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Introduction This document is to inform you, our client, of the terms of engagement under which we will carry out your legal work. The terms in this document apply to all work we do for you, of any nature, unless a variation to them is agreed in writing. For the purposes of this document, the terms “we”, “us”, “our” and “the firm” mean MLL Limited trading as Linder Myers. In addition to this document, you will also receive a letter setting out the basis on which we will provide our services to you (the “Retainer Letter”) and includes the following:

details of the instructions you have provided us with to carry out the work;

the charges applicable to the case where you have instructed us to act on your behalf;

the best information possible at the time about the likely overall cost of undertaking the work on your behalf including if it will be necessary to engage the services of another firm or agency to assist with your case, expert or barrister;

how you will be funding the costs of the case;

details of who will be dealing with your case on a day to day basis, whether or not they are a solicitor, and if any other member of the firm will carry out work on your behalf;

an expectation of how long it will take to complete the work. The Retainer Letter forms part of the terms and conditions of business between us and should be read in conjunction with this document and the Retainer Letter predominates over this document. With regard to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 it is hereby agreed that all terms and conditions contained in the Retainer Letter and thus herein have been individually negotiated. Linder Myers – the firm Linder Myers is the trading name of MLL Limited a company registered in England & Wales with company number 5907992

Registered office: Sale Point, 126/150 Washway Road, Sale, Cheshire M33 6AG. It is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). We are bound by the regulations as set out in the SRA Solicitors Handbook, the content of which can be found at their website www.sra.org.uk. Our SRA number is 446632. We use the word ‘partner’ to refer to a senior employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualifications of MLL Limited (trading as Linder Myers). The normal opening hours of all our offices are 8.45am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. Appointments can be arranged outside these hours when essential to the interests of our clients. Confidentiality

In acting on your behalf it may be necessary for us to disclose certain information to third parties including

solicitors for the other side, estate agents, experts. We only disclose such information where we believe it to

be appropriate or reasonable to do so in order to progress the case or where we are under a professional

obligation to do so, or by order of a court.

Terms and Conditions Linder Myers

Under the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) Code of conduct we are obliged to keep all data and

information about you or your case, obtained during your retainer, confidential. We take that obligation very

seriously.

We are part of a growing group of law firms and brands owned by Metamorph Group Limited. Some of those

law firms and brands are separately regulated by the SRA and, according to the Code of Conduct, we need

to keep the data and information about their clients separately confidential from each of the law firms and

brands within the group unless that client has given informed consent to depart from that regulation.

We also use the services of a non-regulated company, Metamorph Group Services Limited, wholly owned by

Metamorph Group Limited that supplies support in the areas of finance and bookkeeping, HR, administration

and facilities, IT, risk and regulation, and marketing.

To take advantage of the group structure of our law firms and support company, it is sometimes necessary

for the separate law firms and support company to share office space, furniture, IT systems, and employees.

On occasion, we may want to take advantage of legal expertise in other parts of the business to benefit your

case. As part of that process, it is possible that some of your data and information might be seen by

employees of those other law firms or the support company.

We confirm that each of our employees, and the support company, have signed a confidentiality agreement

binding them to treat your information and data as securely as they would for their own clients. All

employees have received training on the importance of confidentiality, and so we are confident that our

group structure will not compromise your confidential information and data.

By signing these terms of business you are consenting to this limited sharing of your data and information. If

you have any problems or queries about this, please feel free to call your contact at the firm who will be able

to assist.

