By accepting these terms and conditions you will be entering into a binding legal contract with us. Where you accept this agreement online or provide us with your email address, you agree to receive information about this agreement and service electronically, such as by email.
In these terms and conditions “us”, “we” and “our” mean the QualitySolicitors firm offering this service and “you” and “your” means you – the person agreeing to these terms and conditions.
You must be aged 18 or over – otherwise you must ask an adult to consider accepting these terms on your behalf.
What you are buying
For the fixed cost of £99 (including VAT) you are buying the right to an Ask the Legal Expert (ALE) session.
It will be provided to you by one of our lawyers, who is a specialist in the general area of law but not necessarily having
previous experience of your particular legal problem or situation.
It will take place at our offices (unless you prefer it to be provided by telephone) and can be arranged to take place when our
offices are open during our usual office hours between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.
It will last up to 45 minutes.
You will have the right to arrange your ALE session for six months from the date you pay for the service.
Once you have paid, your money is not refundable.
You cannot pass the right to the ALE service to someone else without our agreement and they will also have to agree to
these terms and conditions.
It is an important condition that you understand and accept the nature and limitations of the ALE service.
Benefits of the ALE service
You can use our Free Initial Assessment service, to provide background information in advance – to maximise the use you get out
of the 45 minutes.
As part of the ALE service, the lawyer will express his or her view as to how the law affects you based on their general
knowledge and experience of the area of the law.
You can use the time to explore the legal options available to you, with the lawyer answering your questions and addressing
your worries.
You will receive expert insight based on the lawyer’s experience of the area of law.
You can use the service to help you decide what further action to take – either on your own or by instructing a lawyer.
You will receive practical advice in plain English. With any legal jargon explained.
You can choose to use the time to receive help writing a letter or completing a legal form or document.
We aim to leave you knowing more about where you stand and how to get the best out of the legal system.
Limitations of the ALE service
The advice given by us is limited to what can be achieved in 45 minutes.
The advice is only available for legal issues governed by the laws of England and Wales.
The service is not the same as instructing a lawyer to spend all the time needed to find out all the relevant facts from you, your documents and any other party and then providing comprehensive and specific advice, which could take several hours.
The advice given is based on the information you provide in the limited time available.
Given the limited time, the advice will be neither comprehensive nor specific but should leave you more knowledgeable of the general area of law, even though it may not solve your problem.
The advice will be of a general nature, based on the lawyer’s general experience of the area of law.
In 45 minutes, the lawyer will not have the time to conduct a detailed review of any documents you provide.
The lawyer will not be able to test the strength of the evidence of any witness or the opponent.
The lawyer will not be able to conduct further enquiries or investigations as part of this service.
The lawyer will only be able to take account of the facts and evidence provided by you.
If you do not provide the complete picture or miss out any facts or evidence that goes against you then the lawyer will not be able to take these matters into account when advising you. So, if there is something important or relevant that you think we should know (even if it is unhelpful to your case) it is important that you tell us.
In 45 minutes, the lawyer will not have time to undertake research of relevant case law or statutes.
If you ask us to help you write a letter or complete a form, this will be in your name and cannot be on our headed notepaper.
At the end of the service our lawyer will summarise their advice and any steps you or we will take. If we provide you with any written summary of options available or action plan or draft letter during or after the service, this is strictly subject to these terms and conditions and can only be treated as a general overview based on what you told us in the limited time available. If we keep a paper record of our service to you, it is our practice to destroy these after 6 years.
With the ALE service, you will not be represented by us, instead the ALE service is limited to a one-off session of legal advice, without the costs associated with instructing us to take on your case or transaction. However, after the ALE service you may decide to go onto instruct us, but that is separate from this ALE service.
Feedback on the service
We are passionate about providing new and innovative legal services that are better than traditional law firms at meeting your needs. If you have any feedback on this service (even if it is a complaint) we would like to hear from you. Please address any feedback to the firm directly, or alternatively contact Clementine Hull (clementinehull@qualitysolicitors.com), QualitySolicitors' Compliance Officer, who will put you in touch with the relevant firm's client care partner.
Should you not be satisfied, you also have the right to take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (www.legalombudsman.org.uk) within six months of the date of receiving the firm's final response. In any event, you have a right to go to the Legal Ombudsman within six years from the date of the act you wish to complain about or three years from when you knew about it. You can contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333, enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk or by writing to them at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ. The solicitor’s code of conduct can be found at www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page
General terms and conditions
Where we agree to provide this service by telephone or by video conference or at your home then you have the right to change your mind and cancel this agreement for 14 calendar days from the date of this agreement – and then within 14 days we’ll pay you a full refund by the same method as you paid us. Just let us know by calling 01480 308725 or by emailing feedback@qualitysolicitors.com or by using this form. If the service is arranged with you to take place during this 14 day period, then accepting this agreement is your written request for us to provide the service at that time. Once it has been provided you are not then able to cancel the agreement.
We reserve the right to end the ALE service promotion or alter these terms and conditions at any time, on giving you reasonable notice. This might be for legal, regulatory, business or policy reasons. If you go on to use the ALE service following such a change, then you will be considered to have accepted the updated terms and conditions.
We reserve the right to either not provide the ALE service to you (in which case we will refund the payment made within 14 days of notifying you) or to delegate the legal work to a lawyer employed by another QualitySolicitors firm of solicitors. This might be for reasons such as availability, expertise, conflict of interest or your convenience.
The data collected by us from you in booking your ALE session, where you agree, will only be used for the purposes of letting you know about the legal services, updates on legal matters and changes in the law; together with special offers offered by us and our partner businesses. The data will not be provided to any third party.
We are members of QualitySolicitors, a collective of independent law firms. We are independent from Quality Solicitors Organisation Ltd (QSO) who run the network. We have been selected for membership by QSO because of our high service standards and the excellent client feedback we have received. This gives you the reassurance that we are a quality-checked firm. To ensure the highest standards are maintained, if you accept this agreement, you are also agreeing to our records of providing this service to you being audited by QSO and to us supplying information to QSO about the service and charges. This is solely to enable quality control and your confidentiality will otherwise be completely protected. If you object to this disclosure, you must tell us and your objection will be honoured.
These terms and conditions shall prevail in the event of any conflict or inconsistency with any other communications, including advertising or promotional materials.
These terms and conditions replace all previous versions, are correct as of 28 April 2017 and shall be governed by and
construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, and any disputes will be decided only by the English and
Welsh courts.
