Terms & Conditions

These terms and conditions of purchase of the Letter before Action (“LBA Purchase Conditions”) set out the terms on conditions on which you the customer (the “Customer”) agree to purchase the Letter before Action from our website here.

Please print and read a copy of these Terms and Conditions carefully, as by purchasing any of the advertised services.

Customers are deemed to enter agree to enter into contract with these LBA Purchase Conditions.

1 Online Debt Recovery Solutions & Hallmark Solicitors

1. 1. Online Debt Recovery Solutions and Hallmark Solicitors are trading styles used by Hallmark Legal Services Ltd, a company register in England and Wales under the Companies Acts with number 06634235. Any reference to “Online Debt Recovery Solutions”. “Hallmark Solicitors”, “us” or “we”, whether in this or any other document or communication from us, is to Hallmark Legal Services Ltd and all contracts entered into and all advice given in relation to our business are entered into or are given by Hallmark Legal Services Ltd.

1. 2. All contracts and/or obligations entered into or advice given in relation to our business by directors or employees of Online Debt Recovery Solutions are entered into or given by Hallmark Legal Services Ltd and not those individuals personally.

1. 3. Online Debt Recovery Solutions may assign our rights and/or our obligations under our agreement with you to any business which is a successor to our business or a part of it.

   4. Hallmark Legal Services Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and is therefore subject to rules and principles of professional conduct. The website of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) includes details of the relevant code of conduct: http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/content.page.

1.5 Standard Services refers to and means strictly the service advertised. Non-standard work refers to and means any work that we carry out additional to the standard work advertised and or when the debt becomes disputed or defended.

2. Services

2.1 Letter Before Action

Letters before Action (“LBA”) will drafted based on the information and documents submitted by the customer via our online website.

One LBA may be utilised for multiple outstanding invoice and debt by the same debtor provided that they are one and the same entity. A separate LBA will be required for different debtor/entity even if the same is a subsidiary of a prior debtor who is the subject of a prior LBA purchased by You.

The LBA standard service includes one letter to the debtor seeking payment of debt within the timescale specified by the Customer or in default of a specified timescale 7 days from the date of the Letter. After the expiry of the We will report to the customer with any responses received and if no response was received, provide confirmation of the same. Any further work thereafter becomes Non-Standard work and our hourly rate of £200 plus VAT and disbursements apply and shall be subject to the Hallmark Solicitors Terms of Business from time to time applicable. A copy of the same can be requested by email to: enquiries@hallmarksolicitors.co.uk.

LBA shall be prepared and dispatched no later than 48 hours (subject to weekend and bank holidays) and for this purpose the Customer hereby expressly and irrevocably waives his/her rights to cancel Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and no refund shall become due after the LBA has been despatched.

2.2 Fixed Fee Debt Recovery

Standard work under for this service includes:

• Letter Before Action
• Issuing Legal Proceedings
• Enforcement of Judgement

In the event that a debt becomes defended or disputed any further work thereafter becomes Non-Standard work and our hourly rate of £200 plus VAT and disbursements apply and shall be subject to the Hallmark Solicitors Terms of Business from time to time applicable. A copy of the same can be requested by email to: enquiries@hallmarksolicitors.co.uk.

The fees paid for this service does not include disbursements which payments made to third parties such as court fees or barristers fees. Such fees are payable in addition to the fees for this service and unless you notify us otherwise we will assume that we are authorised to expend this and the same shall be recoverable from the Customer.

2.3 No Win No Fee Debt Recovery

Standard work under for this service includes:

• Letter Before Action
• Issuing Legal Proceedings
• Enforcement of Judgement

In the event that a debt becomes defended or disputed any further work thereafter becomes Non-Standard work and our hourly rate of £200 plus VAT and disbursements apply and shall be subject to the Hallmark Solicitors Terms of Business from time to time applicable. A copy of the same can be requested by email to: enquiries@hallmarksolicitors.co.uk.

The fees paid for this service does not include disbursements which payments made to third parties such as court fees or barristers fees. Such fees are payable in addition to the fees for this service and unless you notify us otherwise we will assume that we are authorised to expend this and the same shall be recoverable from the Customer.

The submission of an online enquiry or order under this Services does not represent a contract but an invitation to treat. Acceptance by Hallmark Solicitors to provide this service is strictly at their discretion and subject to their opinion of your chances of success.

Our Fees and Expenses

Fees quoted and advertised on our online or digital platforms are applicable to our standard services on the relevant pages of the Website and by taking an action to purchase our debt recovery solutions you are agreeing that you have viewed these fees and agree to them. Fees will always be fixed for the standard process undertaken by Online Debt Recovery Solutions.

1. 1. By purchasing a Letter before Action you are paying only for a Letter before Action no other services are included under the fee paid.

