All your Legal Requirements for One Annual Retainer

When motor dealers become MILS clients, they pay an annual retainer fee per operating site or business. This fee is the same as the amount they might normally expect to pay comparable lawyers for around six hours work, and is the only cost they will bear for the next twelve months.

In return they are appointed a team of lawyers which includes highly experienced employment and commercial solicitors and barristers, all of whom act only for clients who do precisely the same. Run car dealerships. The team is supported by dedicated legal secretaries and a state of the art IT platform and legal library, from which the client is able to access and download up to the moment legal advice notes, templates and letters.

Their barristers and solicitors are then available at any time from 9.00am to 5.30pm every working day of the year and effectively act as an in-house legal department, working on all day to day matters; advising by telephone, fax and email, writing letters, reviewing contracts, checking compliance etc. and, above all, keeping the client out of trouble.

The arrangement is therefore designed to cover all the dealer’s legal requirements for one affordable, annual fee.

Litigation in Employment Tribunals Without the Fear of Additional Legal Fees

Importantly, if a matter subsequently becomes litigious, our lawyers will conduct the case from beginning to end, again all within the retainer fee.  This will include the battle of letters between solicitors, preparation of the case for trial and representation at the trial itself by barristers.

A MILS client is therefore able to litigate in Employment Tribunals, Magistrates Courts and County Courts without the concern of legal fees.

Additional Benefits

We also provide a full seminar programme covering developments and procedure in specific areas of law, whereby a lawyer will conduct a half or full day meeting, either at clients’ offices or at MILS head office in Devon, where we have extensive conference facilities.

Regarding employment matters, the clients’ team will review and draft all employment contracts, handbooks and other relevant documents on a regular basis, and at any time clients are able to have a personal conference with their team in order to discuss any ongoing matters. This equally applies to all other company documentation such as sale of goods documents etc.

Transparency rules

Please note we comply with the Bar Standards Board transparency rules which are designed to improve the information available to consumers before they engage our services.  The below information will enable you to make your decision as to whether to engage us:-

1. You may contact us to obtain a quote for our legal services.  This quote will depend on the legal services required and the number of retail sites that are in operation.  You should contact, in the first instance, Mr Adam Cox on 0207 244 6790 to obtain a quote and/or to discuss our services.
   
   
2. As a guideline the minimum fixed fee that we quote is £2,600 plus VAT per operating site.  This is an annual fee which would cover both our employment and commercial packages details of which are found on our website under “Legal Package”.
   
   
3. As you will be aware, we are a very specialised law firm and only provide legal services to motor retailers.  The details of our legal services provision are found on our website under the heading “Legal Package” and “Areas of Law”.
   
   
4. Our fixed fee service is an annual retainer and therefore we act as effectively your inhouse lawyers providing advice between the hours of 9-5.30 Monday to Friday.  We will always aim to respond to any legal query on the same day.  If this is not possible, we will inform you and provide you with a timescale for our response.  A same day response may not be possible if the query is complicated and requires further information before providing the legal advice.
   
   
5. If you contact us by telephone and/or email, we will aim to revert back to you on the same day.
   In relation to conducting litigation, we will inform you of the time scales in force at any material time. These timescales are dictated/influenced by the Court schedule as well as any applications made by the other side.
   If there is a specific opinion that is required on a particular area of law, we will inform you of the timescale to receive the opinion.
   
   
6. You can also access the Legal Ombudsman's Decision Data page where you can find data on decisions made by the Legal Ombudsman regarding law firms.