.2.6.3. Preparing documents, such as witness statements, or drafting correspondence, including letters, e-mails and text messages;

6.2.6.4. Travelling away from the office where necessary, for example to attend at Court;

6.2.6.5. Waiting for out of office appointments or Court hearings to commence;

6.2.6.6. Time spent in the preparation of any detailed costs calculations.

6.2.7. The person responsible for the day to day handling of your matter will be able to give you an approximate indication of the amount of fees incurred at any given time and discuss any other factors which may affect the final fee.  

6.2.8. Our fees may be reviewed annually and any increases in fees will be notified to you before any such increases take effect.

6.2.9. Fees that are quoted to you do not include an estimate of any time spent in dealing with the recovery of costs from you and/or the payment of any bank charges which may arise from any transactions which arise from you not complying with agreements to pay sums in respect of fees.  We will be entitled to charge our time at the hourly rate of the relevant fee earner working on your case for any work undertaken to recover fees from you and, in addition, to charge any fees, penalties or bank charges incurred as a result of any default by you.

7. Disbursements

7.1. We call out of pocket expenses disbursements. These are payments which we need to make on your behalf. These are not included in the estimates of the work that we will have to undertake ourselves.

7.2. Disbursements include such things as the costs of travelling to and from out of office appointments, Court fees and payments to experts or Barristers’ fees. We have no obligation to make such payments unless funding is in place to meet such expenses.

7.3. We will therefore ask you to make payment on account of the cost of those disbursements before they are incurred by us and we reserve the right not to incur this expense on your behalf if payment has not been made by you to us.

8. Interim Billing

8.1. We feel it is important that clients are kept informed, not only of the progress of their case but also of their costs.  Accordingly, it is our policy to regularly review each private paying client’s file and to submit interim invoices.  This allows you to be informed as to the progress of the costs of your case and it also avoids you having to pay one lump sum at the end of your case.  These invoices will account for work undertaken and disbursements incurred.  We will then ask for further money on account of costs unless the client balance is sufficient.

9. Payment Arrangements

9.1. Where clients pay privately for all or part of the work that we undertake on a case, we ask clients to deposit money on account of the costs that will be incurred.  We reserve the right to make the receipt of such payment a condition of our accepting your instructions.  

9.2. It must be clearly understood that the total of our fees and disbursements in your case may amount to more than the payments on account requested from you.  In almost all cases, any monies on account will be paid into Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd Client Account until used for disbursements or until delivery to you of a bill.  

9.3. If you do not make payment of monies on account in accordance with our requests, or if you do not make payment promptly to settle any invoice then we will not be obliged to undertake further work on your case until such time as the funds are received.

9.4. We may also be entitled to terminate the contract.  

10. Payment Details

10.1. If you wish to provide us with funds by electronic transfer our Bank details are as follows:

10.1.1. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd 
Virgin Money Bank
Account No: 30084876
Sort Code: 82-19-74

10.2. We do accept Credit and Debit card payments. However, we require the following details in order to process the payment:

10.2.1. Full name;

10.2.2. Full address;

10.2.3. Card number;

10.2.4. Valid date;

10.2.5. Expiry date;

10.2.6. CSV (3 digit) code on the back of the card;

10.2.7. The issue number for Switch and Solo cards.

10.3. We accept payment by most major credit and debit cards, but we do not accept payment by American Express.  

10.4. All cheques are to be made payable to: “Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd”.  Please note however that where payment is made by cheque we will require a period of six clear working days before we can undertake work on your behalf to ensure the cheque clears.

11. Charges & Lien on Termination

11.1. You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at anytime, but we will be entitled to keep all of your papers and documents while there is money owing to us for our charges and disbursements.

11.2. If you do not wish us to continue doing work and/or incurring charges and expenses on your behalf, you must communicate this to us.  

12. Private Bills and Interest

12.1. Any money received on your behalf will be held in our client account. Subject to certain minimum amounts and periods of time set out in the Solicitors' Accounts Rules 2011, interest will be calculated and paid to you where appropriate.

12.2. If you wish to set a limit on the fees and disbursements to be incurred or on the length of time which may elapse before we render a bill to you, please let us know in writing.

12.3. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, in cases where we have been instructed on an hourly fee basis, we have the right to render interim bills at monthly intervals or other periodic intervals which we regard as appropriate in the circumstances of any particular case. Such bills and final accounts are for the periods covered by them (unless otherwise stated).  

12.4. We reserve the right to deduct from monies held by us in our client account or otherwise on your behalf sums equal to the interim/final bill delivered to you.  

12.5. If we have been instructed on a fixed fee basis, we have the right to render a final bill at the conclusion of the case or at other periodic intervals which we regard as appropriate in the circumstances of any particular case.

