Bullimore Suggitt is a partnership, comprising the partners: Susan Bullimore and Andrew Suggitt. We are a solicitors' firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The SRA 'Standards and Regulations' including Principles, Accounts Rules and Codes of Conduct for solicitors and solicitors' firms, are available on the SRA website at https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations .
As a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), Andrew Suggitt must also comply with the STEP Codes (STEP Code of Professional Conduct, STEP Code for Will Preparation in England & Wales and the STEP policy on Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation). The Codes are available at http://www.step.org/code-conduct.
We are also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the Data Protection Act 1998. The ICO website is at http://www.ico.org.uk.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, our standard Terms of Business (our Terms) will form the basis of any contract between us, together with our letter of engagement, confirming our instructions and the fixed charge (or where appropriate the hourly rate with estimate). We are happy to provide a copy of our Terms on request, and will of course provide a copy at the outset of any instruction. We would particularly highlight the following points, explained in more detail in our Terms:-
Our liability is restricted to £2 million in respect of any one claim, which is the level of our professional indemnity insurance cover.
As we are visiting solicitors, provided you are acting outside your business, trade or profession, you have 14 days starting from the day after it is made in which to cancel any contract with us - see ‘Model instructions for cancellation’ with ‘Model cancellation form’ at Schedule 3 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/schedule/3/made. We cannot therefore start work for you within that 14 day period unless you expressly ask us to do so in writing and agree to pay our costs for the work that we do (even if you then cancel).
Under the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, we have to formally confirm your identity at the start of any instruction.
Our duty of confidentiality is subject to our duty to the Court and to statutory exception; in particular we are bound to report information which causes us to suspect that a transaction may involve money laundering, terrorist financing or criminal money or property and to do so without telling our client.
Emails are open communications which are not secure.
Unless you ask us not to do so, we will treat your provision of an email address and/or your electronic correspondence to us as your agreement to our use of email to you and at your risk.
We want to give you the best possible service but if at any point you become unhappy, with either the service or the bill(s) you have received, you are entitled to complain. If not resolved informally, a complaint should be addressed to Susan Bullimore (by telephone, email or post), who will provide you with a copy of our Complaints Procedure (please click here to read) and issue a formal response.
If you are unhappy with our response, or if we do not reply within eight weeks, then if you are “an individual” (or one of the bodies described in the Scheme Rules), you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint. Subject to our agreement, it may also be possible to resolve any disagreement through alternative dispute resolution or via the EC Online Dispute Resolution Platform. For further information see Your Rights to Complain below.
The content of this website is intended only as general information not as legal advice and should not be relied on as such. Where we have supplied links to other websites, we cannot accept any responsibility for the content and we disclaim all liability in respect of it.
We want to give you the best possible service but if at any point you become unhappy, with either the service or the bill(s) you have received, you are entitled to complain. If not resolved informally, a complaint should be addressed to Susan Bullimore (by telephone, email or post), who will provide you with a copy of our Complaints Procedure and issue a formal response.
If you are unhappy with our response, or if we do not reply within eight weeks, then if you are “an individual” (or one of the bodies described in the Scheme Rules), you can ask the Legal Ombudsman to consider your complaint. The contact details are Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ; tel: 0300 555 0333; email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
The website is at http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk. It explains the process, who can use the service (as well as “an individual”) and the time limits which apply. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint and within six years of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or if outside of this period, within three years of when you should reasonably have been aware of it).
1. There are currently independent companies which offer an alternative dispute resolution service if all parties agree and which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, we will inform you of this and
2. To the extent that we are an “online trader” for the purposes of the Regulation on Consumer ODR (EU No 524/2013) you may also be able to use the new EC Online Dispute Resolution Platform at http://ec.europa.eu/odr. If so, and subject to there being ADR entities approved for ODR, then on receipt of your complaint from the Platform, we will nominate a suitable ADR entity and let you know whether we are prepared to agree to them dealing with your complaint.
The SRA can help if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
Visit their website ( https://sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor) to see how you can raise your concerns with the SRA.