Terms/ Direct Access

These are my full terms
All Fees are Exclusive of VAT

NORTH EAST BARRISTERS CHAMBERS

VERSION MAY 2025 

1. I am willing to give all clients a 15 minute free telephone consultation and to set this up you must call the office and set up an appointment on 0191.3692383. NOTE This call is simply to understand if yours is a type of case that I can take on and also for me to check my diary for free dates. To be clear no legal advice will be given during this call and it will only be for 15 minutes, if you want more time that has to be billed. 

2. These terms will apply to any instruction you give me, if you want a paper copy of these terms, please request those.

3. In most cases I will need to be sent papers to read, and I assume that will take me 20-30 minutes, we will then have a phone call for the balance (of 30-40 minutes – up to 1 hour in total). I will bill 1 hour of time. Once the telephone call is  booked and paid for no fees are refundable.

4. If you instruct me to read papers or give a written advice or do any drafting (e.g. Claim form, Defence, Letter Before Action), I MUST be paid in advance before I will start any work. You will have a 14 day cooling off period, but you must inform me you are invoking that cooling off period and if you do, I will then do no work on your matter until day 15. If you do not inform me that you invoke the 14 days cooling off period it is agreed that I can start work immediately.

5. If I am attending court for you:

i) if the hearing is more than 3 weeks away, you must pay a 50% deposit and then MUST pay the balance within 7 days of the hearing. If you do not pay the balance, I will not attend court and will not refund the deposit. The booking is not secured until that deposit is paid. You will have a 14 day cooling off period and if you cancel the boking within that 14 day period I can charge for all work I do until you cancel the booking, and any refund will be subject to a £125 processing fee.

ii) if the hearing is less that 3 weeks away I must be PAID IN FULL to put the booking in my diary. You agree not to invoke a 14 day cooling off period and if you cancel, the payment is NOT REFUNDABLE.

iii) If you are simply instructing me to attend a court hearing then I am NOT INSTRUCTED to give you advice on the merits of your case and if you do seek any advice on the merits of your case, that is only given as general advice which you should not rely on without obtaining approval in writing that you can rely on any such advice – this is due to the fact you accept any such advice may have been given without me having full knowledge of the whole of your case given the limited scope of my instructions.  If you are only asking me to attend a court hearing, then all I will need is the bundle for the hearing which I will read and then have a brief chat with you and I will then meet you at court about 1 hour before the hearing when we can discuss matters further. My fees to JUST attend court do not include multiple emails or phone calls in/out, or for me to do any prep on your case (other than reading the hearing bundle) and if that does occur you accept that I can bill at my current hourly rate for that additional work.

iv) If you do not pay me in advance to enable me to carry out prep necessary on your case e.g. prepare a skeleton argument or prep a hearing bundle or prepare an authorities bundle I will be permitted to stop acting on your case and also be permitted to decline to then attend court. If you fail to pay me in advance to attend a hearing as set out herein I will not attend Court. If I am on the record I will tell the Court I am no longer acting as you have failed to put me in funds to enable me to continue to work on your case. TO BE CLEAR the onus is on you to pay me, it is not for me to chase you for payment. I will not purchase any travel tickets or make hotel bookings until I am paid.

v) to travel to court, I will charge travel time and the cost of tickets or petrol costs and parking costs. If the case is over 100 miles away, I will also have to charge B&B costs to ensure I am on site for 9am (for a 10am hearing) so not having to set off at 5am to travel to court. If the case is listed for more than 1 day, I will also require a B&B for the other nights.

6. At all times you must be polite to my clerk or my telephone answering service and also be cordial with me if we speak on the phone. If you are aggressive or bullying to me or my clerk that will not be tolerated and I can withdraw from your case due to your actions.

7. If I agree to come on record and take on your whole case by way of prep and attending court I will do that at my hourly rate for prep at £250ph + vat with phone calls and emails at a pro rata rate of 1.5 units per email in or out and 2.5 units per phone call in or out. I require a to be paid a £2,000 retainer to act. Units are based on 1/60th of 1 hour.