12.6. Any outstanding balances on our bills must be paid within one month of receipt. Thereafter, we are entitled to charge interest at a rate equivalent to that payable from time to time on judgment debts on any outstanding amount of the bill.

12.7. If arrangements are made for a third party to pay any of our fees or disbursements and VAT, you still remain responsible for the payment of any charges to the extent that the third party does not pay our bill in full.  

13. Criminal Proceedings - Recovery of Costs

13.1. Where criminal proceedings commence prior to 1 October 2012 and conclude in their favour, an individual (or other legal entity) may claim, and subject to assessment, recover their private defence costs.

13.2. From 1 October 2012, only individuals may claim, and only in respect of Magistrates’ Court proceedings or a subsequent appeal to the Crown Court.  The claim will be assessed at legal aid rates and therefore only a small percentage of private defence costs may be recovered.

13.3. From 27 January 2014, this was widened to include all Crown Court proceedings on the condition that an application for legal aid has been made and refused on grounds of financial ineligibility, i.e the applicant has a disposable household income of £37,500 or more.  This situation is as before, a claim for private defence costs, and will be assessed at legal aid rates, therefore only a small percentage of any private costs may be recovered.  

13.4. An applicant with disposal household income less that £37,500 will be offered contributory legal aid.  If they decline in favour of private representation, even where the case concludes in their favour, there is no provision for the recovery of their costs.

13.5. If it is appropriate to submit a claim for a Defence Costs Order we will advise you.  We do however charge a fixed fee of £500.00 plus VAT to process the application given the amount of time it takes to prepare the bill.  We must also point out that there is a time limit of three months in which the application must be submitted. We will not assist, therefore, unless we are both paid and instructed promptly to enable us to submit the application within the required time frame.        

14. Complaints

14.1. We are committed to providing high quality legal advice and client care. If you are unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received please raise this with us.  We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, which can be made available on request.  

14.2. The person with overall responsibility for complaints handling is our Managing Director, David Ryan. Please forward any complaint that you have in writing to dryan@ryanandcosolicitors.co.uk and please ensure that it is clearly marked as a complaint so that it can be acknowledged as soon as possible, in line with our complaints policy.  

14.3. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint, you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider it.

14.4. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or you becoming aware of it).

14.5. For your information, the contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are:

14.5.1. Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6167,
Slough,
SL1 0EH
Telephone - 0300 555 0333 
Email - enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

15. Right to Cancel

15.1. You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.  The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day the contract is agreed.  To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail). To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

15.2. If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, except that if you requested us to begin the performance of services during the cancellation period. If so you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to the work that has been done until you communicated to us your cancellation from this contract.

15.3. We will make any reimbursement without delay, and not later than 14 days after we receive notice of cancellation.  We will also make the reimbursement using the same method of payment used by you for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly stated otherwise. In any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of any reimbursement.

15.4. If you have the benefit of a legal aid Representation Order, then the above provisions do not apply.

16. Termination of Contract

16.1. You may terminate your contract with us at any time and for any reason (subject to the section on Charges and our Lien on Termination referred to above).  

16.2. We may terminate your contract with us only with a good reason. Such reasons might include, but are not limited to:

16.2.1. Failing to provide us with prompt and realistic instructions such that we no longer feel we are able to act in your best interests;

16.2.2. If you ask us to act in an improper or unreasonable way;

16.2.3. If you are abusive or violent towards any member of our staff;

16.2.4. If your conduct is in breach of our policy relating to Equality & Diversity;

16.2.5. If you fail to pay a bill of costs or if you do not provide monies requested on account by us in order to undertake work on your case;

16.2.6. If a conflict of interest arises.

16.3. We ask you to respect the fact that the extent of the work that we are able to undertake on your behalf may be limited, either by the amounts that you are able to pay on account of costs or by the scope or funding available under any form of legal aid order.

16.4. Where we terminate the contract we will give you reasonable notice, although this may still only be a short period of time, for example if you fail to provide monies on account of costs which we require in respect of an imminent Court hearing.

16.5. If we do stop acting for you, you may be responsible for any charges that have been incurred up to the date of termination.

17. Data Protection & Confidentiality

17.1. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd of 33-34 Winckley Square, Preston, Lancashire. PR1 3JJ is a "data controller" for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. David Ryan is our Data Protection Officer and can be contacted at Ryan & Co Solicitors via email at dryan@ryanandcosolicitors.co.uk or on 01772 447777.

17.2. Personal Data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

17.3. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of Personal Data about you including, but not limited to, identity data, contact data, financial data, and data concerning your case, general instructions and the legal services provided by us. We may also process sensitive personal data in connection with the legal services provided which includes information concerning racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation and data regarding criminal convictions.

