Terms and Conditions of use
Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use the site. By using our site, you indicate that you accept these terms of use and you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use please refrain from using our site.
USE OF AND ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT OF ITSELF CREATE A SOLICITOR/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND ACCESS LEGAL FROM SHOOSMITHS AND WHERE SUCH AN ARRANGEMENT DOES EXIST IT IS GOVERNED BY SEPARATE OFF-LINE TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT.
If you require advice on a specific legal problem complete an online enquiry form or a call-back form on this website. The content on this website is for general information only and should not be regarded as an exhaustive analysis of the law. It is provided to the public free of charge, does not constitute legal advice and must not be relied upon as such to make any decisions. For that reason users should seek specific legal advice about any matter which concerns them.
Information about us
This website is provided by Shoosmiths of The Lakes, Northampton, NN4 7SH trading as Access Legal from Shoosmiths. Shoosmiths is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
References on this website and in these terms and conditions to:
"Access Legal from Shoosmiths" or "we" or "our" or "us" shall mean Shoosmiths trading as Access Legal from Shoosmiths and/or its affiliated undertakings; and
"you" or "your" shall mean the user of this website. If you are accessing or using this website in your capacity as an employee, director, officer, partner or agent of a corporate or unincorporated entity "you" and "your" shall refer to you and such entity and you represent that you are authorised to accept these terms and conditions on behalf of such entity and agree to be personally bound by these terms and conditions.
Accessing our site
Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable for any time or for any period.
From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.
We cannot guarantee that this website and its document delivery system will operate in accordance with your expectations or will be error free. If you are aware of any error on this website please contact us by email at enquiries@shoosmiths.co.uk and we will endeavour to correct it.
We make no claims that any material contained on the website can be lawfully viewed or downloaded outside of the United Kingdom. Access to materials may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you are accessing the website from outside the United Kingdom you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with laws in your jurisdiction.
Reliance on information posted
Whilst Access Legal from Shoosmiths endeavours to ensure that content on the website is accurate at the date of publication, no warranties or representations are given as to its accuracy, completeness, reliability, suitability or quality. Content may subsequently be superseded and Access Legal from Shoosmiths gives no guarantees that contents will be updated after the date of publication. As such, Access Legal from Shoosmiths accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, reliability, suitability or quality of any content on the website and to the fullest extent permissible by law.
Your attention is drawn to this clause
Access Legal from Shoosmiths excludes all liability (save in respect to death and personal injury caused by negligence and for fraud) for any loss or damage caused by using or relying upon the content appearing on this website. In particular, we will not be liable to you or any third party for any consequential loss or damage including any financial loss, loss of profit, revenue or business.
Intellectual property
We and our suppliers own the intellectual property rights in the software that runs this website and the material published on it. Save to the extent expressly permitted by applicable laws, you must not copy, modify, download, distribute, decipher, de-compile interfere with or attempt to interfere with that software without our written consent.
You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site (other than documents, files or other information contained in the restricted areas which are subject to the terms set out in the Restricted Areas section) for your personal preference and you may draw the attention of others to material posted on our site.
You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from the accompanying text.
You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.
Viruses, hacking and other offences
It is our policy to virus check documents and files before they are posted on this website. However, we cannot guarantee that documents or files downloaded from this website will be free from viruses. Accordingly, for your own protection, you must use virus-checking software when using this website. You must not post or provide to us via this website, any document or file which you believe may contain a virus. You must virus check any document or file which you intend to post or provide to us via this website.
You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any service, computer or database on our site.
By breaching this provision you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such breach your right to use our site will cease immediately.
Your attention is drawn to this clause
We exclude to the fullest extent permitted by law, all liability (save in respect of death or personal injury caused by negligence and for fraud) in connection with (a) any damage or loss caused by errors, computer viruses, other malicious code or harmful components originating or contracted from the website and (b) any interruptions in your access to the website.
Acceptable use
You may only use this website for lawful purposes. You warrant that any document, file or other information that you intend to post to our website or provide to us via this website does not contravene any applicable laws or contravene any person's legal rights and you warrant that you will not post or upload anything indecent, obscene, abusive, libellous or defamatory. We do not monitor or edit documents or files posted or provided to us by other persons for posting on this website and accordingly we do not accept any responsibility for their content or for any damage or loss you may suffer. You hereby acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for the form, content and accuracy of any documents or files that you post on the website. We reserve the right to remove material from this website that infringes these rules.
Links from our sites
If you decide to access any third party websites linked to this website, you do this entirely at your own risk. Access Legal from Shoosmiths provides these links merely as a convenience and the inclusion of such links does not imply that Access Legal from Shoosmiths endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content or use of such web sites. You may be subject to the terms of use applicable to such third party sites.
Linking to our site
All electronic links to any part of this site require the consent of Access Legal from Shoosmiths. Please email requests to graeme.smillie@shoosmiths.co.uk. Where consent is not obtained we reserve the right to remove any link at anytime.
If you would like to link to the website, you may only do so on the basis that you link to, but do not replicate, the website, and subject to the following conditions:
(a) you do not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or appearance of the Access Legal from Shoosmiths logo;
(b) you do not create a frame or any other browser or border environment around the website;
(c) you do not in any way imply that Access Legal from Shoosmiths is endorsing any products or services other than its own;
(d) you do not misrepresent your relationship with Access Legal from Shoosmiths nor present any other false information about Access Legal from Shoosmiths;
(e) you do not otherwise use any Access Legal from Shoosmiths trade marks displayed on the website without express written permission from Access Legal from Shoosmiths;
(f) you do not link from a website that is not owned by you; and
(g) 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 otherwise does not comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
Access Legal from Shoosmiths expressly reserves the right to revoke the linking permission without notice for breach of these terms and to take any action it deems appropriate.
