Last Revision August 2023
1. Services
1.1
In response to an order, the Customer designates Lingland to provide the Services, and Lingland undertakes to do so in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement. Except for last-minute arrangements, all orders must be placed using the online booking form.
1.2
Quotes are only an offer to the customer to do a job at a specified price, and a contract won’t exist until this offer is accepted by both parties and Lingland sends a written or electronic confirmation of the order to the customer. Lingland Will not charge you more than what is stated on the quote unless you agree to extra work, or the scope of the job changes while it is underway.
2. Delivery
2.1.
On writen translations, time is not of the essence for delivery or performance, and any delay will not entitle the customer to reject any delivery or performance or to repudiate or terminate the Agreement. The dates for delivery of the translated works or the dates for performing the services are only estimates unless otherwise expressly agreed by Lingland.
3. Lingland’s Obligations
3.1
Lingland promises and accepts responsibility for always performing or arranging for the provision of the services in line with Good Industry Practice while this Agreement is in effect.
3.2
To provide the services in line with the conditions of this Agreement, Lingland shall choose the relevant and qualified resource with all reasonable care and competence.
3.3
Lingland shall make a reasonable effort to offer the services in accordance with the terms of the quote by the client. The customer understands that even when transmitted in encrypted form, any original or translated works or face-to-face interpreting services submitted by either party over the internet cannot be guaranteed to be error-free or free from the risk of interception, and that Lingland is not responsible for any loss, corruption, or interception of such original or translated works or services.
3.4
Lingland will not assume any express or implied, statutory, or otherwise, warranties, conditions, undertakings, or terms regarding the state, quality, performance, or suitability of the services, except as expressly provided in this Agreement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, all such warranties, conditions, undertakings, and terms are excluded from this Agreement.
3.5
Lingland is not obligated to verify the veracity of the original works.
3.6
Lingland is only required to keep original works and translated works for a period of 12 months after receiving the original works for the purpose of returning them to the customer upon termination or expiration of this Agreement or upon the reasonable request of the customer at any time while this Agreement is still in effect. After 12 months of receiving original works from the client, Lingland is under no obligation to give the customer any original works or translated works.
3.7
The interpreter’s work is limited to spoken discourse and does not include translating any texts into writing.
3.8
Unless otherwise stated, the format of Translation Works will, if feasible, follow the format of Original Works, unless specifically requested otherwise by the Customer at the quote stage and/or as otherwise advised by Lingland.
3.9
The quotation presupposes that all the document’s text is readable; any unintelligible text will be disclosed to the customer.
4. Customer’s obligations
4.1
The Client guarantees Lingland that it will always comply with the following obligations during the term of this Agreement:
4.1.1
Acquire and keep up to date any authorizations, consents, and licenses required for Lingland to carry out its duties under this Agreement; and
4.1.2
fulfil Lingland’s reasonable requests for information and materials to deliver the services and fulfil its responsibilities under this Agreement; and
4.1.3
abide by the conditions of any software license agreement that may have been in effect at the time between the parties; and
4.1.4
possess the necessary corporate power and capacity to sign this Agreement.
4.2
The customer designates Lingland as the only provider of the services to the customer, unless otherwise agreed, and the customer agrees that it will not designate anyone else to provide the services to the client.
4.3
If the client requests that Lingland provide the services on the client’s property or any other location they designate, the client shall:
4.3.3
Make sure that the information you provide is true and complete and provide Lingland with any information they may need to provide the services.
4.3.4
Verify that the client’s premises have the relevant safety and security measures in place.
4.4
Lingland is allowed to charge the client any additional fees and expenditures it may incur because of any dangerous situations or materials it may encounter on the client’s property.
4.5
Recordings: Unless a recording is required for legal procedures, an interpreter’s work cannot be captured on tape without their prior authorization. There can be an extra charge for recordings that are meant for publishing or broadcast.
4.6
Lingland is not required to continue providing the services if the customer violates any of the warranties they have made in this clause 4, or if Lingland believes doing so would put people in danger or be illegal.4.7
For the avoidance of doubt, the client must inform Lingland of any grievance, inaccuracies, and/or requests for revisions with regard to the services or translated works within 30 (thirty) days after receiving the quotation. After 30 (thirty) days after the customer’s delivery of the translated works or services, requests for revisions may be subject to extra fees. Unless otherwise agreed, Lingland will only accept text, bilingual word, or annotated PDF file formats for modification requests.
