Terms of Business

By using my services you agree to the following Terms and Conditions:

1. Definitions

'Lipspeaker' shall mean the person who performs the act of lipspeaking.

‘Speaker’ shall mean the person making the original speech.

‘Client’ shall mean the party or intermediary engaging the services of the lipspeaker and having responsibility for his/her remuneration.

‘Assignment’ shall mean the event that the Lipspeaker has been booked for.

‘Circumstances’ shall mean any circumstances deriving from any cause, which is beyond the control of the Lipspeaker or the Client.

2. Services Provided

2.1 The services provided by the lipspeaker shall comprise the lipspeaker services agreed in writing at the time when an assignment is accepted and/or those specified in these Terms and Conditions of Business.

2.2 They shall not, without express agreement confirmed in writing at the time, include any additional services.

3. Contracts

3.1 All assignments shall be confirmed by a written contract between the Client and the lipspeaker, which shall include these Terms of and Conditions and any variants explicitly agreed.

3.2 If a lipspeaker is commissioned for an assignment and there is no time to enter into a written contract, the assignment shall be entered into on the basis of an oral contract only and these Terms of and Conditions shall be deemed to apply.

3.3 Where a lipspeaker’s services have been contracted for in accordance with either of the means specified above, the Client shall be wholly liable for:

• remuneration of the lipspeaker’s services, and

• reimbursement of any expenses incurred by the lipspeaker in connection with the

assignment whether the lipspeaking services are in fact provided or not.

4. Teams

4.1 Where an assignment requires continuous lipspeaking for any period of more than one hour, a team of a minimum of two lipspeakers shall be engaged to provide the service.

4.2 As an exception to the above, one lipspeaker alone may be responsible for all the lipspeaking services in the assignment if this is explicitly accepted by the lipspeaker in writing.

4.3 Where three or more lipspeakers are engaged for an assignment, one lipspeaker shall be designated Team Leader.

4.4 The Team Leader shall be responsible for organizing the work of the lipspeaker Team and all liaisons with the Client. Additional fees may be agreed in advance for this work.

4.5 No persons who are not members of the Team may be used as lipspeakers to complement the Team.

4.6 In the interests of health and safety, the lipspeaker will be under no obligation to continue with an assignment should their co-lipspeaker fail to arrive.

5. Working Hours

5.1 A working day shall comprise no more than seven hours time during which lipspeaking will be required.

5.2 Lipspeaker’s shall be given a midday rest period of at least one hour.

5.3 If a lipspeaker has agreed to work solo he/she shall be given adequate opportunity for breaks, ideally 10 minutes every 25 to 30 minutes.

5.4 No demands shall be made on the skills of the lipspeaker during rest periods or breaks.

5.5 If, in the course of a lipspeaker assignment, it is found that lipspeaking services will be required for an additional period after the period of work for which the lipspeaker was initially contracted, the lipspeaker may be invited, but not compelled, to:

• continue for a further agreed period on that same day,

• continue for a further agreed period on subsequent days.

5.6 If the lipspeaker consents to the above, additional fees shall be paid in accordance with Clause 7.3.

5.7 If lipspeaking services are required for a continuous period of more than 8 hours, a second Team shall be organised and the work shall be shared equally between the two teams.

6. Quotations for Fees

6.1 Fees quoted by an lipspeaker, or on behalf of a team of lipspeakers, in full knowledge of the contents and conditions of an assignment, shall be considered contractually binding and valid for acceptance for three months only.

6.2 Quotations shall be confirmed in writing and any VAT applicable, in addition to the fees, shall be stipulated.

7. Fees and Allowances

7.1 All fees and allowances shall be freely negotiated and paid in full no later than 28 days following receipt of the invoice.

7.2 Interest shall automatically be applied at 8% over base rate (or such rate as is determined by statute, the latter prevailing), to all overdue sums from the first date on which they become due until they are paid in full.

