Terms of Business
1 Our contract with you
1.1 These Terms of Business (as updated from time to time) apply to all work we do on your behalf. It is an important document, please read and keep it in a safe place for future reference.
1.2 Each time you instruct us on a new matter we will send you a letter confirming your instructions and setting out the scope of the work we will carry out for you, our fees and individual contact details. This is called the Client Care Letter. These Terms of Business should be read together with the Client Care Letter, together they form the contract between us.
1.3 If there is any inconsistency between our Terms of Business and the Client Care Letter, the Client Care Letter will take priority.
1.4 Although your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to your acceptance of these Terms of Business, we ask that you sign, date and return one copy for our file.
1.5 Unless otherwise agreed, these Terms of Business will apply to all future instructions you give us on this or any other matter.
1.6 These Terms of Business are subject to change from time to time and are updated on our website at www.outpostimmigration.com
1.7 This contract and any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, it, its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England and Wales.
2 About us
2.1 Outpost Law Ltd trading as Outpost Immigration (We, Our, Us) is a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 16644753. Its registered office is at 4th Floor, Silverstream House, 45 Fitzroy Street, Fitzrovia, London, United Kingdom, W1T 6EB.
2.2 You can find details of the postal address, telephone number and email address of our office on our website at www.outpostimmigration.com
3 About you
Where we say ‘you’ or ‘your’ in these Terms of Business, we mean the client identified in the Client Care Letter and anyone authorised to give instructions on that client’s behalf.
4 Our responsibilities and your responsibilities
What you can expect of us:
· Treat you fairly and with respect
· Communicate with you in plain language
· Review your matter regularly
· Advise you of any changes in the law that affect your matter
· Advise you of any reasonably foreseeable circumstances and risks that could affect the outcome of your matter
What we expect of you:
· Provide documents when we ask for them and respond promptly when we ask for instructions or information
· Notify us if your contact details change
· Tell us immediately if your expectations change or if you are not sure you understand what we have discussed
· Inform us of any time limits or objectives that might not be obvious to us
· Notify us immediately if you receive any email or other communication purporting to be from the firm stating that we have changed our bank details or payment arrangements
· Let us know about any other changes that may affect the way we deal with your matter, including any changes that may affect your tax status in any jurisdiction
5 Scope of our services
5.1 The scope of the services we will provide is set out in the Client Care Letter.
5.2 We will provide immigration advice and services to you with reasonable care and skill. However, the nature of many types of legal work means that it is not possible to guarantee a particular outcome.
5.3 We will advise only on UK immigration law. We are regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA) at Level 1, formerly named the Office of the Immigration Services Commission (OISC), with registration number F202538667. If your matter exceeds our regulatory level, we will abort the matter and may refer you to an appropriate adviser.
5.4 If you ask us to obtain advice from another immigration firm or adviser, that firm will be responsible for the service and advice they provide.
5.5 Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our advice and any documents we prepare:
i. are for use only in connection with the specific matter on which we are instructed, can only be relied on by you; and
ii. reflect the law in force at the relevant time.
6 Service standards
6.1 We are normally open between 09:00 am and 05:00 pm from Monday to Friday (UK time). We may be able to arrange appointments outside of these hours, in cases of emergency. We are closed on all England bank holidays, except in cases of emergency. Your matter will be continuously monitored.
6.2 We will update you by telephone or in writing (including by email) with progress on your matter regularly and explain to you the work required as your matter progresses.
6.3 We will update you at appropriate intervals on the likely timescale for each stage of your matter and any important changes in those estimates. Whenever there is a material change in circumstances associated with your matter, we will update you on whether the likely outcomes still justify the likely costs and risks.
6.4 We will update you on the cost of your matter at the intervals set out in the Client Care Letter. If appropriate, we will continue to review whether there are alternative methods by which your matter can be funded.
6.5 We are committed to acting in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees.
7 Our liability to you
7.1 Your contract is solely with Outpost Law Ltd which has sole legal liability for the work done for you and for any act or omission in the course of that work. No representative, director, officer, employee, agent or consultant of Outpost Law Ltd will have any personal legal liability for any loss or claim.
7.2 Unless explicitly agreed otherwise, in writing:
i. we do not owe, nor do we accept, any duty to any person other than you; and
ii. we do not accept any liability or responsibility for any consequences arising from reliance on our advice by any person other than you.
7.3 We are not responsible for any failure to advise or comment on matters falling outside the scope of our instructions, as set out in these Terms of Business and the Client Care Letter.
