These terms set out the business relationship between us, your solicitors and you, our client.

This document sets out our standard terms and conditions. It must be read in conjunction with your client care letter which sets out the terms specific to your individual case, and our Privacy Notice which explains how we collect, process and protect your personal  data.  Please retain it safely.

Standards of service our clients can expect

In your client care letter we will have put down a standard of service that has been agreed with you. It will be tailored to your situation.  However, for all clients:

• We will communicate plainly, making the legal matter understandable to you.
• We will update you, regularly, usually when a significant event occurs in the matter.
• We will explain the legal work to you as the matter goes on.
• We will keep you updated on costs throughout your case.
• We shall keep you informed whether the risks and costs of your matter outweigh the benefits of the matter, so that you can consider your options.
• We will keep you updated about timescales for each stage of the matter.

Information on professional indemnity insurance (as per requirements under Provision of Services Regulations 2009)

Under the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 we are obliged to notify you that we are insured to provide legal services and carry Professional Indemnity Insurance for your protection. Details of our current insurer are accessible on the firm’s website or can be provided to you upon request.

Limitation of liability

No individual director, shareholder, employee or consultant of Major Family Law contracts with you personally or assumes legal responsibility to you personally in respect of work properly performed on behalf of Major Family Law. All communications we send to you during the course of our work (whether signed by a director, shareholder, employee or consultant) are to be treated as sent on behalf of Major Family Law.

The maximum aggregate liability of Major Family Law and all its directors, shareholders, employees and consultants to you for a breach of your instructions in this matter will be three million pounds (£3,000,000.00) including interest and costs.

We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses, or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities.

Where we and/or third parties are responsible for any loss suffered by you, our liability for that loss will be limited to a fair proportion of your total loss calculated by reference to the extent of our responsibility. If you have engaged others to represent or advise you on a matter in which we are involved and you agree with any of them that their liability to you will be limited, in order that our position is not adversely affected by any such limitation of their liability, you agree that our liability to you will not exceed the amount which would have applied in the absence of that limitation.

If we recommend that we should instruct other professionals on your behalf such as accountants, counsel or other third parties, your approval will be sought in advance of delivering instructions.   No responsibility is accepted for any act, omission, breach or defect of any third parties so instructed.

Our advice is for your benefit only. Save as expressly set out, our agreement with you is not intended to confer rights on any third parties whether pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise. No other person may see or rely on our advice without our written consent and subject to the conditions that we impose at the time

Data Protection

The personal data we hold for you is primarily used to enter into a legal services contract and provide you with legal services. We also use it to analyse our practice, keep clients’ records updated, complete statutory returns, and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

In providing legal services in the United Kingdom, we will either act as a data controller or a data processor appointed by you. When doing so we will comply with the provisions of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We never sell/give your data to third parties for marketing purposes. We hold your data confidentially, although we may need to disclose it to third parties from time to time such as expert witnesses or Counsel in order to progress your matter. In doing so we have regard to your instructions, the GDPR and our duty of confidentiality.

Our Client Privacy Notice, which terms are incorporated into these terms of business, is enclosed and can be found at our website https://www.majorfamilylaw.co.uk/privacy-notice-clients/. This contains information about what data Major Family Law collects and stores about you and why. It also tells you who we share this information with, the security mechanisms we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a query or complaint.

Under the UK GDPR, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. These rights are set out in full in our Privacy Notice and include the right to obtain a copy of your personal information, to request that we correct any mistakes or complete missing information, and to require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

If you want more information about your rights under the UK GDPR, please see the Guidance from the Information Commission Office on Individual’s rights under the UK GDPR.

We may from time to time send you information that we think may be of interest to you. Please let us know if you do not want this to happen, by writing to our office.

Outsourcing of work

We outsource various types of work.  By way of example but not limited to property transfers, client due diligence checks, and typing services.

Our decision to outsource these functions is taken so that we can concentrate on providing an excellent legal service at a reasonable price, by keeping our overheads lower.

However, we know that there is an increased risk in outsourcing the processes above that your right to confidentiality may be breached.

To mitigate this risk we use only reputable suppliers who satisfy us that they understand the heightened duty of confidentiality and data protection that is key to our profession. If you do not want your work outsourced then please inform us.