4.8
Before ordering each translation, the customer must choose the document type (such as any Microsoft Office, PDF, or Adobe InDesign), styles, font, character size, layout, paper size, and necessary destination format. The document will be returned in its original format if no specifications are provided.
4.9
The Client is required to deliver materials such as house style manuals, terminology glossaries, and branding/visual guidelines. If they are absent or preferences are not specified, linguists will use their best judgement in translating. If these judgements later turn out to be different from what the customer expected due to a lack of reference material, there will be additional charges to make this right.
5. Confidentiality
5.1
“Confidential Information” in this Agreement refers to any information that is marked as confidential or is by its nature obviously confidential, including, without limitation, any information relating to that party’s services, operations, plans or intentions, service information, design rights, trade secrets, market opportunities, technical know-how, business affairs, or those of its clients and is disclosed (whether in writing, verbally, or by any other means and when) and is marked as confidential or is by its nature clearly confidential. The conditions of this Agreement are likewise considered to be confidential information.
5.2
To fulfil its duties under the provisions of this Agreement, the Receiving Party may only use the Confidential Information for those purposes.
5.3
The Receiving Party will exercise no less security measures and degree of care in connection to the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information than it does in relation to its own secret information, and in any case, will exercise a fair and suitable degree of care and protection.
5.4
The Receiving Party agrees not to reveal any Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party to any third party, except for its employees, professional advisors, staff, contractors, agents, subcontractors, or any other person whose duties reasonably require such disclosure, but only to the extent necessary for the performance of its obligations under this Agreement. The receiving party is responsible for making sure that any third parties to whom it provides confidential information are aware of its secrecy and are subject to duties of confidentiality that are at least as strict as those outlined in this Agreement.
5.5
Upon receiving a request to that effect and, in any case, upon the termination or expiration of this Agreement, the Receiving Party agrees to destroy or, subject to clause 4.6, return to the Disclosing Party all the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information in its possession, custody, or control.
5.6
The parties acknowledge that damages may not be an adequate remedy for breach of these confidentiality obligations and agree that both parties will be entitled to seek injunctions, specific performance, and any other available equitable relief for any threatened or actual breach, without limiting any other rights or remedies to which either party may be entitled.
5.7
No Confidential Information shall be subject to the provisions of this Section 5:
Except for Lingland employees, authorized advisers, and consultants, sensitive papers and files provided to Lingland in connection with an assignment are considered as completely secret and will not be divulged to a third party without the Customer’s consent. Lingland is responsible for seeing to it that all pertinent employees, advisers, and consultants have signed a confidentiality agreement with Lingland to the same effect. Information that is or will become publicly available, or that Lingland obtains in any other manner (not linked to the assignment), does not qualify as confidential information.
6. Payments
6.1
The client must pay Lingland the fees outlined in the quote or at the current rate in accordance with this Agreement in exchange for the performance of the services.
6.2
In accordance with this Clause 6 and the terms of the quote for the translated work, Lingland will invoice the client for the fees, as well as any relevant VAT and/or other local taxes, if any, which the client is responsible for paying.
6.3
When appropriate, the fees shall be reevaluated in accordance with the Index on each anniversary of this Agreement. The customer will receive a booking confirmation from Lingland that includes the following information: a specific job reference number for each booking, language, interpreter’s name and gender, job date, start time, and end time, client identifier (such as initials), client gender, meeting contact information, address, and details of the job type. When making a reservation over the phone or in person, a confirmation message will be provided. The client is responsible for verifying the veracity of all confirmations (times, dates, locations etc).
6.4
The client must pay all fees and bills in full and with cleared funds within 30 days of the invoice date. All payments must be made in whole and without exception.
6.5
If the client fails to make any undisputed payments when due, Lingland may, after giving the client a minimum of 30 days’ notice of the failure and after the notice has passed, stop taking new work requests from the client until the undisputed amount is paid in full.
6.6
If the client fails to pay any undisputed sums when due, Lingland may, after giving the client a minimum of 30 days’ notice of the failure and after that notice has passed, stop accepting future work requests from the client until the unpaid balance is fully collected.
6.7
Lingland retains the right to impose an administrative fee of £50.00 after 60 days and an additional £50 after 90 days on past-due payments.
6.8 Invoices in dispute:
6.8.1
The client must provide Lingland with written notice within 14 days of any issues they have with any items on an invoice, whether they are valid or invalid.
