Terms written to be read, not buried.

These are the terms on which Signum takes on your matter. The most important ones — price, deposit, refund rights, and what happens if you go quiet — are stated up front, in plain language, as the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires.

Last updated: 2 July 2026

This is the version worth reading first. Everything below it is the formal expression of these five promises — nothing in the formal clauses cuts against them.

The initial scoping of your matter is provided at no charge and creates no obligation to proceed. That covers the scoping conversation, the capture of your circumstances, our internal triage to work out what your matter needs, and the issue of an indicative band quote. No payment is requested, authorised, or taken during intake, and we do not store or pre-authorise card details at this stage.

Triage is performed at Signum's own cost. If you decline the quote, that cost is ours, not yours. We will not invoice you for triage, scoping, or any preparatory step taken before you approve a quote and pay a deposit. You may stop at any point during intake without cost, reason, or consequence.

Free intake is not advice you can act on. Intake tells us — and you — what your matter needs and roughly what it costs. It is not the regulated advice or the drafted instruments themselves. Those are delivered only after a quote is approved and the matter proceeds, by the authorised lane responsible for that work.

Because the true scope of a matter is not known until triage is complete, we quote in two stages. A band quote is an indicative price range given at or shortly after intake — it is not a fixed price and not a binding offer. A firm quote is a single, all-in total issued after triage is complete — that is the price you approve and pay against. We will not present a fixed figure at intake; anyone quoting you a single fixed number before triage is complete is quoting outside these terms.

On approval of a firm quote, a deposit of 50% of the total quoted price is payable, unless your quote states a different proportion. The remaining balance falls due on completion. The deposit secures your place in the Signum workflow, the engagement of the responsible lane, and our commitment to deliver the agreed scope at the agreed total price.

The deposit is not a fee for nothing. It is a payment on account against the total price, applied to the matter as work is done. Your refund rights in §5 apply to it in full. Dormancy is not forfeiture; cancellation is not forfeiture. Signum retains only the value of work actually and properly carried out, plus any disclosed and unrecoverable specialist cost properly committed on your behalf.

The balance is invoiced on completion and due within 14 calendar days. If it is not paid, we send a written notice with a new 14-day deadline. If the balance remains unpaid after that, the solicitor's firm may hold documents that are its own work product (a retaining lien) for a maximum of 90 days, with written notice to you within 2 business days of what is held and how to secure release. Registered LPAs, court orders, and original documents you supplied are never withheld. Continued non-payment leads to a formal letter before action and, ultimately, court recovery of the debt with statutory interest.

A payment dispute never extinguishes your rights. If you raise a formal complaint (§10), the overdue-balance escalation is paused until the complaint is resolved. For consumer clients, all recovery steps follow the applicable consumer-protection frameworks — no pressure tactics, and these consequences are disclosed in your engagement summary before you sign, never sprung at completion.

If you genuinely cannot pay the balance in full, tell us before it falls overdue. We may agree a structured payment plan with you in writing, rather than moving straight to the retaining-lien process above. This is offered at our discretion and consistently with our duty to treat you fairly — it is not an automatic entitlement, and it does not reduce what you owe. While a plan is in place, documents are generally held until its terms are met, unless releasing something is needed to avoid you missing a genuine deadline. The documents that can never be withheld — registered LPAs, court orders, and originals you supplied — are never withheld under a payment plan either.

If a card payment is reversed after work has genuinely begun, we treat that as non-payment, not as a valid refund. We pause further work and hold delivery of documents, and respond to the reversal with the engagement record and evidence of the work carried out — only what is needed to show the contract and the work, checked against your payment provider's own data-protection commitments. A reversal does not replace your right to a refund under §5 — if you believe you are owed money back, that route stays open to you regardless.

