Website Terms and Conditions
LAWYAL Solicitors is an Incorporated Legal Practice providing legal services through LAWYAL Pty Ltd (ACN 619 732 526). These Terms govern your use of and access to the LAWYAL Website, Materials and any functionality, access to which (regardless of whether or not intended) is conditional on your acceptance and compliance with the Terms.
your acceptance
By submitting a query through the LAWYAL Website or by using, reading, viewing and entering the LAWYAL Website, you are deemed to have accepted the Terms on your behalf and on behalf of any LAWYAL client or third party for which you are an employee, and a binding agreement between us is formed.
Please note that if you are accepting the Terms on behalf of your employer or another entity, you represent and warrant to us that:
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you have full legal authority to solely bind your employer, or the applicable entity, to the Terms;
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you have read and understand the Terms; and
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you agree, on behalf of the party that you represent, to the Terms.
You further confirm and agree that by using the LAWYAL Website you are at least 18 years of age and are legally able to enter into a contract.
If you do not have the legal authority to enter into a contract or to solely bind your employer or the applicable entity, or you do not agree to the Terms, do not submit a legal query through the LAWYAL Website or otherwise use the LAWYAL Website.
You represent and warrant to us that the information you provide in the query form is accurate, true and complete, and you will maintain and update such information in your client homepage so that it will remain true, accurate, current and complete.
changes to terms
We may change all or part of the Terms at any time. If we do, the new Terms will be posted on the LAWYAL Website. Your subsequent or continued use of the LAWYAL Website will constitute your acceptance of any changes. As you are bound by the Terms, you should periodically read and refer to them on the LAWYAL Website and elsewhere on the site to ensure you are aware of any changes. If you object to any changes to the Terms, your only remedy is to immediately discontinue your use of the LAWYAL Website.
Any questions, comments or problems regarding the LAWYAL Website should be sent to us at info@lawyal.com.au.
These Terms were last updated on 5 October 2013.
our services
LAWYAL Solicitors is an online law firm allowing Australian businesses to ask legal queries through the LAWYAL Website so that qualified expert and independent LAWYAL Consultants can respond online with legal advice.
your account
To access or use certain parts of the LAWYAL Website, including your client homepage, you must register by providing certain information and a password. Generally, registration is free.
When registering, you must provide us with accurate, complete and up-to-date registration information, as requested. It is your responsibility to inform us of any changes to your registration information.
You must not register as a client multiple times. You must not impersonate or create a client online account for any person other than yourself. We may at any time request a form of identification to verify your identity.
username and password
When you submit a legal query through the LAWYAL Website, you are assigned a username to create and open an account with LAWYAL Solicitors. You will be asked to provide a password when you next enter the site. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password and any other security information related to your account.
You will be fully responsible for all activities that occur under your account, username or password. You may not use the account, username or password of someone else at any time. You must immediately notify us of any unauthorised use of your password, username, e-mail, or any other breach of security. We encourage you to change your password at least once a month. LAWYAL Solicitors will not be liable for any loss that you incur as a result of someone else using your account or your password, either with or without your knowledge. You may be held liable for any losses incurred by us due to someone else’s use of your account or password.
your conduct
You will be solely and fully liable for all conduct, postings and transmissions that are made under your username and password on the LAWYAL Website. You warrant and declare that while you are using the LAWYAL Website, you will act according to and agree with the following:
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We do not control or review the quality, relevance or accuracy of any legal advice provided to you by an independent LAWYAL Consultant.
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Any information or Material that you post, upload or transmit through LAWYAL Website will be your responsibility.
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You consent to us collecting, using, storing and disclosing your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
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All advices provided to you by LAWYAL Consultants will be billed through LAWYAL Solicitors, regardless of whether the interaction is through the LAWYAL Website or otherwise. You will pay LAWYAL Solicitors for all legal services provided to you by LAWYAL Consultants.
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You will not interfere with or disrupt the LAWYAL Website, servers or networks connected to the LAWYAL Website.
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You will not attempt to gain unauthorised access to other computer systems or networks connected to the LAWYAL Website, and will not use the LAWYAL Website (or Material obtained from the LAWYAL Website) to transmit (or authorise the transmission of) "junk mail," "chain letters," unsolicited emails, instant messaging, "spimming," or "spamming"; to impersonate any person or entity; to solicit money, passwords or personal information from any person; to harm, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise offend others; or for any unlawful purpose.
