Solicitors' Terms of Business
A free, editable Word terms of business for solicitors in England & Wales, the standing terms that sit behind every client care letter: charges and interest, client money, the 14-day consumer cancellation right and what happens if you forget to give it, a liability cap drafted to survive, the bank-details fraud warning, file retention and complaints.
What's inside
A complete, UK-drafted solicitors' terms of business
- Your regulated status, how instructions are taken, and joint clients being jointly and severally liable
- Charges, VAT, disbursements and their VAT treatment, interim bills, payment terms and interest
- The consumer cancellation right: 14 days, when it starts, and the twelve-month extension if the notice is not given
- Identity checks, source of funds, and the reporting duties you may not be able to tell a client about
- Confidentiality and its limits, conflicts of interest, and data protection including AI-assisted work
- A liability cap written around what cannot lawfully be excluded, plus professional indemnity insurance
- A bank-details fraud clause telling clients to telephone and verify before sending money
- File retention and destruction, ending the retainer, complaints and the Legal Ombudsman time limits
How it works
- 1
Tell us where to send it
Enter your name, work email and organisation. We email you an editable Microsoft Word (.docx) file, personalised with your name.
- 2
Fill in the bracketed fields
Open it in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and complete every [bracketed] field with your details and commercial terms.
- 3
Review and adapt before use
Adapt the clauses to your circumstances and have it reviewed by a qualified solicitor before you sign or publish it.
This template is not legal advice. Writford is a software company, not a law firm, and is not regulated by the SRA. This document is a starting point that must be reviewed, adapted and approved by a qualified solicitor before use. It was last reviewed on 4 September 2026.
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What is the difference between a client care letter and terms of business?
The client care letter is about one matter: what you are doing, who is doing it, and what it will cost. The terms of business are your standing terms and do not change between matters: charges and interest, liability, confidentiality, file retention and complaints. Firms send both, together.
- Do clients have a right to cancel?
- A consumer client does, where the retainer was agreed away from your office or entirely at a distance, such as by telephone or email. The period is 14 days from the day the contract is entered into, and they can cancel without giving a reason.
- What happens if we forget to give the cancellation notice?
- The right is extended, by up to twelve months. If you give the information late but within that year, the client then has 14 days from receiving it. Omitting the notice is what turns a fortnight into a year, which is why the clause is worth getting right.
- Can we cap our liability?
- Yes, at a figure your firm chooses, sitting above your compulsory insurance. What you cannot do is exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, and a term used with a consumer must be fair and in plain language. A clause that tries to exclude everything is usually worth less than a narrower one that survives.
- Can we charge interest on unpaid bills?
- You can if your terms say so. State the rate and the date from which it runs, as this template does, rather than relying on a statutory provision. Some of the provisions commonly quoted for this have been repealed.
- Should the bank-details fraud warning really be in the terms?
- It is one of the most useful clauses on the page. The common fraud is an email that appears to come from you telling the client your account has changed. Saying plainly that your details will never change, and that they should telephone a known number to verify, is what gives the client something to check against.
- How long should we keep a file?
- That is your firm's decision and it varies by work type, so the template leaves it as a field rather than inventing a number. Set it deliberately, tell clients what it is, and say that you may destroy the file afterwards without asking again.