We do not accept responsibility for any breach of confidentiality because of a fault or omission on your part or by your agents, or the result of any action by a third party, or if otherwise a matter enters the public domain. Under the terms of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Terrorism Act 2000 we are prohibited from acting for or advising a client in relation to terrorist financing, or the acquisition, retention, use or control of the proceeds of any crime or any attempt to conceal, disguise, convert or transfer any criminal property or to remove it from the jurisdiction, or from being involved in arrangements relating to such activities. The proceeds of crime and criminal property are widely defined for these purposes to include any activity (including tax evasion) carried on anywhere which would be illegal if carried on in the UK. We have a legal obligation to report to the National Crime Agency (NCA) if we have reasonable grounds to suspect that a person may be in possession of the proceeds of crime as defined by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. In such circumstances we reserve the right to notify NCA of any such suspicion without notice to you, and to apply to them for clearance to proceed with any relevant transaction on your behalf. In those circumstances we will not inform you of what we have done even though this action may involve delays to any transaction in which you or we may be engaged (on your behalf). In such circumstances where we are seeking clearance from NCA, we do not accept any liabilities incurred by reason of such delays or any liability for any claims costs expenses or demands howsoever incurred even if the transaction in question were to prove abortive by reasons of such delays or the notification itself. The firm has achieved membership of a number of accreditation schemes. As part of this the firm may be subject to an audit in respect of these accreditations and as part of this process the auditors will ask to consider individual files of papers to ensure that we are complying with our own strict internal procedures and supervision standards. In such circumstances a file relating to your case may be considered by those auditors. We will not make available your files if you specifically request in writing that we do not do so. Acceptance of Instructions We will accept or decline instructions from you in accordance with the Solicitors Code of Conduct. In undertaking work on your behalf we will use those members of staff who are best suited to the work, dependant on experience, complexity and value of the case. In some instances some of the work will not be carried out by a qualified solicitor but a qualified solicitor will still supervise it.

In order for us to work on your behalf you will provide us with a full description of the service you require and your objectives. You need to provide us with all relevant information to enable us to undertake the work which includes providing all relevant documents, notes, agreements, correspondence and personal statements. Your dealings with us must be honest and straightforward and complete, and you must not ask us to act in an improper or unreasonable way. We will communicate with you by telephone, email, fax or by post. It is your responsibility to ensure that we have accurate contact information for you. If you wish us to write to you at any other address then you must notify us in writing. If the client consists of more than one individual or organisation, any obligations or responsibilities of the Client are obligations and responsibilities of those persons or organisations separately, all together or in any combination. Instructions will be accepted on the basis that either or any have the authority to give instructions on behalf of the others unless we are provided with prior written instructions to the contrary. We will only act on your behalf if we are retained exclusively by you on that particular case. You are free to instruct other solicitors on other cases if you wish. It is your duty to inform us of conflicts or overlaps. If you wish us to start work for you within fourteen days of instructing us, you must request this in writing. This affects your rights to cancel the contract with us. Please see the section ‘Termination’ for further information. Changes in circumstances If there is any change in your circumstances, e.g. change of address, change in financial circumstances you should let us know as soon as possible, so that we can ensure our records are kept up to date, but also ensure that your case continues to be funded in the most appropriate way. Fees Except where we have agreed a fixed fee to carry out the work, our charges are usually based on the time spent dealing with your case. The time charged will include meetings with you and others; time spent travelling to and from meetings away from our offices; considering, preparing and working on papers relating to your case; correspondence, both sent and received, including letters, faxes and emails; telephone calls. Time is recorded in minimum units of 6 minutes each. Each fee earner in the firm has a given hourly rate, which is reviewed annually. You will be advised in advance of any increase in the hourly rate to be charged by the fee earners acting on your behalf. In addition to the time charges referred to above, our costs are also assessed by reference to other factors generally referred to as the “care and conduct” aspects. This may vary and is usually dependent upon:

The degree of urgency in your case or transaction

The complexity of your case or transaction

The importance of the case to you

The amount or value of any money or property involved

The skills, specialised knowledge, experience of the solicitor. Each fee earner’s hourly rate is exclusive of VAT and subsequently VAT will be added to all invoices. Our fees take into account our incidental costs in carrying out the work e.g. standard postage, telephone calls. We reserve the right to charge you for any other expenses we incur in connection with the case e.g. couriers, exceptional photocopying, etc. We add a handling charge to the cost of bank transfers to cover the time of our Accounts staff. In certain transactions we may base our charges on a percentage of the value of the transaction. This value reflects the importance of the transaction and the responsibility placed on the firm. We will write to you at the outset of your case if we will be charging you on this basis for the work undertaken on your behalf. If your instructions require us to work outside normal office hours, we reserve the right to increase the level of the hourly rate(s). Where you advise us to carry out additional work on your behalf, and this is not included in the original estimate of costs, then we are entitled to charge and be paid for the additional work required.

