UK Immigration Advice
Booking a telephone appointment to speak to one of our experienced lawyers for specific UK immigration advice is easy. All you need to do is decide on a day and time that suits you and give us a call on 0113 2441911 or just email us at clients@awsolicitors.co.uk. If the slot is not available we will contact you to arrange an alternative date or time.

Speaking to an immigration lawyer to get specific UK immigration advice will help you to focus on what you want to achieve and how. It will also give you an opportunity to ask specific questions about the following:

1. the processes involved;
2. the evidence required;
3. the cost;
4. the type of application to be made;
5. the type of template and checking tools to be used, if required; and
6. decide when to complete your application.

ANDREW WILLIAMS SOLICITORS – TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS BETWEEN:
You (the client)

AND

Leeds Legal Solutions Ltd
Trading as:
Andrew Williams Solicitors

1. Remotely from any destination.

2. RESPONSIBILITY FOR WORK The person with day to day responsibility for your case will be the case manager you are introduced to at a later Your case manager also known as your Solicitors or caseworker will ordinarily be the person with day to day responsibility for your whole case. However, please note that case managers have access to a team of support staff who also provide assistance to them. There may be times when you are required to work with a member of our support team. Your case will still remain with your case manager despite other members of staff supporting them and you during the application or appeal process. The person with overall responsibility for your case and our firm is Mr Andrew Williams.

2.1 It is no longer necessary for you to make an in person appointment in order to discuss your case at our We are now a 100% remote operating law firm. This means that all our consultations and appointment are conducted remotely via telephone, email, video calls etc. We now only accept digital documents. This means you must send us your documents in a digital format such as Word, PDF or JPEG etc. Your documents can be emailed to us at newinfo@awsolicitors.co.uk or directly to a member of team once you have requested or received their email address. If you have access to our client’s portal you can upload your documents there.

2.2 We aim to offer all clients a friendly and efficient If however any difficulty arises you should raise your concerns with the fee earner with conduct of your case in the first instance and then Andrew Williams if you are still not happy. If you are still not happy you can complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Their telephone number is 0870 606 2555. Please note that we hold PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY insurance cover in the interests of clients.

3. FEES where a fee arrangement such as fixed fees has been agreed our hourly charging rates outlined below will not apply, unless for whatever reason we either agree to work out what time has been spent on your case or we are required to do so for whatever reason to determine what fee if any should be charged based upon the time already spent on your case.

4. Unless and until either an alternative fee arrangement has been agreed and confirmed in writing by us, the basis of calculation of our fees is described below and is mainly by reference to the time spent in dealing with the case; the time charged being all time spent on your This will include attendances upon you and perhaps others, any time spent travelling and time spent considering, preparing and working on papers and correspondence, time spent making and receiving telephone calls.

4.1 In order to enable us to calculate our fees we charge out at an hourly rate which reflects our total overhead costs including the costs of our premises, equipment, materials and support These hourly rates are not the actual rates of pay of the case managers concerned! Routine letters sent out by the firm are charged at 12 minutes per page, consideration of letters received at 6 minutes per page and telephone calls charged in 12 minutes units. Email correspondence is charged as 12 minutes per email.

4.2 Our current hourly rates are between £80.00 – £275.00.

4.3 Where your instructions require that interviews take place, or other work is carried out, necessarily outside the normal office hours we reserve the right to increase the level of the hourly rate.

4.4 The hourly rates set out above are normally reviewed annually to take effect from 31st March and take account of changes in salary and other overhead Details of any revision of rates occurring during the continuance of a case or transaction will be supplied to you on request. The normal rates may not be appropriate in cases of exceptional complexity or urgency. Where it becomes apparent that such circumstances exist we reserve the right to cease acting for you unless revised rates are agreed in substitution for future work.

4.5 Payments to 3rd parties include payments made by us on behalf of you g. for such items as Home Office application fees, court fees, counsel’s fees, fees for medical reports, etc. we have no obligation to affect such payments unless you have provided funds for that purpose. VAT maybe payable on certain disbursements.

4.6 In normal circumstances our fees are payable whether or not a case is successfully concluded, or a transaction However, if part or all of the agreed fee includes a success fee then that fee will only remain payable if the application or appeal etc. is successful. If we have already received fees in fulfilment of work completed on your behalf under a partly or full success fee arrangement, then those fees will be refunded to you in part or in full in line with the terms of the agreement.

4.7 If any case or transaction does not proceed to completion for any reason during the period in which we are instructed then the firm shall be entitled to charge for work done on the basis set out above but in its absolute discretion the firm may waive part or all of such entitlement.

4.8 We reserve the legal right to withhold any client’s documents at any point if we are owed money by the client and/or we believe payment may not be This is a general lien, which can be utilised by any business in the process of recovering outstanding debts. Without prejudice to other remedies Leeds Legal Solutions Ltd trading as Andrew Williams Solicitors shall in respect of all unpaid charges due from the Client have a general lien on all goods and property in its possession (whether worked on or not) and shall be entitled on the expiration of 14 days notice to dispose of such goods or property as it thinks fit and to apply any proceeds towards such outstanding charges.

4.9 In the event of outstanding fees on your file that have been outstanding for more than 30 days following a request for payment  then we will send you reminder letters if you are unavailable via phone or Every time we send a reminder letter you will receive a bill enclosed for £25.00. Every time we send a reminder email you will receive a bill enclosed for £15.00. Please ensure that our offices are kept up-to- date with your fee-paying arrangements in order to avoid incurring further costs. If you are having trouble paying your fees then you should speak to your representative.