7.4 Our maximum liability to you (or any other party we have agreed may rely on our services) in relation to any single matter or any group of connected matters which may be aggregated by our insurers will be £250,000 including interest and costs.
7.5 We will not be liable for any of the following (whether direct or indirect):
i. losses not caused by any breach of contract or tort on the part of the firm;
ii. loss of revenue;
iii. loss of profit;
iv. loss of or corruption to data;
v. loss of use;
vi. loss of production;
vii. loss of contract;
viii. loss of opportunity;
ix. loss of savings, discount or rebate (whether actual or anticipated); and
x. harm to reputation or loss of goodwill.
xi. losses that were not foreseeable to you and us when this contract was formed;
xii. losses not caused by any breach on the part of the firm; and
xiii. business losses, including losses sustained by any individual not acting for purposes of their trade, business, craft or profession.
7.6 Nothing in these Terms of Business shall exclude or restrict our liability in respect of:
i. death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
ii. fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
iii. any losses caused by wilful misconduct or dishonesty;
iv. any other losses which cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law. Please ask if you would like us to explain any of the terms above.
8 Our charges and billing
8.1 You are liable to pay legal costs as set out in the Client Care Letter, which also states the arrangements for billing. We will usually discuss this with you at the outset of your matter.
8.2 We may deliver our bills to you electronically. Please let us know if you have any particular requirements for the delivery of our bills.
8.3 Our bills become due for payment immediately after you receive them and in the currency in which they are submitted.
8.4 Please inform us if you would like a third party to be responsible for paying our bills or any part of them. We must approve this in advance and we will need the party’s name, contact details and any other information or identification documents we request. It is your responsibility to pay our bills even if someone else has agreed to pay some or all of them and our bills will still be addressed to you. If someone else does pay some of our bills, you are responsible for paying the rest.
8.5 We may charge interest on overdue bills on a daily basis at the rate applicable to judgment debts.
8.6 We may cease acting for you if an interim bill remains unpaid or if our reasonable request of a payment on account of costs is not met.
8.7 You have the right to challenge or complain about our bill. Please see section 15 (Complaints) for details of how to complain about our bill.
9 Confidentiality
9.1 We will keep your information confidential, unless:
i. you consent to the disclosure of that information;
ii. disclosure of the information is required or permitted by law or regulatory requirements that apply to us; or
iii. these Terms of Business state otherwise.
9.2 Examples of organisations we may be required to disclose your information to include:
i. the National Crime Agency;
ii. domestic and international tax authorities;
iii. regulatory authorities.
9.3 Unless you instruct us otherwise, email will be our default method of communication. We deploy a range of information security measures, but we cannot guarantee the security of information or documents sent by email. If you do not wish us to communicate information by email, please let us know.
9.4 External organisations such as the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Immigration Advice Authority may conduct audit or quality checks on our practice from time to time. They may wish to audit or quality check your file and related papers for this purpose. We will require that these external organisations maintain confidentiality in relation to any files and papers which are audited or quality checked.
9.5 Your files may also be reviewed in a due diligence exercise relating to the sale or transfer of all or part of our business, the acquisition of another business by us or the acquisition of new business. If you do not wish your file to be used in this way, please let us know as soon as possible.
10 Privacy and data protection
10.1 We use your personal data primarily to provide immigration services to you, but also for related purposes such as administration, billing and record keeping and to inform you of our services and events that we think may be of interest to you.
10.2 Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and other relevant UK legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.
10.3 We take your privacy very seriously. Our Privacy Policy contains important information on how and why we collect, process and store your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data.
10.4 We may record telephone calls and monitor emails for training, regulatory and compliance purposes.
10.5 We use third party service providers (including ‘cloud’ service providers) to help us deliver efficient, cost-effective legal services. This may include document/information hosting, sharing, transfer, analysis, processing or storage. We ensure all third-party service providers operate under service agreements that are consistent with our legal and professional obligations, including in relation to confidentiality, privacy and data protection. If you instruct us to use an alternative provider for storing, sharing or exchanging documents/information, we are not responsible for the security of the data or the provider’s security standards.
10.6 We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services. You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time, by contacting us by email on info@outpostlaw.com
11 Banking and related matters
11.1 Our client account: We hold client money in an account with an UK bank regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
11.2 Changes to our bank details: We will never tell you about changes to important business information, such as bank account details, by email. Please inform us immediately if you receive any email or other communication purporting to be from the firm stating that we have changed our bank details or payment arrangements.
11.3 Payment of interest: We will pay applicable interest to clients or third parties on client money we hold on their behalf. We will not pay interest on money we are instructed to hold outside a client account in a manner that does not attract interest.