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You will not transmit any unlawful, harassing, defamatory, privacy invading, abusive, threatening, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, racist, harmful, or otherwise objectionable Material of any kind.
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You will not breach the Terms or any applicable law, rule, regulation or code at any time.
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You will not upload, post, e-mail, transmit, use the LAWYAL Website or otherwise make available: (a) any information or Material that infringes upon a third party right, especially intellectual property rights; (b) any third party advertisements, including banner exchange services; (c) any software viruses, Trojan horses, worms or any other malicious application; or (d) any information or Material which may constitute or encourage conduct that is a criminal offense or civil wrong or otherwise violates any applicable law.
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We enable the transfer of files between clients and LAWYAL Consultants. When opening any file attachments received from LAWYAL Consultants it is your responsibility to scan them with an anti-virus software application prior to opening them.
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You will not impersonate any person or entity, or make any false statement regarding your employment, agency or affiliation with any person or entity.
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You will not stalk, threaten or harass LAWYAL Consultants or infringe upon or attempt to infringe upon their privacy.
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We may, but are not obligated to, review your client homepage and personal profile and amend any typing or spelling errors, at our discretion. We may, in our absolute discretion, refuse to post, transmit or remove any Material uploaded to the LAWYAL Website by you.
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You will bear all the risks associated with uploading and transmitting Material to the LAWYAL Website, including reliance on its accuracy, reliability or legality.
indemnity
You agree to indemnify LAWYAL Solicitors (its affiliates, employees and officers) against any loss or damage suffered, or costs incurred, by them in connection with your use of the LAWYAL Website or any breach by you of the Terms or any other legal obligation.
deleting users
LAWYAL Solicitors can, in its absolute discretion, delete or suspend client or lawyer account users and account administrator users at any time. We may do this if a user is breaching laws, breaching the Terms of the LAWYAL Website, using the LAWYAL Website for illegal activity or in breach of the SPAM Act, or for any other reason.
interaction with consultants
LAWYAL Consultants are not employees or agents of LAWYAL Solicitors and we assume no responsibility for any act or omission of any independent LAWYAL Consultant. You understand and agree that, while a LAWYAL Consultant may have been accessed through the LAWYAL Website, LAWYAL cannot predict or assess the competence of a client's needs or the advice of a LAWYAL Consultant. Clients take full responsibility for any decision to access a LAWYAL Consultant through the LAWYAL Website and to continue to interact with the LAWYAL Consultant. You agree that the role of LAWYAL Solicitors is strictly limited to providing online access to such LAWYAL Consultants and assisting with the facilitation of the legal services of LAWYAL Consultants for a client to consider.
website access
While we use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the LAWYAL Website is available continuously, we do not make any representations or warranties that your access will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. Your access to the LAWYAL Website may be suspended without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or any reason beyond our control.
Except as expressly provided otherwise in the Terms, we reserve the right to change or discontinue the LAWYAL Website, features or services (or part thereof) on the LAWYAL Website at any time.
links to external sites
The LAWYAL Website may contain links to external websites and external websites may link to the LAWYAL Website. We are not responsible for the Material or operation of any such external sites. These linked websites are not under the control of LAWYAL Solicitors. We provide these links to you as a convenience only, and the inclusion of any link does not imply any sponsorship or endorsement of the linked website, or approval of any material on the website.
We make no warranties or representations regarding the quality, accuracy or fitness for purpose of any material on other websites to which Material is linked. You link to any such website entirely at your own risk. When visiting other websites you should refer to each such website’s individual terms of use and not rely on these Terms.
limitation of liability
Your access and use the LAWYAL Website at your sole risk. To the extent permitted by law, we limit our liability as follows:
(a) LAWYAL Consultants – limitation of liability
LAWYAL Solicitors enables you to communicate with LAWYAL Consultants, however makes no representation or warranty whatsoever as to: (a) the willingness or ability of any LAWYAL Consultant to give advice; (b) whether the client shall find the advice given by a LAWYAL Consultant satisfactory; (c) whether the advice of the LAWYAL Consultant will provide an adequate solution to your question; or (d) whether the LAWYAL Consultant’s advice will otherwise be suitable to your needs.