8. It is almost impossible to give fixed fees from start to finish on a case as that will depend on the number of pre-trial hearings and how many days a trial may last. There may also be extra pre-trial hearings, e.g. Strike Outs or Relief from Sanctions hearings. Additional dates may result by a judge not being available on the day, the other side phoning the court to say they are too ill to attend. I have even been in court where a power outage meant the case did not proceed.

9. NOTE the only civil claims I come on record for and take on from start to finish are high value civil claims on Multi Track and it is soley at my discretion if I come on record for Fast Track or Intermediate Track. I will also take on most criminal cases from start to finish.

9. I cannot act for you until you send me ID and proof of address. If you instruct me, I will usually then be able to commence work on your case within 7 days of you paying the fee. We will have to agree by email a concluding date for any prep or drafting. If you need work done urgently you must make that clear in writing or on our 1 hour call.

10. If you have had lawyers on your case before me then you must dismiss them and arrange for them to send me (at least) the last hearing bundle. I charge 1 hour of my time to review before I can decide to take any such case on or not.

11. I will not accept numerous calls or numerous emails for you to “seek clarification” before instructing me and if you do that then that time will have to be billed. You accept that if you call me back “after you have thought about it” any free dates I had, may have become booked.

12. SENDING PAPERS – I will only accept you sending me PDF or word docs – any other format you must convert to PDF on e.g. the ILOVEPDF website. I will not accept multiple documents with “generic names” you should name each document, so it is obvious to me what it is. Also, I will not accept e.g. 5 separate pages of one document. Again, you can use e.g. the ILOVEPDF website to link the pages into one document. If I have sort out a mess of papers I will charge my time.

13. My fees will be calculated by reference to all time spent working on the matter or drafting. This will include meeting you and where appropriate, others, considering, preparing and working on papers, correspondence (letters and emails), making and receiving telephone calls and emails, research, internal consultations and travelling.

14. If I have to charge for “excessive and unnecessary Phone Calls and/or Emails”, Phone calls are charged in minimum of 2.5-units at the hourly rate. Emails in/out are charged in minimum of 1.5-units at the hourly rate. If we bill you for this additional work, no further work will be done on your case until you settle that invoice. 

15. You accept that upon instructing me, that should your case be listed at court and not get called on (that can happen e.g. in a criminal case where they have a defendant in the cells then that case will take priority and so your case may not be able to get on) or your case may conclude early e.g. be listed for 2 days and concludes in 1 day (and that includes if we agree to settle a case not long after arriving at the court building), no refunds will be given. You also accept that if you have paid me and have given me the wrong date for hearing (as has happened) no refund will be offered. The only refunds I will give is if a case is listed for more than 1 day and I had not booked a hotel yet which you paid me for I will refund that hotel fee.

16. My current hourly rate is currently £250ph (plus VAT). If my litigation assistant does any work on your case that will be charged at £125ph (plus VAT).

17. Fees are dependent on a number of factors depending on the complexity of the issues, the distance to be travelled to any hearing, the specialism, the number of pages involved, the number of procedural steps that need to be taken on the case, the location of the hearing, the number of days in court or tribunal, is the case with litigation (with me preparing your case) or without litigation (you preparing your own case) amongst other things. One of the major factors on your fee liability will be how many times you choose to email or phone the office. Any fees quoted do not include advising on or pursuing an appeal.

18. Some cases will develop over time, and it will be dependent on the requirements at each stage as to how many additional hours need to be spent on preparing a case or presenting a case in court and that may then change any fee indication.

19. I do not act on road traffic accident claim or tripping and slipping injury cases.

20. I do not prepare Employment Cases, Immigration Cases or Medical Negligence Cases , but I can represent clients at any tribunal.

