Legal Statement, Complaints Procedure, & Modern Slavery

LEGAL STATEMENT, COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE, & MODERN SLAVERY 

A.    LEGAL STATEMENT

TERMS OF USE

This page tells you the terms of use (“Terms”) of our website, www.jaffalaw.com (our “Site”). By accessing our Site you confirm that you have read and accept these Terms and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, please refrain from using our Site.

INFORMATION ABOUT US

Jaffa Law Ltd is a limited company authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.  Its VAT number is GB 345 8425 82 and registered number is 12005843.  Its registered office address is Rockwood House, Parkhill Road, Torquay, TQ1 2DU. The term Partner' is used to refer to a Director of Jaffa Law Ltd.

We have in place professional indemnity insurance cover of £3 million.  This is in compliance with the minimum level of cover required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.  It is provided by Hdi Global Speciality Se (UK branch).

Copies of our Terms and Business, for both corporate and private clients, are available on request.

EMAIL DISCLAIMER

Our emails are confidential and may be subject to legal professional privilege. Unauthorised use of any communication received or its contents is prohibited.
If you receive an email in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete any copies. We may intercept emails for the purpose of detecting unauthorised use of our email system. You are reminded that email communications are not secure. Our emails are checked for viruses but you should perform virus checks on any attachments.
We accept no responsibility or liability for malicious or fraudulent emails purportedly coming from us and it is your responsibility to ensure that any emails received are genuine before relying on anything contained within them. Where the content of an email is personal or otherwise unconnected with the firm's or its clients' business, Jaffa Law Ltd accepts no responsibility or liability for such content.

In order to help ensure that we keep the affairs of our clients confidential, emails leaving our systems are routinely monitored by specialist software which is designed to protect against the risk of misaddressed emails. This involves the transfer of relevant email metadata including recipient email address, subject heading and salutation) to the software provider's secure datacentre and this information does not leave the EU. This data will only be used for this, and not for any other, purpose.

ACCESSING OUR SITE

Access to our Site is permitted on a temporary basis and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our Site without notice (see below). We will not be liable, if for any reason, our Site is unavailable at any time or for any period.
You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our Site through your internet connection are aware of these Terms and that they comply with them.

PROHIBITED USE

You may use our Site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our Site:

• In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
• For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
• To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
• Knowingly to transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Jaffa Law Ltd. is the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Site and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
You may print off one copy and may download extracts of any page(s) from our Site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our Site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, 3-D images, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
You must not use any part of the materials on our Site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you print off, copy or download any part of our Site in breach of these Terms, your right to use our Site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

RELIANCE ON INFORMATION AND LIABILITY

The information contained on our Site is for general information purposes only and should not be interpreted as legal advice. No guarantees or warranties are provided regarding the accuracy of any information contained on our Site.

To the extent permitted by law Jaffa Law Ltd.  also expressly excludes:

• All conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity;
• Any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our Site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our Site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for: ◦loss of income or revenue;
• loss of business;
• loss of profits or contracts;
• loss of anticipated savings;
• loss of data;
• loss of goodwill;
• wasted management or office time; and for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable

INFORMATION ABOUT YOU AND YOUR VISITS TO OUR SITE

We process information about you in accordance with our privacy policy. By using our Site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.

LINKING TO OUR SITE

You may create a link to the homepage of our Site. Links to any other pages on the Site are prohibited. You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you. Our Site must not be framed and we reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. If you wish to make any use of material on our Site other than that set out above, please address your request to [email protected].

LINKS FROM OUR SITE

Where our Site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE LAW

The Courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our Site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country. These Terms are governed by English law.

VARIATIONS

We may revise these Terms at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these Terms may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our Site.

COMPLAINTS

We want to give you the best possible service. However, if at any point you become unhappy or concerned about the service we have provided, please inform your lawyer or main contact immediately. We will do our best to resolve the problem without charge.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, then please see our complaints procedure, below.  A complaint will have no effect on how we deal with your matter.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you, if you are concerned about our behaviour. If you feel that we may have been dishonest or treated you unfairly because of your age, disability, or other characteristic, then please see its website: http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page .

If we are unable to resolve your complaint, then you may be able to refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), which is also free. The contact details are shown on our complaints procedure.

LeO will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint directly with us. If you have, then you must contact it within 6 months of our final response to you and within either 6 years from the date when the problem occurred or 3 years from when you should reasonably have been aware of it.

YOUR CONCERNS

If you have any concerns about material which appears on our Site, please email [email protected]

B.    COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

At Jaffa Law Ltd., we aim to provide our clients with the highest standards of client care, so we encourage you to let us know if we have not met your expectations. This enables us to address your concerns and improve our service.

If you wish to address your concerns by making a complaint, then we will seek to resolve it fairly, openly, effectively, and promptly, and without charge. We will take an objective approach and try to put ourselves in your shoes, using Legal Ombudsman guidance to propose a reasonable and proportionate resolution.
We consider a complaint to be a formal expression of dissatisfaction (verbal or written) from a client or third party about the quality or cost of our service.