17.4. We will collect personal information about you and any relevant third parties during the engagement process, either directly from you or sometimes from your permitted agents and representatives. We may also collect additional information about you from third parties including the Police, Court service, Crown Prosecution Service, parole board, Legal Aid Agency, experts & consultants, family members, connected individuals and other agents or public bodies who may be involved in the conduct of your case. Additional personal information may be collected during the course of your relationship with us and any subsequent instructions we may receive.

17.5. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information: where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you (or in order to enter into such a contract); where we need to comply with a legal obligation; where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; or where it is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings), the purpose of obtaining legal advice, or is otherwise necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights. Please note that some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.  

17.6. Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data and we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law. If it becomes necessary to obtain your consent, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of any contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us and you will be able to withdraw your consent at any time.

17.7. We need all the categories of information listed above primarily to allow us to provide you with legal services, as per your instructions.  We will keep your information confidential and will only use it for the purpose(s) for which it was provided or as is permitted in law (i.e. for dealing with complaints or regulatory investigations). Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a contract you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

17.8. We may have to share your data with third parties.  We will only share your personal data with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the contract you have with us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. This may include barristers; experts; and others who we need to instruct to assist us with your matter, the Legal Ombudsman (if you complain about our services) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (the statutory body that regulates Solicitors). In doing so we will always take care to ensure that your information remains confidential and safe.  We will liaise with you during your case about which experts, barristers and other third parties we instruct on your behalf. Sometimes we ask other companies or people to undertake tasks on our files to ensure this is done promptly (for example photocopying/scanning).

17.9. If you are a client under the legal aid scheme then we may be required to share some or all of that information with the Legal Aid Agency and / or with our quality assurance auditors.  We may need to share some or all of your information with quality assurance auditors for the purposes of their assessment of whether we are adhering to quality standards.   Any examination will be strictly controlled and will be shared for the sole purpose of ensuring that our handling of your matter meets the requirements of the quality standard.  

17.10. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd uses a diary system which shares a database of appointments with other criminal defence firms of Solicitors which are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.  No details of cases are shared. Details of names, dates and times of appointments are not routinely shared or accessible by other firms or employees of those firms.  However, in certain agreed circumstances, usually to ensure that we are able to correctly allocate and ensure the prompt attendance of appropriately qualified and experienced staff to each and every Police station attendance or Court hearing, authorised individuals may be permitted to interrogate the whole appointments database.  To facilitate the most efficient use of this system, appointment information is not routinely anonymised but in the event that you do not wish for appointments in relation to your case to be recorded on this system and/or if you would like us to anonymise any appointment information held on this system, then please ask us and we will discuss your request and implement the solution that best serves your needs, including protecting your confidential information.

17.11. All third parties in the United Kingdom and the EU are subject to the provisions of the GDPR or similar regulations in relation to your Personal Data and we do not authorise third parties to use your Personal Data for their own purposes.

17.12. The data we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. The GDPR restricts data transfers to countries outside the EEA in order to ensure that the level of data protection afforded to individuals by the GDPR is not undermined.  

17.13. We will only transfer data outside the EEA where permitted to do so by law including where the necessary safeguards are in place such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or where the European Commission has issued a decision confirming that the country to which we transfer the Personal Data ensures an adequate level of protection. If you have any questions about the transfer of data outside the EEA, please contact us for further information.

17.14. The GDPR requires us to put in place procedures and technologies to maintain the security of all personal data from the point of collection to the point of destruction. We ensure that reasonable security measures are taken against unlawful or unauthorised processing of personal data, and against the accidental loss of, or damage to, personal data. We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so. If you have any questions about our current organisational and technical security procedures, please contact us for further information.

17.15. We will retain your information for a reasonable period or as long as the law requires.  Please see further below under the section Retention of Data, Storage of Papers and Return of Documents.

18. Electronic Communications

18.1. During the course of this contract, we may wish to communicate electronically with one another.  The electronic transmission of information cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free, as it will be transmitted over a public network, and such information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or otherwise be adversely affected or unsafe to use.

18.2. We each agree to use reasonable procedures to check for the most recently known viruses before sending information electronically but we each recognise that such procedures cannot be a guarantee that transmissions will be virus free.  We shall each be responsible for protecting our own interests in relation to electronic communications.  Save in the case of fraud, neither of us should be liable to the other on any basis in respect of any damage or loss arising from or in connection with the electronic communication of information between us.

19. Future Contact

19.1. We sometimes use your personal data to enable us to provide you with further information in the future, where we think that such information might be of interest to you.  If you do not wish to receive such information please let us know at any time and, thereafter, we will not retain your data on our system for such purposes.  