21. I do not come on the record for Small Claim Cases, Family Cases (Child Access) and Financials After Divorce Cases – note that in these cases you cannot recover legal fees (99% of the time). We can assist you with any preparation at agreed rates.

22. I am a registered barrister, who is independent, I provide legal services in civil, commercial, defamation, family, will disputes, divorce, road traffic, employment, criminal matters (magistrates and crown court) and can deal with criminal appeals.

23. I can appear in all courts and tribunals in England and Wales, (not Scotland – where I can only appear in a tribunal) including those of regulators, the magistrates’ courts, crown courts, civil courts, county and high courts, court of appeal and Supreme Court / Privy Council.

24. Unlike solicitors I do not have a client account so I cannot pay 3rd parties – including Experts and Court fees – on your behalf.

25. Experts will charge fees to do reports and for attendance at court. Each expert will have their own charging structure. You will be liable to pay for any experts you seek to instruct, and you will have to pay any court fees.

26. COST RISKS: In some cases, you may be liable for the legal costs of the party you are litigating or defending against if you lose a case. There are also no guarantees that your own costs (if you win) will be recovered in full or at all.

27. If I win a criminal case, I will seek a defendants costs order, but I cannot assist in filling out any paperwork you are sent from the court.

28. I do not have a legal aid contract. If you need legal aid, you should contact a firm of solicitors who have a legal aid contract.

29. You can view the Legal Aid Commission website which has an eligibility calculator for legal aid. If you are a high earner, you may not be eligible for legal aid or you may have to make a high contribution which may amount to more than you would end up having to pay me by going private.

31. You may have an insurance product, domestic and residential, commercial or professional, that provides legal cover for some types of cases. You should look at the document and identify whether this is possible in your case. We are content to look at such documents to assist, where requested. You should speak to your insurer or broker direct. Insurance cover is usually capped at a certain hourly rate and global limit. Many insurance products do not cover regulatory proceedings.

32. I am not obligated to take on any case. In any event a fee must be agreed and paid before I can act or a deposit is paid for me to attend court must be paid before any instructions are formally accepted.

33. I generally do not provide legal services on Conditional Fee (No Win No Fee) basis. I may take on high value divorces under a Sears Tooth Agreement 

34. Fees and Costs can be affected by a number of factors, such as those mentioned herein below. Some clients need greater handholding and support, whereas some clients can undertake much of the legal work that is needed (with my support) so keeping the costs down.

35. On occasions, courts or tribunals may run out of time on a day we attend, to such a degree that a case may run over and so there will be additional costs, e.g. you pay me for 1 day in Court but it then becomes 2 days or we have to come back on another day to make submissions and get a verdict. If that happens you must pay for any additional hearing time.

36. Some legal cases will be more complex than others because of the needs of clients or because of the conduct of the other parties to a case.

37. Factors that can increase fees and affect any timescale for delivery of Legal Services include the location of the hearing and any ancillary costs such as travel costs, accommodation, and subsistence. The area of law, evidence or procedure concerned, and its complexities. The complexity of the case including any legal issues in the case and the amount of drafting and legal research that is needed. The volume of the legal and other paperwork involved affecting reading. The need for further documentation and the time it takes to obtain it from you or third parties. The approach of the regulator, courts, tribunals or the opposite party to the case or prosecuting authority, and the possible intervention of third parties. The estimated length of any court hearing, and any ongoing interim stages or appeals. Whether additional support is required from a legal assistant. The amount of court forms and bundles that need to be drafted, served on other parties of filed with the courts. The availability of court or tribunal time, and associated delays; court waiting times.

38. I do the utmost to be clear about likely fees and can usually set out likely costs, at least as an estimate. I can agree a maximum amount I will do before I come back for approval to incur more fees. The vagaries of court and tribunal life, and law, can lead to the occasional unexpected fees but thankfully this is relatively rare. Our aim is to seek to avoid surprises where possible.

