Terms and Conditions

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

INDEX

YOUR CLAIM
OUR RETAINER
INFORMATION ABOUT US
PAYMENT FOR OUR SERVICES
APPOINT ADR
NO WIN NO FEE
INDEMNITY AGAINST COSTS
YOUR LETTER OF AUTHORITY/INSTRUCTION
HOW YOU MAY INSTRUCT US
ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES
USE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES
COURT ACTION
NOT TO SEEK COMPENSATION YOURSELF .
AMOUNT OF BENEFITS/COMPENSATION YOU RECEIVE
SOLICITOR’S LIEN
YOUR WARRANTY TO US
INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE
FAMILY AND FRIENDS MAY ALSO CLAIM
YOUR RIGHT TO CHANGE YOUR MIND
PAYMENT TO YOU
HOW WE USE YOUR DATA
DATA PROTECTION
WHERE AN AIRLINE REQUIRES YOU MUST FIRST SUBMIT A CLAIM BEFORE WE MAY DO SO
USE OF AIRLINES ONLINE CLAIMS PORTAL
ASSIGNMENT OF CLAIM TO LEAD PASSENGER.
OUR NO WIN NO FEE AGREEMENT KNOWN AS CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENT (“CFA”)
OUR CLIENT CARE LETTER TO YOU
TERMS OF BUSINESS
DIVERSITY POLICY
OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS

TERMS OF BUSINESS

YOUR CLAIM IS for:

A delayed flight
A cancelled flight
Denial of boarding
A missed connection

1.2 Hereinafter referred to as “YOUR CLAIMS” and it includes all your contractual rights to compensation under your contract of travel including re-payment of cancelled flights and any flight which you were denied boarding plus any out of pocket expenditure for travel , subsistence and associated costs.

OUR RETAINER

2.1 What these terms cover. These are the terms and conditions on which we will conduct your claim for compensation for your delayed flight

2.2 Why you should read them. Please read these terms carefully before you submit your claim to us. These terms will tell you who we are, how we will collect the compensation for your delayed flight, how you and we may change or end the contract, what to do if there is a problem and other important information. If you think that there is a mistake in these terms, please contact us to discuss.

INFORMATION ABOUT US AND HOW TO CONTACT US

3.1 Who we are. We are Air Passenger Solicitors Limited ( “APSL “) We are Solicitors registered with the SRA under number 661781. Our address is Air Passenger House, Meadowview, Faygate Lane, Faygate, Horsham West Sussex RH12 4SJ. We have two websites Flightdelaypay.com and Airpassengersolicitors.com. We use these to obtain new business.

3.2 How to contact us. You can contact us by telephoning our customer service team on the number shown on the website or by writing to us at our e-mail address or the above address.

3.3 How we may contact you. If we have to contact you we will do so by telephone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us in your instructions.

PAYMENTS FOR OUR SERVICES

To conduct your claim we charge you 25% plus £25 per passenger + VAT (if applicable). In certain jurisdictions currently Spain and Portugal it may be necessary to employ a local lawyer in such cases additional fees may be due but these will be agreed with you in advance.

APPOINT ADR

You agree that in appropriate circumstances we may refer your claim to an approved alternative dispute resolution provider who is approved under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Service for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulation 2015.

NO WIN NO FEE

We only charge a fee if we are successful in recovering your compensation.

INDEMNITY AGAINST COSTS

In the unlikely event of the court awarding costs to the other party we will pay these costs where we are on the court record unless the order is because you have failed to provide information or co-operate with us. This is extremely unlikely as we nearly always issue claims (below£10,000) in the County Court where there is a no costs rule. This means whether you win or lose the costs of the case are not recoverable from you or by you from the Airline.

LETTER OF AUTHORITY / INSTRUCTION

By your Letter of Authority/Instruction you instruct APSL as your solicitor to:

Pursue Your Claim against the airline
To raise legal letters before action stating your claim.
To enter into correspondence and dialogue with the airline to reach a settlement of your claim
To issue proceedings and conduct your case.

HOW YOU MAY INDTRUCT US

You appoint us as your Solicitor in different ways:

9.1. First by ticking the box our website of Flight Delay Pay when submitting your claim and we agreeing to act.

9.2. Secondly we will email you our Letter of Authority/Instruction which we will ask you to agree to by typing your name at the bottom of an e-mail in reply in which you confirm your agreement

9.3 Thirdly, we will send you either by e-mail or post a Letter Authority/Instruction and ask you to print this and to add your manuscript ink signature and to return it to us by post. We will only do this if Your Claim is being heard in a Court of Law and our reason for doing so is that your wet signature is the best evidence of your instructions and readily recognised by a Court and it saves court time having to deal with the e signatures rules.

ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES

There exists European Directives and UK legislation to facilitate the use of electronic signatures and to ensure their legal recognition and eligibility across the European Union. In July 2016 the Electronic Identification and Trust Services Regulation (EU/910/2014) (eIDAS Regulation) introduced a new definition of electronic signature as “any data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form and which is used by the signatory to sign“. It allows an electronic signature to take a wide variety of forms. Such as

Typing the signatory’s name at the bottom of an e-mail.
A scanned manuscript signature
Clicking an icon on a website.

Article 25(i) of the eIDAS Regulation preserves the legal admissibility of the above style of electronic signature which it is said shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it is in electronic form. Although the eIDAS Regulation has direct effect in the United Kingdom, the UK has also passed the Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations 2016 which came into force on 22^nd July 2016.

USE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES

We use electronic signatures in our dealings with you. When you click on our website to submit Your Claim this acts as an electronic signature by you to our terms. When we send you by e-mail a document our reply by e-mail in which you physically type your name be it your full name or initials or just your Christian name to confirm your agreement will operate as your electronic signature. Simply replying from your e-mail address will not operate as your electronic signature you must indicate your agreement by physically typing your name at the bottom of the reply. When we send you the document by e-mail we will include Guidance Notes on how to effectively reply and give a valid electronic signature.

COURT ACTION

Airlines are reluctant to settle claims and it is often necessary to take legal action. Clearly this will only happen if Your Claim is disputed. APSL will pay the court fees and issue the claim. As the claim will be issued as a Small Claim in the county court there is a no costs rule. Our specialist team are expert in this area of law and will only action a claim if they are confident of winning. Upon settlement of a successful claim we will keep any interest received in addition to your claim to pay towards the extra costs of conducting proceedings.

NOT TO SEEK COMPENSATION YOURSELF

You will not, so long as we are acting for you collect Your Claim or attempt to collect Your Claim yourself.

ACCOUNT FOR BENEFITS / COMPENSATION RECEIVED

You will deliver to us promptly upon receipt all compensation or benefit tendered to you by the airline whilst we are instructed and until we re-assign the proceeds of your claim.

SOLICITOR’S LIEN

We are only paid if successful this is known as “No Win No Fee”. Solicitors have a lien on the fruits of litigation both recovered and preserved which has come about through their unpaid work. This arises under common law and under section 73 of the Solicitors Act 1974 and a recent decision of the Courts has determined that the lien arises even before proceedings are issued and does so from the moment we are retained by you to help. Neither you or the Airline may interfere with that lien. Once we are instructed you acknowledge our lien and allow all funds to come through our hands. Should anyone seek to defeat this lien be it you or the Airline by paying compensation directly to you we will seek a declaration that our unpaid work be paid by those with notice of the lien and who have taken steps to thwart it. You or the Airline will be ordered by the court to pay to us what is due. Avoid this by:

Refusing to accept payment direct from the Airline.
Forwarding to us immediately the identical sums paid to you by the Airline.
If you are in doubt as to what to do contact us immediately and follow our instructions

YOUR WARRANTIES AND UNDERTAKING IN RESPECT OF YOUR CLAIM

By notifying us of Your Claim you warrant and undertake in respect of that claim that:

16.1 The information contained in the notification is true and that you have been delayed for the period set out therein.

16.2 You are the passenger and ticket holder of the relevant delayed flight.

16.3 You have performed all your obligations to the airline and the airline has delayed or cancelled your flight and should accept Your Claim.

No other person or entity has any right or interest in Your Claim.

INFORMATION IN THIS WEBSITE

Information given on this website is for general information only and should not be relied upon, we exclude all liability for inaccuracy, error or omission contained in this website. Its contents are believed to be correct according to our opinion concerning the state of the law. In giving information in this website assumptions or generalisation may have been made and consumers should refer to detailed law for definitive information. Furthermore, Regulations, rules and law have been amended at dates in the past and may be amended in the future and such changes may affect the law applicable to any particular case dependent on when the cause of action occurred, or the proceedings issued. Due to the international nature of air travel and in particular domicile & residence of each airline and Claimant, there may be questions of applicable law and jurisdiction to consider in individual cases.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

If other people are travelling with you, we will ask you if each of those persons would also like to make a claim through APSL, you should only answer “Yes” to this question if the person concerned has consented to us contacting them about making a claim.

EXERCISING YOUR RIGHT TO CHANGE YOUR MIND (Consumer Contract Regulations 2013)

19.1 You have a legal right to change your mind within 14 days. These rights are under Consumer Contract Regulations 2013.

19.2 How long do I have to change my mind? You have 14 days after the day you first notify us of your claim. However, once we have completed the services you cannot change your mind, even if the period is still running. If you cancel after we have started the collection services, you must pay us for the services provided up until the time you tell us that you have changed your mind.