Where a capable Solicitor is no longer employed by us

Circumstances may arise where the Solicitor dealing with your matter is, for any reason, no longer available to continue acting.  This will not arise whilst the Solicitor continues to be actively engaged with us, but may arise by reason of the departure of the Solicitor from this firm, long term illness, death or other reasons.  If this does arise and we are then unable to arrange for a suitably qualified and experienced Solicitor to take over the conduct of your matter, we will be entitled to terminate our engagement upon notice to you.  In that event we will use our reasonable endeavours to locate and recommend alternative solicitors to act for you and assist with an orderly handover of the matter to those other solicitors.  If at that time there are any outstanding fees and disbursements owing to us then these will fall to be payable in accordance with our standard terms and conditions outlined above.

Financial arrangements with you

We try to be practical and ensure that we make it easy for you to work with us when funding your case.   However we have to consider the risk to the practice of money laundering through our bank accounts.  To that end:

• We cannot accept cash payments from you or pay money to you in cash.
• Any money to be paid to you through our firm’s account can only be paid into your personal account or to another solicitor.
• We cannot accept payments from third parties on your behalf except in very limited circumstances. If this applies please discuss this with your caseworker before any payment is made.

Payments of interest on money held in client account

Any money paid to us on account of our fees or disbursements is held in our firm’s general client account, which is managed in accordance with the relevant professional rules and standards. We do not pay interest on monies held in this account. This is because of the extremely low interest rate paid and the fact that money is generally held for a very short period of time pending delivery of our invoice, the payment of a disbursement or payment of the monies to another party.

Occasionally we may agree to hold money on your behalf in a separate designated client account (SDCA). For example, if the matrimonial home is sold as part of a divorce financial settlement, then the sale proceeds may be held in an SDCA whilst the parties decide how the funds should be divided between them. If we agree to hold money in an SDCA then interest will be payable on the funds held. Interest is calculated on a monthly basis for the whole period that the Firm holds cleared funds in an SDCA. All interest is credited to the SDCA and forms part of the funds held.  We will explain to you in advance the rate of interest payable on our SDCA should you chose to deposit monies with us.

Regulation of legal services

The Law Society represents solicitors in England and Wales. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society. The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body which adjudicates upon complaints which cannot be resolved using a firm’s own complaints handling process.

Major Family Law Limited is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (under SRA number 517119). The SRA Standards and Regulations comprise the rules of professional conduct which apply to solicitors, this firm and, where the context applies, to non-solicitor employees. They can be viewed on the SRA’s website: www.sra.org.uk.

Regulation of financial services

Major Family Law Ltd is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. If you need advice on investments while we are acting for you, we may refer you to someone who is authorised to provide the necessary advice.

However, we may provide certain limited investment advice services where these are closely linked to the legal work we are doing for you. This is because we are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the independent regulatory arm to which the Law Society delegates its regulatory functions. The Law Society is a designated professional body for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Complaints and redress mechanisms in respect of our financial services are provided through the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Legal Ombudsman.

Equality and Diversity

Major Family Law is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all its dealings with clients, third parties and employees.  Please contact us if you would like a copy of our Equality and Diversity policy.

The Criminal Finances Act 2017 –Prevention of the Facilitation of Tax Evasion

The Act creates a corporate criminal offence of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion. This brings a risk of criminal liability to solicitors’ firms not only as a result of their employees’ actions, but also the actions of others with whom they are associated, if they fail to prevent persons criminally facilitating tax evasion. In other words if a member of our staff is found to have assisted a client to evade tax, this could mean that they were involved in the commission of an offence.

This firm is committed to complying with the Act and has policies and procedures in place enabling staff to identify and mitigate the risk of facilitation of tax evasion being carried out by anyone associated with our firm.

Storage of documents

After completion of your matter, we will retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary to ensure we can fulfil our business requirements and to comply with our regulatory requirements. After that period we will confidentially destroy all data. Our Privacy Notice, a copy of which accompanies these terms of business and is also available via our website, explains in more detail how long we typically retain personal data. We will notify you of the specific period for which your data will be retained in our file closure letter.

The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 require us to keep client identification records and documents for 5 years from the end of our business relationship. At the end of the 5 year period the Regulations require us to delete this personal data unless certain exceptions apply. As stated above, in most instances we retain complete files, including personal identification documents, for over 5 years. We do this because the data may be required by us should we be sued, or should some other action be brought against us in relation to the matter for which we were instructed by you.

Any Wills held by us shall be retained for 99 years unless a request for their release is made by an Executor of that Will.

If we take papers or documents out of storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for such retrieval.

However we may charge you for:

• Time spent producing stored papers that are requested
• Reading correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved papers

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These terms of business are governed by the law of England & Wales and that any disputes will be resolved in accordance with the law of England & Wales.

Severance

If any provision or part-provision of this agreement is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed deleted, but that shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of this agreement.

Last updated 3rd November 2026.