39. Courts charge fees for lodging claims, and these will be dependent on the nature and value of the claim. They can range from a few hundred to several thousands of pounds. See the HMCTS guide to fees for more information. If you are on benefits or a low income you may be able to apply to have those fees waived.

40. I am reluctant to take over a case where you have now decided, due perhaps to rising fees or slow progress, to dismiss your solicitors and so ask me to take the case over, as I will not be clear on what advice they have given to you and what they have done for you, up to whatever stage you are at. In such cases I charge 1 hour of my time to review the papers, and I will then decide if I can take the case over or not – I will then bill for a 1 hour consultation. If I decide I cannot take the case over, I may still be able to represent you at court and assist you with drafting documents and preparing a bundle for a hearing but in such cases you will have to act as a litigant in person as I will not take liability for what was prepared by previous lawyers you have instructed.  If you dismiss your previous lawyers, I MUST be sent the full case file as I cannot be held liable if I give you legal advice when I have only seen a proportion of the case papers. In all cases you will warrant that I have seen all relevant paperwork for the case, and you agree that I will not be held liable if any advice I give you if that turns out NOT TO BE VALID due to the fact that you have failed to disclose any relevant documentation. The real issue is that you SHOULD NOT instruct me until you are certain you have sourced and disclosed to me ALL relevant documents on the case.

41. LITIGATION RISKS – Please also consider the position on costs if you enter into litigation (claimant or defendant)  as unless your claim is under £10,000 (and so will be classed as a small claim, which means neither party usually recovers legal costs) or if it is a family case involving children or a divorce case over financials after divorce (where it is highly unusual for either party to recover costs), costs will generally be an issue where the loser in a civil litigation case will be ordered to pay the other sides legal costs. That is why mediation or seeking to settle litigation early may often be the correct approach. You may wish also to make a Part 36 offer to settle, to try and protect you when costs are adjudicated.

42. I generally DO NOT want original documents. I will TELL YOU if I need original documents, if not you must only send me copies, as unless I agree to accept original documents, I will have no liability for them. If you deliver documents to the office, I will assume that they are not originals and they will be shredded after they have been scanned onto our computers.

43. Ongoing instructions on a case must at a meeting or by email only to jb@barristerjohnbrown.co.uk  or by letter to Hadrian House, 84 Front Street, Chester Le Street, DH3 3BB. Unless agreed I will not accept ongoing instructions from a client by text, by WhatsApp or by any other social media messaging platform sent to me. If you call the office number that will only be for you to seek updates on your case and you will be charged for the time.

44. These terms of business apply to all work done by Dr John Brown of North East Barristers Chambers.

45. If you instruct me to act for you, you are warranting that you accept these terms (and you warrant that you accept any additional terms that may be highlighted to you).

46. References in these terms shall include any letter, document or email sent to you which sets out, amongst other things, the scope of the work we will be carrying out for you, any assumptions we have made about the scope of the work, any exclusions from the scope of the work, the anticipated timescale, and an estimate or proposal in respect of fees we will charge for the work undertaken on your behalf.

47. If you decide to take time considering instructing me after we have had an initial phone call (maybe for a few days), I am not obliged to keep any booking free in my diary and so you may find that when you call back I am then not free to take on your case. I also will not hold any booking when you tell me you are phoning around for quotes. I only secure a booking when I am paid a RETAINER.

48. In all dealings with clients, we aim to provide a professional quality of service. We shall endeavour to meet your objectives within an agreed timescale, subject to external factors over which we may have little or no control.

49. The general timescales are that any emails sent to us shall be replied to within 72 hours (not including weekends). If I am in court and cannot give a substantive reply I will acknowledge your email within that 72 hour timescale and tell you when you should get a substantive reply. The email address you should use to correspond with is jb@barristerjohnbrown.co.uk

50. Do not send an email to my CJSM email account, unless you have a CJSM email account and are sending the email from your CJSM account, as emails from other accounts will not go through to a CJSM email account.