   2. Where only standard-work is carried out there we will have no authority to charge you for incurring usual expenses (known as disbursements) in the course of our work for you unless you tell us otherwise.

1. 4. Where non-standard work needs to be carried out due to the response received from a Letter Before Action e.g. when disputed or complex and you inform of this we will provide you with a quotation for doing so before we start proceedings, these services will usually be calculated by our hourly rate.

1. 5. All costs information provided by us, and all references in this document to fees, disbursements and other amounts exclude Value Added Tax unless expressly stated otherwise, and where applicable VAT will be charged in addition to such amounts. Our VAT number is 975646664.

1. 6. To purchase the Letter before Action you must pay using the automated payment system on the website, where your payment is authorised a Letter before Action will be sent in accordance with clause 3.4. Where your payment has not been authorised no Letter before Action will be sent and we hold no liability in this event where payment is not authorised.

4. Recovery of Debt

   1. We make no guarantee that the debtor will pay the debt back to you and hold no liability in the event that a debtor does not respond to the Letter before Action or pay back debt owed.

   2. The Letter before Action will list your address and bank details, therefore we will not receive debtor payments to our bank accounts or a response from the debtor to our offices on your behalf. Any responses or debtors payments should go directly to you, we hold no liability for any such responses from debtor payments.

   3. We hold no liability for any incorrect information stated on the Letter before Action, it is your responsibility to enter the correct information on the Website to be input into the Letter before Action. We will make only minor amendments to the information inputted i.e. grammar and punctuation amendments where needed.

5. Delivery

5.1 The Letter before Action will be posted by Second Class Royal Mail to the address inputted on the Website by you as the debtors address.

5.2 The Letter before Action will be posted the same day where it is purchased before 2pm on a working day.

5.3 The Letter before Action will be posted the next working day where it is purchased after 2pm on a working day.

5.4 The Letter before Action will be posted the next working day where it purchased at any time on a week day.

6. Compliance activities

6. 1. To comply with the Money Laundering Regulations, which are designed to prevent the circulation of monies arising from serious crime, drug trafficking and terrorism, we need to obtain proof of your identity or, where we are instructed by a company, confirmation of the ownership of the company. We verify the identity of individual clients by undertaking an electronic check against your personal details. Similarly we undertake an electronic check regarding ownership for company clients. Where it is deemed necessary a fee of £10 plus VAT will be charged for each individual or entity checked. If our electronic checks are unsuccessful, we may ask you to provide documentation confirming your identity and / or confirming company ownership. We will let you know if we require money laundering verification and checks or indeed any additional documentation that may be required. We may be unable to carry out your instructions if we are unable to verify your identity or, in some instances, the identities of your directors, shareholders and beneficial owners.

   2. We are also required by anti-money laundering legislation to report to the appropriate authorities any knowledge or suspicion that a client’s funds (or any funds provided for or on behalf of a client) derive from the proceeds of crime. We may be obliged to make a report in circumstances where we cannot tell you that we have done so and may have to cease acting for you in those circumstances. You agree that we are not responsible for any adverse consequences for you that may arise as a result of our compliance with laws and regulations.

   3. Occasionally our legal and professional duties require that we undertake compliance work while a matter is ongoing. An example of this would be work done to make sure we comply with money laundering legislation. Because of legal restrictions it may not be possible to inform you about these activities. We reserve the right to add a reasonable amount to our invoice in respect of all compliance work.

7. Data protection

   1. To provide you with legal services, we need to record and maintain certain factual information on your personal circumstances which we may hold in hard copy and electronic form. In addition to the information that you provide, we may in the course of acting for you, receive information about you from third parties such as Companies House, your accountants, your associated companies, etc. We may use all information we hold about you, including sensitive personal information, for the purposes of providing our services to you and, where relevant, your insurer(s), and maintaining records about you that we must keep by law or under regulatory requirements.

   2. You agree that we may communicate with you using electronic means, knowing that, although we will take appropriate measures to protect data, certain risks (including, for example, interception, unauthorized access and risk of viruses) are associated with such means.

   3. We may use the information that we hold about you, other than sensitive personal information, for our internal market research purposes and to send you information from time to time on services provided by Online Debt Recovery Solutions which we think may interest you. If you do not want us to send information to you in relation to Online Debt Recovery Solutions other services then please contact the person in charge of your matter and let them know.

   4. We do not pass any information about our clients to third parties for commercial exploitation. We pass client information to third parties only where it may be necessary or beneficial in carrying out the work for which you have instructed us or where we have to disclose information to third parties because of our legal or regulatory obligations or to prevent fraud or money laundering. By way of example, documentation and information containing your personal details (such as your name, address and details of your claim) may, on occasions, have to be sent to the person you are making a claim against, their lawyer or their insurer. This may take place before or after you decide to issue court proceedings, but any such action is taken in accordance with our standard practices and protocols. We may pass relevant information to our insurers if we are concerned that our work for you may have given rise to a possible liability to you on our part.