11.4 Bank failure and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme: We are not liable for any losses you suffer as a result of any bank in which we hold client money being unable to repay depositors in full. You may, however, be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). More information about the FSCS can be found at https://www.fscs.org.uk
11.5 Receiving and paying funds: Our policy is not to accept cash from clients. If you try to avoid this policy by depositing cash directly with our bank, we may decide to charge you for any additional checks we decide are necessary to establish the source of the funds and this could also cause delays. If we receive money in relation to your matter from an unexpected source, there may be a delay in your matter and we may charge you for any additional checks we decide are necessary. Where we have to pay money to you, it will be paid by bank transfer. It will not be paid in cash or to a third party.
12 Prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing
12.1 To comply with anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing requirements, we will ask you for proof of your identity and we may conduct searches or enquiries for this purpose. We will also be required to identify and verify the identity of other persons such as directors or beneficial owners. If you or they do not provide us with the required information promptly, your matter may be delayed.
12.2 You agree that we may make checks using online electronic verification systems or other databases as we may decide.
12.3 You must not send us any money until we have told you these checks have been completed.
12.4 We will not usually charge you for identification and verification checks, but we reserve the right to do so where the checks are likely to be significantly more involved than we would normally expect.
12.5 We may ask you to confirm the source of any money you have sent us or will send us. If you do not provide us with that information promptly, your matter may be delayed.
12.6 Any personal data we receive from you for the purpose of preventing money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing will be used only for that purpose or:
i. with your consent; or
ii. as permitted by or under another enactment.
12.7 We are professionally and legally obliged to keep your affairs confidential. However, we may be required by law to make a disclosure to the National Crime Agency where we know or suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing. If we make a disclosure in relation to your matter, we may not be able to tell you that a disclosure has been made. We may have to stop working on your matter for a period of time and may not be able to tell you why.
12.8 Subject to section 7 (‘Our liability to you’), we shall not be liable for any loss arising from or connected with our compliance with any statutory obligation, or reasonable belief we may have, to report matters to the relevant authorities under the provisions of the money laundering, terrorist financing and/or proliferation financing legislation.
13 Financial services
13.1 We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide investment advice services. If you need advice on investments, we may refer you to someone who is authorised by the FCA to provide the necessary advice.
14 Professional indemnity insurance
14.1 We have professional indemnity insurance giving cover for claims against us. Details of this insurance, including contact details of our insurer and the territorial coverage of the policy, are available on our website, or can be provided on request.
14.2 It is a condition of our professional indemnity insurance that we notify our insurer and/or broker of any circumstances which may give rise to a claim against us. In doing so, we may disclose documents and information to our insurer, broker and insurance advisers on a confidential basis. Our insurers and brokers are contractually obliged to keep all information we pass to them strictly confidential.
15 Complaints
15.1 We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided you should inform us immediately so we can do our best to resolve the problem.
15.2 In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, you can read our full Complaints Procedure. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your matter.
16 Terminating your instructions
16.1 You may terminate our appointment at any time by giving us notice in writing.
16.2 We will only decide to stop acting for you with good reason, e.g. where we feel that the relationship has broken down, if you do not pay a bill, if you provide us with misleading information, or if you act in an abusive or offensive manner. We will give you reasonable notice before we stop acting for you.
16.3 If you or we decide that we should stop acting for you, we will charge you for the work we have done and, where appropriate, for transferring the matter to another adviser if you so request. This will be calculated on the basis set out in the Client Care Letter.
16.4 We are not responsible for reminding you about important dates and/or any deadlines after our appointment has been terminated.
17 Storage and retrieval of files
17.1 We may create and hold client files in hard copy (paper), electronically or a combination of both.
17.2 We normally store client files (except any of your papers you ask to be returned to you) for six years after we send you our final bill. Unless you instruct us to the contrary, we will store your file electronically only and will destroy our paper file. We store the file on the understanding that we may destroy it after six years. We will not destroy original documents that we have agreed to hold in safe custody but we may, on reasonable notice, send them to you for safekeeping.
17.3 We will not charge for this storage, but we reserve the right to do so where there is likely to be significantly larger than we would normally expect.
17.4 If we retrieve your file from storage (including electronic storage) in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for the retrieval.
17.5 If we retrieve your file from storage for another reason, we may charge you for:
i. time spent retrieving the file and producing it to you;
ii. reading, correspondence, or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved file; and/or
iii. providing additional copies of any documents.
17.6 Our Privacy Policy contains more information about how long we keep personal data for, see section 10.3.