If any transaction is not completed then we are entitled to charge and be paid for the amount of work actually undertaken in progressing the case until it ceases. Disbursements Disbursements are fees we pay to third parties on your behalf e.g. court fees, experts fees or Land Registry fees. Major disbursements will be specified in the Retainer Letter to the extent they can be predicted. We are not obligated to meet any such payments on your behalf unless we have already received from you cleared monies to cover the outlay. You will normally be requested to make payment to us to cover the cost of the disbursements before we incur or pay them. VAT is payable on certain disbursements. Payment It is normal practice for the firm to ask for money on account to cover the ongoing costs of your case and anticipated disbursements. During the course of your case we may issue interim bills in addition to a final bill on completion of your case. These are statute bills delivered in accordance with Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974. As such, if there are insufficient funds on your account to cover the value of the bill, then we are entitled to enforce payment of the outstanding balance under our normal terms. Where we hold your monies in our client account we shall use them in settlement of any invoice including any disbursements shown on the invoice which have been paid or are about to be paid by us or any other sums due that are owed to us. All bills are immediately due when issued and should be settled within 28 days of the date on the bill, if not sooner. In the event of payments being requested and not paid within the 28 day limit we will automatically suspend work on all cases where we are acting on your behalf until we receive payment from you. Interest will be charged on all bills not paid within 28 days at a rate of 8% per annum over the Bank of England base rate or at the default rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (whichever is the higher). This interest will be charged on a daily basis. You may be entitled to have our charges reviewed by the court. This is known as a detailed assessment. Time limits for the exercise of your rights under the Solicitors Act 1974 regarding the assessment of costs start at the point of delivery of each interim or final bill to you. If you have any query about your bill you should contact the person acting on your behalf immediately and in any event within 28 days of the date of the bill, after which we will treat the bill as recoverable by any means thought fit. We are able to accept payment by Visa and Mastercard via a credit or debit card up to a maximum limit of

£5,000 for any payments that do not relate to costs or disbursements.

Wherever possible we would prefer not to receive payment by cash, however should this be unavoidable we are required by the terms of our insurance to limit cash receipts to £2,000 in any one calendar month. Under the terms of the Anti-money Laundering Regulations 2007 (the “Regulations”) we may ask you to prove the source of the funds e.g. by bank statement showing the withdrawal. Where we pay money to you this will be done by cheque or electronic bank transfer. We are not able to make payment to a third party on your behalf nor in cash due to the Regulations. Payment by 3

rd parties

Unless your case has been referred to us by a 3rd

party who have agreed to pay our fees, we will address our invoices to you. If you request us to invoice a third party we may do so at our discretion, addressing the invoice to you but marking it ‘payable by a third party’. We will require confirmation from them in writing that they will pay our fees. We may also carry out identity and credit checks on them in accordance with the Regulations. In either instance you will remain personally responsible for our fees if the third party fails to pay our bills to them within our agreed payment terms. IMPORTANT; LIMITATION OF OUR LIABILITY TO YOU

You agree that your contract is with MLL Limited and not with any individual. Any duty of care owed to you is the responsibility of MLL Limited and is not owed to you by any individual, whether or not that individual is working on, or is involved in the conduct of, a matter in which a duty of care to you is assumed or imposed. You agree that no personal duty is owed to you by any individual employee,

officer or consultant of MLL Limited. Accordingly it is a condition of our retainer that you will not bring any claim in respect of any loss or damage against any of our employees, officers or consultants.