6.8.2
To resolve any such issue in line with section 9, Lingland and the client must both make a reasonable effort (Dispute Resolution).
6.8.3
Upon resolution of the dispute and depending on the result, Lingland shall either send a credit note to the customer for the amount in dispute or Lingland shall issue an invoice for the amount due. The customer shall make the necessary payment in accordance with the terms of clause 6.6.
6.9
All payments made by the customer or due from the customer under this Agreement are exempt from all taxes, except for any deductions or withholdings mandated by law.
6.10
If any deductions or withholdings are required by law, the customer is obligated under this clause 6.10 to pay Lingland any additional sums necessary to ensure that the total of the sums paid or payable under this clause 6.10 and clause 6. shall, after deducting therefrom all deductions or withholdings from such sums, leave Lingland with the same amount that it would have been entitled to receive under clause 6. without any such deductions or withholdings.
6.11
Quotes are provided on the understanding that the client will have 30 days from the date of the quotation to approve the conditions and make an order. Quotations are not legally binding on Lingland. An order can be a directive to move forward or progress.
6.12
Quotes are provided based on the original works’ description provided by the client or its authorized representatives, the translation’s intended use, and any other pertinent instructions provided to Lingland that are required for Lingland to provide the services. If, in Lingland’s sole discretion, the actual original works received from the customer differ from, are insufficient for, or are inaccurate to the description, purpose, or instructions relating to the original works received by Lingland’s prior to providing a quotation, then such quotations may be amended at any time.
6.13
The parties concur that charges should be in pounds sterling, unless otherwise specified in writing.
7. Termination
7.1
Subject to section 7.2, this Agreement is in effect as of the effective date and will last until the services described in the quote have been rendered in accordance with its provisions.
7.2
This Agreement may be terminated immediately by any party if:
7.2.1
The other party violates any material term of this Agreement and fails to correct it after receiving written notice of the violation and a deadline for remedy.
7.2.2
The other party declares bankruptcy, enters into an agreement with or for the benefit of its creditors, enters a compulsory or voluntary liquidation or amalgamation (other than for the purpose of a bona fide reconstruction or amalgamation without insolvency), appoints a receiver or manager to oversee all or substantially all its undertakings, or if any distress or execution is threatened or imposed on any of the other party’s assets.
7.2.3
A situation involving Force Majeure hinders the provision of services for a period of three months or more.
7.3
Where the customer has placed a booking and subsequently requests to cancel such booking for any reason whatsoever, the full charges for the order shall remain payable by the customer according to the current tariff if not done 24 hours before the booking is to take place.
8. Force Majeure
8.1
Under no circumstances shall either party be responsible to the other for any loss of any kind, including, but not limited to, damages or abatement of fees, whether directly or indirectly caused to or incurred by the other party as a result of any failure or delay in the performance of its obligations under this Agreement caused by Force Majeure. Despite the aforementioned, each party shall make every effort to fulfil or resume fulfilling its duties under this agreement throughout the Force Majeure occurrence.
8.2
If the affected party’s responsibilities are affected by the cause, they must be suspended while the cause is still present, and the affected party must inform the other party, as soon as possible, of the cause and its anticipated length.
9. Dispute Resolution
9.1
If a disagreement develops about any part of this Agreement, the representatives of the customer and Lingland in charge of its administration must first confer and discuss the problem in good faith to reach a resolution. The disagreement will be escalated to the respective responsible company directors within each party for settlement if the parties are unable to resolve it at that level within a reasonable amount of time (considering the nature of the dispute and the operational requirement for its resolution).
9.2
If the matter is not settled between the parties within fourteen days of being referred to their respective directors in accordance with clause 9.1 above, then:
9.2.1
If both parties agree, they can go through with mediation offered by the Centre for Conflict Resolution (or another organization they can decide on); or
9.2.2
The Parties may submit their dispute to arbitration before a Chartered Institute of Arbitrators-recognized arbiter if they so choose.
9.2.3
The Parties are free to use any further dispute-resolution techniques they mutually decide upon.
9.2.4
If the parties are unable to come to an agreement in accordance with provisions
9.2.5
Both Parties are permitted to pursue the problem in court if 9.2.1 to 9.2.3 above are not addressed within (7) days.
9.3
If a disagreement between the Parties arises that in any way concerns the performance, acts, or omissions of a particular party, each party must offer the other all the help that is reasonably possible in resolving such an issue.
10. Jurisdiction
This Agreement is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with English law and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.