Terms and conditions

These terms and conditions apply to all contracts effected through our website and by using our website you agree that they apply to all contracts between you and us. They are liable to change at any time and any change will take effect from the time of publication on our website. All contracts with us will be deemed to have been made in Scotland and any disputes regulated by Scots law and you agree that the Scottish courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any disputes.Your statutory rights are not affected. Information on EU law relating to e commerce may be found at www.hmso.gov.uk

A: Taking Your Instructions

A1. We are only able to act on information and instructions received from you. You should not assume that we have knowledge of any factual matters.
A2. You agree that instructions for MyScottishDivorce will be taken from you and most, if not all, communications will be by electronic means via our website. You have satisfied yourself about any security issues. We do not offer within the set price of £795 any face-to-face meetings.
A3. E-mails and other electronic communications will be deemed to be received within 24 hours of them being sent by us and will not normally be confirmed by ordinary post.   We shall also communicate, with any other party in a matter for which we act for you, by using electronic means.
A4. If you give your initial instructions to us by electronic, fax, telephone or any other method covered by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations and are a “Consumer” as legally defined, you may have the right to withdraw your instructions, without charge, within 7 working days of your instructions. However, since this is a supply of services we give notice, in terms of Regulation 8(3), that unless we agree otherwise, you will not be able to cancel the contract under Regulation 10 once the performance of the services has begun with your agreement. Also if you have specifically instructed us to start or complete work within this period, and then withdraw your instructions, you will still be liable to pay for our fees and outlays.

B: Fees & Outlays

B1
B1.1 The fee of £795 including both VAT and the fees charged by the court is for a divorce based on affidavit evidence where the conditions precedent all apply, that is to say that a) you have been separated from your husband/wife for two years or more or you have been separated from your husband/wife for between one and two years and your husband/wife also wants a divorce; b) you have children of or accepted into the marriage who are under 16; c) those children live with you; d) there are no ongoing issues or disputes between you and your spouse and that you either have a Separation Agreement signed by you both or you do not have a Separation Agreement but there is no significant disagreement between you about childcare/finance/pensions/housing/other property (e.g. cars, jewellery, furniture, etc) ("hereinafter referred to as "disputes").
B1.2 This is payable £395 in advance and £400 immediately prior to our lodging the papers requesting the final decree of divorce. This assumes that your spouse timeously consents to the divorce and does not defend the action and that you and your witness timeously and diligently co-operate in providing any pertinent information required by us or the court. In the event that these conditions do not apply our fees are charged on the basis of time spent on the work together with an element for responsibility which can vary according to a number of matters, such as urgency, importance of the matter to you, amount or value of money or property involved, complexity, difficulty or novelty of the matter, length, number or importance of documents or papers. The basic hourly rate is £200.00 per hour plus VAT.
B1.3 In accepting these terms and conditions, you accept that you are representing to us that you have no ongoing disputes and that, accordingly, we do not require to give you any advice on this issue. We are entitled to rely on this representation and you agree that no complaint will lie against us in respect of the quality of legal service you receive or our conduct as regards this issue. Should you change your mind at some later date and decide that there is, after all, one or more disputes, then, should you wish to continue instructing us, we shall be entitled either to continue acting for you on our hourly basis or, alternatively, cease acting for you. Either way, we shall be entitled to our set fee of £795 which will become immediately due and payable.
B1.4 One of the ways that we keep our prices down is to earn commission on referrals to other solicitors. Should we refer you to another solicitor, we shall be entitled to retain any commission earned from this referral.
B2. In unusual circumstances, we may incur additional outlays on your behalf (such as payment of accounts of third parties, etc.) and we require you to reimburse us, either in advance or immediately after the event. Where your business goes on for some time we may also send interim feenotes.
B3. Please note that our fees and outlays are payable whether or not success is achieved unless agreement to the contrary is reached with us in advance. Any such agreement shall be confirmed in writing.
B5. In the highly unusual situation of there being additional fees, these are payable immediately upon our issuing of a fee invoice. Any discount or restriction made to your fee is subject to prompt payment of your account. We shall be entitled to deduct from any funds held by us on your behalf any fees or outlays which may be due to us. If we agree arrangements for payment by instalments, and you then fail to meet these instalments, we shall be entitled to demand instant payment of the whole sum due.
B6. If you are not happy about the fee charged, you are entitled to require our file to be “taxed”. Alternatively, if you do not pay our fee when due, we may ourselves apply for the file to be "taxed".  Where a file is to be "taxed" it will be passed to an Auditor of Court who will fix what he considers to be a fair and reasonable fee in all the circumstances, including those factors such as e.g. urgency, novelty, etc. The Auditor can fix a fee higher or lower than the fee previously charged by us. If it is lower then we will pay the cost of taxation.  If, however, he prices a higher fee or confirms the fee as charged then you will be required to pay the Auditor's costs. In any case you will require to pay the fee as set by the Auditor, whether lower, higher or the same as previously charged.
On occasion we may send our file to a law accountant or to the Auditor of Court to fix a fee for the work we have done for you. This is not a taxation and accordingly you will not be responsible for the Auditor's costs in those circumstances (unless we have agreed otherwise in writing in advance).
B7. Under Scots law, we are entitled to exercise a lien over any documents, papers or other items held by us, as security for any sums due by you to us. We reserve the option to exercise this right at any time that you owe us any sum if we consider it appropriate to do so. We also reserve the right to make use of any other legal remedy to obtain payment of unpaid sums due, together with interest and legal costs.
B8. We do not offer Legal Aid. If you think you might be eligible and want to apply then you should try to find another firm of Solicitors who are willing to act for you under that scheme.