. The following provisions set out the entire financial liability of MLL Limited (including any liability for the acts

or omissions of its employees, officers, consultants, agents and sub-contractors) to you in respect of:-

(a) any breach of these conditions; or (b) any representation, statement or tortious act or omission including negligence arising under

or in connection with the Contract; and (c) any breach of contract

All warranties, conditions and other terms implied by statute or common law are, to the fullest extent

permitted by law excluded from the Contract. Nothing in these conditions excludes or limits the liability of the firm:- (a) for death or personal injury caused by the firm’s negligence; or (b) under Section 2 (3) Consumer Protection Act 1987; or (c) for any matter which it would be illegal for the firm to exclude or attempt to exclude its

liability; or (d) for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Subject to condition below: (a) MLL Limited total liability in contract, tort (including without limitation negligence) breach of statutory

duty, misrepresentation, restitution or otherwise, arising in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of the [Contract] shall be limited to the maximum sum of £3,000,000.00 (Three Million Pounds)in respect of any one claim or series of claims arising out of or in connection with the performance or contemplated performance of the [Contract]; and

(b) MLL Limited shall not be liable to the client for any pure economic loss, loss of profit, loss of business, depletion of goodwill or otherwise, in each case whether direct, indirect or consequential or any claims for consequential compensation whatsoever (however caused) which arise out of or in connection with the Contract.

Estimates Wherever possible we will, on accepting your instructions, provide you with an estimate of the likely costs involved to complete your case or transaction. We will provide you with the best information possible at the time about the likely overall costs, including any disbursements that are likely to be incurred. This is a guide to assist you with budgeting and should not be regarded as a fixed quotation. However if the amount of work is greater than first envisaged we will inform you as soon as possible and regularly advise you of how much your case or transaction will cost you. We will notify you at least every 6 months of the costs incurred to date and provide you with a new estimate for future costs which will be incurred. Conduct of your Case We will keep you advised of all developments in your case by email, at meetings, telephone or post. From time to time, as necessary, we will also advise you as to whether the likely outcome of your case will justify the likely charges, expenses and risks involved, in our opinion. Termination You are entitled to terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time. In some circumstances you may consider that we should stop acting for you if for example you are unable to provide us with clear or proper instructions on how to proceed, or if you have lost confidence in how we are carrying out work on your behalf. Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, for transactions with private individuals, you would generally have the right to cancel those instructions without giving any reason and without any cost to you within fourteen days of those instructions being received and confirmed by us in writing. If you wish to cancel the contract you must do so in writing before the fourteen day cancellation period has expired. A cancellation form can be found at the end of these terms and conditions. In this situation we will return to you all payments made to ourselves up to the point of cancellation. This will be refunded within fourteen days of receipt of your decision to cancel the contract. Refunds will be made using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction unless you have expressly agreed otherwise. In any event you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement.

However, should you specifically request that we start work within the fourteen day cancellation period, and then subsequently cancel the contract you will be liable to pay our costs and any additional charges incurred for work carried out on your behalf up to the point where you cancel the contract. Any request to start work within the fourteen day cancellation period must be made in writing. If your case is publicly funded (‘Legal Aid’) and you cancel within the fourteen days, you should be aware that it may be difficult to reapply for Legal Aid for the same issue. In some circumstances we are entitled to refuse to act or to continue acting for you in particular if:

we are or may be in breach of the law or the principles of the Solicitors Code of Conduct if we act or continue to act for you;

we consider there is or maybe a conflict or risk of conflict between your interests and those of any other client of ours or the firm;

You are unable to give clear or proper instructions as to how we are to proceed;

You fail to comply with our payment terms;

You fail to pay us sufficient money to complete a case or pay disbursements when requested;