If you are a consumer contracting at a distance, you have a statutory right to cancel within 14 calendar days, beginning the day after the contract is made. You do not need to give a reason. Any clear statement that you wish to cancel is enough — we provide a model cancellation form, but you are never required to use it. This right comes from the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

You can ask us to start work before the 14 days end. Many clients do, because a deadline is close. If so, we ask for it as an express written request — an email is sufficient — and we explain, before we begin, that you keep your right to cancel during the 14 days, but if you then cancel you pay for the value of the services actually and properly provided up to that moment. If a service is fully performed within the period at your express request, and you acknowledged that the cancellation right is lost on full performance, the cooling-off right no longer applies to that service — and we will never treat a service as "fully performed" to defeat your cancellation right unless it genuinely is.

What is refundable depends on one thing: whether work has begun. "Work begins" means the first substantive action after you approve the firm quote — professional review by the responsible lane, drafting or computation, instruction of a specialist, or a paid third-party step. It does not include free intake, internal triage, conflict checking, or administrative acknowledgement. Refunds are made by the same method you paid, within 14 days of falling due.

Business clients are not covered by the statutory cooling-off right; their cancellation terms are set out in their engagement summary. Even then, any deposit deduction must be reasonable, itemised, and linked to work actually performed — the absence of a statutory right does not entitle Signum to retain an unearned deposit.

While a matter is active and we are waiting on you, we follow a defined reminder cadence — we tell you what we need and why it matters. Nothing is forfeited for slow responses. Your deposit is held on account and applied only against work actually done.

The price we present is the total price you will pay. Consistent with the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, every figure quoted to a consumer includes all mandatory charges, including any applicable VAT. No drip-pricing: we do not advertise a lower headline figure and add compulsory charges later. Optional extras are exactly that — optional, quoted separately, and approved by you before they are charged.

Where VAT applies, it is inside the quoted total — never added after approval. Once Signum is VAT-registered, quotes state the VAT-inclusive total with the VAT amount shown. A quoted total never increases because of VAT: if registration takes effect between your quote and your payment, Signum bears the difference within the quoted figure. VAT treatment operates under written confirmation from Signum's accountant.

Services are supplied with reasonable care and skill. That standard comes from the Consumer Rights Act 2015, cannot be excluded, and overrides anything inconsistent in these terms. Where a regulated lane provides the service, the relevant regulator's standards apply as well. We will not rely on any term that creates a significant imbalance against you.

Signum uses a confirmation-to-renew model: no standing payment authority is taken at engagement. For any recurring service, a renewal notice is sent to your registered email no fewer than 28 days before the renewal date, stating the renewal price (including any step from a first-year price), when renewal occurs, and how to decline. The service renews only on your express confirmation — never by silence, never by a pre-ticked box. If you do not confirm, the service lapses.

Renewal is not review. A renewal keeps a service live; it does not, by itself, mean we have re-reviewed, re-checked, or re-advised on your situation. Any actual review is a distinct, separately-described activity — never implied by the act of renewing. We state this plainly at every renewal.

Signum acts as data controller for personal data collected during intake, matter management, and client communication. Data is shared with panel members only to the extent needed for your specific matter, and only under a signed data-sharing agreement. You have the full set of UK GDPR rights — access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, and withdrawal of consent.

Where your complaint concerns a reserved legal activity, it may be escalated to the SRA and, if unresolved within 8 weeks, to the Legal Ombudsman. Where it concerns regulated financial advice, escalation to the FCA and Financial Ombudsman Service applies. Details are set out in the engagement summary for the relevant lane. Signum will consider alternative dispute resolution where appropriate.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, under the non-exclusive jurisdiction of its courts. If you are a consumer habitually resident in another jurisdiction, you retain the protection of any mandatory consumer-law rights of your home country that cannot be contracted out of. Nothing in these terms removes or limits your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the DMCCA 2024, or any other applicable consumer-protection law.

Ready to have your matter scoped?

Intake is free and commits you to nothing. Tell us about your matter, and we will tell you what it needs and what it costs — one total, before you pay anything.