51. We are open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, unless it is a UK holiday day. We will only accept calls during that time.

52. Our advice is provided solely to you, the client. Without our prior written consent, our advice may not be used for any purpose other than the one for which it was given. You may not disclose our advice to any person other than those who normally have access to your records and papers, such as your employees, agent, and other professional advisers. You may not quote or refer to us or our advice in any public document or communication without our consent.

53. Our duty of care is to you and not to any third parties. No third parties (unless we specifically agree) shall have the right to rely on or enforce any term of our agreement with you under the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.

54. We may act for and provide advice to more than one person or organisation jointly in relation to the same matter. In such a case, we will be acting for all of you, collectively. We may sometimes need to take instructions from one of you on behalf of the others, for example, because it is more convenient to do so.

55. We do not give advice on taxation or accountancy matters. If we believe that you require such advice, we shall advise you to seek it from suitably qualified professionals. Similarly, we can only advise on the law in England and Wales and not in any other jurisdiction. If you require advice on the law of any other jurisdiction then we may, with your permission, seek advice from a suitably qualified legal adviser in the relevant jurisdiction. You will be responsible for their fees.

56. If a third party is needed on your case (e.g., an expert) we will agree who will be the third party with you, but you will have to appoint that third party and pay him/her. Services provided by any such third party will be subject to their terms of business (as provided to you).

57. From time to time, we may use temporary legal staff. Although they are not all our employees, we supervise such staff as if they were employees and place them under similar obligations as to confidentiality so to protect your confidential information and preserve your right to privilege. If practicable we will advise you of any such arrangements made in relation to your work.

58. At the start of any new matter, it is important that we clearly understand what you want to achieve as well as the timescale in which you wish to achieve it and, if you have a budget in mind, your expectations in respect of legal costs. If your timescale later changes, I may not be able to meet that new timetable and so  may have to terminate the agreement for me to act for you.

59. Having taken your instructions, we will address the following matters and issues:

• your requirements and objectives;
• the scope of the work that we will be carrying out for you and any exclusions or assumptions to the work;
• an explanation of the issues and an outline of your options;
• what we will do and what we will not do for you;
• we will identify any unusual level of risk or uncertainty in the proposed matter;
• identify if you will act as a litigant in person or if I will come on the court record;
• consider if we have any potential conflicts in carrying out the work for you;
• we will, if appropriate, estimate the likely timescales of the matter and advise as to any specific issues which may affect timing; and
• if possible, we will provide you with an estimate of the fees likely to be involved which will be updated from time to time as the matter progresses
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60. Our responsibilities to you are:

• to act in accordance with your instructions;
• to exercise a high degree of professional care in our dealings with you;
• to be proactive in ensuring you meet your objectives;
• to communicate with you at regular intervals by telephone and email;
• to notify you of any material developments or occurrences;
• (if agreed with you) provide you with a cost benefit analysis of the matter (i.e. our assessment as to whether the likely outcome of a disputed matter will justify the expense or risk involved, including, if relevant, the risk of having to bear an opponent’s costs);
• to act in your best interests at all times; and
• to ensure that you are advised of the legal issues arising in this matter and the options available to you in respect of these.
  
  

61. Your responsibilities to us are:

• to be polite at all times when contacting the office by phone or by email;
• to inform us of all material factors of which you are aware which may affect the matter;
• to supply or arrange to have sent the case papers;
• to send case papers by email in a format I can work on and properly name the documents;
• to be truthful about the facts of a civil claim and if it transpires that a matter, which has been signed with a statement of truth is later found to be not true, I may then be professionally embarrassed and so would have to stop acting as I could not then promote the claim for you in court as set out in the document you have signed with a statement of truth;
• to provide us with appropriate evidence as to your identity and, address and where requested, that of your organisation;
• to provide us with relevant paperwork and provide prompt, accurate and appropriate instructions when required. I do not want original documents as I scan all relevant paperwork into a folder. If you give me original documents and want them back, you must make that clear;
• to provide an appropriate level of funding as required by these terms;
• to settle our bills promptly when delivered;
• if despite ongoing emails or calls, you fail to keep in contact and update your instructions as matters move on, or if you fail to make contact with us for over 6 weeks we will be entitled to withdraw the services and will be under no obligation to refund you any fees you have paid; and

62. Breaches of above can lead to me longer being willing to act for you.

63. The decision as to whether you proceed to instruct us in relation to any matter (and the course to be taken in relation to that matter) will be made by you based upon your own commercial assessment.