You act dishonestly or are misleading when providing us with instructions

You ask us to act in an unreasonable or illegal manner If we cease acting for you we shall, where relevant, apply at your expense to remove ourselves from the court or tribunal record. If you or we decide that we no longer act for you after the cancellation period has expired, you will have to pay all outstanding costs and disbursements (including in both cases any not yet billed) together with VAT and any costs and disbursements incurred in connection with the termination. However we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents (this is called a “lien”) whilst there is money owing to us for our charges and expenses, where that retention is proper exercise of a solicitor’s lien. It would normally be acceptable for these papers to be transferred to a new solicitor upon receipt of a satisfactory undertaking from the new solicitor in respect of the outstanding costs. Client Monies Any money received on your behalf will be held in our general client account, which is separate to the firm’s money. While bank interest rates are low our policy is to not pay interest to clients on money held in that general account unless it is fair and reasonable to do so. The administrative cost of accounting for that interest usually outweighs the sum earned. We will usually only consider making such payment where there is an unusually large balance and/or it is held for an unusually long period of time. We will advise you if any interest is due to you. We hold all client monies in banking institutions that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and it is held in multiple designated client accounts as regulated by the Solicitors Accounts Rules 2011. We bank with a number of banks and financial institutions and have notified them that we deposit different clients’ monies into a single account. In the event of a bank collapse, failure or other similar event we will not be liable to any client for any monies lost by virtue of such an event, nor will we be liable for any consequential loss arising resulting from an inability to withdraw such funds, other than as may be prescribed by law or by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) covers deposits belonging to clients up to £85,000 per client per bank or authorised lending institution. This £85,000 is personal to you, so if you hold other monies with the same bank and it fails, the FSCS limit of £85,000 would apply to all deposits whether held directly by you or by us. Some banks have different brand names but are in reality a single institution for FSCS purposes. You should check with your bank or the FCA for more information. If a bank fails, in order to receive compensation from the FSCS we must provide them with details of all clients where we hold money on their behalf, which we can only do with your consent. Accordingly your acceptance of these terms and conditions shall be deemed to be consent for these purposes. Where we have provided a professional undertaking on your behalf which is reliant on funds held for you in the client account or due to you from a lending institution, and the funds are subsequently not available to us due to the collapse of the bank holding the money or the lending institution, then as soon as is reasonably practical you will need to provide replacement funds and compensate us for any costs, interest or other expenses that we may incur in seeking to honour our professional undertaking in the absence of sufficient funds from you.

Insurance Distribution This firm is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). However we are included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we can carry on insurance distribution activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/register Incidental Investment Business If during your case you require advice on investments, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, as we are not. We may be able to provide certain limited investment services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you, as we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Conditional Fee Agreement Certain contentious business may be conducted pursuant to a Conditional Fee Agreement. If this is applicable in your case you will have signed a separate Conditional Fee Agreement, which will contain terms and conditions varying those contained within and predominating over this document. Contingency Fee Agreement Certain non-contentious business may be conducted pursuant to a Contingency Fee Agreement. If this is applicable in your case you will have signed a separate Contingency Fee Agreement, which will contain terms and conditions varying those contained within and predominating over, this document. Insurance Schemes You may have the benefit of a contentious business indemnity provided by an insurance company, either as part of an existing legal expense insurance policy or a designated insurance policy obtained by you in connection with the specific contentious case. We will only be able to conduct work in accordance with the particular terms of engagement of the insurance company providing such insurance cover and the terms contained in this document may be varied accordingly. You will need to consider the particular policy conditions relevant to that insurance company, and the scope of cover and exclusions. Professional Association or Union Funding It is possible that any professional association with which you are associated or Union of which you are a member may provide indemnity in respect of legal expenses. The terms and conditions contained in this document may well be varied by the specific terms of engagement of that funding organisation. Costs The amount of costs due in a case includes our charges for the time spent in dealing with your case and any disbursements incurred in bringing your case to a conclusion. As our client you will always be personally liable to pay our costs regardless of whether you are successful or not in your case. Even if the other side is ordered to pay some or all of your costs they may not do so or be able to and you remain liable for the full amount. In the event that you are successful in your case you may still be ordered to pay the other side’s costs. In the event that you are not successful you may or may not be liable for the other side’s costs in addit ion to ours. A court may choose to set the amount payable immediately, in which case payment will be due within 14 days. Alternatively the court may choose to assess the amount of costs due and this may take 6 – 9 months. Orders for Costs in Tribunals Where your case is brought before an Employment Tribunal, Medical Appeal Tribunal, Social Security Tribunal or Criminal Injury Compensation Tribunal, it is rare for an order for costs to be made at the conclusion of the case. Therefore, even if you are successful in your action before a Tribunal you will not be able to recover your costs from the other side and will remain liable for them yourself. On the other hand, should you lose your case you will not normally be ordered to pay the other side’s costs in addition to your own. However there are circumstances in which the Tribunal can reserve the right to order costs to be paid. VAT

