Mills Chody - solicitors LLP

 

Information and communication

e-mail

We are keen to encourage communication by email, if that is possible. Please let us have details of your internet email address, and let us know if and when it changes. However, like fax, email is not 100% secure or immune to interference from third parties. If your email is accessible to people other than yourself, or if you are transmitting particularly sensitive information you should ask us not to use email. We use up to date encryption technology but this only protects communication in transit and not once it has arrived at your Internet Service Provider.

Documents

A large proportion of the work we do will involve the creation of various documents on your behalf. It is our policy never to assign the copyright in documents we create and we always retain copyright in them, unless we grant you an assignment in writing. You are, however, granted a limited licence to use those documents for the purposes for which you instructed us. Normally, this will be for the specific transaction upon which we have been instructed. Where you ask us to draw up a general purpose document (such as a set of standard terms and conditions or a standard employment contract) we may do it on the basis of a specific licence granted to you, in which case the terms of that licence apply. In the absence of a written licence agreement, we grant you a limited licence to use the document in question only for the purposes of you or your own business. You may not, for example without our permission, copy it for use by others or in other businesses, whether related or not.

We draft documents to comply with the law at the time when they are supplied to you. For this reason, we cannot be held liable for documents that become invalid after they have been supplied to you because of a change in the law.

Please note that as English lawyers we are only able to advise on the law (English or European) as it applies in England and Wales. We have contacts with lawyers in many other jurisdictions to whom we can refer you if necessary.

Data Protection Act

In order to act for individuals, it is necessary for us to record on our files and also on our computer system certain personal details such as dates of birth, addresses and telephone numbers etc. In addition, other information that sometimes it is not essential for us to record in connection with any particular matter may also be held for reference, analysis and our own marketing purposes. Such items could include for example an individual's occupation, financial circumstances, interests etc. Again, when acting for a business certain non-essential information such as trading activities, the number of people employed and turnover etc. may also be recorded by us.

You are entitled at any time to ask for a copy of the information that we hold about you or your business. We will not pass on these details to any third party without your express permission unless it is essential to do so in connection with your matter. If you do not want to receive information from the firm about its services and activities or any other client or marketing information, please let us know and we will remove your name from our mailing lists.

Storage of Papers and Deeds

After completion of any work done, we are entitled to keep all papers and documents while money is owing to us. We will keep our file of papers (except for any of your papers that you ask to be returned to you) for no more than the number of years applicable to the type of work undertaken. Listed below are the relevant periods that will apply and it is assumed that we have your authority to destroy the file upon expiry. We will not destroy documents that you ask us to deposit in safe custody.
Property transactions - acting for a purchaser or the seller of part 16 years
Property transactions - acting for the seller of whole 7 years • Wills, Probate & Administration 16 years
Company Formation or similar matters 16 years
Matrimonial, Family, Crime, Litigation and all other matters 7 years

We do not normally make a charge for storing or retrieving papers and deeds in response to continuing or accepting new instructions to act for you. However, we reserve the right to make a charge based on the time spent on reading papers, writing letters or other work necessary to comply with instructions.