Terms of Business

1. Status and Regulation

Human Law is the trading name of Justin Patten, an independent sole practitioner solicitor authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA Number: 657838). These terms apply to all out-of-court dispute diagnostics, procedural milestone services, and advisory dispute resolution services delivered by Human Law.

2. Scope of Service & Practice Boundaries

Human Law provides solicitor-led advice, formal pre-action correspondence, negotiation and expressly agreed Probate Registry procedures for stalled probate administrations. Each engagement defines the particular work, its limits and its completion point. Our practice boundaries are:

• Agreed Probate Registry Work: Your engagement identifies the particular procedure and whether preparation, issue, filing, service, routine follow-up and attendance are included. None of these activities is included merely because document preparation or advice has been agreed.
• Wider Litigation and Service: Beyond expressly agreed Probate Registry work, we do not conduct court claims, act on the court record, accept formal service on your behalf or provide trial representation. If wider proceedings are needed, we can agree a defined stage to organise the relevant documents, chronology and preliminary analysis for handover to an appropriate litigation solicitor. That solicitor's appointment and fees are agreed separately.
• No Routine Probate Administration or Conveyancing: We do not undertake uncontested probate grant applications, ongoing asset collection, estate distribution accounting, or property conveyancing. Our service addresses discrete contentious bottlenecks and returns the matter to you or your transactional probate solicitors.
• No Detailed Forensic Accounting: We do not perform line-by-line historic bank tracing, forensic book reconciliations, or detailed fraud investigations.

3. Fees, Milestones & Payment Terms

We work on a staged, fixed-fee basis. The applicable fixed fee, scope, assumptions, exclusions, and completion point are confirmed in the engagement documentation for each instruction. Published indicative prices may be viewed on our Pricing page. Where the engagement documentation conflicts with general website information, the engagement documentation prevails.

The following core principles govern our fee architecture across all instructions:

• Staged Authorisation: Work is divided into distinct procedural stages. You instruct and fund one defined stage at a time. No subsequent milestone is undertaken without your prior written approval.
• Standalone Review Fees: The direct-client review costs £480 including VAT (£400 + VAT); the Professional File Review costs £1,020 including VAT (£850 + VAT). Both are standalone services without an obligation to continue. Their fees are additional to, and not deducted from, later authorised stages. Applicable cancellation rights are preserved.
• Direct Instructions for a Defined Stage: Where expressly offered and accepted after suitability and conflict checks, you may instruct a defined stage without a separate review. The stage fee includes only the assessment, documents and communications specified in its written scope; no review fee is automatically added. If preliminary advice is needed, we explain the proposed review and obtain your agreement before paid work begins. Service-specific prices, inclusions and exclusions appear on the relevant service page and are confirmed in your engagement. For beneficiary accounts requests, see the service fees and scope. Each later stage needs separate written approval.
• Clarification and Further Work: Reviews include reasonable, brief clarification of advice already given. New material, subsequent replies, further advice, separate issues, correspondence or negotiation require an agreed scope and fee. Quotations take account of assessment already completed and identify included communications and completion points.
• Payment in Advance: Fixed fees are invoiced and payable in full prior to work commencing on the relevant milestone. VAT is charged at the prevailing UK statutory rate. Human Law does not hold client money or maintain a client account.
• Disbursements and Third-Party Costs: Fixed fees cover Human Law’s professional charges for the agreed scope only. Registry fees, court fees, process server charges, independent counsel, mediators, expert valuations, and other third-party costs are excluded unless expressly stated in the written scope. We explain anticipated third-party costs and obtain your approval before incurring them.
• Fixed-Fee Protection: If delivering the agreed work takes longer than expected, your fee stays fixed. Additional time spent within the agreed scope does not, by itself, justify an increased fee. Updates and correspondence included in that scope do not attract additional hourly charges.
• Overall Budget: After the assessment in your entry stage, we provide an indicative overall budget, its assumptions and any work not yet reliably estimable. We update this as circumstances develop. It is not a guaranteed dispute-wide cap; authorised stage fees are cumulative.
• Stage Completion: We explain what has been achieved, outstanding steps, identified deadlines and any recommended further work and fee. Silence, refusal or delay by another party does not authorise a further stage. Fixed fees do not guarantee cooperation, settlement or a decision.
• Additional Scope Modules: Document and correspondence allowances are specified for each stage. Additional issues, material or work beyond those allowances require prior written approval of a new scope and fee. An agreed Document Expansion Module costs £360 including VAT (£300 + VAT) per additional 30 pages. Larger or complex files may need a bespoke fee. Work, complexity and responsibility inform the quotation; estate value alone does not increase it.

