Please read these terms and conditions carefully as they apply to your use of the Legal Choices website.
1. Introduction
1.1 'Legal Choices' ('the website') is a website provided by legal regulators. These are:
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority
- The Intellectual Property Regulation Board
- The Costs Lawyer Standards Board
- The Council for Licensed Conveyancers
- CILEx Regulation
- The Faculty Office
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
1.2 You should read and understand these terms and conditions as anyone who uses this website ('a user / users') agrees to be bound by them. If you don't wish to be bound by these terms and conditions you should not use the website.
1.3 We may make changes to these terms and conditions at any time and we will update this page when we do. When such changes appear on the website's 'Terms & conditions of use' page they take immediate effect. As a user of the website you are responsible for making sure you are aware of these by checking for any changes regularly. If you continue to use the website after changes to the terms and conditions have been published you accept any such changes.
2. What the website does
2.1 The website provides factual information about lawyers, legal services, and regulators aimed at members of the public across England and Wales. It is designed to help members of the public build up their understanding and make well-informed choices about legal services. The website also provides surveys, quizzes and polls designed to help members of the public share their views directly to legal regulators about a range of issues.
2.2 The website exists also to support legal regulators to carry out duties to regulate in the public interest, and to build up our understanding of the experiences and needs of consumers within the legal services marketplace in England and Wales.
3. What the website doesn't do
3.1 Information provided on the website is factual and in the public arena, and does not constitute any form of endorsement, arrangement or commercial recommendation by us. Content on the website may be used to inform choices but in no way does it constitute any form of legal advice.
3.2 The website does not provide facilities to rate, discuss or otherwise identify specific organisations or individual people.
4. Privacy Policy
4.1 The website's statement on 'Privacy' confirms how we manage any information that is provided to us.
5. Links
5.1 The website includes some hyperlinks to websites that are provided by other organisations. We aim to make sure these links are relevant to the website's users' interests. We are not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of any information that is found on any other website, or any subsequent use made by any person or organisation of that information.
5.2 Any information that users may choose to provide to other websites and organisations will be managed in line with their respective privacy policies and is not our responsibility.
6. Content we publish
6.1 The content on the website includes information such as articles and graphics, and all other features of a website. Content may be used for personal and / or non-commercial use only, and copies may be made only on that basis. Apart from that no content from the website may be republished, transmitted, stored, posted, sold, distributed or modified.
6.2 The trade mark for the 'Legal Choices' website is owned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Any other brand name or trade mark appearing anywhere on the website belong to their respective holders. No permission is given in respect of the use of any of these brands or marks.
7. Content you may publish
7.1 In some areas of the website users may post their comments on articles, surveys and polls that appear on the website. In doing so those users grant us unlimited free licence to republish those comments or make them available in any other printed or electronic form.
7.2 Any comments posted by users are moderated by legal regulators. See section 9 below for further information.
8. Disclaimer of liability
8.1 The website is operated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority on behalf of the legal regulators listed above. Each legal regulator is responsible for the content it provides for the website. The Solicitors Regulation Authority shall have not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable arising under or in connection with any content provided by any other legal regulator.
8.2 You acknowledge that information or any other content on the website provided by us is provided for general information purposes only. The website does not, and it is not intended to constitute technical, financial, or legal advice or any other type of advice and should not be relied upon for any purposes. Users of the website should obtain professional or specialist advice before relying on any content or other information on the website.
8.3 Information on the website is provided in good faith and we use reasonable efforts to ensure that it is accurate. However, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our website is accurate, complete or up to date.
8.4 We do not guarantee that the website will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our website. You should use your own virus protection software.
8.5 Liability - Whether you are visiting the website as a consumer or business user we do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful for us to do so. This includes any liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
- Please note that we only provide the website for reference purposes use. You agree not to use the website for any commercial or business purposes, and we shall not be liable for any loss of profit, loss of sales, loss of revenue, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity, loss of goodwill or reputation, any indirect or consequential loss or damage.
9. Comments
9.1 The website may provide opportunities for users to comment on articles and take part in surveys and polls. Any comments appearing on the website are the opinions of those posting them and in no way reflect our opinions or attitudes.
9.2 All user comments are moderated. This means we reserve the right to remove a comment without warning before it has been approved for publication, or remove a comment post-publication, if we decide it does not comply with our standards. The standards are as follows: No user will
- post material that infringes the rights of others (including intellectual property rights),
- post anything unlawful, obscene, threatening, defamatory, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing to any other person or organisation,
- post information or comments that name or otherwise explicitly identify any individual person or organisation,
- post any files that contain viruses or other harmful computer code,
- post advertisements, promote any commercial opportunities, or describe details of chain letters or pyramid schemes
- disrupt discussions or introduce subjects that are not related to the topic being discussed,
- impersonate another person,
- disguise the IP address of any connection used to post information on the website,
- allow any person or organisation to use your identification in order to post or view comments,
- post the same comment more than once or 'spam',
- carry out any other conduct that restricts or prevents anyone else from making a comment or has the potential to expose us to liability of any type.
9.3 We may decline to publish without warning any comments that fail one or more of these standards.
9.4 If you disagree with any decision taken by the website under these terms and conditions you can contact us.
9.5 Any decision we take under this section is final and binding.