It is your duty to advise us of your VAT status. If you are able to recover some or all of the VAT on costs, including disbursements and Barrister’s fees, then it is not permissible to recover the same VAT from any third party who is ordered or agrees to pay your costs. If you are in any doubt as to your VAT status then you should seek advice from a specialist such as an accountant or similar professional. Conveyancing/Buying and Selling Property Under the Consumer Protection Regulations there is a duty on all sellers and landlords if they are traders, and upon their solicitors and estate agents even if they are not, to make disclosure of any material information within their knowledge to any consumers who are buying or renting property from them. The criminal penalties for failing to abide with these CPRs range from fines to imprisonment of up to two years. Information withheld would be deemed to be ‘material’ if it would have caused the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not otherwise have taken. Historically such withholding of relevant information might have led to civil Court proceedings for breach of contract, but now the penalties are much more severe. It is important to note that neither you as seller/landlord or this firm, acting on your behalf, must mislead the buyer or tenant by providing incorrect or ambiguous information, or by omitting to provide information. Please remember that certain information will be revealed through searches, surveys, valuations and other enquiries made by the buyer or tenant and so it is important to make all known disclosures as early in the transaction as possible to prevent delays. Because these duties of disclosure apply to us as your solicitors we may no longer be bound by our duty of confidentiality to you if we become aware of any material information. If you ask us to withhold any such information we may be forced to withdraw from our retainer and stop acting for you in this transaction. Alternative Dispute Resolution In any legal dispute consideration should be given to the possibility of mediation or alternative dispute resolution. Failure to consider such options where it is appropriate and reasonable may cause cost sanctions to be imposed and it is something we will advise you about at various stages throughout the case. Public Funding Scheme (also known as Legal Aid) Linder Myers is only able to undertake work that is publicly funded in child care proceedings. Legal Help Scheme You may qualify for advice and assistance under the Legal Help Scheme. Eligibility is assessed by your solicitor taking into account your income and how much capital you have, whether there is a reasonable chance of winning your case, and whether it is worth the time and money needed to win. If these are within the limits specified by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) and the firm is authorised by them to provide this sort of assistance, you will qualify. If you are eligible then legal advice and assistance may be provided at no immediate cost and includes general advice, writing letters and negotiating and applying for a Funding Certificate on your behalf to enable your case to proceed. It does not include representation at Court. It is possible to apply for an extension to the Legal Help Scheme financial limit but it must be considered reasonable for the advice and assistance to continue. Emergency Funding Certificates In certain circumstances we may be able to apply for an Emergency Funding Certificate (“EFC”) on your behalf, which is granted pending consideration of the application for a full funding certificate. If, after granting the EFC, the LAA later determines that you do not qualify for public funding either due to your financial eligibility or the merits of your case do not warrant public funding, then the EFC will either be discharged or revoked. If it is revoked you will be deemed never to have received public funding and therefore, you will be responsible for the costs of all the work which has been undertaken on your behalf, and will have to repay the LAA in respect of the costs which we have recovered from them on your case. If we have exercised delegated functions in the conduct of the case, but the LAA later disagrees with this, you will be liable for some or all of the costs incurred. Full Funding Certificates Whether or not you are eligible for assistance under the Legal Help Scheme you may still be granted a Funding Certificate to pursue your case. Again, your income and capital are taken into consideration along with the merits of your case, and eligibility is assessed by the LAA. You may qualify for public funding upon the payment of a contribution towards the costs either from your capital as a single payment, or from your income on a monthly basis. It is essential that your contributions are paid promptly otherwise your certificate may be discharged. Your contributions must continue until the LAA tells you to stop them. If you are granted a funding certificate, you have a duty to the LAA to notify it of any changes in your circumstances, whether it is a change of address or a change of financial circumstances. It is important to let

