Legal Notices - Optima Legal

Legal Notices & Information

About Us

1. Optima Legal Services Ltd is a private limited company registered in England and Wales (registered no. 05781608, VAT no. 433794278) with its registered office at Hepworth House, Claypit Lane, Leeds LS2 8AE. A list of shareholders and directors is available for inspection at its registered office. Optima Legal is a trading name of Optima Legal Services Limited.

2. Optima Legal is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) (SRA ID 441547). For details of the SRA's Standards and Regulations see here.

3. Throughout these legal notices all references to "we", "us" and "our" are references to Optima Legal Services Ltd.

WARNING – Scam Communications

4. We are aware that a company identifying itself as ‘Optima Legal Solutions’ has been calling members of the public regarding personal injury claims. Optima Legal Services Limited has no connection with this company nor these calls.

If you are uncertain about whether any communication from Optima Legal is genuine, do not reply to it. Please forward the communication to info@optimalegal.co.uk and we will confirm if it is a genuine message from us.

5. We are aware that the Optima Legal name has been used in a fraudulent email scam involving a purported lottery prize fund. Please note that Optima Legal Services Limited has no involvement with these emails and any other scams. These scams aim to obtain money or your information for illegal purposes. If you are uncertain about any communication purporting to be from Optima Legal, Optima Legal Services Limited or any of its partners or employees, and wish to check it if is genuine, do not reply to it. Please forward the communication to info@optimalegal.co.uk and we will advise.

More information on potentially dishonest or fraudulent activity is available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority website.

Insurance

6. We maintain compulsory professional indemnity insurance, details of which are available for inspection at our registered offices.

Quality of service

7. We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to our clients and customers. As an overriding principle we believe in "Treating Customers Fairly". We monitor client and customer satisfaction in various ways and use feedback to review our processes and improve our service. We operate a quality management system which is maintained by our internal Quality Assurance Department. We may record telephone calls for training and quality purposes.

8. 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 then you should inform us immediately, so that we can do our best to resolve the problem.

9. In the first instance it may be helpful to contact the person who is working on your case to discuss your concerns and we will do our best to resolve any issues. If you would like to make a formal complaint, then you can read our full complaints procedure. Making a complaint will not affect how we handle your case.

10. 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 1 year of the date of the act or omission; or
1 year from when the complainant should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; and
Within 6 months of the date of our final response.

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

Contact details
Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

We are also obliged to inform you in accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes Regulations 2015 that alternative complaints bodies exist (such as Small Claims Mediation Limited at www.small-claims-mediation.co.uk) who are authorised to deal with complaints about legal services, however it is Optima’s policy not to deal with complaints through these mediation service providers.

11. What to do if you are unhappy with our behaviour

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help 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. Visit their website to see how you can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Transparency Rules

12. Our clients are predominantly financial services businesses. We are not a B2C law firm and do not accept instructions directly from consumers.

Regulatory Protections

13. Optima Legal Services Limited ("Optima Legal") is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK to conduct regulated activities under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. However, Optima Legal are included on the register of Exempt Professional Firms maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority so that we can carry out insurance distribution activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts as an ancillary insurance intermediary. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in England and Wales. The register of Exempt Professional Firms can be accessed via the Financial Conduct Authority website at www.fca.org.uk/financial-services-register

Terms & Conditions for Use of our Website

14. This notice sets out the legally binding terms and conditions upon which our website is provided and made available to you to use. Please read it carefully. By accessing and using our website you are agreeing to abide by these terms and conditions. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, do not use our website. The provision of access to our website, and the provision of content and services on and in connection with the website, is at our entire discretion, and we may, in our entire discretion, at any time, and for any or no reason, terminate, discontinue, modify, replace or add to the website or any part or parts of it, including any of its contents or services, without any prior notice whatsoever. From time to time we may modify or update these terms and conditions, and such modification shall be effective upon our posting the new version on our website. We will provide a clear link within the website to the then current terms and conditions. You agree to be bound by any changes to these terms and conditions when you access or use the website or any of our services after any such modification or update is posted. If you do not agree to be bound by them, you should not use the website or our services.

15. You agree that we may collect and use information relating to you in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy.

16. Any breach by you of any of the these terms or of any of the provisions of these terms or conditions, or of our Privacy Policy, shall entitle us to block your IP address and to prevent you from accessing our website or services in the future (without prejudice to or limitation or restriction upon any other rights or remedies that we may have against you).