7.3 Late payments will incur a £40 administration charge for every additional invoice sent.

7.4 Fees shall be charged on the basis of a full day, or half day. Where the lipspeaker has been invited to continue for a further period in extension of the initial contract, (see Clause

5.5), a supplementary fee shall be paid at an agreed hourly rate.

7.5 Where travel to and from the lipspeaker’s normal place of residence and an assignment cannot reasonably be completed within the same day as the assignment, travel time will be remunerated at the same rate as working time.

7.6 Where travel to and from the lipspeaker’s normal place of residence and an assignment involves a total of more than three hours, travel time will be remunerated at 50% of the agreed hourly rate.

7.7 A supplementary fee for working unsociable hours shall be agreed between the lipspeaker and the Client in advance, for assignments between the hours of 18:00 and 09:00 or at weekends or public holidays.

7.8 Where a lipspeaker is required, from the outset, to work longer than the working day a supplementary fee shall be negotiated at an agreed hourly rate.

7.9 In a situation where the lipspeaker cannot continue with the assignment for health and safety reasons because their co- lipspeaker is absent, the lipspeaker may either continue working with a fee charged at time + half, or remove themselves from the assignment with no obligation.

8. Travel and Accommodation

8.1 Arrangements for travel and accommodation shall be the responsibility of either the Client or the lipspeaker, as agreed before acceptance.

8.2 Travel arrangements shall ensure that the lipspeaker arrives an agreed time before the start of the assignment and does not have to leave prematurely.

8.3 Where travel arrangements are made by the Client, these shall be such as to ensure that the lipspeaker arrives sufficiently rested to fulfil the assignment to the expected standard.

8.4 Where the travel arrangements are made by the lipspeaker, they shall seek to obtain travel and accommodation at a reasonable cost compatible with satisfactory performance of the assignment. Any expenditure incurred shall be reimbursed to the lipspeaker within 28 days following receipt of invoice. If any such arrangements made by the lipspeaker have to be varied or cancelled, any reimbursed sums recovered by the lipspeaker shall be immediately repaid to the Client.

9. Cancellation

9.1 If an accepted assignment is curtailed or cancelled either wholly or in part, or performance of the assignment is frustrated for reasons, which the Client or the Client’s principal are responsible, the Client shall be liable for payment of a cancellation fee according to Clause 9.4.

9.2 Any expenditure incurred as agreed in the contract and any additional expenditure incurred as a result of the cancellation shall also be reimbursed.

9.3 If, however, at the time of cancellation the Client is able to offer an alternative assignment of a similar type under comparable conditions and circumstances for all or part of the period of the original assignment, the Client’s liability to the lipspeaker in respect of cancellation fees shall be reduced by the amount of the fees payable for the alternative assignment.

9.4 Any cancellation fee shall be agreed between the parties prior to acceptance of the assignment and shall be determined in relation to the time between notification of cancellation and the start date, as follows:

• 7 days or less notice Full Fee

• 8 to 14 days notice Half Fee

• 15 or more days notice No Fee

10. Substitution of lipspeaker

10.1 Substitution shall only be permitted in agreement with the Client. In such circumstances the lipspeaker shall endeavour to find a suitable substitute.

10.2 The Client shall reasonably accept this substitute, who shall be engaged on the same terms as the lipspeaker had previously agreed.

10.3 The Client shall notify any other parties as appropriate.

10.4 Acceptance of the substitute by the Client shall discharge the lipspeaker from any further liability.

11. Unavoidable Circumstances

11.1 The lipspeaker undertakes to notify the Client at the earliest possible opportunity if he/she is prevented from undertaking an assignment or if performance is frustrated by unavoidable circumstances.

11.2 In giving such notice the lipspeaker shall relinquish any right to:

• remuneration for the uncompleted part of the assignment;

• the reimbursement of any expenses, except those already irrecoverably incurred, or necessarily incurred in returning the lipspeaker to his/her normal place of residence by suitable means.

12. Preparation Materials

12.1 The Client shall provide the lipspeaker with relevant information and preparatory materials in the form of background documentation, (See Clause 12.4), in good time; preferably two weeks in advance of an assignment in order to ensure provision of a quality service.

