Lawyers’ General T&C

Lawyers’ General Terms & Conditions:

It is your sole duty to provide your client and LegaMart with the necessary information. If practised in an area outside of your legal profession, it is viewed as a legal infringement without admission to that jurisdiction's national bar.

You are obliged to immediately alert us of any changes to any bar or court admissions status, maintain good standing with all bar associations and courts, and immediately report any disciplinary action initiated against you or any member of your firm. LegaMart reserves the right to request authorisation from the respective Bar Association and report any violations to  the Bar Association. 

Following the IBA International Code of ethics, a lawyer who undertakes professional work in a jurisdiction where he is not a full member shall adhere to professional ethics standards in the jurisdiction he has been admitted to. 

Availability

We only send clients when it is desired. You must have an updated profile to reflect your status of 'available' or 'unavailable' for new cases and clients. We require you to really be online and available during the time you already have set. To preclude further approaches from clients, we might de-active your account, if we realised you cannot answer clients’ requests or LegaMart follow up emails.

 Conflict Check

Lawyers shall not take a position in which a client's interest conflicts with those of his own, a lawyer in the same firm, another client—unless otherwise permitted by law, applicable rules of professional conduct, or if permitted, by a client's authorisation.

Lawyers shall never represent a conflict of interest in litigation. In non-litigation consultancy services, lawyers can represent a case only after having disclosed all or possible conflicts of interest to the concerned parties. This is also only made possible with the parties' consent under the IBA International Code of Ethics and the International Principles on Conduct for the Legal Profession. 

Notwithstanding such checks and lawyers’ acceptance of cases, circumstances may arise that prevent the lawyers from acting for the client in an existing ongoing or future matter. In these situations, IBA’s principals regulating conflicts of interest apply, and lawyers may terminate the Agreement for other ethical reasons.

 Response Time for Consultation Requests

The turnaround period for accepting and declining service requests would be determined by LegaMart client support team and is  up to 48 hours, depending on the service and urgency of the matter.

 Your Rate and Flat Fees (or other alternative fee structures)

 On LegaMart's network, you are required to present LegaMart with your contractual terms and payment structure. To maintain the competitive system of LegaMart, you cannot increase the fee you have tendered unless there is a piece of transparent false information from the client's side that will affect the work. Your rate (standard hourly rate offered through the platform) and all flat fees or alternative fee structures must reflect no less than a 25% discount off your regular 'rack rate' at all times. A rack rate is a rate that is offered to new clients without applied discounts. LegaMart charges a Service Charge from the client's payment. You cannot negotiate on an initial cost less than the LegaMart Service Charge (mainly 18.5% depending on the service package).

 Accepting Client Cases

After initial communication with a client and a probably a 10-30 minute free consultation through LegaMart's platform, we ask that you either: a) accept the project through the site and allocate an appropriate fee b) inform us if there is a need for additional client information; or c) decline the case and indicate your justification. The time-frame requirements outlined in "Consultation Requests" also apply above. Upon a consultation acceptance, a binding legal agreement is concluded, obliging the lawyer to provide the client's requested services.

 Client Response Requests

 The most common complaint that clients have about their lawyers is their lack of communication. We are proud to have built a network of lawyers that consider client responsiveness as a high priority. We ask all our lawyers to respond to client requests, in various means, at the earliest possible convenience.  

 Inquiries from us

 Any inquiry from us concerning the items listed above must be provided with a response within the next 48 hours.

Referring a Client Back to the Network

 In case of any conflict or issue during an initial consultation with an applicant, you must refer the applicant back onto the LegaMart network for an appropriate alternative to be matched.

 Profile

 You are solely responsible for any misstatement and misrepresentation published on your profile, including but not limited to the timeliness and accuracy of the information. We recommend a regular profile update for clients to have the benefit of acquiring a more accurate grasp of you and your practice.

 Work on Cases

The principle of lawyers' responsibilities under the IBA principles on legal profession conduct states  that you honour any undertaking given in the course of your practice promptly and until the duty is performed, released, or excused. 

Lawyer-Client Privilege and Privacy

all communications occurring through our website are covered by LegaMart’s privacy policy following the UK's Data Protection Act  2018 (DPA 2018) and any subsequent applicable regulation.Being DPA-compliant, it is the duty of the Legal Service Provider to be updated with any new segments to this regulation. LegaMart tries its best to provide the latest news in regards to such policies.

 Confidentiality

Our lawyers shall preserve the client-lawyer privilege relationship requirements including confidentiality of any acquired information from a client or while rendering legal assistance, particularly during representation or defence . A lawyer must consciously and individually determine which client needs to be preserved as a secret.

Any disclosure obligations which may be imposed on our lawyers by law such as the money laundering legislation or applicable rules of professional conduct; Regulatory requirements such as audit provisions under the Lawyers Accounts Rules in the individual lawyer’s jurisdiction; Quality audits undertaken by independent inspectors; Documents and information relevant to any claim or potential claim being supplied to our lawyers’ professional indemnity insurers in the event of them having to inform their insurers of any notifiable circumstances under the terms of their policy; and.

LegaMart lawyers shall at all times maintain and offer confidentiality protection in regards to the affairs of current or former clients unless otherwise allowed or required by law and/or applicable rules of professional conduct. 

The obligation of client-lawyer confidentiality shall be applied to other lawyers and employees who work in the same law office. Moreover, in common with many law firms, our Legal Service Providers are entitled to engage other companies or people to provide certain support functions and to provide secretarial, paralegal, administrative services on clients’ cases when necessary. Our lawyers may also refer Clients’ files to counsel, an expert or a cost draftsman for specialist advice. Our lawyers will always seek a confidentiality agreement with these outsourced providers. If the client does not want their file to be outsourced, they should mention it to the lawyer as soon as possible.

LegaMart’s  lawyers undertake to comply with all applicable data protection laws, including the UK's Data Protection  Act 2018 regarding personal data retrieval.

Ownership of any and each activity of Lawyers in the platform, including answering the community public posts, are the property of LegaMart. However Lawyers can delete their accounts, they cannot delete their activities and any information generated during the period they were a memeber of the platform including their perosnal data. LegaMart will store all activities in their database for training and improving purposes.

 Notification of Policy Change

 We will notify you promptly of any policy changes. Your continued participation in LegaMart's network will be deemed acceptable for such changes.]