PRIVACY POLICY AND DATA PROTECTION

Wilkinson & Butler is committed to ensuring the security of all information we hold about our clients and contacts.

For the purposes of carrying out legal work, we need to record some information about clients such as name, address, and sometimes Date of Birth and National Insurance number, as well as contact details such as email and phone numbers. We will also inevitably have other information about the work we are doing for you.

This information is kept securely within our offices. We do not ever sell the information we hold. We do not pass that information on without your agreement and authority and only when it is necessary and appropriate.

At the end of any matter we retain necessary information and our files for 12 years, but they are kept securely at our offices and again are not disclosed to anyone without your express authority.

We use the information we obtain in order to carry out the works you want us to do, to comply with our statutory and regulatory obligations, to verify your identity for Anti Money Laundering purposes and to deal with feedback, queries or issues that may arise.

We do not use the information we hold for marketing purposes or advertising.

We do use the information that we hold to administer, support and improve the services we provide.

We normally ask for you to sign to confirm that we can hold your data, we only hold it when we have a lawful basis for needing the information and to work with it.

We use effective and tested security systems to ensure that the data we hold about you is safe and is not misused or disseminated. Our client care letter reiterates this information.

Your rights

You have the right to request that we provide a copy of the basic data that we hold, update your personal information where it is incorrect or out of date, or delete personal information that we hold. We will also consider any valid objections to our handling your personal data.

If you have any concerns about our use of your data please contact Peter Vialls, the Data Protection Officer and Partner in the firm.

Name of Partnership

Wilkinson & Butler Solicitors

Partners

Peter Robert Martin Vialls

Louis Francois Brandt

David Camwell

Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA)

Peter Vialls

Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP)

Louis Brandt

Address

Peppercorn House

8 Huntingdon Street

St. Neots

Cambridgeshire

PE19 1BH

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)1480 219229

E-mail: law@wbsols.co.uk

Fax: +44 (0)1480 472 651

VAT Registration no.

563 6332 39

Regulated and Authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

SRA No. 00073755

The following information complies with the Law Society's Diversity requirements.

Wilkinson & Butler is a market town high street firm. The firm employs 11 people including partners and all staff.

2 members of the firm have a share in the ownership of the firm.

Age-wise, the firm has a full range:

1 is aged 25-34

2 are aged 35-44

1 is aged 45-54

5 of us are aged 55-64

2 are aged over 64

We are a mixture of white British or English and European.

Some are Christian, one of us is Buddhist, and others have no religious faith.

We have staff who have a disability but most don't, and a few of us went to independent schools but most went to state schools.

Complaints Procedure

• Wilkinson & Butler is committed to providing high quality legal services and client care. 
• If you are in any way unhappy about any aspect of the service you have received or about the bill  regarding this matter, please raise the issue with me in the first instance.  If that does not resolve  the issue to your satisfaction, then please contact the firm’s Client Care Partner, who is Peter  Vialls.  You can telephone him on 01480 219229 or write to him at the above address.  We have a  formal, documented complaints procedure in place which details how we handle complaints, which  is available at our offices.
• You can also download a complaints form from the Legal Ombudsman’s website, which  is www.legalombudsman.org.uk.   Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal  Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us regarding your  complaint.
• If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint or if the issue has still not been resolved  to your satisfaction, you can contact the Legal Ombudsman at the address, The  Legal  Ombudsman, P. O. Box 15870, Birmingham B30 9EB, on telephone number 0300 555  0333,  or on  the email address, enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk to consider your complaint. 

Charges and Expenses

• Our charges will be calculated mainly by reference to the time actually spent by the solicitors and other staff in respect of any work which they do on your behalf.  This may include meetings with you and perhaps others; reading, preparing and working on papers and documents; drafting and receiving correspondence; making and receiving telephone calls, emails, faxes and text messages; preparing any detailed costs estimates and bills; and time necessarily spent travelling away from the office.  From time to time, we may arrange for some of this work to be carried out by persons not directly employed by us; such work will be charged to you at the hourly rate which would be charged if we had done the work ourselves, unless you have instructed us otherwise; for example, drafting of income tax returns on complicated estates or trusts.
• Routine letters, e-mails, faxes and telephone calls sent or received are charged at five minutes each.  Longer letters, e-mails and calls are charged on a time-spent basis. 

• The current hourly rates are set as below.  We will add VAT to these at the rate that applies when the work is done. At present, VAT is 20%.                                                             £  

                    -  Partners , Consultants and Associates                                                 240.00

                    -  Solicitors                                                                                               220.00

                    -  Legal Executives and Paralegals                                                         210.00

                    -  Trainee Solicitors                                                                                  200.00

• These hourly rates have to be reviewed periodically to reflect increases in overhead costs and inflation. Normally the rates are reviewed with effect from 1^st May each year.  If a review is carried out before this matter has been concluded, we will inform you of any variation in the rate before it takes effect.

• In the Administration of Estates, with regard to the property transactions and in cases involving particular complexity or requiring specialist expertise, an additional charge may be made to that calculated on the basis of that time spent.  This may reflect a percentage of the value of the Estate or the price of the property or other financial benefit.  This value element reflects the importance of the transaction and the consequent responsibility falling on the firm.   Where a value element is added, we will be happy to explain the calculation to you.
• Solicitors have to pay out various other expenses on behalf of clients ranging from Land or Probate Registry fees, Court fees, experts’ fees, and so on.   We refer to such payments generally as ‘disbursements’.   We will require a payment in advance from you in respect of any search fees, Court fees and Commissioner’s fees payable on your transaction. The “Rule 2” Client Care Letter that are sent out at the commencement of any matter will explain this more fully.
• If, for any reason, this matter does not proceed to completion, we will be entitled to charge you for work done and expenses incurred.