Terms and conditions

Definitions

David Vigar is ‘the writer’ and you are ‘the client’. Communications drafted by the writer, such as speeches, articles and reports, are referred to as ‘the communications’.

The Services

The writer’s services consist of freelance writing, including the drafting of speeches, articles, reports and other written communications, as well as provision of ideas and consultancy on aspects of communications strategy as requested by the client.

Representation

The client shall appoint a named person to act as its representative in dealings with the writer, who shall provide a telephone and e-mail address and will be available during business hours, and at other reasonable times, and shall provide timely responses to the writer’s reasonable requests for information necessary for the services.

Fees

Fees are charged on a per day basis, a day being eight hours and are rounded up to the nearest quarter of a day. VAT is payable at the applicable rate. The client will also pay the writer’s reasonable travel and out of pocket expenses. Hotel accommodation will be charged to a maximum of £120 per night when attendance is required before 9am or after 7pm at a location over 100 miles, or more than two hours travelling time by public transport from the writer’s address.

Commissioning

Clients can commission the services on an ongoing basis or a project basis. For services commissioned on an ongoing basis, invoices will be submitted monthly. In the case of project work, the writer will, if requested, provide an estimate of the likely time required and fees to be charged for the project in question. If the project is completed within less than four weeks, a single invoice will be submitted at the conclusion of the project. If the project occupies more than four weeks invoices will be submitted on a monthly basis.

The client may engage the writer for a particular volume of work, for example a specified minimum number of days, or a specified number of days per month over a certain number of months. Under such contracts payment will be for an agreed number of days, and will be due even if work has not been required on each of them. If the work commissioned exceeds the agreed minimum number of days then the writer will inform the client and charge for the days in excess of the agreed minimum. The writer will maintain a record of the number of hours worked for the client on each day in which work is carried out. The writer may agree to work on a ‘flat fee’ basis, subject to a maximum number of days to be worked on the project in any period.

Payment is due after 30 days from the date of the invoice by cheque or BACS transfer.

Process

Work is undertaken on the basis that the client provides expertise and information on its organisation, industry and activity and the writer creates communications from the source material provided. The client will therefore provide to the writer all of the source material relating to the client’s business, industry or activity as required to produce the communications. Such source material may include reports, internal papers, slide presentations, website links, previous speeches or articles, video and other material. The writer may suggest other material from his own research or knowledge but is not expected to undertake specialist research within the client’s organisation or concerning the client’s industry or to discover factual information about the client organisation beyond that provided to him by the client.

Warranty

The writer warrants that he will use all reasonable skill and care in providing the services. The writer will provide the client as requested with details of the sources of all data and factual material used in the communications and use reasonable skill and care to ensure that all of the information used is accurate at the time of writing and free of any defamatory statements.

The client assumes all legal liability for the content of all materials produced by the writer that are published by the client where these are based on material provided by the client, and will keep the writer fully indemnified against all actions claims proceedings costs and damages (including any damages or compensation paid on the advice of the writers legal advisors to compromise or settle any claim) and all legal costs or other expenses and losses arising out of any such claim. All liabilities of the writer to any third party under this agreement are excluded to the fullest extent permissible by law.

Copyright

Between the date of delivery and the date that payment becomes due the writer grants a licence to the client to use the communications for the purposes communicated to the writer prior to the writer offering to provide the services. Copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the communications transfer to the client upon payment of the writer’s fees. The writer waives all moral rights in respect of the communications to which he may be entitled under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Section 80 in favour of the client. This waiver is subject to the reservation by the writer of the right to use communications that have been published by the client in his direct communication with other clients or potential clients to inform them of the nature of his services. He may also publish such communications on his website, indicating that he had involvement in their production.

Confidentiality

All information obtained by the writer in connection with work on behalf of the client and which is not in the public domain shall be considered confidential and shall not be divulged or used by the writer other than for the purposes of the services, or as required by law.

Jurisdiction

This agreement shall be governed by English law and shall be deemed to have been made in England. The parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.