5. ARRANGEMENTS FOR PAYMENT OF FEES We will send you a bill for any fees and disbursements that are anticipated in the following weeks, those fees will therefore become payable to us. It is helpful if you meet such requests for payment promptly to avoid delay in the progress of your case. The above procedure also enables clients to budget the costs as the matter progresses. In the event of any account or request for payment of an invoice not being paid we reserve the right to decline to act further in a case. In transactions or cases likely to continue for more than three months we normally issue interim file review bills quarterly covering the further work that will be carried out on your behalf, such as writing to third parties. If you already have outstanding fees at this stage then the full amount of work done up to that date will be the subject of a final bill if the matter has been concluded or another interim bill, in either case it will be a debt due from you.

5.1 Interest may be charged from the date of delivery of an account in cases where payment is not made within 15 days of such delivery or where an alternative arrangement is place and you fail to pay within the agreed time.

6 STORAGE OF DOCUMENTS Following the conclusion of your case we will retain your file of documents electronically for such a period as we shall deem appropriate and in any event in line with any practicing compliance obligation we may from time to time If you require such documents to be kept for any specific period you should give notice in writing to us to that effect and, in the event of such notice being given, we reserve the right to require you to take personal custody of those documents or provide further instructions for us to destroy them. We may from time to time charge a fee for the retrieval of your file to cover the cost of our support staff. This will be the case where your file has been closed for some time.

7 PROOF OF IDENTITY In order to comply with the law on money laundering, we need to obtain evidence of your identity as soon as We should be grateful, therefore, if you would provide us with documents to verify your identity and address.

8 CONFIDENTIALITY Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of clients confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money laundering and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious and Organised Crime Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involved money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure. If this happens, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or for the reasons of it. The audio recording of conversations between clients and our employees is permitted, but verbal or written permission must be obtained. This applies if we wish to record conversations or if the client wishes to record conversations. Any attempt to record conversations without prior knowledge of either party is a violation of privacy rights and the bond of trust between the client and the employee. Should a client record a conversation without prior knowledge of the employee they are in correspondence with, and continue to do so after the employee has instructed them of the procedure, we reserve the right to terminate all work ongoing for clients and bill them for any outstanding fees remaining on their file. When we are communicating with you via email please be aware that email although fairly secure, there are circumstances whereby the process may become unsecured due to the deliberate actions of others. We make every effort to maintain secure communications and we ask that you do the same. We do not disclose vital information to any third parties but you should be aware of the risk of communicating via the internet and exercise your discretion accordingly. We do not accept any liability for lost or misused data as a result of communicating with you via email.

9 CASH As we are now a fully operating digital law firm we no longer accept cash We consider this good practice to protect ourselves from money laundering and for office security. When you make a payment on your account you must do so via cheque or bank transfer using your case number or full name as a reference. Please contact our office if you are unsure of your case number. After you have made a payment please email us to confirm your payment (clients@awsolicitors.co.uk). We enclose our banking details below so please refer to these when making a payment.

10 BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS STAFF Andrew Williams Solicitors endeavour to provide a high quality service to our We can only continue to do so if we are able to work without the threat of verbal or physical abuse. Please be aware that in the event of such behaviour directed at employees of Andrew Williams Solicitors we reserve the right to close your file and withdraw our representation regardless of the progress or status of your case. You will also be billed for outstanding fees on your file.

11 CONFIRMATION OF INSTRUCTIONS We have or will shortly be sending you a letter that contains important information above your instructions and our fees and At the bottom of that letter there is signed declaration which you are required to sign and return to us. If we do not receive your signed declaration and you nevertheless instruct us to proceed on our agreed terms and conditions then we will proceed in accordance with your instructions and our terms and conditions as though the declaration had been signed.

12 COMMUNICATION OR NOTIFICATIONS From time to time we may need to contact you (even if your case has been concluded) to remind you to provide documents, payment or to just to remind you about an important document or visa expiry date In such circumstances we may contact you via email, text, phone call or other methods of communication. If you do not wished to be contacted or notified regarding such events please let us know as soon as possible.

13 FUTURE INSTRUCTIONS Unless otherwise agreed and subject to the application of the current hourly rates these Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply to any future instructions given by you to PLEASE NOTE for clarity that your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business.

14 MAKING PAYMENTS Unless otherwise agreed, you must pay the agreed legal fees in full at the commencement of your If we agree to accept part-payment the part-payment will only allow us to open your file and complete some of the initial agreed work. Whichever legal fee payment method we agree with you all outstanding legal fees must be paid before submission of the application or any appeal bundle etc. If during the process you become unable to pay the legal fees, you must contact your case manager and explain why you are unable to pay and we may be able to arrange a payment plan for you. Please note that you will also be required to pay any agreed disbursement fees at the commencement of your case. This includes but not limited to Home Office application fees and Tribunal appeal fees etc.

14.1 File review under our full retainer services your case may be reviewed on a three-monthly basis for a fixed fee of £50.00. The file review and file review fee is not compulsory. This fee only works out to be £16.66 per month should you wish to instruct us to complete a file review. The fee will cover the costs associated with communicating with you and the Home Office and any other third parties with regard to the progress of your application or appeal. We will contact you in advance of each review date to ask if you would like to proceed with that service. If you decide that you do not want us to contact the Home Office regarding your application then please notify us immediately upon receipt of our notification of our intention to do so.

14.2 If you have agreed a Success Fee and that Success Fee has been included on your your bill, this will only be payable if the application or appeal has been granted or allowed All outstanding fees will need to be paid prior to the release of your documents. Our bank details can be provided on request.

PLEASE REMEMBER to use your full name as the payment reference when making payments.

PLEASE NOTE for clarity that your continuing instructions in this matter will amount to an acceptance of these Terms and Conditions of Business.