The Business Services Team at Tinsdills is offering flexible retention schemes, which we will tailor to suit your employment and business needs.

We will discuss with you the level of support you need and the areas where you are likely to require legal advice. We will then work with you to establish how much or little time you may need over a period of time.

We will monitor your usage on a month by month basis to ensure that you are not paying too much per month or, if your needs are greater than first envisaged, we will agree with you an adjustment to the payment amount to fit your requirements.

The retainers are restricted to only employment and non-contentious business matters.

If you sign up to our retainer, you will pay us a monthly fixed fee amount (plus VAT) which will enable you to contact us, by phone or email, on any ad hoc legal query. For example, regarding an employee; for advice on a contract you are considering entering; or if you feel your terms and conditions are in need of review. There are many matters for which you may require only 5 or 10 minutes of our time to put your mind at rest. However, you may need a bit more advice or you may need a document analysed or tweaked and this will usually be included in the monthly fee.

The retainer covers most queries you may have regarding your workforce, including grievances and disciplinaries, but it does not include tribunal work. You may require an overview of your employment contracts and handbook or simply a quick query on an issue which has arisen; this is included in the retainer.

The retainer also covers advice on such things as a report on the risk areas of contracts, a review of your terms and conditions, a check on your shareholder agreement or partnership agreement to make sure they are current, amongst other things. We will even send out legal debt recover letters if you are struggling with payments of your invoices.

Excluded is any substantial drafting, drafting of new documents, negotiating agreements or purely contentious matters.

The retainer can last for however long you need the help. We do not ask for a notice period to be given to cancel your retainer, so if you feel you no longer require our advice you can simply tell us not to send the next monthly invoice.

Our current retainers have all been in place for over 18 months. Payments are made in advance and are not refundable part way through the month in which you give notice.

The cost of the retainer varies from client to client and will depend on a number of factors (including, the number of staff, and type of business). We will discuss with you your likely usage and calculate a monthly spend based on what you and we think you will require.

If you do not use the team in any given month, the time will roll over into the next months, so that your spend is averaged out over a period of time. We will keep an eye on your usage and report back to you if we think you are not utilising the retainer or if we think you need more time than we have allocated.

We will send you a monthly or quarterly report (depending on the level of advice being given) showing how much time you have used and on what matters/queries.

We will work with you to make sure you are not over-paying and you receive value for your money.

Not included are any matters that require court or tribunal action, drafting of new agreements or substantial amendments to your existing agreements.

Also not included are matters such as a sale or purchase of business or assets or restructuring your current business model.

If you have an existing matter with us, we will review the circumstances and, depending on what is involved, we may move your matter to the retainer. However, if the matter is nearing its end it is unlikely that we will be able to effect a transfer.