us and the LAA know of any change in your financial circumstances in order that the LAA can consider whether or not your contribution should be reassessed. If they do so, it is essential that you deal with any correspondence from them promptly as a failure to do so may result in a discharge or revocation of your certificate. Statutory Charge If you have been in receipt of public funding and as a result of your case you have kept or gained property or money, you will probably have to repay to the LAA some or all of the costs of your case. The LAA will view the payment of your costs as a loan to you. It is a legal requirement on the LAA to recover money spent if a case results in someone keeping or gaining property or money. This is a charge, or claim, made by law on your money or property and is known as the “Statutory Charge”. If you have been successful in your case and the other party is ordered to pay costs, then this may cover the outlay from the LAA and any contributions you have made, and these are reimbursed when the other party has paid what they owe. However, if they fail to meet that obligation, either at all or in part, then the LAA may seek to recover the difference from you. In certain circumstances the LAA may decide not to pursue the other party for repayment of costs, for example if they believe it is not cost effective to enforce a costs order. However, the LAA is still entitled to be repaid all of the costs incurred by them under the terms of your funding certificate and may seek to do so from your money or by placing a charge on your property. There are various ways in which this can be done:

If you did not have to pay a contribution then the LAA will deduct the difference either from the cash received or by imposing a charge on the property recovered.

If you paid a contribution then the LAA will either deduct the difference from the cash received or require you to continue to pay your contributions until the difference is met. Alternatively they may choose to take a charge on the property recovered.

If you are successful in your case, but there is no order on the other party to pay your costs then the LAA will recoup the costs from you either by you continuing to make contributions until the difference is met or by placing a charge on the property kept or recovered, or you pay back the costs to the LAA in a lump sum.

There may be circumstances where you are successful but at some time during the proceedings you were ordered to pay the other party’s costs. Those costs would be your liability although sometimes the court directs that they should not be enforced (in cases of hardship).

There are occasions when the other party may not be required to meet all your costs. In those circumstances the difference will be your liability (excepting special circumstances).

If you are unsuccessful, i.e. you do not recover or keep money or property, it is unlikely that the other party will be ordered to pay your costs. In these circumstances, if you did not have to pay contributions there would be no liability against you. If you had to pay contributions, then you would continue to pay them until the money paid out by the LAA to cover our fees has been repaid in full.

The statutory charge will result in a charge being registered on your property as if it were a mortgage. The LAA would charge simple interest (currently 8% per annum) until such time as the total costs outstanding to the LAA were settled. You would not be able to sell the property or secure a loan on the property (unless it was to pay back the charge) while there is a charge on it until the monies due from you have been cleared and the LAA has recovered all its costs. In certain circumstances the LAA may allow you to sell the original property and transfer the charge to a new property. If you are publicly funded and are successful in your case, we are not allowed to release to you any damages or property until the LAA has recovered all its costs. Whenever a client is in receipt of public funding, the costs payable are either assessed by the court or by the LAA, depending on the amount claimed. In every case you have the right to question the costs claimed. The fact that you have the benefit of a funding certificate does not exempt you from liability to pay your opponent’s costs should you lose any action you bring. You should be aware that if you start proceedings and settle a case or lose an action at Court you will still have the same liability for your opponent’s costs and it will be for the Court to decide if you should be ordered to make payment of any costs awarded against you. Revocation and Discharge of a Public Funding Certificate