   5. Any third party to whom we disclose information about you will be under an obligation to keep your information secure and not to use it for any other purpose than that for which it was disclosed. Some third parties to whom we disclose information may be situated outside the European Economic Area and you agree to our disclosing such information to such third parties where reasonably necessary.

   6. Where you are a trustee or are acting as a representative, attorney, litigation friend (or are acting in an equivalent representative capacity) of another person, you agree to advise that person that their personal information will be dealt with on these terms, as if each reference to “you” or “your” in this section includes a reference to that person. Unless you inform us otherwise, by disclosing any personal information to us about a person you are representing, we will assume that you have obtained consent to enable the use of such information on these terms.

   7. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you are entitled (on payment of a fee and subject to some exceptions) to a copy of the information we hold about you. If you would like to obtain this information please contact the data protection compliance officer in writing stating what personal information you wish to access.

8. Storage of papers and documents

   1. Our usual practice is to keep your file relating to a matter for six years following the date of the final bill we send to you for the relevant work, after which it may be destroyed. The file may be stored as a paper copy or electronically. Files relating to claims for children or persons who are unable to manage their own financial affairs will be kept for longer. This does not apply to original legal documents such as property deeds, share certificates and signed agreements. If after the conclusion of this matter we produce or make copies of anything on the file for you, we may make a charge for this based on time spent.

9. Equality and diversity

   1. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all our dealings with clients, third parties and employees. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to the service we provide to assist clients and visitors with a disability. Please ask the person dealing with your matter if we can help in this way.

10. Professional Indemnity Insurance

Hallmark Legal Services Limited maintains Professional Indemnity Insurance cover in accordance with the SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules.

6. Complaints procedure

11.1 Our complaints procedure is available on request from Hallmark Legal Services Ltd, Hallmark Solicitors, 158-159 High Street, Chandlers Court, Hull, HU1 1NQ. Although he will not have principal responsibility for your matter, the person with overall responsibility for Hallmark is our Managing Director Uche Akali. If you have a problem, you are entitled to complain.

11.2 All solicitors must attempt to resolve problems that may arise with their services. If you have any concerns, it is important that you raise them with us within six years of the act or omission about which you are concerned, or three years from when you should have known about the complaint.

11.3 If, for any reason, we are unable to resolve the problem between us, then it may be open to you to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman. Where we act for a business, the Ombudsman scheme is only available if that business can be defined as a ‘micro-enterprise’. 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. In certain circumstances the Legal Ombudsman may accept a complaint outside of these timescales and further information about that is available from their website. Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:

Telephone: 0300 555 0333

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Postal: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

6. 1. We accept instructions from you on the basis that services provided by Online Debt Recovery Solutions or Hallmark Solicitors are provided solely for your benefit and we do not assume any liability to any person other than you in relation to the advice we give you. Unless we indicate otherwise in writing, we assume no responsibility or liability (including liability for fees) in relation to the acts or omissions of, or advice given by, any experts, consultants or other advisers (including legal advisers) engaged in relation to any matter connected with your instructions to us.

   2. Our advice is confidential to you and Online Debt Recovery Solutions shall not be responsible if you make it available to third parties. Advice we give may be covered by legal professional privilege and if you show it to others it may cease to be privileged, and therefore become disclosable to other parties to a dispute.

   3. No person who is not a party to the agreement embodied in these standard terms and conditions and the relative covering letter(s) shall, in the absence of express provision to the contrary, have any right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any of its terms, but this does not affect any right or remedy of a third party which exists or is available other than under that Act.

   4. You shall not bring any claim against any of our directors, employees or consultants in his or her personal capacity in connection with the advice we give you save in circumstances of fraud by a member, employee or consultant. We shall not seek to avoid any liability to you on the grounds that the relevant claim should be brought against one or more of our members, employees or consultants and not Ascent Performance Group Limited.

   5. Hallmark Solicitors or Online Debt Recovery Solutions shall not be liable for any delay in performing or failure to perform any of our obligations to you if such delay or failure results from events or circumstances outside our control, including, without limitation, transport or communications failure; the consequences of a terrorist attack; failure of our computer systems; or damage to our premises or storage facilities by explosion, fire, corrosion, flood, natural disaster, malicious or negligent act or accident.

   6. In connection with these instructions Online Debt Recovery Solutions shall not be liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss or damage (including loss of profits) suffered by you or any other person.

