By using this Website you agree that you have read these terms and conditions and that you agree to them. These terms and conditions and your use of this Website are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions you are not authorised to use this Website.
You may print off and keep a copy of these terms. They are a legal agreement between you and Horwich Cohen Coghlan (“us”) and can only be modified with our consent. We reserve the right to change the terms at our discretion by changing them on the Website.
Other terms may apply in respect of certain areas of the Website. If this is the case, you will be made aware of the terms which apply to those areas.
Please read the terms and conditions below. If you want to look at a specific section, you can go straight to it by clicking on one of the links on the left.
We do not accept service by way of email or fax
Legal Information
Any information about our products and services provided on the Website is for general information only, does not take account of any individual circumstances and may not reflect recent changes in the law.
The information on the Website refers only to the law of England and Wales and is intended only for residents of England and Wales. Users should be aware that laws and regulations may be different outside England and Wales.
Detailed specialist advice should always be obtained from a suitably qualified lawyer before taking, or not taking, any action.
The term ‘Partner’ and/or ‘Associate Partner’ is used to refer to an employee of Horwich Cohen Coghlan Ltd with equivalent standing and qualifications.
Disclaimers & Exclusion of Liability
Although care is taken to ensure that the information on the Website is accurate and up to date, we cannot accept any responsibility for mistakes or omissions. In particular, any articles in our archives may be out of date. We enter into no express or implied conditions, warranties, terms or representations regarding the quality, accuracy or completeness of the information.
We exclude to the extent lawfully permitted all liability for loss or damage, whether direct, indirect or consequential (including, without limitation, loss suffered as a result of breach of these terms which is not a foreseeable consequence of the breach, lost profits, lost opportunity, lost business, loss of goodwill, loss of contracts, increased overheads or administrative expenses or management time) arising out of your use of or inability to use this Website, or from any information or omission contained in this Website.
We do not exclude our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited by law.
While we try to ensure that the Website is available 24 hours a day, we cannot guarantee this and will not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period. Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair, for reasons beyond our control or any other reason we consider to be appropriate in the circumstances. We shall have no liability in respect of any such suspension.
Except where specifically stated in respect of on-line products, nothing in these pages constitutes either an offer, or legal or other professional advice and by using this Website you confirm that you have not relied on any such content.
The Website contains links to other websites not operated or controlled by us. If you use these links, you will leave the Website. These links are provided for convenience only and do not constitute any endorsement by Horwich Cohen Coghlan of the organisation promoted on the linked websites, their products or services.
We do not have any control over such linked websites or the content of them and cannot accept any responsibility for them.
Please note that although reasonable care is taken to ensure that the Website and the materials available from it are virus-free, we cannot accept responsibility for any viruses which may affect any material you download.
You may not misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking, attempting to gain unauthorised access to the Website or any server on which the Website is stored, or by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful). You may not attack the Website via a denial of service attack or a distributed denial of service attack.
By breaching this provision you may commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Website will cease immediately.
We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial of service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Website.
Complaints
While we endeavour to provide a first class service to all our clients we recognise that from time to time things will happen that may give you cause for concern. In the first instance please speak to the person who is dealing with your matter as they are likely to be able to resolve your concerns.
If you consider the matter to be too serious for this or wish to raise a complaint please email our Compliance Officer (compliance@hccsolicitors.com) who will review the matter and provide our response. You can access a copy of our Complaints Procedure here.
If we are unable to settle any complaint using our internal complaints process, you have a right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, an independent complaints body, established under the Legal Services Act 2007, that deals with legal services complaints.
From 1 April 2023 the Legal Ombudsman’s rules say that your complaint must be taken to them:
- Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint and
- No more than one year from the date of act/omission; or
- No more than one year from when you should have realised that there was cause for complaint.
You can contact the Legal Ombudsman by:
Telephone: 0300 555 0333
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Website: https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/
Alternative complaints bodies (such as Ombudsman Services, ProMediate and Small Claims Mediation) exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services.
You may also consider using the Online Dispute Resolution platform (http://ec.europa.eu/odr). However, we do not agree to use these schemes and will continue to use the Legal Ombudsman to resolve complaints that we cannot resolve directly.
Intellectual Property
The intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, copyright and trade marks) in all material on the Website (including, without limitation, text, images and plans) are owned by Horwich Cohen Coghlan Solicitors unless otherwise stated and your use of them is limited as set out below.
Except where otherwise stated, you are permitted to display the pages of the Website on your computer screen and print a reasonable number of unmodified copies of any of the pages of the Website for your own, non-commercial use. You may not change or delete any author attribution, trade mark, legend or copyright notice, and by printing or displaying the Website you do not acquire any rights in it.
Except as expressly permitted under copyright law, any other copying, modification, reproduction, permanent storage, repackaging, distribution, transmission or commercial exploitation of any of the material on the Website by any means without our prior written consent is prohibited. This applies to both the visual content of the Website and the source code.
You may create links to the Website but must not frame the Website on any other site nor may you create a link to any part of the Website other than the home page without our prior written consent.
Client Interest Policy
1. Payment of Interest
In order to comply with our regulatory obligations we will pay a fair sum of interest to clients on client money we hold on their behalf taking into account the administrative cost to the business of operating its client account, as well as the other factors as set out below.
2. Circumstances in which interest will not be paid
2.1 We will not pay interest where the amount of interest, calculated in accordance with this policy, is £50 or less on the basis that we have to cover a basic level of cost associated with operating and administering our general client account and the costs associated with paying interest below £50 are disproportionate to the amount involved;
2.2 Interest will not be paid on sums payable to others (for example disbursements) from the client money on client account. Interest will be calculated and paid on the net sum payable to the client.
3. Amount of interest
3.1 We will pay interest on money held in our client account at a rate applicable at the time the payment is made, which will be reviewed and set by the business from time to time and is currently 1.5%. We believe this to be a fair rate taking into account:
3.1.1 the interest rate the bank pays on the businesses general client account;
3.1.2 the interest rate a client would have been likely to be paid had they deposited the same sum in a high street bank account with the same features;
3.1.3 the cost to the business of operating and administering its general client account.
3.2 The rate of interest paid to clients will be reviewed at least annually. However, the business reserves the right to change the interest rate paid should there be a significant change in relation to the interest rate paid on its client account.
4. Interest period
Interest will be calculated on the whole period for which the money is held, starting from the date client money clears in the client account and ending on the day the payment is made to the client.
5. Tax liability
Interest paid on client money held in our client account will be paid before deduction of tax. It will be the recipient’s responsibility to declare interest received to HMRC.
6. Client Money held on more than one matter
Where we hold money on more than one matter for a client, interest will be calculated separately for each matter.
7. Publication
7.1 Clients will be informed of a summary of this policy in the client care leaflet.
7.2 The full policy will be available on the business’s website.
8. Monitoring and review
8.1 The firm’s compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA) is responsible for this policy.
8.2 The COFA will monitor compliance with this policy and will review this policy regularly, at least annually.