20. Your Personal Information and Your Rights

20.1. You have a right to access the personal data we hold about you. You may ask us to rectify or erase the personal data we hold about you or to restrict the processing we carry out. You can also object to the way we are processing your personal data or request it is transferred to a third party.

20.2. For a full list of your rights and how these can be exercised, please visit www.ico.org.uk/your-data-matters for further details. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

20.3. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

20.4. If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact us by email at dryan@ryanandcosolicitors.co.uk

21. File Audits and Confidentiality

21.1. In order to maintain our quality standards, we are obliged from time to time to allow access to external assessors to check the quality of work undertaken on our files.  This could mean that your file is selected for assessment. If so we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that any such inspections are conducted in confidence, but please do let us know if you have any concerns about this.  

22. Retention of Data, Storage of Papers and Return of Documents

22.1. At the conclusion of your case, we will check to ensure that all original documents relating to your file and any other documents that belong to you are returned to you. This is to ensure that we do not retain or have any further responsibility for any documents that are yours.  However, we may retain a copy of these same documents for our own purposes on your file.

22.2. At the end of your case we will retain on our systems your personal data, a full copy of our file including all the correspondence on the file with you and other parties to your case as well as all advices, all attendance notes, all experts reports and witness statements that were created during the course of the proceedings.  We will also retain documents provided to us during the course of your case, for example documents provided by the Police and by the Crown Prosecution Service and, where appropriate, a full copy of the case file on the Crown Court Digital Case System.

22.3. At the end of your case we will store your file of papers for a minimum of 6 years after which time the file will be routinely destroyed without notice to you.  If you would prefer your documents not to be destroyed you should notify us in writing at the end of your case, at which stage we will forward to you your file for safe keeping (subject to the section on Charges and our Lien on Termination referred to above).  

22.4. We reserve the right to store your file in any format deemed appropriate by us, including in entirely electronic format.  

22.5. We do not normally make a charge for retrieving stored papers from our archive.  However, we reserve the right to make a charge in the following cases:

22.5.1. Where we have previously provided you with a copy of your papers and you are requesting a further copy;

22.5.2. Where you request that we provide your papers in a format which is different to that in which they have been stored; i.e. if they have been stored electronically and you request a paper copy;

22.5.3. Where you require us to search for specific documents and/or require us to read papers or write letters in respect of your archived file.  In such cases, we may charge you at our normal hourly rates, although subject to us having provided you with an estimate of costs of the work in advance;

22.5.4. To cover the costs of postage for forwarding a file of papers to you or to another firm of Solicitors.

23. Equality and Diversity

23.1. Ryan & Co Solicitors Ltd is committed to ensuring that our workplaces are free from unlawful or unfair discrimination and has in place policies and procedures to ensure that all our clients, employees, trainees or volunteer workers as well as third parties instructed by the firm, such as Barristers or other experts, are treated with dignity and respect.

23.2. Bullying and harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. Failure to comply may result in our ceasing to act on your behalf.

23.3. Please contact us if you would like to be provided with a copy of our Equality & Diversity policy.

24. Money Laundering

24.1. Under the Money Laundering Regulations and Proceeds of Crime Act we have various obligations which may impact on our contract with you.

24.2. Solicitors are under professional and legal obligations to keep affairs of clients confidential. However recent legislation on money laundering creates a legal duty in certain circumstances to Solicitors to disclose information to the National Crime Agency (NCA).  If this happens, we may not be able to tell you because the law prohibits “tipping off”.

24.3. Our duty to report includes any transactions which appear to us suspicious. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 creates a number of offences relating to the proceeds of crime which you should be aware of when you instruct us. Proceeds of crime are any monies/property/assets which have arisen as a result of any crime.

24.4. In certain cases, we will require evidence of identity and may decline to accept payments and deposits made in cash.  

24.5. We may also be obliged to refuse to act for you if you fail to supply appropriate proof of identity for yourself or for any principal whom you may represent.  

24.6. We are obliged by these Regulations to satisfy ourselves that your payments to us are not derived from the proceeds of crime but are from a legitimate source.  We will therefore ask you for evidence of your legitimate income, such as, but not limited to, bank account statements, wage slips and trading accounts. If you fail to provide us with documentary evidence to satisfy this request we may be unable to accept funds from you.

25. Amendment of Terms

25.1. We reserve the right to amend our Terms & Conditions from time to time.  

26. Applicable Law

26.1. The construction of these terms and conditions is governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms of business will be determined by the law of England and Wales and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh Courts. 

Terms & Conditions of Business - July ’25 v 1.1