Terms and conditions
Important legal notice
These terms and conditions apply to the entire contents of this
website under the domain name www.lawscot.org.uk (the "website")
and to any correspondence by e-mail or webmail between us and you.
Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using the
website. Using the website indicates that you accept these terms
and conditions regardless of whether or not you are registered with
us. If you do not accept these terms and conditions, do not use the
website.
Special words and phrases
1. In these terms and conditions:
"the Society" means The Law Society of Scotland, 26 Drumsheugh
Gardens, Edinburgh EH3 7YR and "we", "us" and "our" shall refer to
the Society;
"Solicitors' area" means the section of the website reserved for
use by enrolled Scottish solicitors and LSS staff, and set aside
for the secure dissemination of information relating to
professional legal practice;
"Special area" means any of the Solicitors' area or the students'
area or any other sections of the website reserved by the Society
for use by particular categories of user;
"Students' area" means the section of the website reserved for use
by students studying for the Society's examinations, and trainee
Scottish solicitors and set aside for the secure dissemination of
information relating to the teaching, examination and training
processes for prospective Scottish solicitors;
"Website" means the website published by the Society and located on
the world wide web via the uniform resource locator
http://www.lawscot.org.uk;
"Website information" means any data, images, text or other
material displayed on the website; and
"you" means any person who has viewed, downloaded, used or
otherwise accessed the website and/or website Information and
includes (but is not limited to) any person who has been granted
access to a special area, and "your" shall refer to you.
Operator of the website
2. The website is operated and maintained by the Society.
The Society may be contacted at:
The Law Society of Scotland
26 Drumsheugh Gardens
Edinburgh
EH3 7YR
Telephone: +44 (0) 131 226 7411
Textphone: +44 (0) 131 476 8359
Fax: (Gp 2 & 3) +44 (0) 131 225 2934
The Society can be emailed here
Our VAT number is [GB300700822]
Application of these terms and conditions
3. These are the terms and conditions for the use of the
website. By viewing, downloading, using or otherwise accessing any
part of the website and/or website information, you are deemed to
have accepted these terms and conditions in full without
modification or amendment. These terms and conditions will form a
legally binding contract between you and us. If you do not accept
these terms and conditions in full without modification or
amendment, you must leave the website immediately and you may not
make use of any of the website Information or services we provide
through it.
4. We reserve the discretion to amend these terms and conditions
from time to time, in each case with effect from the date on which
the amendment is posted on the website. You should check the
website from time to time to review the then-current terms and
conditions. If you continue to use the website, you will be deemed
to have accepted the changes to the terms and conditions. Some of
these terms and conditions may be augmented by expressly designated
legal notices or terms posted by us on the website.
5. You agree that we shall at all times have the discretion to
decide whether or not to grant you access to the website or any
special area. We reserve the right from time to time to alter or
limit the categories of website information which you may access
and view using the website or any special area. You agree that we
may in our discretion alter, modify, add to or delete any website
Information from time to time, without having to give you prior
notice.
Important disclaimers
6. Nothing contained on the website or in any special area is
intended to constitute specific legal advice or other advice on
which reliance should be placed. The website and special areas are
for general guidance only, and we shall not be held liable for any
action taken (or any failure to act) in reliance upon the contents
of the website or any special area. You should always seek specific
advice on any individual matter, from a suitably qualified
solicitor. To identify a suitably qualified solicitor,
please use the search facility on the website.
7. The advice and guidance contained or referred to in the website
(including but not limited to the answers to the frequently asked
questions in the solicitors' area) are generic, and may not apply
in every case. The precise circumstances of individual cases may
differ, as may the correct course of action to take in such
circumstances. Accordingly, if you intend in any way to rely upon
that advice or guidance, we strongly recommend that you write to
the Society setting out those circumstances in full and seeking
specific advice applicable to those specific circumstances.
8. The Society reserves the right in its discretion to rely on the
provisions of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980 Schedule I
paragraph 11A (as inserted by the Law Reform (Miscellaneous
Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990 Schedule 8 paragraph 29(16)), which
states:- "Exemption from liability for damages: 11a. Neither the
Society nor any of its officers or servants shall be liable in
damages for anything done or omitted in the discharge or purported
discharge of its functions unless the act or omission is shown to
have been in bad faith."
