1. Places and hours of business

Our Singapore office is at 6 Shenton Way #17-11 OUE Downtown 2 Singapore 068809. Tel: +65 6339 4040 / Fax: 6337 3405. Our normal business hours are between 9.00a.m. and 6.00p.m. Monday – Friday.

2. Responsibility for work

We aim to offer you a friendly and efficient service. We will exercise reasonable skill, care and diligence in carrying out your instructions.

3. Fees and Expenses

Our fees are primarily calculated on the basis of hourly fee rates which vary according to the seniority and experience of the lawyers concerned. Our fees currently range from S$350 to S$950 per hour. Our hourly rates will normally be reviewed annually and we reserve the right to revise our hourly rates without further notice to you. If you would like confirmation of the fees applicable to your matter, please do not hesitate to contact us. We reserve the right to charge you with any losses incurred on foreign currency disbursements as a result of changes in the exchange rates between the date of our rendering our invoices and the date of payment. In the case of overseas clients, where our fees are paid subject to any deduction or withholding tax in another jurisdiction, we reserve the right to charge you an additional amount which will, after deduction or withholding has been made, leave us with the same amount as we would have received in the absence of any such deduction or withholding.

Our fees are exclusive of disbursements and or expenses which are therefore also charged in addition. Disbursements and or expenses include payments made or incurred by us on your behalf such as expert fees, foreign, and local lawyer’s fees and the like; they also include other costs such as filing fees, photocopying, fax, telephone, travelling and courier and other out of pocket expenses.

4. Payments on Account

We may ask you for payment on account of fees and/or expenses in both contentious and non-contentious matters from time to time which should not be taken as an overall fixed fee or estimate agreed in advance. Any monies on account will be held in Joseph Lopez LLP’s Client Account until used for expenses or until delivery to you of a bill. If at any time you would like confirmation of the monies remaining on account please let us know. If you do not pay any requests for money on account, we reserve the right to decline to act further.

5. Limit on Fees and Expenses/Billing Intervals

If you wish to set a limit on fees and expenses to be incurred or on the length of time which may elapse before we render a bill to you, please write to us telling us your wishes. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we have the right to render interim bills at monthly intervals or other periodic intervals which we regard as appropriate in the circumstances of any particular case. Such bills are final accounts for the periods covered by them unless otherwise stated.

All bills must be paid within FOURTEEN (14) DAYS of receipt. Thereafter we are entitled to charge interest at a rate equivalent to that payable on Judgment debts.

We reserve the right to deduct from any monies held by us on account or otherwise on your behalf sums up to the amount of any unpaid fees and expenses in the case concerned or in any other matter in which we are instructed by you or on your behalf.

6. Costs and Opposing Parties

In contentious matters, you should be aware that:-

          1) If you succeed in the litigation you may obtain an order that opponents pay your costs. We shall do everything possible to maximise the recovery of your fees and expenses under any such orders, but you should be aware that an order will generally only cover a proportion of the fees and expenses actually incurred by you. There is also always the possibility that you may be unable to enforce a costs order against your opponents.

          2) You remain responsible for payment of our fees and expenses whether or not you have any costs orders against your opponents.

          3) If you lose the litigation, you are at risk of having to pay fees and expenses to your opponents which may be substantial.

7. Your Rights

If at any time you have any queries on any aspect of the case then please do not hesitate to contact the Partner in charge. In the event of any dissatisfaction which you may have with our service, please also contact the Partner in charge. If the problem remains unresolved, please refer the matter to our Managing Partner.

8. Estimates of Fees and Expenses

We are always happy to provide estimates of fees and expenses upon request insofar as possible. However, it is important to remember that it may not be possible to predict the exact amount of work which will be required and that the stance adopted by opponents, or other parties to a transaction, can significantly affect matters. This is particularly true in litigation. We do not give oral estimates and any estimate given must be in writing and signed by a Partner and will not be regarded as binding.

9. Money Laundering

We are legally obliged to report to the Authorities any suspicion that we may have that any funds with which we are concerned may derive from the profits of crime. It is an offence for us to prejudice any investigation by the Authorities by “tipping-off” any party who may be the subject of suspicion or any other third party that is suspected of money laundering. We are required by law to verify your identity and we can accept new instructions only on the basis that you can properly identify yourself to us. If we do not receive sufficient evidence of identity, we will not be able to act.

10. Ceasing to act

We reserve the right for good reason, including failure to give us instructions within a reasonable period of our asking for them or failure to pay a bill within the due period or promptly pay any request for money on account, to decline to act further and to terminate our retainer. The full amount of fees and disbursements for work up to the date of termination of our retainer will be payable by you. For contentious matters, if we are on the record in arbitration proceedings as acting for you in any proceedings, consent of the Tribunal may be required before we can be removed from the record and, to that extent, your right to terminate our retainer may be restricted. We reserve the right to exercise a lien over all papers held by us and/or our correspondents pending settlement of all outstanding fees and disbursements.

11. Files and Documents

We will retain documents in storage on your behalf for a reasonable period, generally seven years from the end of the instructions on the case concerned after which time they will be destroyed. If you wish papers to be retained for a longer period then please contact us to make specific arrangements. Where you request papers to be sent to you or another person we are entitled to make a reasonable charge for handling costs and delivery.

12. Confidentiality and Practice Development

We will treat as confidential any confidential information given to us in accordance with our duties so to do. Details of the individual and organisation to whom these Terms of Business are sent and other individuals supplied to us from time to time will be entered in our database and used primarily to provide you with legal services and may be used to contact you from marketing purposes by us at Joseph Lopez LLP. Unless you instruct us not to do so in respect of any particular matter, you agree that we may publish to third parties for the purposes of promotion of our practice internally and externally the fact that we have acted for you together with a general description of the matter(s) on which we have acted.

13. Electronic Communications

During the course of this matter, we may wish to communicate electronically with one another. The electronic transmission of information cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free, as it will be transmitted over a public network, and such information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late, arrive incomplete, or otherwise be adversely affected or unsafe to use.

We each agree to use reasonable procedures to check for the most recently known viruses before sending information electronically, but we each recognise that such procedures cannot be a guarantee that transmissions will be virus-free.

14. Responsibility

 We shall each be responsible for protecting our own interests in relation to electronic communications. Neither of us (nor any Joseph Lopez LLP Partner, Associate or employee) shall be liable to the other on any basis, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, in respect of any damage or loss arising from or in connection with the electronic communication of information between us.

15. Liability

We take out the compulsory level of professional indemnity cover required by the Professional Rules to which we are subject. If you would like further details please contact us.

16. Future Instructions

Unless we both agree otherwise and subject to our then current hourly rates, these Terms of Business will apply to any future instructions that you or in the case of a company, any associated or affiliated company, are kind enough to give us.

17. Right and Remedies

The rights and remedies available to us by virtue of these Terms of Business are without prejudice to any other rights and remedies available to us. Any failure by us to exercise or delay by us in exercising a right or remedy provided by these Terms of Business or by law does not constitute a waiver of the right or remedy, or a waiver of other rights or remedies.

18. Law and Jurisdiction

The contract between us is on the basis of these Terms of Business and is subject to Singapore Law. Any proceedings you commence are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Singapore Courts. Any proceedings we commence for the recovery of unpaid fees or otherwise will, at our discretion, be subject to the jurisdiction of the Singapore courts and/or the courts of any other jurisdiction.

19. Governing Language

These Terms of Business have English as their governing language.

                                                                                                                       1 January 2023