While LAWYAL Solicitors carefully selects qualified and experienced legal experts to provide services to clients, LAWYAL does not verify, evaluate or guarantee any advice, information or other services provided to clients by LAWYAL Consultants. LAWYAL Consultants act independently under their own Professional Indemnity insurance in respect of the advice they give to clients. Nothing shall be considered as a guarantee from us of any LAWYAL Consultant or their advice.
We do not warrant the validity, accuracy, completeness, safety, legality, quality or applicability of the Material or anything said or written by LAWYAL Consultants or any advice provided by them, including any information contained in any LAWYAL Consultant’s advice. To the extent permitted by law, LAWYAL Solicitors will not be liable for any damages sustained due to reliance by a client on any information or advice provided by a LAWYAL Consultant.
In accessing or using the LAWYAL Website, to the extent permitted by law, you hereby release and agree to hold harmless LAWYAL Pty Ltd, its directors, officers, employees, agents, successors, advisors, consultants, and assigns from any and all causes of action and claims of any nature resulting from the acts of LAWYAL Consultants accessed through the LAWYAL Website. Opinions of the LAWYAL Consultant are solely their opinions, and not those of LAWYAL Solicitors. We do not assume any liability or responsibility for damage or injury to persons or property arising from the use of any information or advice given by an independent LAWYAL Consultant.
(b) LAWYAL Website – limitation of liability
We exclude all conditions and warranties relating to your use of the LAWYAL Website that are not expressly set out in the Terms. To the extent that our liability for breach of any implied warranty or condition cannot be excluded by law, our liability will be limited, at our option, to the:
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re-supply of those any services provided to you; or
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payment of the cost of having those services re-supplied.
In relation to any express warranty or condition set out in the Terms in connection with services supplied or offered by us via the LAWYAL Website, our liability to you will be limited to the amount(s) paid by you (if any) in respect of those services.
In no circumstances will we be liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special and/or consequential losses or damages (including loss of profits, revenue, production, goodwill, data or opportunity) of whatever nature howsoever arising in connection with the LAWYAL Website.
We do not warrant or represent to you in any way the following:
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that the Material will not cause any damage;
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that the functions contained in any Material, or your access to the LAWYAL Website, will be reliable, uninterrupted or error-free;
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that any defects will be corrected;
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that the LAWYAL Website or the server which stores and transmits Material to you are free of computer viruses or any other harmful components, defects or errors;
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in relation to your access to, or the results of your access to, the LAWYAL Website (including any related or linked websites);
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in relation to the functionality of links to other websites, the security of those websites or the reliability or accuracy of the information contained on those websites; or
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in relation to any Material in terms of correctness, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, reliability or otherwise.
You expressly acknowledge and agree that:
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under no circumstances (including but not limited to any act or omission on the part of LAWYAL Solicitors) will we be liable for any loss or damages (including, without limitation, indirect, incidental, special or consequential or punitive damages and damages for loss of profits) whatsoever which result from any use or access of, or any inability to use or access, the LAWYAL Website or any Material; and
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we do not exert control over users of the LAWYAL Website and are not liable either for their opinions or their behaviour including any information or advice provided by LAWYAL Consultants, and any defamatory statements, or offensive or illegal conduct.
(c) Material – limitation of liability
The Material of the LAWYAL Website is a summary only of the subject matter covered, without an assumption of a duty of care by LAWYAL Solicitors or its contributors. The summary should not be relied on as a substitute for legal or other professional advice.
Changes may be made periodically to the Material and the Material could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. We do not make any representation or warranty that any Material on the LAWYAL Website will be reliable, accurate or complete, nor do we accept any responsibility arising in any way from errors or omissions.
No client or other reader should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information contained in the LAWYAL Website without seeking appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue. We do not accept any responsibility for loss, which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained on the LAWYAL Website. LAWYAL Solicitors hereby expressly disclaims, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by clients or other readers on the basis on such information.
We are not responsible for, and accept no liability with respect to, any Material uploaded, posted, transmitted or otherwise made available on the LAWYAL Website by any person, including LAWYAL Consultants. For the avoidance of doubt, we will not be taken to have uploaded, posted, transmitted or otherwise made Material available on the LAWYAL Website simply by facilitating others such as LAWYAL Consultants to post, transmit or other make Material available.
