Basis of Charge
We appreciate the importance of value for money and the need to budget for legal costs. The time that we spend on a case serves as a guide when calculating the fee. However, the urgency, complexity, novelty, importance or any other relevant aspects of the matter may also be taken into account.
Expenses incurred by us in acting on your behalf such as counsels' fees, filing fees, phone, copying and fax charges will be charged to you and we will give you details of these.
In litigation cases you should bear in mind that you are primarily responsible for the costs involved even when the outcome of the case is favourable to you. You should also be aware that if you are unsuccessful in a litigation matter you may be ordered to pay the other party's costs. In addition where a case is settled the terms of settlement will frequently include payment or part payment of costs. It is important to note that an order for costs in your favour will not cover the entire fee payable and may, in certain cases, be difficult to enforce and that such enforcement will give rise to additional costs which are not generally recoverable.
VAT is generally payable at 21%.
Estimates
We are obliged pursuant to S.68 (1)(c) of the Solicitors’ (Amendment) Act 1994 to give you a written statement of our charges in advance of doing the work. We generally try to estimate in advance, to the best of our ability, the likely fees for any piece of work and the expenses involved. We will give you the best guide that we can and will review the position on an ongoing basis so that there are no unexpected charges at the end.
Most cases or transactions involve contact with other lawyers and their clients. Even if a matter is, or at least initially appears to be, legally straightforward, the extent of the legal work required for it may not be wholly within your or our control. In the case of litigious or transaction matters the nature and extent of the work may be largely dictated by court procedure or by the positions taken by other parties or by you our client.
Out of Pocket Expenses
We will normally discharge all usual small out of pocket expenses for you as they occur (e.g. fares and search fees) and recover them from you when we send you a bill. We will, however, need to be put in funds in advance to cover any more substantial expenditure such as the advice of counsel, accountants, actuaries, official registration fees, court fees etc. We may ask you to lodge a sum of money with us on account of such outlays or on account of costs generally.
Billing
Our practice is to furnish our bill on final completion of the work. However, the nature of some work means that it is not fully completed for a considerable period of time. In such cases, we find that some clients prefer us to submit interim bills at certain stages of the work to avoid a large bill on completion.
In all cases we do our best to meet the particular billing requirements of individual clients.
Payment
We expect prompt payment of all bills, both interim and final. Any queries which you may have in relation to a bill should be brought to our attention and will be dealt with promptly.
Anti Money-laundering compliance
Irish lawyers are required to comply with anti-money laundering compliance procedures. To this end we may be obliged to ask you to provide us with identification documentation for our records. If documentation satisfactory to us is not provided, or if we have any reason to suspect that money laundering activity is involved, we may decline or cease to act on your behalf or otherwise observe our legal obligations.
Delegation of Work
We will ensure that the work we do is carried out by the people in the firm who have the skill and experience appropriate to the task and that it is done on the most cost efficient basis.
Comments and Complaints
Our aim is to provide you with the best legal advice and carry out the work in a courteous and friendly manner. If there is any way in which you feel that we can improve our service, please let any of our partners know.
Confidentiality
All information in relation to clients is treated in the strictest confidence in accordance with the highest professional standards.
Data Protection
From time to time in the course of our relationship with you in providing you with legal services or matters incidental thereto, we may need to process personal data about you or your employees, agents or representatives. All processing will be carried out in compliance with applicable law including the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003 (the "DPA").
Destruction of records
We reserve the right to destroy files and documents relating to completed transactions or business, eight years after the file has, in our view, become inactive.