Your use of the website
9. You warrant to us that when using the website or otherwise
you will not:-
- copy, alter or delete any of its content except to the extent
permitted by these terms and conditions
- introduce any computer viruses, macro viruses, trojan horses,
logic bombs, worms or anything else designed to interfere with,
interrupt or disrupt the normal operating procedures of a computer
or to surreptitiously intercept, access without authority or
expropriate any system, data or personal information; or
- attack the website via a denial-of-service attack or a
distributed denial-of service attack; or
- attempt to copy, modify, download or access any special area
(or website information held in any special area) unless you are
properly authorised by us to do so; or
- disclose to any other person any confidential or proprietary
information obtained from the website unless required to do so by
law or with our prior consent; or
- cause the website to be interrupted, damaged, rendered less
efficient or such that the effectiveness or functionality of the
website is in any way impaired.
10. You agree that we shall be entitled to make all reasonable
enquiries to verify your identity prior to accepting your
application to access any special area. If we are not happy with
the information you provide, or if you do not provide all the
information we ask for, we reserve the right not to grant you
access to that special area.
11. If we accept your application to access a special area, we
shall send you a user name and password or other appropriate
security advice for use to access that special area. You agree to
keep your user name and password or other appropriate security
advice secret and not to disclose or give it to any other person
unless with our express prior consent. You agree to indemnify us
for any loss, injury, damage costs or expenses arising directly or
indirectly from any disclosure by you or unauthorised use of your
user name and password or other appropriate security advice.
Copyright, trade marks and your licence to use the website
12. The website information, images, graphics, text, software,
applets and scripts owned by us and operating the website are
either owned by the Society, or used by us with the permission of
their respective owners or as permitted by law. Where practicable,
we acknowledge the owners of all trade marks which are referred to
in the website. Reference to a trade mark owned by a third party
does not constitute any claim by us to own that trade mark or that
we have rights in it.
13. You may view, print and download our website Information in
a web browser for your own personal use only. Copying website
information into a computer cache or storage device for private on
or off-line browsing purposes is also permitted, as is caching of
the website by an information service provider in the normal course
of its business to the extent permitted by the Electronic Commerce
(EC Directive) Regulations 2002. You may not publish, make a copy
of, incorporate into any other website, or electronic information
storage or retrieval system or reproduce the website information or
any part of it for any purpose other than your own personal use
without prior written consent, which may be granted at our
discretion. Where we do not own the copyright or other intellectual
property rights in the website Information, you must approach the
owner(s) for such consent. Nothing in these terms and conditions or
on the website constitutes a licence to use or copy the website
Information except as expressly provided for in these terms and
conditions.
14. You may not use any material, electronic method or any type of
process which collects, disseminates, removes or scrapes
information or material from the website for commercial purposes
including without limitation screen aggregators, robots, spiders
and scrapers or any other automated means. If you breach any of the
terms in these terms and conditions, your permission to use the
website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy
any downloaded or printed extracts from the website.
15. Any rights not expressly granted in these terms and conditions
are reserved to the Society.
16. In the event you obtain access to details of another user of
the website, you may only use such information in accordance with
all prevailing data protection and privacy laws. Such information
must not be used for spam or unsolicited commercial
communications.
17. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the
website any material:
· that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious,
offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial or
religious hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous,
inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of
privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience; or
- for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or
approvals; or
- which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be
considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or
otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any
third party, in the UK or any other country in the world; or
- which is technically harmful or causes the website to be
technically interrupted or rendered less efficient or such that the
effectiveness or functionality of the website is in any way
impaired (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic
bombs, trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or
other malicious software or harmful data, robots, spiders, scrapers
or other automated means to access the website without the
Society's express written permission).
Privacy, cookies and data protection
18. Please
see our privacy policy for full details of the information we
collect from you as part of your use of the website. By accepting
these terms and conditions, you also agree to accept the terms of
our privacy policy.
Links to and from other websites
19. Links to third party websites on the website are provided
solely for your convenience. If you use these links, you leave the
website. The Society has not reviewed these third party websites
and does not control and is not responsible for these third party
websites or their content or availability. The Society therefore
does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any
material found there, or any results that may be obtained from
using them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites
linked to the website, you do so entirely at your own risk.
20. If you would like to link to this website, you may only do so
if you first obtain our express permission.
Please e-mail the Society stating the URL details to which you
wish to link and the URL of the page on which you will be
displaying the link. We may in our discretion refuse consent, or
grant consent subject to conditions. These conditions may include
(but need not be limited to) the following:
- you do not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or
appearance of the Society's logo or name;
- you do not create a frame or any other browser or border
environment around the website;
- you do not in any way imply that the Society is endorsing any
products or services other than its own;
- you do not misrepresent your relationship with the Society nor
present any other false information about the Society, its
officers, office-bearers or members;
- you do not otherwise use any of the Society's trade marks
displayed on the website without express written permission from
the Society;
- you do not otherwise use any trade marks not owned by the
Society displayed on the website without express written permission
from the proprietor of those trade marks;
- you do not link from a website that is not owned by you;
and
- your website does not contain content that is distasteful,
offensive or controversial, infringes any intellectual property
rights or other rights of any other person or that does not comply
with condition 16 above and all other applicable laws and
regulations.