Should the LAA consider it necessary to revoke your funding certificate, you will be deemed never to have been publicly funded and therefore you will be liable to meet (or repay to the LAA) any costs paid out on your behalf by the LAA. The LAA can also discharge your certificate. If your funding certificate is discharged, you will have been publicly funded up to the date of discharge. The statutory charge still operates in respect of costs incurred under the certificate. If your certificate is discharged or revoked, there may be a “show cause” procedure, which provides you with the opportunity to show why the certificate should not be revoked or discharged. Storage of papers and documents At the conclusion of your case the file of papers will be placed in secure storage for a minimum of 6 years after which it will be destroyed. If there are any documents which you wish to have returned to you, or indeed if you wish to retain the file of papers, you should advise us at the conclusion of the case. If we retrieve papers or documents from storage in relation to continuing or new instructions from you, we may make a charge based on the time spent in producing them to you or to another person at your request. We may also charge for reading, corresponding, copying or other work necessary to comply with instructions given by you or on your behalf. All original wills, deeds or other documents deposited with us for safe storage are kept in a safe, secure environment and we keep a record of all those in our possession. If you are dissatisfied If you have any problems with the service we have provided for you or with our bill to you for our services, then please let us know and we will try to resolve any problem quickly between ourselves. If you are in any way concerned at the way in which a case is being handled you should first contact the person who is acting on your behalf or their Head of Department. Should you not wish to do this or are not satisfied then you should contact the firm’s Compliance and Regulation Manager. Your complaint should set out your concerns either in writing or verbally. Once he has received your complaint he will obtain your file of papers and discuss the issues raised with the person who has been acting on your behalf. He will then write to you or if necessary, arrange a meeting. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request. In exceptional circumstances where you are still dissatisfied after referring to the Compliance and Training Manager, you may wish to address the case to the Legal Ombudsman at PO BOX 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ or www.legalombudsman.org.uk The Legal Ombudsman and Office for Legal Complaints are independent of the Law Society. MLL Limited trading as Linder Myers is covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance in line with the requirements set out by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We do not accept liability for any loss or damage in excess of our insurance cover, unless we have signed a special arrangement with you at the outset of your case. We review our indemnity cover on an annual basis. Details of the current insurer and level of our indemnity cover are available on request. Copyright Unless we agree otherwise, all copyright subsisting in the documents and other materials we create whilst carrying out work for you will remain the property of MLL Limited trading as Linder Myers. You will have the right to use such documents for the purposes for which they are created. You agree not to make our work, documents or materials available to third parties without our prior written permission and we accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them. General Data Protection Regulations 2018

“Our GDPR Privacy Notice can be found on our website at http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/about-linder-myers-

solicitors/privacy-cookie-policy/ or you can request a paper copy by emailing or telephoning and requesting

one.”

Equality and Diversity The firm does not discriminate on the grounds of race, sex, gender, age, religion or belief, disability or sexual orientation in deciding whether to accept instructions from clients, instructing barristers and other experts or in the provision of its service. A copy of our full Equality and Diversity policy and a copy of our Corporate Social Responsibility policy statement are available on our website www.lindermyers.co.uk. General We will not be liable to you or any third party if we are unable to perform our services as a result of any cause beyond our reasonable control. If any such event should arise, we will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable. Any notice given to us may be sent to our registered office and any notice given by us, may be given to you at your last address known to us. These terms and conditions of business are governed by the law of England and Wales. We are able to undertake a wide range of services on behalf of our clients. Should you need legal advice with regard to any cases, please feel free to contact the person who is acting on your behalf or indeed any other member of the firm who will be able to refer you to someone who has experience in that area. Please note:

Internet email is not a secure medium, as messages can be intercepted read and changed by someone

else. Please bear this in mind when deciding whether to send information to us by email. Postal addresses

for MLL LIMITED (Trading as Linder Myers) are available from www.lindermyers.co.uk

In particular to minimise any risk we will NEVER change our bank details during your transaction, or send our

bank details to you by email.

If you receive a request for your bank details or are asked to make a payment you are unsure about, please

speak directly with us.

We will continue to communicate with you by email unless you confirm with us that you do not wish us to do

so.

Cancellation Form To: Linder Myers

(Please indicate the office you are dealing with) 21-23 Park St Talbot House (Regus Building) Lytham 11-15 Market St Herons Way, Chester Business Park Lancashire Shrewsbury Chester FY8 5LU SY1 1LG CH1 9QR Fax: 0161 834 0718 01253 737463 01743 218473 01244 893100

Sale Point 126/150 Washway Road Sale Cheshire M33 6AG Fax: 0161 834 0718

Email: enquiries@lindermyers.co.uk I/We hereby give notice that I/we cancel my/our contract for the supply of the following legal service (Please provide a brief summary of your instructions to us) Requested on Contact at Linder Myers Client name Client address Client signature Date