64. All direct access work is private paying – I do not have a legal aid contract so I cannot offer Direct Access Clients legal aid services.

65. If you have an insurance policy you may find you have cover for legal costs, If so, you should find out if you can claim my fees on your policy.

66. I will beat any quote you receive from another direct access barrister, (called between 2000 and 2005) simply show me a written quote. I will also beat any quote you get from a firm of solicitors by at least 15%, simply provide me with a written quote that is not more than 30 days old.

67. In the case of estimates, we reserve the right to change or amend the estimate at any time while we are carrying the work out for you. We will, however, notify you beforehand if we need to revise our estimate upwards.

68. You will always be liable to pay any court fees e.g. to submit a claim, or a counter claim or if you are obligated to pay a trial fee and you will also have to pay for any experts’ fees.

69. Generally, we will agree any correspondence with you and will then put it into PDF format for you to post. However, if we post anything on your behalf you agree to meet the postage fees. If we have to photocopy more than 5 pages we will have to charge our copying expenses to you.

70. We reserve the right to retain funds, correspondence, documents, records and title deeds belonging to you which have come into our possession until all our fees and disbursements owed to us by you have been paid.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

• The following should be read carefully as it limits the extent of our liability to you. Any such liability arising from or in connection with the services provided to you by us is the liability only of Dr John Brown. Our partners, employees and contractors shall have no personal liability to you.
• Our liability of for loss or damage cause by our negligence, breach of contract, misrepresentation, is limited to a maximum sum of £500,000 (five hundred thousand pounds) for each single originating cause, which amount includes all legal and other costs which we may incur in defending any actions against us.
• Our liability is covered by Bar Mutual Insurance.
• This limitation of liability provision shall apply to each and every matter we handle for you unless otherwise agreed with you in writing.
• You also agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless against all losses, damages or costs howsoever caused which we may suffer in acting for you in this engagement (including, without limitation, our compliance with our statutory obligations), subject to the limitation in liability set out in the preceding paragraph.
  
  

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

• We are not allowed to act for you if there is a conflict between your interests and ours. For example, we normally cannot act for you if the other party in the transaction is a regular client of ours. If in the course this engagement a conflict of interest arises, we will let you know as soon as we become aware of it and discuss with you the course of action required.
  
  

MONEY LAUNDERING

• We are required to comply with our statutory obligations under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (as amended by the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019, otherwise known as the 5th Money Laundering Directive) (together “the Money Laundering Regulations), to carry out certain checks in order to verify identity and the source of funds supplied by If you instruct us, you must send me a proof of ID and proof of address.
• We are also under a duty to report any suspicion that we have of money laundering, and this duty may override our duty of client confidentiality. We shall not incur any liability to you for any loss you may suffer as a result of our compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations to include any delay in dealings with or concluding your matter. While this may seem excessive, we are required to adhere to the Money Laundering Regulations and may not be able to act for you if we cannot comply with these Money Laundering Regulations.
  
