Frequently Asked Questions

This depends on the nature of your initial enquiry.

If you need a quote to buy or sell residential property, leave your details with our reception and our property team will call you for more details. Or you can contact them direct at property@onionsanddavies.co.uk

If you are in need of a Will, Power of Attorney, advice about an estate or care fees, or other private client advice, then our Private Client Assistant Sarah will arrange an appointment for you with our specialists Chris Milne. Generally there is no charge for an initial appointment such as this and, at that appointment, you will be told how much any proposed work would cost.

If it is family law advice that you need, we offer a fixed fee no obligation appointment with our family law solicitors Louise Martin or Kim Mapperson. Call Family Secretary Sharon Moore on 01630 652405 to make the arrangement. We also offer a family law clinic on Wednesdays, where we provide 15 minutes of free guidance and information, which should help you decide the next best steps for you.

All assessment meetings for family mediation are conducted by appointment with Louise Martin, and please contact Sharon Moore to make these arrangements.

At Onions & Davies Ltd, we pride ourselves in offering high level legal services at competitive rates. Please see the ‘charges’ section of our website for more details. https://www.onionsanddavies.co.uk/charges/

There are various ways in which you can pay as follows:-

Cash

Although we accept cash, due to having to comply with strict money laundering regulations, we cannot accept more than £500 cash on any one matter.

We can also accept cash only if we have seen appropriate forms of identification for you.

Cheque

Cheques should be made payable to Onions and Davies Ltd and, again, we need to have seen forms of identification for whoever writes the cheque.

Card

We can accept all major credit and debit cards and, in accordance with current legislation, no charge is made for either.

Card payments can be made in person in our reception or by ringing 01630 652405.

Bank Transfer

This would be to our client account with Handelsbanken UK.

The account number and sort-code is identified on our invoices, and you can also call our offices on 01630 652405 and one of our staff will be happy to confirm or verify these details over the telephone.

You should quote your matter reference or if you do not yet have one then your name and/or any other method of identifying you so that we can trace what matter the payment belongs to.

Please note: Our bank account details will never change and if you are ever asked to send money to an alternative account, please advise us immediately

Our preferred method of payment is by direct bank transfer or, alternatively, by card, because these are more secure.

For any other questions regarding your bill, please ask the person who is acting for you.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 both apply from 25^th May 2018.

At Onions & Davies Ltd, we ensure transparency regarding our client data in terms of what information is held, how it is stored, why we hold it, and what we do with it. Click here to find out what we do with your personal information when you make contact with us or use one of our services (our ‘Privacy Notice’).

PRIVACY NOTICE

Personal information

In providing you with legal advice, we will process and store your personal information, which may include special category data such as health details. We have legal and professional obligations to keep your personal information and special category data confidential. We comply with UK and EU data protection laws and with the Solicitors Regulation Authority rules on client and data confidentiality.

Securing information

We are committed to keeping your personal information secure. We have put in place physical, electronic and operational policies and procedures designed to safeguard and to secure the information we collect and hold.

What information do we hold about you?

The information we hold about you may include personal information and special category data. It will typically include:

• Your name, address, phone number/s, email address/es
• Identifiers such as date of birth; National Insurance, passport, visa, driving licence numbers; photographs or other digital images
• Financial details to include bank details, mortgage account, means questionnaire
• Names of and other personal information on your family and relationships
• Details of your property
• Social media information
• Special category data including health records, Trade Union membership, political affiliations, sexuality, ethnic origin

We do not provide services directly to children or proactively collect their personal information. However, we are sometimes given information about children while handling a matter. The information in the relevant parts of this notice applies to children as well as adults.

Where has the data come from?

The data we hold will have come from:

• you in person, by telephone, by email, by SMS/text, or from your use of our website, through your initial enquiry, request for a quote, initial instructions, and when we deal with your matter; or when you subscribe to our e-newsletter

• an intermediary, such as an estate agent, financial advisor, or mediator who refers you to us
• another firm that transfers your file to us
• a client who names you as a joint party in a matter or other transaction, or as the joint owner of a property or business we are dealing with
• a client who names you as the buyer/seller of a property or business we are selling/buying for them
• a client who has named you as a witness in their matter

It is very important to ensure that we hold up to date information, so please remember to tell us about any of the following as soon as possible:

• changes of personal circumstances, such as relationship status or the birth of children
• changes of name or address
• change of contact details including mobile phone number and email address
• bank details (if relevant to the retainer)

Who is the data shared with and why?

We may share information about you:

• within the firm to enable us to deal with your matter effectively and efficiently
• with other law firms acting for other parties in the same matter
• with counsel
• with experts
• with our outsourced providers including for example our accounts function, IT consultant, risk and compliance consultant
• with the intermediary who introduced you to us, including for example a financial advisor, mortgage broker, estate agent or mediator
• with law enforcement agencies where required, for example under a Court order

This may involve them handling your personal information. The firm requires all third parties to sign a confidentiality and compliance document to confirm that your data is protected.

