Terms of Service

The content of careva.uk is provided for general information about the practice. It is not advice, and it is not an offer capable of acceptance. Nothing here creates a client relationship; that begins when we both sign a scope.

You may read, quote and link to this site. Please do not reproduce substantial parts of it as your own material.

Every engagement begins with a conversation, then a written scope setting out what we will do, over what period, and for what fee. Work starts when that scope is agreed in writing by both sides.

We may decline a brief. As stated elsewhere on this site, we work with a small number of organisations at a time, and we would rather say no early than take on work we cannot do well.

Fees are quoted after a first conversation and depend on scope. They are not published, because the same job title can mean very different amounts of work.

Retained engagements are billed monthly in advance against an agreed scope, reviewed quarterly, with a three-month minimum term. Project work is billed at a fixed fee, ordinarily half on signature and half on delivery. On-call arrangements are billed as a standing monthly fee, with time during a live issue billed against an agreed rate.

Invoices are payable within 14 days of issue. Where an invoice is overdue by more than 30 days we may suspend work, and we will tell you before we do. Statutory interest may be applied under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.

Third-party costs — newswire distribution, media monitoring, travel — are passed through at cost and only ever with your prior approval.

We will do the work with reasonable skill and care, keep you informed, and tell you when we think you are about to make a mistake.

You will give us accurate information, a named decision-maker, and timely approval of material going out in your name. Much of this work is time-sensitive: a holding statement approved late is not a holding statement.

You are responsible for the accuracy of factual claims about your own organisation. We will question anything that looks unsupportable and will not put our name to a claim we believe to be untrue.

Anything you share with us in the course of an engagement is treated as confidential and is not disclosed to anyone outside the people working on your account, except where the law requires it.

Associates attached to your engagement are bound by the same obligation under their own contracts with us.

We do not name clients or describe engagements publicly without written permission. That is why this site carries no client list.

On payment in full, the deliverables we produce for you — messaging documents, drafts, press materials — belong to you.

Our own methods, templates and background material remain ours, and nothing in an engagement restricts our right to reuse them for other clients.

Communications work is judgement under uncertainty. We do not guarantee press coverage, the tone of any coverage, a placement in a named publication, or any commercial outcome, and we do not accept briefs priced on that basis. Editorial decisions belong to editors.

Nothing we provide is legal, financial or regulatory advice. Where a situation needs a lawyer, we will say so.

After any minimum term, either side may end a retained engagement with 30 days written notice. Fees for work done up to the end of the notice period remain payable.

Either side may end an engagement immediately if the other commits a material breach that is not remedied within 14 days of being told about it. We may also end an engagement immediately if we are asked to say something we believe to be untrue.

Our total liability for any engagement is limited to the fees paid by you for that engagement in the 12 months before the claim arose. We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, or reputational loss consequential on a third party's editorial decision.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

Before litigating, both sides agree to try to resolve the matter in a conversation. Most disagreements in this line of work are misunderstandings about scope.