You shall fully indemnify Access Legal from Shoosmiths for any loss or damage suffered by Access Legal from Shoosmiths or any or any of its group companies for breach of the right to link to the site.
Restricted access
- Access Legal from Shoosmiths provides a variety of services to clients and third parties online which are accessible only with a username and password. Other services are available and are governed by separate terms and conditions.
- Access to the Restricted Areas is restricted to authorised persons. If you believe you have been granted access to any document or file by mistake, please leave the Restricted Area immediately and contact us by email at enquiries@shoosmiths.co.uk as soon as possible. Please also contact us by email at enquiries@shoosmiths.co.uk if we have notified you that you are permitted to access a Restricted Area but are unable to obtain access to it.
- The Restricted Areas should only be accessed using a computer linked to a secure network environment.
- You must not allow any other person to use your username, password or other login details. If you believe someone else knows your login details please contact us by email at qh-support@shoosmiths.co.uk as soon as possible.
- In the case of certain Restricted Areas we will supply you with temporary login details which must be changed on your first accessing the Restricted Area. The login details should be at least 8 characters in length and contain alpha and numeric characters. You should not choose details that may be easily identifiable by others. Login details should be changed regularly and not less than once every 6 weeks.
- We reserve the right to remove you from the authorised list of users for any Restricted Area of this website at any time.
- Parts of this website incorporate 128 bit encryption technology, however, we cannot guarantee that unauthorised people will not be able to access confidential information hosted on or downloaded from this website.
- The information, documents and files hosted on the Restricted Areas are confidential and may be privileged. You must not distribute the documents and files hosted in these areas except to persons authorised by Access Legal from Shoosmiths to read them. If you believe that you may have been granted access to information, a document or a file by mistake you must not download it, copy it, use it for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person. Where you are subject to a separate agreement or undertaking (such as a confidentiality agreement) then such agreement or undertaking shall apply in addition to and, in the case of conflict or inconsistency, in priority to these terms and conditions.
- You shall not obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to a Restricted Area or to a Restricted Area other than that which has been identified as being available to you through the logins and passwords notified to you or to any other area of Access Legal from Shoosmiths' computer system or network nor will you attempt to evade our authentication or security procedures nor assist, encourage or permit any other person to do any of the above things.
- You should be aware that some of the documents, files and other information may contain personal data subject to applicable data protection legislation. You must not use that data contrary to such legislation. To the extent that your jurisdiction does not have in force data protection legislation at least as stringent as that applying in England from time to time you undertake to treat such personal data as if it were subject to the legislation applying in England from time to time to the extent it is more stringent.
- Access Legal from Shoosmiths shall not be liable for any losses you suffer as a result of unauthorised access to your account until such time as you have informed us of unauthorised use or possible unauthorised use of your login details or of a breach of security.
- Nothing in these Terms and Conditions of Use shall be deemed to limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or for fraud.
- Subject to the foregoing, Access Legal from Shoosmiths shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever resulting from your use of a Restricted Area other than in accordance with these terms including but without limitation any special, consequential or indirect loss, any loss of profit or goodwill, any loss of data or for any business or economic loss arising out of the use of or the inability to use a Restricted Area. We do not charge you any separate fee for access to and use of the Restricted Areas. On this basis you agree that these terms, and in particular the limits on our liability and obligations, are fair and reasonable.
- If you are accessing a Restricted Area to use the services available through it otherwise than in the course of your business, you have certain statutory rights as a consumer regarding the performance of services. These statutory rights will not be affected by any statement contained in these terms and conditions.
General provisions
We reserve the right to vary or amend these terms and conditions from time to time. Any changes shall take effect upon posting to this website.
Any dispute arising between you and Access Legal from Shoosmiths in relation to this website shall be governed by English law and you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts for the purposes of any such dispute.
If any of these terms and conditions is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, that shall not affect:
(a) the legality, validity or enforceability in that jurisdiction of any other term or condition which shall continue to have full force and effect; or
(b) the legality, validity or enforceability in other jurisdictions of that or any other term or condition which shall continue to have full force and effect.
A person who is not a party to these terms and conditions may not enforce any of its terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
No waiver of any of these terms and conditions shall be valid unless provided in writing by Access Legal from Shoosmiths.
The trade marks, logos and trade names displayed on the website ("Marks") are the property of Access Legal from Shoosmiths or other third parties. You are not permitted to download, copy, modify or use the Marks without the prior written consent of Access Legal from Shoosmiths or such third party who may own the Marks. The design and layout of the website is protected by copyright, database right, design rights and other similar laws and may not be copied or imitated in whole or in part.
Access Legal from Shoosmiths is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, but we may, in certain circumstances, offer a restricted range of investment services to clients, as the firm is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We can provide these investment services if they arise out of, or are incidental to, legal services we have been engaged to provide.
If you are accessing this website in the course of a business the express provisions of these terms are in place of all warranties, conditions, terms, undertakings and obligations implied by statute, common law, custom, trade usage, course of dealing or otherwise, all of which are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