We will not be liable for loss resulting from any action or decision by you in reliance on the Material on the LAWYAL Website, nor any interruption, delay in operation or transmission, virus, communications failure, Internet access difficulties, or malfunction in equipment or software. You acknowledge that we are not responsible for, and accept no liability in relation to, any other users' use of, access to or conduct in connection with the LAWYAL Website in any circumstance.
ownership
The LAWYAL Website is owned and operated by LAWYAL Solicitors. All specific features and functionality of the LAWYAL Website are to be determined solely by us and are subject to change or termination without notice.
copyright
The LAWYAL Website contains Material that is protected by copyright, trade mark and other laws, and that is owned by us or our suppliers or licensors (as the case may be). Except where expressly provided otherwise in the Terms, you may reproduce and display the Material on the LAWYAL Website for your own personal, non-commercial use only. Except for the temporary copy held in your computer's cache and a single permanent copy for your personal reference, the Material may not otherwise be used, stored, reproduced, published, altered or transmitted in any form or by any means in whole or part without our or our licensor's prior written approval.
The use of Materials from the LAWYAL Website on any other website or networked computer environment is similarly prohibited. You must not use the LAWYAL Website in any manner or for any unlawful purpose or in any manner that violates any of our copyrights subsisting in the Material or which is prohibited by the Terms.
All rights not expressly granted in the Terms are reserved.
trade marks
All trade marks displayed on the LAWYAL Website are trade marks of LAWYAL Solicitors. Nothing contained on the LAWYAL Website should be construed as granting any licence or right of use of any logo or trade mark displayed on the LAWYAL Website without our express written permission.
We make no warranties or representations that material on other websites to which the Material is linked does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any person anywhere in the world. We are not, and must not be taken to be, authorising infringement of any intellectual property rights contained in material on other websites by linking that material.
Except where expressly provided otherwise in the Terms, you do not have any right, title or interest in or to any proprietary rights relating to the LAWYAL Website.
confidentiality
We will endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep confidential and secure any information we hold about you, and to keep this information accurate and up to date. We also require our employees, independent LAWYAL Consultants and data processors to respect the confidentiality of any personal information held by LAWYAL Solicitors. All legal advice provided by LAWYAL Solicitors or LAWYAL Consultants are subject to professional privilege. For more information on privacy and confidentiality, please see the Privacy Policy.
compliance with laws outside australia
We make no representation that the Material or the LAWYAL Website complies with laws (including intellectual property laws) of any country outside Australia. If you access the Website from outside Australia, you do so on your own responsibility and are responsible for ensuring compliance with all laws in the place where you are located.
termination
We may at any time without notice immediately terminate your agreement under these Terms and your use and access to the LAWYAL Website. In the event of termination, you are no longer authorised to use or access the LAWYAL Website, however, all restrictions imposed on you and any disclaimers and limitations of liability set out in the Terms survive the termination.
governing law
These Terms will be governed by and construed according to the laws of New South Wales, Australia without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. You agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts and tribunals of New South Wales.
severability
If any provision of these Terms are held invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the Terms will remain otherwise in full force apart from that provision which will be deemed deleted.
definitions
In these terms and conditions:
"Terms" means these terms and conditions, together with the LAWYAL Privacy Policy, LAWYAL Website Privacy Statement and any additional terms, conditions, notices and disclaimers displayed elsewhere on the LAWYAL Website.
"LAWYAL Consultants" means qualified and experienced lawyers engaged by LAWYAL Solicitors as independent consultants who hold their own Australian Business Number and Professional Indemnity Insurance in respect of the legal advice they provide LAWYAL clients.
"LAWYAL Website" means all of the websites that we own and/or operate from time to time, regardless of how those websites are accessed by users (including via the Internet, mobile phone or any other device), including www.lawyal.com.au.
"Material" means information, documents, text, material, illustrations, photos, audio, video, software, content and advertisements and any combination of these or other material.
"Us", "we" or "our" means LAWYAL Pty Ltd (ACN 619 732 526) trading as LAWYAL Solicitors, and includes its directors and officers.