17. No use of this website is permitted other than by way of ordinary internet browsing. In particular, the following activities are expressly prohibited: (i) using any automated software or processes to scan our website; (ii) collecting screen names and/or email addresses of any other users of our website or services by automated electronic, manual, or any other means (including by use of automated software, web crawlers and spiders), and (iii) unauthorised framing of or linking to our website.

18. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of our website or services. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, and you accept our right, to monitor, through the website, any disputes or other interactions that take place between you and any other users of our website.

Copyright

20. You are permitted to view this website and its contents on the internet from your own personal or work computer, but no other use or reproduction of this website or of its contents is permitted whatsoever (whether of our own material or of any other material made available on our website) without our consent. If you wish to use or reproduce any part of this website or its contents you should obtain our consent before doing so. You may not republish, retransmit, redistribute or otherwise make available to any other party (whether in hard copy or other media, or on any website, on-line service or bulletin board of your own or of any other party) our website or any part of it, or any material made available on it, without our consent.

21. Some of the material on the website is posted on the website by third parties, including third party advertisers, other users, and certain other third party authors and publishers. If you post any material on our website then unless we agree in writing to the contrary, you agree that in doing so you thereby (i) grant to us an irrevocable, perpetual, world-wide, royalty-free license to copy, reproduce, modify, adapt and/or use that material in any way that we may from time to time see fit, (ii) to the fullest extent permissible under law waive your moral rights and any similar rights that you have or may have in relation to that material whether under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as from time to time amended or re-enacted) or any other similar law or laws, or otherwise, anywhere in the world, (iii) without prejudice to the generality of any of the foregoing provisions irrevocably permit us to edit, redact, modify, block, delete, remove or anonymise any such material at any time.

Consents & Authorisations

22. Any and all references in these terms to our "consent" or "authorisation" are in each case references to our "prior express written consent/authorisation" only.

Links on our Website

23. Any links on our website to any other websites are provided for convenience only, and we assume no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any contents or information provided on any of those other websites linked to, or for any products or services advertised, sold or provided on any of those websites. The mere fact that a link appears on our website does not indicate that we are associated or connected in any way whatsoever with, or that we endorse or approve of, any of those other websites or any of their operators, or that we endorse or approve of or have any association or connection whatsoever with any of the contents, information, products or services advertised, sold or provided on any of those websites. We are not responsible for any transmission that you may receive from any linked site.

Disclaimers

24. By using this website, you expressly agree that you are doing so at your own risk. Whilst we endeavour to provide a service that is of the highest quality, we cannot guarantee that our service will always meet the standards that we aspire towards, and we cannot guarantee that the website, its contents or service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may suspend access to this website or to any part of it at any time without giving any prior notice whatsoever. This website is provided by us on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of this website or as to the information, content, materials, products or services available on this website. You expressly agree that your use of this website is at your own risk.

25. NO INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBSITE CONSTITUTES ADVICE. BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISIONS OR TAKING ANY ACTION IN RELIANCE UPON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBSITE YOU SHOULD SEEK SEPARATE SPECIFIC PROFESSIONAL LEGAL AND/OR FINANCIAL ADVICE AS APPROPRIATE, TAILORED TO YOUR OWN PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES.

General

26. Any failure by us to exercise or to enforce any right or provision of these terms and conditions shall not operate as a waiver of that or any other such right or provision or of any other right or provision.

27. Nothing in these terms is intended to nor shall it operate or be construed so as to limit or exclude any liability on our part for death or personal injury caused by negligence or fraud.

28. If any provision (including any part of any provision) of these terms and conditions is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision shall (to the minimum extent necessary to preserve the validity and enforceability of these terms and conditions) be deemed to be severed from these terms and conditions, without affecting the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions, and those remaining terms and conditions shall continue in full force and effect.

29. No third party is intended to be given any benefit under or by reason of, and shall not be entitled to enforce, the whole or any part of these terms and conditions, whether under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.

Jurisdiction

30. These terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with English law and you irrevocably agree that the courts of England shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute which may arise out of, under, or in connection with our website, any of these terms and conditions, and/or any aspect of our Privacy Policy and/or Cookies Policy. Nothing in this clause shall be interpreted so as to prevent either you or us from bringing proceedings in any jurisdiction to enforce any order made by the English courts.

Version : 5
Last updated: December 2020