INTEREST POLICY FOR CLIENTS

In accordance with SRA requirements, we have an obligation to pay interest on money we hold on our clients behalf in our general client account (where our client account is interest-bearing). We have adopted a policy of paying to clients a fair and reasonable sum of interest on the monies held when it is fair and reasonable to do so.

While we strive to adopt a fair policy, clients should understand that the client money we hold is incidental to their legal matter and they are unlikely to gain as much interest on monies held by us, as they might have if they invested the money themselves.

Interest paid on money held in our general client account or separate designated client account will be paid gross, without deduction of income tax. It is our clients responsibility to notify HM Revenue & Customs of any interest they receive depending upon their individual circumstances.

We do not pay interest to clients for money held in circumstances in which we are not required to do so and where we consider that this would be inappropriate, namely:

• where the amount of the interest calculated under our policy is less than £50.00 (for reasons of administrative cost and proportionality);

• on money held for professional disbursements (such as a barrister or translator’s fee) if that recipient has requested a delay in payment of the fee;

• on money held for the Legal Aid Agency;

• on an advance by us into our general client account to fund a payment on the client’s behalf in excess of funds already held for the client in that account;

• where we have agreed with the client, because it is fair in all the circumstances to do so, not to pay any interest in their particular case i.e. because the client has contracted out;

• where the client has instructed us to hold the money in such a way that unusually no interest is in fact accrued;

We keep the £50.00 cap and rate of interest paid under review as interest rates change from time to time.

Our policy is to:

• compound interest quarterly

• pay interest at the end of the client’s matter save for where it is more appropriate to account for a sum of interest on an interim basis owing to monies being held for an unusually long period of time;

• We calculate interest at the rate which our bank pays on the funds held in our general client account from time to time for the period for which we have held cleared funds for the client.