PAYMENT TO YOU

We will pay you by cheque or bank transfer – you shall pay any transaction fees.

HOW WE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will use the personal information you provide to us:

To handle Your Claim

To make payment to you

To give you information about our service however, you may stop receiving this at any time by contacting us

DATA PROTECTION

Data Protection Legislation: (i) unless and until the GDPR is no longer directly applicable in the UK, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and any national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK and then (ii) any successor legislation to the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 1998.

22.1 Data Protection

22.2 Both parties will comply with all applicable requirements of the Data Protection Legislation. This clause is in addition to, and does not relieve, remove or replace, a party’s obligations under the Data Protection Legislation.

22.3 The parties acknowledge that for the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation, APSL is the data controller and the data processor (where Data Controller and Data Processor have the meanings as defined in the Data Protection Legislation). Schedule A sets out the scope, nature and purpose of processing by APSL, the duration of the processing and the types of personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Legislation, Personal Data) and categories of Data Subject.

Without prejudice to the generality of clause 1.1, the Passenger and in particular a Lead Passenger will ensure that it has all necessary appropriate consents and notices in place to enable lawful transfer of the Personal Data to APSL for the duration and purposes of this agreement.
Without prejudice to the generality of clause 1.1, APSL shall, in relation to any Personal Data processed in connection with the performance by APSL of its obligations under this agreement:
Process that Personal Data only on the written instructions of the Passenger unless (APSL is required the law to process Personal Dats (Application of laws). Where APSL is relying on law as the basis for processing Personal Data, APSL shall promptly notify the Passenger of this before performing the processing required by Laws unless the Law prohibit APSL from so notifying the Customer;
ensure that it has in place appropriate technical and organisational measures, reviewed and approved by the Passenger, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of Personal Data and against accidental loss or destruction of or damage to, Personal Data, appropriate to the harm that might result from the unauthorised or unlawful processing or accidental loss, destruction or damage and the nature of the data to be protected, having regard to the state of technological development and the cost of implementing any measures (those measures may include, where appropriate, pseudonymising and encrypting Personal Data, ensuring confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of its systems and services, ensuring that availability of and access to Personal Data can be restored in a timely manner after an incident, and regularly assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of the technical and organisational measures adopted by it);
ensure that all personnel who have access to and/or process Personal Data are obliged to keep the Personal Data confidential; and
not transfer any Personal Data unless the prior written consent of the Passenger has been obtained and the following conditions are fulfilled:
the Passenger or APSL has provided appropriate safeguards in relation to the transfer;
the data subject has enforceable rights and effective legal remedies;
(APSL complies with its obligations under the Data Protection Legislation by providing an adequate level of protection of the Personal Data that is transferred; and APSL complies with reasonable instructions notified to it in advance by the Passenger with respect of the processing of the Personal Data; assist the Passenger, at the Passenger’s cost, in responding to any request from a Data Subject and in ensuring compliance with its obligations under the Data Protection Legislation with respect to security, breach notifications, impact assessments and consultations with supervisory authorities or regulators;
notify the Passenger without undue delay on becoming aware of a Personal Data breach;
at the written direction of the Passenger, delete or return Personal Data and copies thereof to the Passenger on termination of the agreement unless required by Law to store the Personal Data; and maintain complete and accurate records and information to demonstrate its compliance with this clause (and allow for audits by the Passenger or the Passenger’s designated auditor).
The Passenger consents to APSL agent or Barrister, appointed of our choosing as a third-party processor of Personal Data under this agreement. APSL confirms that it has entered or (as the case may be) will enter with the third-party processor into a written agreement incorporating terms which are substantially similar to those set out in this clause. As between the Passenger and APSL, APSL shall remain fully liable for all acts or omissions of any third-party processor appointed by it pursuant to this clause.
Either party may, or at any time on not less than 30 days’ notice, revise this clause by replacing it with any applicable controller to processor standard clauses or similar terms forming party of an applicable certification scheme (which shall apply when replaced by attachment to this agreement).

THE SCHEDULE A

PROCESSING, PERSONAL DATA AND DATA SUBJECTS

PROCESSING BY AIR PASSENGER SOLICITORS LIMITED ( “APSL”)
- The data provided is the Passenger’s name and address, flight number, date of flight, airline travelled in, departure and arrival airports, reason for delay , names of additional passengers travelling in their party and bank account details if the claim is successful.
- The data is needed to make a claim under EC Regulation 261 or the UK version where the APR Regulations 2019 will amend the primary regulation.
- PURPOSE OF PROCESSING. The data is processed to write letters of claim and issue proceedings in a County Court Small Claim
- DURATION OF THE PROCESSING. The duration of processing is 3 years to allow for a full hearing and the conclusion of any appeal.
TYPES OF PERSONAL DATA

The type of data is set out under 1.1 Scope above

_________________________________________________________________________

CATEGORIES OF DATA SUBJECT

The data subjects are all passengers travelling on delayed or cancelled flights or have been denied boarding

WHERE AN AIRLINE INSIST ON THE PASSENGER FIRST MAKING A CLAIM

23.1 Some Airlines require that you submit a claim directly to them and allow them to respond before engaging third parties such as ourselves. In order to comply with this requirement where no online claims portal has been built by the Airline to process such claims you agree by clicking to submit your claim to us that the your below letter bearing your electronic signature will be posted by us for you by registered post, tracked post or first class mail to the airline.