   7. Where you agree to a limit being imposed on the liability of any other professional or financial advisers instructed by you in relation to this matter for loss or damage resulting from the performance of or failure to perform their respective duties, the liability of Online Debt Recovery Solutions and/or any of its directors will not in any event exceed what it would have been had the liability of such other advisers not been so limited and had the contribution of all such advisers, but for such limitation, been proportionate to their respective responsibilities for such loss or damage.

   8. The liability of Online Debt Recovery Solutions to you shall be reduced to take into account any contributory negligence on your part.

   9. Paragraphs 15.1 to 15.5 (inclusive) above shall not apply in relation to any liability to you we may incur arising from your instructions in this matter if these terms of business constitute a contentious business agreement (as defined in section 59 Solicitors Act 1974). The agreement of which these standard terms and conditions form part shall not be a contentious business agreement unless we have agreed this with you in writing.

   10. Our liability shall not be limited by anything in paragraphs 15.1 to 15.5 (inclusive) (or by any limitation on our liability set out in any of the documents referred to in paragraph 17.1 below) in relation to death or personal injury or in circumstances of fraud or reckless disregard of professional obligations.

12 Refunds and Termination

12.1 You may terminate your instructions to us at any time by notice in writing.

12.2 You will receive no refund for the payment already made for the purchase of the Letter before Action

12.3 We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, for example if you fail to pay your bills, if you fail to give us adequate instructions to enable us to advise you, if a conflict of interests arises which prevents us from continuing to act, or if you fail to provide any evidence of identity we have requested. If you are a body corporate, partnership or unincorporated association we may stop acting for you if you: cease or threaten to cease carrying on business; suspend making payments on any of your debts or announce an intention to do so; are or are deemed for the purposes of any law to be, unable to pay your debts as they fall due or insolvent; enter into or propose any composition, assignment or arrangement with your creditors generally; take any step or suffer any step to be taken in relation to your winding-up, dissolution, administration (whether out of court or otherwise) or reorganisation (by way of voluntary arrangement, scheme of arrangement or otherwise); have a liquidator, trustee in bankruptcy, judicial custodian, compulsory manager, receiver, administrative receiver, administrator or similar officer appointed (in each case, whether out of court or otherwise) in respect of you or any of your assets; have any security over any of your assets enforced; or any analogous procedure or step is taken in any jurisdiction. We will give you reasonable notice if we intend to stop acting for you.

12.4 If you terminate your instructions or we stop acting for you with good reason, you must pay our fees and expenses up to the date that we cease acting, including any costs we incur in removing our name from the Court record, and/or transferring our files to you or another adviser.

13 General

13.1 These standard terms and conditions supersede any previous arrangement with you concerning their subject matter and must be read in conjunction with all accompanying and subsequent correspondence and documentation sent to you relevant to the terms on which we act. Together, they set out the terms of business governing the work we do for you on a particular matter. Each provision of such terms of business is severable and distinct from the others. These terms of business cannot be amended except with our written agreement or as provided in these terms of business.

13.2 Unless we notify you otherwise, these standard terms and conditions shall apply to any future instructions you give us.

13.3 Your continuing instructions on any particular matter will indicate your acceptance of these standard terms and conditions and any other terms we may agree in writing.

13.4 These standard terms and conditions and any other terms we may agree with you are governed by English Law and any dispute relating to them shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts, provided always that we may in our absolute discretion refer any dispute to binding arbitration in London under the Rules of the London Court of International Arbitration, which Rules are deemed incorporated by reference into this paragraph, and in which case the number of arbitrators shall be one, the language to be used in the arbitral proceedings shall be English and the seat of the arbitration shall be England. These terms are provided in English and we will communicate with you in English. This paragraph 13.4 is subject to our obligations under law and the rules of professional conduct by which we are bound.

13.5 You may not assign all or any part of the benefit of, or your rights and benefits under, the agreement of which these standard terms and condition form part.

13.6 We will advise you on the law applicable in England only and, unless agreed otherwise, are not responsible for advising you as to the effect or enforceability of any documents or matters which may be subject to or governed by laws of any other jurisdiction.

13.7 Copyright may arise in documents, reports or other material which we produce for you. We shall own this copyright and without our prior written agreement payment of our bill will not transfer it to you.

13.8 Unless we specifically agree otherwise in writing, no communication by Online Debt Recovery Solutions in the course of our work for you is intended to be, or should be construed as, an invitation or inducement to any person to engage in investment activity for the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, or as the approval of any communication of any such invitation or inducement.

13.9 We may submit your file for external review as part of our procedures to ensure that our internal quality management systems are effective. We will only do so with your consent.

13.10 Unless you specifically instruct us to advise on tax planning matters, our advice will not concern or take into account the taxation implications or consequences of any course (or possible course) of action.