4. Document Review Parameters

Stage 01 covers up to 40 selected core pages on one principal issue, a 30-minute consultation with Justin and a two-page Action Plan, normally delivered within three working days after consultation and receipt of all required documents, whichever is later. The Professional File Review covers up to 60 selected core pages, any concise chronology, a 30-minute fee-earner consultation and concise written recommendations. A page is one side of A4. Exclude duplicates, blank pages and unfiltered archives; additional review requires an agreed scope and fee.

For a directly instructed stage, the engagement specifies its document allowance, included assessment and deliverables. The Stage 01 consultation and Action Plan are included only where that review is separately instructed.

A primary document is an operative legal or factual record relevant to the agreed issue:

5. Consumer Cancellation Rights (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013)

If you are an individual acting wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession and enter into a distance contract with us, you normally have a right to cancel within 14 calendar days after the day the contract is entered into, without giving a reason. Applicable off-premises cancellation rights are also preserved.

To cancel, inform Human Law of your decision by a clear statement before the cancellation period expires. You can email advice@human-law.co.uk. You may use the optional wording below, but you do not have to use a particular form.

Starting work during the cancellation period: If you want us to start before the 14-day period ends, we obtain your express request. We also obtain your acknowledgement that you will lose the cancellation right once the agreed service is fully performed. Accepting these general terms alone is not treated as that request or acknowledgement.

If you cancel after expressly requesting an early start but before full performance, a proportionate charge may be payable for services supplied up to cancellation, subject to the Regulations and the required information having been provided. Your cancellation right is lost on full performance only where the required express request and acknowledgement were obtained before work began. Any refund due is dealt with in accordance with the Regulations. Nothing in these terms limits your statutory rights.

6. Termination of Engagement

You may end our instruction by written notice, without prejudice to your statutory cancellation rights. Human Law may cease acting only where lawfully entitled to do so, for good reason and on reasonable notice as required by the circumstances. We confirm completion or termination in writing, explain relevant outstanding steps and deadlines identified during our work, and clarify responsibility for future action. Where a handover is needed, we consider the time and information required for you to obtain alternative representation. You remain responsible for authorised work performed and properly incurred third-party costs, subject to applicable cancellation rights. Any advance payment relating to work not performed is dealt with under the engagement terms and applicable law and professional standards.

7. Client Responsibilities

We advise the identified client, who may be a personal representative, beneficiary or professional adviser; we do not act for opposing parties in the same dispute. Personal representatives retain responsibility for administering the estate. You are responsible for ensuring that all factual disclosures and documents provided to Human Law are accurate and complete. Following procedural unblocking or the completion of our agreed milestone, clients or their ongoing transactional solicitors remain responsible for general estate asset collection, final estate accounting, tax submissions, and distribution.

8. Complaints, Data Protection & Regulatory Compliance

Human Law is committed to delivering high professional standards. If you are dissatisfied with our service or charges, please raise your concerns under our internal complaints procedure. If a complaint remains unresolved after eight weeks, you may have the right to refer the matter to the independent Legal Ombudsman.

Full disclosures regarding data protection compliance under UK GDPR and professional indemnity insurance (PII) coverage are detailed on our Regulatory Notice Page.

9. Governing Law

These terms and all engagements with Human Law are governed exclusively by the laws of England and Wales, subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.