C: Handling of your business

C1. Your business with this firm is confidential, and may also be subject to legal privilege. We will not disclose any information about your business without your permission, except when required to do so by law or the regulations of the Law Society of Scotland. However, we may confirm matters that are on the public record without asking you.
C2. We are governed by the Law Society of Scotland regulations on conflict of interest. If there appears to be a conflict of interest, or potential conflict, either between you and this firm, or you and another client from whom we have accepted instructions, we may be unable to act for you. If this circumstance should arise, we shall advise you as soon as possible and how the regulations apply in your case.
C3. If you wish to transfer a matter on which we are acting for you to another firm of solicitors, we will require a written mandate to this effect. Any files or papers handed over will be subject to appropriate arrangements for the setting and payment of our fee and outlays for work already carried out.
C4. Although we will make every effort to keep in regular contact with you throughout the progress of any business, it is your responsibility to maintain contact. If you change address or contact arrangements, please let us know as soon as possible. If you do not appear to have heard from us for longer than you have expected, please contact us, in order that we may advise you of the current position and check that no correspondence has gone astray. If you repeatedly fail to contact us with instructions when requested, we reserve the right to cease acting for you, and charge a fee for all work carried out by us.
C5. The firm’s policy regarding destruction of records is per the Law Society's recommendations - further information is available if required.
C6. Unless you request otherwise in writing, we will retain details about you on computer, and may use these in future to advise you of changes in the law or services being offered by us which may be of interest to you. All such details remain confidential and will not be passed on to third parties except when we are required to do so by law or the regulations of the Law Society of Scotland. We only use cookies to facilitate the divorce processing. No other form of tracking technology is used by us.
C7. We do recommend that you obtain a certificate of posting from the Post Office when sending documents to us and take a photocopy beforehand. Please consider insuring your parcel, in order that you can claim for any loss or damage, as we are unable to compensate for documents that are damaged or mislaid in transit.

D: Investment Business

D1. We are licensed by the Law Society of Scotland to carry on Incidental Investment business activities. These activities are limited in scope. We are not authorised by the Financial Services Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Therefore we will only carry out investment business where this is related to legal advice or business which we are carrying out for you.
D2. In respect of any Incidental Investment business carried out by us, we are covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance under the Law Society of Scotland’s Master Policy and also the Scottish Solicitors Guarantee Fund. The current limit of indemnity on the Master Policy is £1.25 million. The Guarantee Fund has unlimited liability.
D3. We will not give specific investment advice, although we may discuss matters generally, and advise you to obtain specific investment advice. If you instruct us to carry out investment business we are not required to make any comment on the suitability of such a course of action, whether you are acting on the advice of any advisor or without specific advice.
D4. If you wish to obtain investment advice, we may recommend the services of an Independent Financial Advisor (“IFA”). We will not comment on any advice you receive from the IFA.

E: Complaints

E1. Most complaints arise from a breakdown of communication or misunderstanding of instructions. If you do not understand a point which has been raised, or if it appears that any communication by us does not match either your understanding of facts or your instructions to us, please contact us immediately, in order that we may either explain the position or take your corrective instructions.
E2. If you have any complaints you should direct these to Bruce de Wert.
E3.In the unlikely event that we are not able to resolve your complaint, you are entitled to take this matter to Scottish Legal Complaints Commission. It decides if a complaint relates to a service provided or the conduct of a solicitor and whether the Commission or the Law Society of Scotland or both should investigate the matter. The Commission can be contacted on T: 0131 528 5111.
E4. We are committed to constantly improving the quality of service to our clients. If you have any suggestions how we can do so, or if you have found some part of our service particularly useful, we would be pleased to hear from you.

MyScottishDivorce is a trading name of Georgesons, Solicitors, 22 Bridge Street, Wick, KW1 4AP. Our telephone number is 01955 606060 and email address info@myscottishdivorce.co.uk but we should point out that you have agreed to communicate through the electronic means, via our website. Only use the above number and email address in extremis.