Letter to Airline

Airline address

Your address

Date

Dear Sirs,

Lead Passenger Name and others	«Passengers.First Name» «Passengers.Last Name»
Booking Reference	«Passengers.Booking Reference»
Flight No:
Flight Date:

Assignment of Rights to the Claim

As permitted the above Additional Passengers have assigned to me as the Lead Passenger their rights to compensation damages or refund arising from the flights with you under the above booking reference.

Notice of Assignment

This letter constitutes notice of assignment

My Claim

I now submit my claim (this is as the Lead Passenger and on behalf of the other Additional Passengers as Assignee) directly to you to allow you 28 days to respond to me. (This period may alter depending upon the Airlines Standard Ts and Cs)

I have instructed Air Passenger Solicitors Limited (“APSL”) to act for me in connection with this claim. They have checked that my flight is eligible for compensation using various databases. In addition they have drafted a formal Letter Before Action which will be posted if you do not settle in response to this letter. As APSL have agreed to take on my case on a “No Win No Fee” basis they have a lien over the proceeds (see Bott and Co Solicitors Limited V Ryanair DAC on appeal from (2019) EWCA Civ 143 – Supreme Court decision 16 March 2022).

So as not to circumvent my solicitor’s lien please pay my compensation to APSL their bank details are:

Account Name: Air Passenger Solicitors Limited

Account No: 44862101

Sort Code: 09-01-29

Ref: Lead passenger name

I await your response.

Yours faithfully

signed electronically Name of Lead Passenger Sent by post

24. USE OF AIRLINES ONLINE CLAIMS PORTAL

The Courts have approved the use of airline online automated systems for handling claims which satisfy the following (a) compulsory to use under their terms (b) allows a submitted claim to be saved (c) if it rejects the claim due to an error in one or more fields it will advise the user and (d) if the claim is rejected because details of not been entered correctly an automated response sent by the airline will make this clear. Where they do not such systems the courts have warned will put material obstacles in the way of passengers making claims and accordingly fall foul of Article 15 of the Regulations.

We will assume that the airline’s claim claims portal has the criteria required by the court and will complete your claim in your name on your behalf and submit it directly to the airline through the claims portal. Because we have a lien over the compensation and so as not to circumvent it you instruct us to complete your claim form with our client account bank details included and not your own so the payment of the whole compensation can be paid to us. Once paid will deduct our fees and account to you.

Some airlines say in their terms that payment of compensation will be made to the account which made the booking as this is unlawful once our lien attaches no airline will be able to enforce such a clause and nor does its breach cause any loss as to comply is to act unlawfully.

At the same time as completing your online claim form we will take screenshots of that claim and immediately email these to the airline with a covering letter from ourselves giving within the letter once again all the relevant details to enable the airline to recognise your claim in case the online system does not allow us to complete it or it rejects our bank details or fails for any reason. Within our letter we advise the airline that.(I ) You have instructed us to claim. (ii) that we have checked your flight is eligible for compensation using our various databases and we have opened our file and prepared our formal letter before action which is also being dispatched to the airline separately through the post ( in which we advise the airline that no action will be taken to issue a claim until the period within the airline’s terms to allow them to settle the claim directly usually 14 or 28 days has expired plus a further seven days. (iii) as we have agreed to take your case on a no win no fee basis, we have a lien over the proceeds (see bottom and co-solicitors Limited versus Ryanair DAC SCE 16^th of March 2022.)

(iv) so as not to circumvent our lien of which our letter is notice the airline will be asked to pay your compensation to our client account the details of which have been entered ( or attempted to do so ) in their online portal within your claim form and we will give any relevant reference we have received by way of automated response.

The airline will also be advised that if they ignore our lien having had notice of it and pay you they may be asked to pay our costs in addition to what they worry paid you.

25. ASSIGNMENT OF THE CLAIM TO THE LEAD PASSENGER

25.1 In order for the Passenger’s Letter making a claim direct to be made on behalf of all passengers in the booking, if you are not the Lead Passenger or to allow one online claims portal form to be submitted you assign your claim to the Lead Passenger who will make a claim directly to the Airline on behalf of all passengers in your booking. The Lead Passenger will later , if advised to do so , issue a claim through the County Court Money Claims on Line system which only allows one claimant in each action.

