Solicitor Firms

A Solicitor Firm is a group of people who work together under the same company name to provide legal services to the people of San Andreas. 

Disclaimer:

An active member of a Firm is considered an individual who is actively providing legal services throughout San Andreas on a regular basis (weekly at minimum)

Capital value is considered by cash in the bank, not assets owned by the Firm.

Any aspect of the Structure, Obligations, Benefits, Training and Non-Compete Agreements is subject to change at anytime by the San Andreas Judiciary.

If found to abuse any aspect of Officially Recognized Firms, you could be subject to sanctions, fines or ordered to pay back every payment from the Judiciary.

Structure

A Solicitor Firm can founded by three members who have held a solicitors licence for one month or longer and have a minimum capital of £200,000.  

• • There must be a Managing Partner.

  • There must be a minimum of two Senior Partners.

  • There must be a minimum of three Partners before a third Senior Partner can be added (Avoid top heavy structuring).

  • There are no restrictions on how many Junior Partners that can be added.

  • There are no restrictions on how many Trainee Solicitors that can be added.

  • For every new Partner, the Firm must add £100,000 capital to their Firm and there is no restriction on how many Partners that can be added.

Obligations

Solicitor Firms will have obligations to uphold in order to retain their official status.

• • There must be a minimum of three active members.

  • Solicitors must take in new trainee solicitors when requested by the judiciary, subject to how many solicitor applications come in and the distribution of new solicitors across Official Firms.

  • Solicitor Firms must keep new solicitors for a minimum of a two week training period before classing them as Fully Trained and or removal from the Firm. 

  • Solicitor Firms must train new solicitors they take on to a high quality standard along with the minimum requirements outlined under the Training section.

  • Solicitor Firms must inform the courts if they can no-longer carry out their obligations. Simply disappearing will not be acceptable.

  • The Managing Partner must be an active member of the Firm. If the Managing Partner is no longer active, a new Managing Partner must be assigned within a one week period.

  • Members of a Solicitor Firm must give one weeks notice to leave said Firm unless you are a trainee solicitor, requiring no period of notice, but you must notify that you are leaving.  Failure to do so can result in a fine to the individual by the judiciary.

  • Solicitor Firms must keep the minimum required capital (outlined in the Structure section above) in the event the firm is sued.

  • If a Firm goes bankrupt (they no longer have the minimum required capital) they have two weeks to raise the capital otherwise risk losing their official status.

Benefits

Benefits associated with a recognized Solicitors Firm are subject to change at any time by the judiciary.

• • A discord channel in the courts discord for your Firm to communicate in.

  • A singular Firm verified Tweedle account.

  • A Firm Bank Account. 

  • £100,000 per new Trainee Solicitor the Firm takes in to train.

Training

Training of new solicitors must be done to a high standard, however, there is a minimum training criteria that must be completed before the Firms obligation to the new solicitor are completed. There is a minimum time required for training a solicitor as outlined above but there is no time limitation on how long training can last after the minimum time has past. The Solicitor Firm is to give a fair opportunity to fulfill all training minimums and not be just be given "grunt work". 

Solicitor Firms must teach the following:

• • Discord Etiquette - How to behave appropriately in discord.

  • Speech Etiquette - What type of language to use when interacting with others. (Sir, Ms, Judge, etc)

  • Court Etiquette - How to behave in court. (Do's and Don't's)

  • Cells Etiquette - How to behave in the police custody cells.

  • How to provide free legal aid in the cells.

  • How to open tickets on discord.

  • How to Request Access to Google Documents.

  • How to raise a Civil Case.

  • How to raise an Appeal Case.

  • How to raise a Bench Trial.

  • How to raise a Licence Appeal.

  • How to file a Subject Access Request.

  • How to file a Freedom of Information Request.

  • How to file a Name Change Request.

  • How their Non-Compete Agreement works.

The following form must be filled in upon completion of each piece of training - LS Court - Solicitor Firms (google.com) 

Non-Compete 

As a member of a Firm, you cannot take cases against members of your own Firm. You have a Non-Compete Agreement that is active the entire time you are a member of that firm and your Non Compete last for an additional two weeks after you leave said firm unless you are a trainee of said Firm, requiring only notice that you're leaving.

• • Solicitors cannot take cases that would result in members of their own Firm being the opposing council.

  • Solicitors cannot sue their own Firm whilst a member of said Firm and the Non-Compete is in affect (The two week Non-Compete does not apply to those taking personal litigation against their previous Firm for things such as wrongful termination, etc, as you cannot represent yourself in court.)

The following form must be filled in upon employment of each new employee including the founding members - LS Court - Solicitor Firms (google.com) 

Application

In order to obtain the official status for your firm, you must fill out the following application. LS Court - Solicitor Firms (google.com) 

• • There is no time frame for review of your application.

  • You will not be informed if your application has been denied.

  • Each of your founding members will be scrutinized to ensure they are an acceptable person to have running a firm.

  • You MUST be a licensed solicitor to apply, with a license held longer than one month.

Review

The Judiciary have the ability to audit any official Firm without notice.

• • The Judiciary has the right to assign an independent third party (to the firm, not the judiciary) to overview a firm.

  • The Judiciary has the right to assign an independent third party (to the firm, not the judiciary) to be the Acting Managing Partner in the event it is deemed necessary.

  • The Judiciary has the right to dissolve any Firm, Official or not if it is deemed necessary.