The likely process for dealing with a complaint is as follows:

1. Initially, please let the lawyer dealing with your matter or his/her supervisor know what your complaint is, by telephone, letter, or email.  They are often the best people to put things right. If you prefer not to contact them, then please contact one of our Directors, whose contact details are below.
2. We will use our best endeavours to resolve your complaint or acknowledge it within 3 working days of its receipt
3. If the initial person can resolve your complaint directly, s/he will confirm this in writing. Otherwise, a Director will acknowledge your complaint formally with a timescale for a detailed response.
4. A Director will investigate your complaint and may ask you more questions or for your comments in writing. If more time is needed to respond, s/he will inform you. The response may be in writing, but meeting you or discussing matters with you by telephone may be more suitable. If so, s/he will contact you to make arrangements.
5. We aim to send you our detailed response, usually three weeks from our acknowledgment.

If you consider that your complaint has been resolved, please let us know in writing.

If your complaint is not resolved, we will conduct a second review within two weeks

If you remain unhappy please set out in writing the aspects of our response with which you disagree, and why. We will seek the objective opinion of another Director or a senior lawyer within this firm. That person will inform you of actual timings, but generally, s/he will seek to send you the conclusions in writing within two weeks of your response.

If you consider that they have resolved your complaint please let them know in writing.

We will send you our final response in writing within eight weeks of receiving your complaint

Our final response closes our complaints procedure. We will send it to you if you confirm you remain dissatisfied following our second review.  
Following our final response, or if we have not sent it to you within the eight week period, you may refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) whose contact details are below.
Ordinarily, LeO will only look at your complaint either within six months of our final response; or six years from when the problem occurred (or three years from when you should have known of the problem).

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

CONTACT DETAILS

Post: A.R. Jaffa, Jaffa Law Ltd., Rockwood House, Princes Point, Parkhill Road, Torquay, TQ1 2DU
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0208 191 0601.

Legal Ombudsman
Post: PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0300 555 0333
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Solicitors Regulation Authority
Post: The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RN
Email: via: https://www.sra.org.uk/contact-us/
Tel: 0370 606 2555
Website: www.sra.org.uk

C.    MODERN SLAVERY

Modern Slavery Act 2015: Anti-slavery and human trafficking policy.

1. Policy statement
   • Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms, such as slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking, all of which have in common the deprivation of a person's liberty by another in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain. We have a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery and we are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
   • We are also committed to ensuring there is transparency in our own business and in our approach to tackling modern slavery throughout our supply chains, consistent with our disclosure obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We expect the same high standards from all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners.
   • This policy applies to all persons working for us or on our behalf in any capacity, including employees at all levels, directors, officers, agency workers, seconded workers, volunteers, interns, agents, contractors, external consultants, third-party representatives and business partners.
   • This policy does not form part of any employee's contract of employment and we may amend it at any time.
2. Responsibility for the policy
   • The Directors have overall responsibility for ensuring this policy complies with our legal and ethical obligations, and that all those under our control comply with it.
   • The Managing Director has primary and day-to-day responsibility for implementing this policy, monitoring its use and effectiveness, dealing with any queries about it, and auditing internal control systems and procedures to ensure they are effective in countering modern slavery.
   • The Directors are responsible for ensuring those reporting to them understand and comply with this policy and are given adequate and regular training on it and the issue of modern slavery in supply chains.
   • You are invited to comment on this policy and suggest ways in which it might be improved. Comments, suggestions and queries are encouraged and should be addressed to the Managing Director.
3. Compliance with the policy
   • You must ensure that you read, understand, and comply with this policy.
   • The prevention, detection and reporting of modern slavery in any part of our business or supply chains is the responsibility of all those working for us or under our control. You are required to avoid any activity that might lead to, or suggest, a breach of this policy.
   • You must notify the Managing Director as soon as possible if you believe or suspect that a conflict with this policy has occurred, or may occur in the future.
   • You are encouraged to raise concerns about any issue or suspicion of modern slavery in any parts of our business or supply chains of any supplier tier at the earliest possible stage.
   • If you believe or suspect a breach of this policy has occurred or that it may occur you must notify the Managing Director as soon as possible.
   • If you are unsure about whether a particular act, the treatment of workers more generally, or their working conditions within any tier of our supply chains constitutes any of the various forms of modern slavery, raise it with the Managing Director.
   • We aim to encourage openness and will support anyone who raises genuine concerns in good faith under this policy, even if they turn out to be mistaken. We are committed to ensuring no one suffers any detrimental treatment as a result of reporting in good faith their suspicion that modern slavery of whatever form is or may be taking place in any part of our own business or in any of our supply chains. Detrimental treatment includes dismissal, disciplinary action, threats or other unfavourable treatment connected with raising a concern. If you believe that you have suffered any such treatment, you should inform the Managing Director immediately.
4. Communication and awareness of this policy
   • Training on this policy, and on the risk our business faces from modern slavery in its supply chains will be provided as necessary.
   • Where appropriate, our zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery will be communicated to all suppliers, contractors, and business partners at the outset of our business relationship with them and reinforced as appropriate thereafter.
5. Breaches of this policy
   • Any employee who breaches this policy may face disciplinary action, which could result in dismissal for misconduct or gross misconduct.
   • We may terminate our relationship with other individuals and organisations working on our behalf if they breach this policy.

Policy Version History:

Created April 2020