Holding client property or documents

You may be asked to hold some documents or property as part of your retainer. We can do this subject to certain limitations. You should follow the process described below if you wish to do so.

You should note that we cannot hold valuable items. Our insurance does not cover third party property as we have no "insurable interest". If you need to hold an item that is not a document, it will have to be on a no liability basis. Contact the General Counsel to discuss this before agreeing to hold any property. For clarity, we can hold non valuable confidential information in escrow. This document or data (we sometimes hold a USB stick or a digital key to an encrypted file) escrow is a commercial service. We would draft a suitable escrow agreement based on our template document escrow agreement and charge for our services according to our Rate Card.

We can hold a small volume of documents as a proper part of our retainer. It would be part of our retainer because, for example, a court orders us to hold a document, our holding the document protects our client in a way that is relevant to our retainer or our holding a document unlocks a right or benefit for our client that is relevant to our retainer. If the connection to the file is not immediately obvious, then you should make a file note explaining that connection to show you have thought about it and believe there to be an adequate link. You can ask the General Counsel for help in this respect.

By way of illustration, we are commonly asked to hold a child's passport as part of a family matter, a will as part of a probate matter or an original share certificate as part of a corporate matter.

We cannot hold documents forever, so, build into any process a long stop. Even where the court is making an order, ask the court to provide for a long stop, for example, once the passport expires then we should be required to return it to its owner, or otherwise after a suitably long period of time send the document to the most sensible place. Upon the long stop, what we do must be clear, e.g. to send it by courier to a named person at a specified address or to such other address as that named person specifies to us in writing.

The only acceptable place for any documents to be held by us is within the safe in Central Office or traveling to or from the safe in Central Office. You must not hold documents at your Pod's office.

How to access the document holding service

The process for accessing this service is as follows:

Part 1 - Preparing to receive the document

1. Review the forgoing requirements and check you are able to offer to hold the relevant document, make any necessary notes on your file.
2. Advise the relevant party (Court, other side etc) that you are able to hold the relevant document and on what terms (noting the requirement for a long stop).
3. If you are required to give an undertaking, then follow our process for undertakings as well. You should treat a court order as a Bespoke Undertaking and thus seek Central Office approval of the draft wording.
4. Invite the relevant party to have the document sent to Keystone Law, 48 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1JF by hand and not by post. Post is not a suitable means of delivering an important document. Ask to see a copy of the covering letter by email that will accompany the physical document.
5. Complete Part 1 of the Document Safeguarding Record Sheet
6. Email the Admin Team the Document Safeguarding Record Sheet and the expected covering letter. If the person leaving the document is to be asked to sign anything, then provide the document to be signed. You must ensue Central Office hear from you before the document in question arrives.

Part 2 - Receipt of the document

1. The Admin Team will complete part 2 of the Document Safeguarding Record Sheet as soon as the document is received and provide you with a copy of it.
2. Confirm to relevant third parties if appropriate that the document has arrived with us.

Part 3 - Sending the document out

1. Remind yourself of the terms of any relevant undertaking or court order.
2. Decide if you want Central Office to send the item straight out (preferred) or to send the item to you (or you can collect it in person) so that you can hand deliver it to the relevant recipient. (Note: Central Office will not send the document to you for you to send on. That creates an unnecessary risk to the document.)
3. Where you want Central Office to send the item out, provide the covering letter and a copy of the relevant undertaking or court order. You may only send out such documents by courier so we will have proof of delivery.
4. Where an undertaking or a court order applies, provide a note to the Undertakings Team as to why the undertaking is released/court order is being complied with.
5. If you want to arrange for a third party to collect the document from Central Office, then contact a Central Office Lawyer and instruct them. It is not for the Admin Team to attend the document hand over. Give that Central Office Lawyer precise instructions for how collection is to work. As a rule this should include collecting party proving their identity with photo ID and signing a receipt, to be drafted by you. The receipt must at least address i) who is collecting the document, ii) date and time of collection and iii) what is being collected. It should be signed by the collecting party and the Central Office Lawyer. A copy of the receipt should be placed on your file.