25.2 If a claim is advised to be submitted through the County Court on paper then the Lead Passenger re-assigns to each of his fellow passengers travelling with him their individual claims so that each passenger can be named as a Claimant.

26. BELOW IS OUR CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENT WITH YOU

CONDITIONAL FEE AGREEMENT (“CFA”)

This agreement is a binding legal contract between you and us. Before you click send to agree, please read everything carefully. This agreement must be read in conjunction with the Schedules and the Law Society Conditions attached.
What is covered by this agreement?

Your claim for compensation under EC Regulation 261 as amended by APR

What is not covered by this agreement?

Any counterclaim against you

Any appeal you make against the final judgment or order

Paying us if you win

4.1 If you win your claim, you pay us 25% plus a £25.00 administration charge per passenger plus vat from the compensation we recover for you. That is all we will ever deduct from your compensation. We will also keep any Court Fees paid by us and reimbursed by the airline and any Court Costs the airline is ordered to pay. Typically this is only Fixed Costs for the issue of a Small Claim ( “ the OVERALL CAP “ ).

4.2 The way this works under our Conditional Fee Agreement is that you agree to pay us a success fee set out in Schedule 1 and our Basic Charges in Schedule 2 but both subject to the OVERALL CAP so that you only ever pay 25% plus £25.00 per passenger plus vat from your compensation.

4.3 What do I pay if I lose?

If you lose, you pay nothing and we will indemnify you against any costs that might be payable to the airline.

The Success Fee

The success fee is set out in Schedule 1.

Basic Charges

Details of our basic charges are set out in Schedule 2.

Ending this agreement

If you have a right to cancel this agreement under Schedule 3 (see below) and do so within the 14 day time limit, you will pay nothing. Otherwise, if you end this agreement before you allow us to win or lose, you pay us an Administration charge of £75.00 plus vat plus any Court Fees we have paid on your behalf.

We may end this agreement before you win or lose, if you fail to cooperate with us or we regard your claim as likely to fail with the consequences that you pay nothing.
Other points

9.1 Definitions of words used in this CFA are explained in the Law Society Conditions.

9.2 You have the right to cancel this agreement in the circumstances set out in Schedule 3.

The parties acknowledge and agree that this agreement is not a Contentious

Business Agreement within the terms of the Solicitors Act 1974.

Schedule 1

Success fee

The success fee is set at 90% of our basic charges, where the claim concludes at trial; or 50% where the claim concludes before a trial has commenced.

The success fee percentage reflects the following:-

The fact that if you lose, we will not earn anything;
Our assessment of the risks of your case;
Any other appropriate matters;
The fact that if you win we will not be paid our basic charges until the end of the claim;
Our arrangements with you about paying expenses and disbursements

The success fee cannot be more than 100% of the basis charges in total.

You also have the right to apply to the court for assessment of our costs, including our success fee.

Schedule 2

Basic charges

These are for work done from now until this agreement ends. These are subject to review.

How we calculate our basic charges

These are calculated for each hour engaged on your matter. Routine letters and telephone calls will be charged as units of one tenth of an hour. Other letters and telephone calls will be charged on a time basis. The hourly rates are:

Grade of Fee Earners	Hourly Rates
1. Solicitors with over eight years post qualification experience including at least eight years litigation experience	£300.00
2. Solicitors and legal executives with over four years post qualification experience including at least four years litigation experience	£180.00
3. Other solicitors and legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience	£150.00
4. Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners	£100.00

The Success Fee and Basic Charges are subject to the Overall Cap of 25% plus £25 administration fee per passenger subject if applicable to VAT which is the maximum that we will deduct from your compensation.

Schedule 3

Notice of the Right to Cancel

This only applies if you sign the Conditional Fee Agreement:

At your home, workplace or at someone else’s home; or
At our offices but following a visit by us (or by someone acting on our behalf) to your home, workplace or someone else’s home; or
At our offices but following a meeting between us away from our offices.

You have the right to cancel this contract, without reason. If you wish and can do so by delivering, sending (including electronic mail) a cancellation notice to the person mentioned below at any time within 14 days starting with the day of receipt of this Notice.

The person to whom a cancellation notice may be given is Paul Davidson of Air Passenger Solicitors Limited at paul@airpassengersolicitors.com . (Please quote your case reference number.

Notice of cancellation is deemed to be served as soon as it is posted or sent to us or sent by e-mail.

Law Society Conditions

(as amended by us for EC 261/2004 as amended by the APR )

The Law Society Conditions below are part of this agreement. Any amendments or additions to them will apply to you. You should read the conditions carefully and ask us about anything you find unclear.

Our responsibilities

We must:

Always act in your best interests, subject to our duty to the court;
Explain to you the risks and benefits of taking legal action;
Give you our best advice about whether to accept any offer of settlement;
Give you the best information possible about the likely costs of your claim for damages.

Your responsibilities

You must:

Give us instructions that allow us to do our work properly;
Not ask us to work in an improper or unreasonable way;
Not deliberately mislead us;
Co-operate with us;

Dealing with costs if you win

You will only ever pay 25% plus £25 per passenger administration fee and Vat if applicable.

We are allowed to keep any interest court fees and court costs awarded (if any) your opponent pays.

You agree to pay into a designated account any cheques received by you or by us from your opponent and made payable to you. Out of the money, you agree to let us take 25% plus £25 per passenger administration fee and VAT.

You take the rest.

If your opponent fails to pay monies due to you

If the Airline does not pay the compensation owed to you, we have the right to take recovery action in your name to enforce a judgment, order or agreement.

What happens when this agreement ends before your claim for damages ends?

Paying us if you end this agreement

You can end the agreement at any time. Unless you have a right to cancel this agreement under Schedule 3 and do so within the 14 day time limit we then have the right to be paid:

An administration fee of £75.00 plus vat and reimburse any court fees paid on your behalf.
Paying us if we end this agreement
We can end this agreement if we believe you are unlikely to win . If this happens, you will pay nothing.

What happens after this agreements ends

After this agreements ends, we may apply to have our name removed from the record of any court proceedings in which we are acting .

We have the right to preserve our lien unless another solicitor working for you undertakes to pay us what we are owed including a success fee if you win.

Explanation of words used

Advocacy

Appearing for you at court hearings.

Basic charges

Our charges for the legal work we do on your claim for damages as set out in Schedule 2.

Claim

Your compensation claim under EC Regulation 261 as amended by APR 2019 Regulation whether or not court proceedings are issued.

Counterclaim

A claim that your opponent makes against you in response to your claim.

Our expenses and disbursements

Payments we make on your behalf such as:

Court fees;
Experts’ fees;
Travelling expenses.
Lien

Our right to keep all papers, documents, money or other property held on your behalf until all money due to us is paid. A lien may be applied after this agreement ends.

Lose

The court has dismissed your claim or you have stopped it on our advice.

Trial

The final contested hearing or the contested hearing of any issue to be tried separately and a reference to a claim concluding at trial includes a claim settled after the trial has commenced or a judgment.

Your claim for compensation is finally decided in your favour, whether by a court decision or an agreement to pay you compensation or in any way that you derive benefit from pursuing the claim.

“Finally” means that your opponent:

Is not allowed to appeal against the court decision; or
Has not appealed in time; or
Has lost any appeal.

27. OUR CLIENT CARE LETTER TO YOU

As Solicitors we are required to set out how we work for you and what your rights are. The below Client Care letter tells you this. We work under our CFE complying with terms of our Client Care Letter below:

CLIENT CARE LETTER

DETAILS OF INSTRUCTION

By submitting your claim to us through our website or the website of our trading name Flight Delay Pay you have instructed us to recover compensation due to you under EC Regulation 261 as amended by APR 2019 Regulation as applicable. This letter sets out the terms upon which we propose to act.

You have a claim under EC Regulation 261 as amended by APR for a delayed or cancelled flight which you wish us to recover for you from the airline which sold you the flight. If we cannot negotiate payment of your compensation after issuing a Letter Before Action under the pre action protocol we will issue proceedings if we believe your claim will be successful.

This will be by a County Court Small Claim . In either case we will act for you on a No Win No Fee basis. You pay us nothing. If you win your action prior to the issue of proceedings we charge 25% of your compensation plus a £25 administration charge per passenger plus VAT.

If you win after proceedings are issued and we have paid the court fee and incurred costs of the proceedings we will charge 25% of your compensation plus £25 administration fee plus VAT but also retain the court fee per passenger usually £80.00 plus fixed rate which are paid by the Airline by reimbursement under the Court rules. As the Airline pays the Court fee and fixed costs if the claim is won after the issue of proceedings you receive your full compensation less ONLY 25% plus the £25.00 administration fee plus VAT.

In County Court Small Claims cases the rules preclude the winning party recovering costs other than the Court issue fee and fixed costs on issue.

On receipt of your claim we will contact the airline and ask to recover your compensation by raising a formal legal Letter Before Action. It is usual to allow 14-28 days for a Defendant to respond.

However, due to the number of claims the airlines receive, the speed of response is often slow and the Court have criticised solicitors who are too quick to issue rather than wait for the airlines’ response. We have therefore set our protocol to allow the airlines 35 days to respond.

After 35 days we will assess your claim based on all the information available including what the airline say, weather information, ATC information and relevant data about delayed flights. If the airline refuse your claim and we advise that your claim ought to be paid we will issue your claim and pay the Court fee. You pay nothing. The no cost rule in Small Claims means that if you lose you pay nothing. In the unlikely event a Court order is made against you and in Small Claims this can only be for poor conduct will pay these costs all the time we are on the Court record as acting unless this arises only from your failure to provide information or cooperate with us.

PERSONS HANDLING MATTER

Nigel Davidson handles all issued cases with his team. His email address is nigel@airpassengersolicitors.com and his contact number is 01293 660671 extension 301.

If there is any aspect of our service with which you are not happy (including complaints about our bills), please contact our complaints handling Director, Nigel Davidson.

You also have the right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman at the conclusion of the complaint process. Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman and details of the time limits for making a complaint can be found at http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ.

Air Passenger Solicitors Limited are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. SRA Number 661781

CHARGES

We only act for you under a Conditional Fee Agreement . This means you pay us nothing and you will receive your full compensation less 25% plus a £25 administration fee per passenger plus VAT.

BILLING ARRANGEMENTS

We never bill you until we have recovered your compensation from the airline. If we are not successful you pay nothing. Once a successful recovery has been made you will be receive a statement of all sums recovered less our fees and a fee note so that you can see what you have paid.

RECOVERY OF COSTS / LIABILITY FOR COSTS OF OTHER PARTY/IES

You will not be able to recover costs from the airline other than the Court issue fee and fixed costs on issue. Equally you will have no liability for costs if your claim fails.

RIGHT TO LIEN

We will exercise a lien for all unpaid costs. This lien will attach to the compensation due to you from the airline where we have carried out legal work. Neither you or the airline should seek to defealt this lien by seeking to pay your compensation other than through our designates.

CLIENT ACCOUNT

LIMIT ON COSTS

You never pay us. We work on a No win No Fee basis. Your costs deducted on success will never exceed 25% plus £25 administration fees per passenger plus VAT of your compensation recovered.

LIABILITY FOR NEGLIGENCE

Our liability for negligence is limited to the amount of your claim.

28. TERMS OF BUSINESS

These terms of business (“Terms”) apply to all work done by Air Passenger Solicitors Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”, “the firm”) for the client to whom the Client Care Letter is addressed (“you”, “your”, “client”). These are the Terms of Business referred to in that letter. If there is any conflict between these Terms of Business and the Client Care Letter, the Client Care Letter will prevail. You will be considered to have accepted these Terms and the Client Care Letter when you submit your claim to us through our website.

Our Aim

In all our dealings with clients we aim to provide a high quality of service.

Our Charges

We do not ask you for any money as we only work on a “no win, no fee basis” on the terms of our Conditional Full Fee Agreement.

Interest on client account

Where we hold money to your order, it shall be held in our general client account with Santander Bank plc and we shall account to you for interest exceeding £20 earned on monies held by us for you for more than 7 days.

Lien and set-off

We shall have a lien on your compensation for any unpaid legal fees. We shall be entitled to set off any amounts owed to us against any funds we are holding on your behalf.

Limitation of Liability

The following should be read carefully as it limits the extent of our liability to you. Any such liability arising from or in connection with the services provided to you by us is the liability of Air Passenger Solicitors Limited. Our Directors, Employees and Consultants shall have no liability to you.

The liability of this Company for loss or damage caused by our negligence, breach of contract, misrepresentation or otherwise (but not in respect of fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation) shall not exceed the amount of your claim for compensation.

Money Laundering

We are required to comply with our statutory obligations under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (“the Money Laundering Regulations”) to carry out certain checks in order to verify identity and the source of funds supplied by a client. We are also under a duty to report any suspicion that we have of money laundering and this duty may override our duty of client confidentiality. We shall not incur any liability to you for any loss you may suffer as a result of our compliance with these Regulations to include accounting to you.

Communication by e-mail

We generally communicate with and send documents to clients and any other parties by e-mail. You accept that the internet is not a secure medium and that electronic transmission of e-mail may become lost, delayed, intercepted, corrupted, delivered incomplete or fail to be delivered. We shall use our reasonable endeavours to ensure that our e-mail s are free from viruses and other obstructions and shall expect you to do the same. However, you should note that e-mail cannot be guaranteed to be secure, error-free or confidential and that we shall have no responsibility or liability for any error, omission, claim or loss arising from or in connection with any communication to you via email, in the absence of any bad faith or wilful default on our part.

Intellectual Property

All copyright and intellectual property rights in any work and materials that we develop or create for you shall be our property unless specifically agreed otherwise. You are, however, permitted to use any such materials for the purposes for which they were created.

Confidentiality

As solicitors, we are under strict rules of confidentiality and shall not disclose any confidential information received from you unless instructed by you or as required by law. Equally, we cannot use or pass on confidential information obtained from other clients for your benefit.

Occasionally, we may be requested to refer in general terms to work done for you. For example, we may be requested to give information for reports to be published in the legal or business press of transactions where we have acted for one of the parties, or we may wish to disclose that we have acted for you in a particular matter. In such cases, we will ask your consent before disclosing and, if given, this consent will also apply to future similar disclosures by us.

Complaints Policy

We are committed by providing a high quality service to our clients. This includes a commitment to putting things right when they go wrong. Our objective at all times is to exceed your expectations. If you do not feel that we have fulfilled our responsibilities, or the standard of our service has been less than you expected, then please let us know.

Complaints Procedure

If any difficulties do arise which cannot be resolved, then please contact Nigel Davidson who is the Director with overall responsibility for dealing with complaints by writing to Air Passenger Solicitors or emailing Nigel@airpassengersolicitors.com.

What will happen next?

To explain to you how long this process might take we have included our target times for each stage of the process. Where, or any reason, it is not possible to observe any of these limits we will let you know and explain why.

On receipt of your complaint Nigel Davidson will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and might invite you to a meeting to discuss your concerns. We will open a file for your complaint in our system and Nigel Davidson will examine the file that we have on the work that we have been doing for you. We would look to acknowledge your complaint within three days of receiving it and will complete our initial examination within fourteen days.
We might then invite you to a meeting or we will write to you to ask for further information. Alternatively, we might write to you setting out our views on the situation and suggesting any redress that we would feel to be appropriate. We will aim to write to you with our views and any suggestions within seven days of completing our investigations.
Where we feel that we have failed in our standards we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.

If, by this sage, you are still not satisfied, please let us know. It would be helpful to us if you could do so within the first 21 days but there is no obligation on you to do so. We will then arrange to review our decision. We would will aim to do this within fourteen days of hearing from you.

We will let you know the result of the review within seven days of the end of the review and will do so by writing to you to confirm our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

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. You can raise your concerns with the https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Visit: uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm

Storage of your Documents

We shall keep our file of papers in an electronic format only for 6 years after your claim has ended after which it will be deleted.

Variations

Variations or modifications to these Terms may be made upon agreement in writing. Save as provided these Terms shall prevail.

Governing Law

These Terms of our Engagement Letter are governed by the laws of England and Wales. You agree that the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction in any dispute that may arise between us.

Solicitors Regulation Authority

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales with Registration Number 661781.

29. DIVERSITY POLICY

28.1 We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to ensuring that our culture, our training and our policies all facilitate and enhance the development and promotion of equal opportunities.

28.2 We are committed to avoiding discrimination in our dealings with clients and potential clients, other solicitors, barristers and third parties, and in relation to all current partners and employees, as well as applicants for positions within the firm and all related recruitment activity, along with internal promotions and training opportunities. The partners are also committed to promoting equality and diversity in all aspects of the firm’s operations including client service.

28.3 It is our aim to ensure that nobody suffers discrimination because of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, nationality, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, disability or fixed term or part time status.

30. OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS

Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce the terms.

Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings. These terms are governed by English Law and you can only bring proceedings in English Courts.

Complaints Policy

Complaints Procedure

What will happen next?

On receipt of your complaint Nigel Davidson will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and might invite you to a meeting to discuss your concerns. We will open a file for your complaint in our system and Nigel Davidson will examine the file that we have on the work that we have been doing for you. We would look to acknowledge your complaint within three days of receiving it and will complete our initial examination within fourteen days.
We might then invite you to a meeting or we will write to you to ask for further information. Alternatively, we might write to you setting out our views on the situation and suggesting any redress that we would feel to be appropriate. We will aim to write to you with our views and any suggestions within seven days of completing our investigations.
Where we feel that we have failed in our standards we could offer an apology, a reduction of any bill or a repayment in relation to any payment received.

We will let you know the result of the review within seven days of the end of the review and will do so by writing to you to confirm our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

What to do if we cannot resolve your complaint

The Legal Ombudsman can help you if we are unable to resolve your complaint ourselves. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.

Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint; and
No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them.

Visit: legalombudsman.org.uk
Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm

Storage of your Documents

We shall keep our file of papers in an electronic format only for 6 years after your claim has ended after which it will be deleted.

Variations

Variations or modifications to these Terms may be made upon agreement in writing. Save as provided these Terms shall prevail.

Governing Law

These Terms of our Engagement Letter are governed by the laws of England and Wales. You agree that the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction in any dispute that may arise between us.

Solicitors Regulation Authority

We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales with Registration Number 661781.