1. A. G. Fox Law is an international Legal Consultancy practice. It is not a Solicitors practice or Barristers Chambers, and is therefore not governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Bar Standards Council. A.G. Fox Law is operated as a co-operative whereby matters not immediately requiring the services of a solicitor or barrister, commonly known as non-reserved legal matters, are dealt with in-house by experienced qualified legal professionals. Other examples of such professionals providing non-reserved services are professional Will Writers, community Law Centres and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
2. Where the services of a solicitor or barrister are required, our in-house staff will advise accordingly and will refer the client to such a professional who has agreed to work together with us co-operatively to provide an appropriate service. The A. G. Fox Law service team includes our resident Veterinary Surgeon who advises on veterinary negligence and professional misconduct claims.
3. The effect of these arrangements is that in suitable areas of work A. G. Fox Law can offer many legal services at a much lower cost than enrolled solicitors and practising barristers, and in many cases can offer services that solicitors and barristers can often no longer undertake at all due to changes in the Legal Aid provision and the prohibitive costs of running their offices and associated overheads.
4. In accordance with the Legal Services Act 2007, the Lay Representatives (Rights of Audience) Order 1999 and The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (General Regulatory Chamber) Rules 2009 (as amended) this practice will provide representation and advocacy in Small Claims Track cases in the County Court and representation and advocacy in the First-tier Tribunal system, a service which is often not provided by solicitors and barristers due to the uneconomical costs situation. The Small Claims limit was raised to £10,000 in April 2013, meaning that people face the prospect of trying to recover large amounts of money without solicitor or barrister assistance. Clients are advised that in such cases the law provides that, win or lose, they cannot be awarded the costs of employing an advocate in any event and so will be liable for our fees in all cases. They should not expect to recover them from the other party in the case, although in specific limited cases they may be able to do so.
5. ‘A. G. Fox Law International’ is a trading name of Prof Barry F. Peachey LLB(Hons) LLM PhD BSc STh(Lambeth) HonDCL HonDD HonDTh FCollP FETC MCCT Cert. Mediation. Visiting Professor of English Law. Lecturer in Science and Veterinary Ethics. Consultant Forensic Scientist. Former Chairman of the Equine & Animal Lawyers Association. H. M. Government national award winner for enforcement operations. Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Covert Human Intelligence Source, Covert Operations and National Intelligence Model trained. Disclosure & Barring Service Enhanced Clearance.
Professor Peachey trained as a solicitor in the 1980s but never sought admission to the Roll of Solicitors, choosing instead to work in a special advisory role, advising solicitors, barristers and private and commercial clients in countryside, animal and environmental law cases. The author of many law books and articles, he is the country’s best known legal academic in the field of animal law. Whilst continuing to practice in his specialist area he also makes his extensive legal training and experience available through A. G. Fox Law as an animal community legal resource at a reasonable cost in accordance with the aim of the Ministry of Justice in the Legal Services Act 2007 to widen the legal access base beyond the traditional conventional law firms.
6. A. G. Fox Law welcomes clients who need home visits due to personal circumstances or disability. We warmly support anti-discrimination legislation in matters of disability under the Equalities Act 2010, and the practice will arrange the services of a British Sign Language Interpreter for deaf clients. All of our staff and in-house assistants have current Safeguarding Disclosure & Barring Service clearance.
7. A.G. Fox Law reserves the absolute right to accept or reject any person or organisation as a client. We reserve the right to cease to act for any person or organisation in our absolute discretion. This may arise where a previously unrecognised conflict of interest appears, where a client fails ‘due diligence’ checks (see paragraph 14 below), where a client is in default or dispute over matters of fees, or where the conduct of a client is oppressive or abusive towards any of our staff or assistants, or behaves in such a fashion that in good conscience we no longer feel able to represent them. In such circumstances where we have to withdraw our services we will not be responsible for providing or nominating an alternative. In any case at the conclusion of instructions where fees are outstanding we will not release any papers in our possession until such fees are paid in cleared funds.
8. A. G. Fox Law does not represent people in the Magistrates Court, Crown Court or High Court of Justice. We will not advise or represent in the County Court or Appeal Tribunals any person or organisation which openly supports, or is suspected by us to support terrorism, organised crime, money-laundering or racism. Notwithstanding that, we do accept instructions to deal with complaints against the police and other enforcement and public bodies and have particular expertise in this field.
9. A. G. Fox Law does not undertake conveyancing, trusts, intellectual property work such as patents and trademarks, and work associated with divorces and custody of children except that we do carry out investigative work for clients in respect of spousal residence and circumstances in family maintenance disputes. We do not undertake in-house advocacy in ‘fast-track’ or ‘multi-track’ County Court cases, and will refer such cases to a solicitor or barrister who has agreed to work with us in the advocacy phase of a case. We are not Commissioners for Oaths or Notaries Public.
10. Fees
Hourly Rate (Legal Services): £150 (Minimum fee £300). (Investigative Services £50)
Mileage: 45p per mile plus toll bridge/ferry/parking fees
Fixed fees are available for specific jobs such as drafting Wills and Codicils, Contracts, and constitutional documentation for clubs and societies. Please enquire for details.
Payment Terms:
Normally a deposit on the estimated total fee will be payable in advance by cash, UK Bank Draft or cheque except to approved accounts such as Solicitors. Cheque payments will be subject to clearance before any work is carried out. The balance will be payable in full on the same terms before any written report or drafted documentation is released. We reserve the right to vary these terms as necessary in individual cases.
All negotiable instruments (cheques and bank drafts) must be made payable to B.F. PEACHEY. Any cheques or other instruments made payable to A. G. Fox Law will be returned, and a service charge of £25.00 will be levied to cover our expenses in dealing with the matter.
11. Insurance & Liability
Insurance of any goods and documents in our possession is the responsibility of the client. We will use our expert skills and counter-crime experience to preserve and protect client’s property and documents to the best of our ability, but will not be responsible for goods or documents lost through us being victims of fire, flood, crime or terrorism.
We are not responsible for the consequences of any client indulging in any course of action against our advice. In any case where a client instructs us to assist them in the instigation of court proceedings or a Tribunal Appeal against our advice, we will require that client to sign an indemnity that acknowledges that they are acting against our advice and will accept the consequences thereof absolutely.
12. Service Standards
A. G. Fox Law makes every effort to deal with all matters in a prompt timely fashion which commonly involves our staff working evenings and weekends. However this is a very busy practice which on occasion means that messages cannot be replied to on the same day.
Prof Peachey is very much in demand and is required to travel all over Britain on a routine basis meaning that he is not available in the office. This may sometimes lead to short delays in arranging interviews and other commitments. Clients who require continuous personal attention need to understand that they are one of many clients of the practice all of whom have their own particular service expectations. No surgeon can perform two operations at the same time, and there are occasions where a legal advisor must concentrate specifically on an important issue at hand. However, every effort is made to keep any delays to a minimum.
A. G. Fox Law operates a comprehensive complaints policy. Whilst service complaints are very rare, all such matters are investigated systematically and comprehensively with a view to arriving at an acceptable solution for the complainant.
A. G. Fox Law operates a thorough ‘due diligence’ policy in which we enquire into absolutely everything that we are told about our clients and the parties with whom they are in dispute. This involves checking on names, addresses, County Court Judgments and bankruptcy searches, Companies House searches, Land Registry searches where appropriate, social media searches and searches in other public records as appropriate. It is imperative that our clients make full and frank disclosure to us of any facts that we might need to know in our representation of them in their best interests. If they fail to do so we will not be responsible for any adverse consequences arising therefrom, and if they give us false information we reserve the right to cease to act for them.