Please note that we will never sell your data to anyone.

What is the lawful basis for processing your data?

The legal bases we rely on to process your personal data are as follows:

1. Performance of our contract with you under article 6(1)(b) GDPR
2. Compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, under article 6(1)(c) GDPR
3. Consent under article 6(1)(a) GDPR, where you have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes as listed in our Consent Form. Otherwise, we rely on (1) and (2)

If the information you provide us contains special category data, such as health, religious or ethnic information, the legal basis in GDPR we rely on to process it is:

• Consent under article 9(2)(a)
• Establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims under article 9(2)(f)

Your Data Protection Rights

Under data protection law, we need to tell you about your rights. Those available to you depend on our reason for processing your information.

• Right of access – you can ask for copies of your personal information. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process
• Right to rectification – you can ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate, or incomplete
• Right to erasure – in certain circumstances, you can ask us to erase your personal information
• Restriction of processing – in certain circumstances you can ask us to restrict processing to specified activities
• Objection to processing – for example to direct marketing
• Data portability – you can ask us to transfer the information you gave us to another firm, or to give it to you

Keeping information

We will keep your information for only as long as necessary and in accordance with UK and EU law. The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require us to keep evidence of your identity, with supporting documentation, for 5 years after we complete our work for you.

Your Right to Complain

We work to high standards when it comes to processing your personal information. If you have queries or concerns, please contact Louise Martin (who is responsible for Data Protection at our firm) at louise.martin@onionsanddavies.co.uk and we’ll investigate and respond in accordance with our complaints procedure.

If you remain dissatisfied, you can complain about the way we process your personal information to the Information Commissioner. You should do this within three months of our response.

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at: By phone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745. By email or live chat on the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/. By post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

You should also write to Louise Martin if you would like a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or to ask us to correct any inaccurate information, or to remove (where justified) your personal information from our records.

A lawyer is someone who upholds the Rule of Law and seeks justice for others:

• acting for individuals, businesses, governments, charities and trusts
• ascertaining whether a client has a legal problem and, if so, how it should be addressed, and
• is part of a process, ensuring the correct legal outcome

There are many different types of lawyer, such as:

• Paralegal
• Solicitor
• Legal Executive
• Licensed Conveyancer
• Licensed Probate Practitioner
• Notary
• Barrister
• Judge
• Trade Mark / Patent Attorney
• Costs Lawyer

You do not have to use a lawyer for a lot of things and various alternatives are:

• Do it yourself, websites, law for free, etc.
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• Direct Action through:
• Other public bodies, such as Trading Standards, Environmental Health Office, NHS PALS
• Trades Organisations
• Regulatory bodies, such as Ofsted or CQC
• Ombudsmen
• Charity Commission

There are advantages in using a lawyer, such as:

• They know what they’re doing
• They’re qualified
• They’re experienced
• They’re insured in case things go wrong
• Time
• Peace of mind
• It lets you get on with what you are good at

Certain types of legal practice involve reserved activities, including:

• The right to appear before and address a court and examine witnesses
• The issuing, commencement, prosecution and defence of proceedings
• The preparation of Land Registry and Court documents
• The preparation of Probate papers
• The activities of a Notary
• The administration of Oaths

Reserved activities must be carried out by a person or organisation who is regulated by official and professional bodies. Solicitors are lawyers who are authorised to carry out reserved and unreserved activities. Some lawyers, such as Will writers, McKenzie Friends, Charities, Trade Unions and Mediators are unregulated and so are unable to carry out reserved activities.

Solicitors are one of the most highly regulated industries because it is important that our clients are properly protected. This protection is provided by:

• Solicitors Regulation Authority – the regulators of our profession
• Solicitors Accounts Rules – how we should look after our clients money
• Solicitors Code of Conduct – how we should conduct ourselves professionally and in our personal lives
• Professional Indemnity Insurance – we have to carry insurance that will pay out if we make a mistake
• Practising Certificate – we have to have one of these and renew it annually in order to practise
• CPD – we have to receive a number of hours relevant training every year

At Onions & Davies, we are a firm of solicitors offering high street legal services. You can find our details registered with the SRA athttp://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/using-solicitor/law-firm-search.page

We believe, not only in meeting the minimum requirements listed above but in providing the specialist, quality advice that comes through experience and qualifications. We have members of STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners https://www.step.org/), Resolutionhttp://www.resolution.org.uk/, The Institute of Paralegals https://theiop.org/ and Solicitors For the Elderly https://sfe.legal/, including Chris Milne holding the Older Client Care in Practice award and being a member of specialist advice panels. In addition, for the seventh year running, we have been awarded the Law Society’s Lexcel quality mark https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/accreditation/lexcel/.

We have solicitors working in our property, private client and family law teams and a paralegal assisting in our private client team.

We believe that we can provide excellent advice at a reasonable cost, to individuals in difficult circumstances, and we truly care about our clients.

If you need legal advice, call us on 01630 652405, to see how we might help you.