  

COMMUNICATION BY EMAIL

• We generally communicate with and send documents to clients by e-mail. You accept that the internet is not a secure medium and that electronic transmission of e-mail may become lost, delayed, intercepted, corrupted, delivered incomplete or fail to be delivered. Any large documents will be sent by WeTransfer.
• We shall use our reasonable endeavours to ensure that our e-mails are free from viruses and other obstructions and shall expect you to do the same. However, you should note that e-mail cannot be guaranteed to be secure, error-free or confidential and that we shall have no responsibility or liability for any error, omission, claim or loss arising from or in connection with any communication to you via email, in the absence of any bad faith or wilful default on our part.
• Do not send us original documents unless we specifically ask for them (only send us photocopies). We hold no liability for original documents unless liability is agreed before they are sent to us. If you send original documents, they will be scanned and you must collect the originals from me. If you provide me with any media footage (e.g. CCTV) it will be assumed that you hold an original.
  
  

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• All copyright and intellectual property rights in any work and materials that we develop or create for you shall be our property unless specifically agreed otherwise. You are, however, permitted to use any such materials for the purposes for which they were created.
• For the purpose of advising you or other clients, and subject to our duties of confidentiality to you, we shall be entitled to use, analyse, share and develop the knowledge, experience or skills of general application gained through working for you.
  
  

DATA PROTECTION

• As part of our engagement with you, we expect to receive personal data from you or from persons connected with your business. This could be personal data about you, people who work for or with your business, or third parties, including people at organisations you do business with or are in dispute with. We are required under the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”) and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) (“GDPR”) (the GDPR and the DPA collectively, “data protection law”) to inform you about the uses to which we put your personal data.
• We will comply with the data protection law in our own handling of personal data (including any personal data we obtain from third parties for your engagement) but will not be responsible for any action taken by the Information Commissioner (or any other data protection regulator), data subjects or other persons arising from any transfer of personal data to us by you (or its processing in order to fulfil your instructions) contrary to data protection law.
• We may use third parties to process your personal data for us in order to obtain goods and services related to your engagement or appropriate for the running of our firm. We do not sell personal data to third parties for marketing or other commercial purposes.
• Data protection law requires that all personal data kept by us is accurate and up to date, so please keep us informed of any changes to personal data, including email and mobile phone numbers, which you supply to us in connection with our engagement.
  
  

CONFIDENTIALITY

• As a Barristers Chambers, we are under strict rules of confidentiality and shall not disclose any confidential information received from you unless instructed by you or as required by law. Equally, we cannot use or pass on confidential information obtained from other clients for your benefit.
• Occasionally, we may be requested to refer in general terms to work done for you. For example, we may be requested to give information for reports to be published in the legal or business press of transactions where we have acted for one of the parties, or we may wish to disclose that we have acted for you in a particular deal or matter. In such cases, we will ask for your consent before disclosing and, if given, this consent will also apply to future similar disclosures by us or one of you to deal with us, or because the matter needs to be dealt with quickly. You authorise us to do this without needing to confirm the instructions with all of you.
  
  

TERMINATION

• You may terminate your instructions in writing at any time, but any retainer paid is only refundable under specific terms and you will be liable to pay any fees due till the termination date.
• We may stop acting for you where we believe that we have a good reason to do so, for example, if a conflict of interest arises, if you persistently refuse to provide information that we require, if you persistently refuse to take our advice, if you do not pay your invoices on time or you do not pay an interim payment when due, or are hostile, rude or discriminatory to myself or my staff either over the phone or in person.
• Termination shall not affect any accrued rights of either party.
  
  

STORAGE OF YOUR DOCUMENTS

• We shall keep an electronic file for long as we consider appropriate, but for no more than 6 years. We will only then retain an electronic copy of the papers, but you agree we may destroy any paper copies. If you wish to have any paperwork you must collect it within 14 days of us confirming to you that we are closing the file, otherwise you authorise us to destroy it.
  
  

VARIATIONS TO THESE TERMS

• From time to time, we may amend our Terms. If we do those updated  Terms will have a published date on them and will replace any previous Terms.
  
  

GOVERNING LAW

• These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. You agree that the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction in any dispute that may arise between us.
  
  

THE BAR STANDARDS BOARD

• We are authorised and regulated by the Bar Standards Board.of 30-40