12.2 If it is not possible to provide preparatory materials, and the lipspeaker requests such, the Client shall arrange for a briefing meeting.

12.3 Attendance by the lipspeaker at such a meeting shall be paid as working time.

12.4 Preparatory materials shall include such items as:

• programs, agendas, Minutes, reports;

• briefing papers, speakers notes, motions;

• names of participants;

• maps, photographs, diagrams and other visual materials;

• slides or other materials which will be read out or referred to by participants in the

• course of an assignment;

• lyrics, scripts, copies of any videos or scripts of films to be shown or any other

• performance materials shall be supplied to the lipspeaker by the Client not less than 24 hours in advance.

12.5 The lipspeaker outside the context of the assignment shall not disclose information contained within preparatory materials. The lipspeaker shall be responsible for their safekeeping and immediate return to the Client at the end of the assignment.

13. Working Conditions

13.1 For lipspeaking, the Client is to ensure that speakers are well lit and in clear sight of the lipspeaker or made visible by means of an image providing a clear and detailed view of the speaker’s face and body movements sufficient for the lipspeaker requirements. This may require the provision of audio/visual equipment, which shall include a microphone and television monitor, for the sole use of the lipspeaker.

13.2 The Client is to ensure that the lipspeaker is positioned so that they are sufficiently near to the speaker to be able to hear and can be clearly seen by consumers of the service. This may require the provision of additional lighting and audio equipment in the form of a ‘fold- back’ speaker, for the sole use of the lipspeaker. If this is not possible, the Client shall ensure that the speaker’s voice or film/video sound track is in any case clearly conveyed directly to the lipspeaker without interfering noise.

14. Recordings

14.1 No record of the lipspeaker’s work shall be made without the lipspeaker’s prior consent, except where such recording is inherent within legal proceedings. Recordings, which are intended for broadcast or publication, may incur an additional fee.

15. Complaints and Disputes

15.1 Any complaint or dispute in connection with lipspeaker’s work carried out shall be notified to the lipspeaker by the Client (or vice-versa) not later than one month from the final day of an assignment.

15.2 If the parties are unable to agree, the matter may be referred to the NRCPD. If possible, such referral should be made no later than six weeks from the date on which the original complaint was made.

15.3 If a dispute cannot be resolved amicably between the parties, or if either party refuses to accept the decision of the NRCPD, the parties shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.

15.4 In any event these Terms and Conditions shall be construed in accordance with English Law.

16. Responsibility and Liability

16.1 The lipspeaking task shall be carried out by the lipspeaker using reasonable skill and care and in accordance with the provisions and spirit of the Code of Professional Conduct of Lipspeakers.

16.2 The lipspeaker shall use his or her best endeavours to lipspeak to the best of his or her ability, knowledge and belief.

16.3 No guarantee can be given as to the absolute accuracy of any lipspeaking.

16.4 In the event of a dispute or complaint about the work, the liability of the lipspeaker shall be limited to the value invoiced by the lipspeaker.

16.5 Consequential damages and liability are expressly excluded.

17. Unfair Competition

17.1 Where the Client acts as an intermediary and introduces the lipspeaker to a third party by way of business, the lipspeaker shall not, for a period of 6 months, approach the said third party for the purpose of soliciting work, nor work for the third party in any lipspeaking capacity, without the Client’s written consent.

However, this shall not apply where

the third party has had previous dealings with the lipspeaker;

the lipspeaker acts on the basis of information in the public domain;

the Client has failed to pay the lipspeaker;

the approach from the third party is independent of the relationship with the intermediary;

the approach to the third party arises as the result of broad-band advertising or

the third party is seeking lipspeakers on the open market.

18. Applicability and Integrity

18.1 These Terms and Conditions of Business shall be construed jointly with the NRCPD Code of Professional Conduct in order to be complete and effective. They shall also be subject to any detailed arrangements or any variants expressly specified in the order relating to a particular lipspeaking task. No waiver of any breach of conditions in this document shall be considered as a waiver of any subsequent breach of the same or any other provision.