21. We expressly reserve the right to revoke at any time any
permission granted to link to the website, and to take any
consequent action we deem appropriate. You agree to indemnify us
for any loss, injury, damage, costs or expenses arising directly or
indirectly from your failure to adhere strictly to the terms of any
permission granted to link to the website.
Accuracy of website information
22. The website Information is provided "as is" and we make no
representation, endorsement or warranty as to its accuracy,
completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. We will not be
liable for any action taken (or not taken) in reliance upon the
website Information and such action is taken entirely at your own
risk. We reserve the right to make changes to the website
Information to correct any errors or omissions (or for other
reasons at our discretion) without notice and without liability to
you.
23. Opinions expressed within the website Information are those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent our opinions. In the
unlikely event that you find any inaccurate information on our
website or have any complaint about what we have published
please e-mail the Society. We will investigate on receipt
and take such action which we, in our sole discretion, determine as
being appropriate having regard to all the circumstances.
Internet service interruption, viruses etc.
24. We have no control over the Internet, which is a global
public network of computers and the method by which you access the
website. As a consequence we take no responsibility for service
interruption or the transmission of viruses or other malicious
computer code through the website.
25. We require to carry out routine maintenance on our servers and
equipment. While we seek to keep disruption to a minimum, we do not
guarantee that any part of the website will be available for access
at any particular time or times. Access to the website may be
suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system
failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond the Society's
control.
Our liability to you
26. Nothing in this agreement shall limit or exclude our
liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, or for death or
personal injury resulting from our negligence or the negligence of
our agents or employees. Subject to the foregoing, we will not be
liable for any economic losses (including, without limitation, loss
of revenues, profits, contracts, business or anticipated savings),
any loss of goodwill or reputation, or any special, indirect or
consequential damages (however arising, including negligence)
arising out of or in connection with your use of our website or
your use of the client area. Some jurisdictions do not allow the
exclusion of incidental or consequential damages, so the above
exclusion may not apply to you. To the fullest extent permitted by
law, we exclude all liability to you in contract, delict or
negligence (other than negligence by us which gives rise to
personal injury or death.)
27. We also exclude liability of any sort (including liability for
negligence) for the acts or omissions of providers of
telecommunications services through which you might access the
website or for faults in or failures of their networks and
equipment.
Your liability to us
28. By using the website and/or website information, you
undertake to fully indemnify us (and keep us fully indemnified) in
respect of all liabilities, losses, costs, damages, expenses or
other claims suffered or incurred by us which arise from your use
of the website and/or website information, or arising from your
breach of any of these terms and conditions.
General conditions
29. If we fail to exercise or delay in exercising any right or
remedy provided under these terms and conditions or by law, that
will not constitute a waiver of our rights or remedy nor shall it
prevent us from exercising that right or remedy in whole or in part
in the future.
30. Unless specifically provided otherwise, rights arising under
these terms and conditions are cumulative and do not exclude rights
provided by law.
31. These terms and conditions and the documents referred to in it
are between and for the benefit of you and us (and our successors
and assignees) and are not intended to benefit or be enforceable by
anyone else.
32. If any provision of these terms and conditions (or part of a
paragraph or provision) is found by any court or administrative
body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or
illegal, the other provisions shall remain in force.
33. If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provisions would be
valid, enforceable or legal if some part of them or it were
deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is
necessary to give effect to the original intention of these terms
and conditions.
34. References to any statute or statutory provision in these terms
and conditions shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be
construed as a reference to that statute or statutory provision as
from time to time amended, consolidated, modified, extended,
re-enacted or replaced.
35. In these terms and conditions, references to one gender include
the other genders, and to the singular include the plural and vice
versa.
36. Headings will not affect the interpretation of these terms and
conditions.
37. These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed
in accordance with Scots law. Disputes arising in connection with
these terms and conditions shall be subject to the exclusive
jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.
Transactions concluded through the website
38. Contracts for the supply of goods or services formed
through the website or as a result of visits to the website made by
you are governed by specific terms and conditions of supply.
WorldPay
39. Online payments are made using WorldPay which is part of The
Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
40. All sensitive card account details are transmitted direct to
WorldPay, not to us. The Society does not store any card account
details, payments or correspondence.