Terms

1. About us

Appeal Specialists ("we", "us") is a trading name used by an independent consultancy. Our correspondence address is Appeal Specialists, Jordans Cres, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom, and our email address is legal@appealspecialists.co.uk. We deal with everyone by email only.

We act mainly for the businesses and individuals we are associated with. We take on matters for other people only occasionally, at our discretion, and we may decline any matter without giving a reason. These terms apply to everyone we act for, whether or not a fee is charged.

2. Our status

We are not a law firm. We are not solicitors, barristers or chartered legal executives, and we are not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board or any other approved legal regulator. As a result:

• you cannot complain about us to the Legal Ombudsman;
• you are not protected by the Solicitors Regulation Authority's compensation fund; and
• our advice is not protected by legal professional privilege, so in some circumstances we could be required to disclose what you tell us.

We only carry on activities that are not reserved by the Legal Services Act 2007. We do not exercise rights of audience in court (except as described in section 7), conduct litigation, prepare reserved instruments, carry on probate or notarial activities, or administer oaths.

3. What we do

We work in four areas: parking and traffic penalties; police complaints, reviews, data requests and property return; consumer disputes with traders; and unpaid invoices owed to businesses. Depending on the matter, we:

• review notices, invoices, decisions and other documents against the law, codes of practice and contract terms that apply;
• prepare and send appeals, representations, complaints, requests and letters before claim on your written authority;
• take matters to independent appeal services, tribunals, police review bodies and ombudsmen, and represent you before them where their rules allow;
• explain court procedure and the court forms, and, before a claim is issued, prepare a draft of the claim details for you to check and submit yourself; and
• speak for you at a small-claims hearing as a lay representative, if you attend.

Before we start, we confirm by email what we will do on your matter, what we will not do, and what we need from you.

4. What we do not do

• We do not issue, file or serve court documents, complete court documents once a claim has been issued, correspond with the court for you, or accept service of court documents.
• We do not attend police stations or interviews, or advise on police investigations, charges, pleas or criminal court cases.
• We do not handle regulated claims management work: claims or complaints for money against banks, lenders, insurers or other financial firms (including Section 75 claims and Financial Ombudsman complaints), personal injury, housing disrepair, employment, criminal injury compensation or industrial injuries benefit claims.
• We do not give immigration advice.
• We do not collect debts that arise under credit, finance or hire agreements, and we do not give debt advice to people in debt.
• We do not act on matters governed by the law of Scotland or Northern Ireland.

If your matter needs any of these, we will tell you and suggest where to go.

5. Your instructions and authority

We act on your written instructions. You decide whether to appeal, settle, pay, or go to court. By confirming your instructions you authorise us to correspond with the other side and the relevant bodies about the matter on your behalf. For police complaints, your written authority is also your consent for us to make the complaint on your behalf under section 12 of the Police Reform Act 2002.

You agree to give us accurate and complete information, to send us documents promptly, and to tell us at once about any deadline or any court papers you receive.

We may stop acting if you give us false information, ask us to do something we consider unlawful or improper, or do not respond to us. If we stop, we will tell you by email and remind you of any deadlines we know about.

6. The letters we send for you

Every letter we send states facts you have confirmed to us, and mentions only next steps you have authorised and intend to take. We will not send anything we consider misleading, threatening or harassing, or anything that suggests we are solicitors, enforcement agents or an official body. You receive a copy of everything we send and everything we receive in reply.

7. If a matter goes to court

You are the party to any court case, and you deal with the court yourself. If you are a company, every court step must be taken by your own director or an authorised employee. Court papers are addressed to you, and you must respond to the court within its time limits.

In county court small claims, the Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999 allows a lay representative to speak for a party at the hearing if the party attends. The court can refuse to hear a lay representative. Our costs for doing so cannot be recovered from the other side. Many tribunals and appeal services allow any representative chosen by the appellant, and we represent clients before them where their rules allow.

8. Money

We never receive or hold money on your behalf. Refunds, compensation, settlements and payments of debts are paid directly to you.

9. Fees

Any fee is agreed with you in writing before work starts. If no fee is agreed, none is payable. Court, tribunal and other official fees are payable by you directly to the body concerned.

10. Your right to cancel

If you are a consumer and we agree to act for you by email or otherwise at a distance, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you the right to cancel within 14 days of the day we confirm your instructions, without giving a reason. To cancel, email us a clear statement that you are cancelling. You may use the model cancellation form in Schedule 3 to those Regulations, but you do not have to.

If you ask us to start work within the 14 days, you must pay a proportionate amount for any work done before you cancel, if a fee was agreed. Once the work has been fully completed at your request, the right to cancel no longer applies.

11. No guarantee of outcome

Decisions on your matter are made by others: the other side, appeal services, tribunals, review bodies, ombudsmen and courts. We do not guarantee any outcome.

12. Our responsibility to you

We will carry out our work with reasonable care and skill. If we fail to do so, we are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of that failure. Our total liability to you for a matter is limited to the fee you paid us for that matter, except where the law does not allow this.

We are not responsible for losses caused by information you gave us that was inaccurate or incomplete, by your failure to meet a deadline or respond to court papers, or by decisions made by third parties. Where you use our services for business purposes, we are not responsible for loss of profits, business or earnings.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

13. Confidentiality and personal data

We keep your information confidential and share it only as your matter requires, or where the law requires us to. Our privacy notice explains how we use personal data and how long we keep it.

14. Complaints

If you are unhappy with our service, please follow our complaints procedure. We do not belong to an alternative dispute resolution scheme.

15. General

These terms and the confirmation email for your matter are the whole agreement between us. If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest remains in force. Nobody else has any right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. We may update these terms; the version that applies is the one published when we confirmed your matter.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute.