Our legal helpline (the “Helpline”) is a legal telephone helpline service provided by Lyons Davidson Limited (“we” or “us”) on behalf of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Ltd (“RSA”) for RSA commercial policyholders (“you” or “caller”). The following terms and conditions (“LD Helpline Terms & Conditions”) shall apply to the relationship between you and us in addition to your policy’s terms and conditions of use.

1. The Helpline is open to take calls 24 hours a day, 7 seven days a week, 365 days a year.

2. The Helpline is only available for businesses in respect of commercial, non-personal use and covers common areas of commercial law (including (including employment, sale and purchase of goods and services, damage to property, accidents/injuries, landlord & tenant and prosecution defence).

3. Our normal service covers the laws of England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where your enquiry relates to foreign jurisdiction enquiries outside of the UK or areas of law with specific rules, procedures or forums Lyons Davidson may not be able to provide immediate assistance and may need to carry out additional investigation or research to see if Lyons Davidson is able to provide any suitable guidance on the matter.

4. Where tax or health & safety matters are included in your policy:

4.1 basic guidance shall be given by Lyons Davidson on simple procedural matters only; or

4.2 where your policy includes a dedicated tax service (including VAT), Lyons Davidson shall arrange for its sub-contractor to provide a tax law information service subject to the same terms as set out herein on behalf of Lyons Davidson. Please be aware that such information is provided as a general preliminary guide only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal legal advice in the context of full information (including documentation) provided by you to our sub-contractor in a properly defined engagement. If you would like formal legal advice on tax matters, then please let us know. Lyons Davidson and its sub-contractors are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide financial or tax advice and cannot advise you on any financial or tax consequences of your enquiry or the merits of investment transactions or exercising investment rights or act as an arranger or broker of transactions. You should ask your accountant to advise on such matters.

5. Callers are requested to be ready with a concise summary of their enquiry and the legal question they wish to ask. We will, where possible and appropriate, provide information related to your enquiry based on what you tell us.

6. When callers contact the Helpline they will be put through to our Helpline reception team, who will try to relay the call to an appropriate handler with experience of the subject in question. If, at the time of your call, that person is engaged with another caller or otherwise unavailable, we will try to arrange to call you back when it is convenient to you and when we have had the opportunity to consider your enquiry. We will work with third parties to provide assistance in relation to queries relating to the laws of Scotland or Northern Ireland or where your query relates to a tax law matter and your policy provides a dedicated tax law service. We will obtain consent from you before passing any personal information or information about your query to any other party. The third parties we work with will provide us with information about their contact with you and we will store that information in accordance with paragraph 17.

7. We may ask you for information to help us with your enquiry. You must give us information we ask for as soon as possible and tell us if you think it is not complete or accurate. It is also your responsibility to carry out any action that we suggest you should do. We will not be responsible for anything that happens because you have not done something we suggested you do promptly. In particular, in respect of any request to consider materially changing or attempting to change the particulars of an employee’s contract of employment or dismissing an employee (whether or not by reason of redundancy) and in dealing with any dismissal, we will provide legal guidance and practical advice relevant to the circumstances that the caller has disclosed and if you fail to follow that guidance, your legal expense insurance cover for any subsequent employment tribunal claim, including any cover for a compensation award you are ordered to pay, may be affected.

8. Any information provided through the Helpline is given as a general preliminary guide only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal legal advice given in the context of full information (including documentation) provided by you to us in a properly defined engagement. If you would like formal legal advice, then please let us know (see paragraph 9 below).

9. Where we believe formal legal advice is required, we will tell you. We are able to refer you to one of our legal representatives at Lyons Davidson who will discuss next steps with you, so you can decide if you would like Lyons Davidson to assist you further. You are under no obligation to use Lyons Davidson for further formal legal advice.

10. You should contact the Helpline yourself and not via a third party. Any information given is provided to and for your benefit alone (as a sole trader, partnership or on behalf of a company, limited liability partnership or other legal entity) and not for the benefit of any other business or third parties.

11. Information is given by telephone only and not in writing. Documents (including letters and other written communications) cannot be considered or drafted. We are under no obligation to take any action as a result of your call until Lyons Davidson is formally instructed in writing in accordance with paragraph 9. We may monitor emails in accordance with the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000.

12. We cannot receive or deal with any funds for you or on your behalf until we are formally instructed in accordance with paragraph 9.

13. Unreasonable use of the Helpline is not permitted and may result in the service being withdrawn for particular callers. Telephone calls may be ended by the Helpline if they are considered unreasonable (e.g. if an excessive number of calls or calls of an excessive duration are made).

14. Where we are obliged or constrained by certain professional or regulatory duties or obligations we may not be able to accept or continue to work on your enquiry.

15. We will not reveal confidential information about you or your enquiry to other people unless you agree. We will pass on information regarding your policy number, type of enquiry, the call recording and our records of your call to your insurer or their agents. We may also be required by law to reveal certain information about you (including natural persons directly connected with you, such as directors and employees) to authorities such as the Police or HM Revenue & Customs in relation to matters such as tax, fraud and money laundering. In the unlikely event we may have to share such information with colleagues within Lyons Davidson and third parties, in this respect you agree to waive our duty of confidence to you and the ‘legal professional privilege’ that attaches to your communications with us and in particular to the communications between you and the person in Lyons Davidson handling your enquiry.

16. We shall not be responsible for any losses whatsoever suffered, sustained or incurred by you or any third party by reason of our compliance with obligations imposed on us by 1) the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 and/or 2) the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and/or 3) other legislation relating to or connected with the prevention of crime and/or 4) the instructions of any law enforcement agencies.

17. Data Protection laws impose obligations on us as we may obtain and process personal data relating to natural persons directly connected with you, such as directors and employees. We are required to inform you how we will use your information and the legal grounds for processing. We are also required to inform you when and with whom we will share your personal data and our provisions for data storage and retention. Please refer to our full Privacy Policy.

18. If a person requests in writing access to personal data relating to him or her which is processed by us, we are legally required to grant such a request unless the data is legally privileged. The right of access includes the right to information on the purposes of the processing, the recipients, the source and substance of any disclosed data and the anticipated period of storage. If we are required to provide data in response to a request relating to your enquiry, the work involved will be treated as part of our services to you.

19. Telephone calls made through the Helpline may be recorded for monitoring and training purposes and shall be stored for a limited period of time, which will depend on the nature of the enquiry. Unless you notify us in writing otherwise, you consent to the exclusive electronic storage by us (or by third parties on our behalf) of all such telephone recordings. You may request a copy of the telephone recording.

20. Our total liability in respect of breach of contract or breach of duty or fault or negligence or otherwise arising out of or in connection with any information given to you through the Helpline shall be limited in total to £2 million, which covers claims of any sort whatsoever (including but not limited to interest and costs). This provision shall have no application to any liability for death or personal injury or any other liability for which exclusion or restriction is prohibited by law or to liability as a result of fraud or reckless disregard of professional obligations on our part.

21. Our liability to you shall further be limited to that proportion of the loss or damage (including interest and costs) suffered by you which is ascribed to us by a court of competent jurisdiction allocating proportionate responsibility to Lyons Davidson having regard to the contribution to the loss and damage in question of any other person (‘loss or damage’ having the same meaning as in the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978). This provision shall have no application to any liability for death or personal injury or any other liability for which exclusion or restriction is prohibited by law or to liability as a result of fraud or reckless disregard of professional obligations on our part.

22. We expect that you will receive an efficient and effective service. In the unlikely event of a problem arising or your being dissatisfied with the service provided, we have a comprehensive complaints procedure. If you wish to make a formal complaint you should contact our Complaints Partner, Michael Greybanks at the address below.

23. If any provision of these terms and conditions is found by any court, tribunal or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be wholly or partly illegal, invalid, void, voidable, unenforceable or unreasonable, it shall to the extent of such illegality, invalidity, voidness, voidability, unenforceability or unreasonableness be deemed severable and the remaining provisions of these terms & conditions and the remainder of such provision shall continue in full force and effect.

24. Failure or delay by either party in enforcing or partially enforcing any provision of these terms and conditions shall not be construed as a waiver of any of its rights under these terms and conditions.

25. Any waiver by either party of any breach of or any default under any provision of these terms and conditions by the other shall not be deemed a waiver of any subsequent breach or default and shall in no way affect the other terms of these terms and conditions.

26. These terms and conditions are not intended to and do not confer any rights on any third party under the Contracts (Right of Third Parties) Act 1999.

27. The formation, existence, construction, performance, validity and all aspects of these terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

28. We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time by updating this page and you are advised to check this page regularly, as any updates will be binding upon you. In the event of any conflict between these LD Helpline Terms & Conditions and your policy terms and conditions, the former shall prevail.

LYONS DAVIDSON and LYONS DAVIDSON SOLICITORS are the trading names of LYONS DAVIDSON LIMITED, a company registered in England & Wales number 7592441.

Our registered office is at:
43 Queen Square, Bristol, BS1 4QP

Telephone: 0117 904 6000
Fax: 0117 904 6006
Email: [email protected]
VAT No. 138149461

We are authorised and regulated by The Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 573629. The SRA Code of Conduct and professional rules to which we are required to adhere are available via the SRA website: www.sra.org.uk.

We use the word “partner” to refer to an employee or consultant who is a practising lawyer with equivalent standing.

Copyright © Lyons Davidson Limited 2017. All rights reserved.