Website Terms of Use

These terms govern your access to and use of this website. They are separate from, and do not replace, the written engagement agreement that governs any legal representation the Firm may provide.

Effective date: Owner to insert effective date • Document version: Owner to insert version reference • Prepared by: Owner to insert responsible person

Draft for the Firm’s review. This document is a professionally structured draft prepared for adaptation by the Firm and its qualified legal advisers in the relevant jurisdiction(s). It has not been reviewed against the law or professional conduct rules of any specific jurisdiction. All items marked as placeholders must be completed, and every clause must be confirmed, before publication. See the publication checklist supplied with this website.

1. Introduction and acceptance

1.1 These Website Terms of Use (the Terms) are a legal agreement between you and Owner to insert legal entity name and form (the Firm, we, us, or our), which operates this website at Owner to insert primary domain (the Website).

1.2 By accessing, browsing, or otherwise using the Website, you confirm that you have read and understood these Terms and that you agree to be bound by them, together with the Acceptable Use Policy, the Privacy Policy, the Legal Disclaimer, the Fees, Cancellations and Refund Policy, and the Compliance and Law Enforcement Requests Policy, each of which is incorporated into these Terms by reference (together, the Website Documents).

1.3 If you do not agree with these Terms or any of the Website Documents, you must not use the Website.

1.4 These Terms concern the Website only. They do not create, evidence, vary, or govern any lawyer–client relationship, and they are subordinate to any separate written engagement agreement between you and the Firm (an Engagement Agreement) in respect of the subject matter of that Engagement Agreement.

2. Definitions and interpretation

2.1 In these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise:

Content means all material made available on or through the Website, including text, articles, commentary, graphics, the Firm’s emblem and wordmark, layout, design elements, and downloadable documents.
Engagement Agreement means a written agreement executed by the Firm and a client that defines the scope, terms, and fee basis of legal services.
Prospective Client means a person or organisation that contacts the Firm to explore whether the Firm may act, before any Engagement Agreement is executed.
Submission means any information, message, inquiry, document, or other material you send to the Firm through the Website or through an email address or link published on the Website.
Applicable Law means the laws, regulations, and rules of professional conduct that apply to the Firm and to your use of the Website, as identified in section 23.
User, you, and your mean any person who accesses or uses the Website.

2.2 Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. The words “including”, “includes”, and “in particular” are illustrative and do not limit the words that precede them. References to a document are to that document as amended from time to time.

2.3 Where a term is defined in another Website Document, that definition applies when the term is used in these Terms unless a different meaning is given here.

3. The Firm and the purpose of this website

3.1 The Firm is a legal practice. Its legal form, registered office, the jurisdictions in which its lawyers are admitted or authorised to practise, its regulator, and its registration details are set out at Owner to insert entity, jurisdiction(s), regulator, and registration details.

3.2 The Website exists to provide general information about the Firm, the kinds of matters it proposes to handle, and how to make contact. The practice-area descriptions on the Website are proposed content and are subject to confirmation by the Firm before they are relied upon.

3.3 The Website is not directed at any person in any jurisdiction where the publication or availability of the Website would be contrary to Applicable Law, and it should not be regarded as an offer or solicitation to provide legal services in any such jurisdiction.

3.4 The Firm’s emblem and wordmark are decorative brand elements. They are not, and must not be presented as, an official seal, a government or judicial insignia, a bar association or law society device, or a certification, accreditation, or quality mark.

4. Website use is not legal representation

4.1 Using the Website, reading its Content, or sending a Submission does not make the Firm your lawyer and does not create any duty on the part of the Firm to advise you, to act for you, or to protect your interests.

4.2 The Firm provides legal services only under an Engagement Agreement. The scope of any representation, the lawyers responsible, the fee basis, and the mutual obligations of the Firm and the client are governed exclusively by that Engagement Agreement and by the rules of professional conduct that apply to the Firm.

4.3 If there is any inconsistency between these Terms and an Engagement Agreement in relation to the matter covered by that Engagement Agreement, the Engagement Agreement prevails for that matter. These Terms continue to govern all other use of the Website.

5. No lawyer–client relationship through this website

5.1 A lawyer–client relationship with the Firm is formed only when: (a) the Firm has carried out and cleared its conflict-of-interest checks; (b) the Firm has confirmed in writing that it is willing to act; and (c) an Engagement Agreement has been executed by both the Firm and the client.

5.2 Until all of the steps in section 5.1 are complete, you are a Prospective Client at most, and the Firm: (a) is not acting for you; (b) is not responsible for advising you on any time limit, limitation period, filing date, notice requirement, or other deadline; and (c) may communicate with, advise, or act for other persons, including persons whose interests are adverse to yours, subject to Applicable Law.

5.3 The Firm does not accept instructions, retainers, or responsibility for any matter through the Website. Any statement on the Website that could be read as an offer to act is subject to section 5.1.

6. Eligibility and authority to accept these Terms

6.1 You may use the Website only if you are able to form a legally binding contract under Applicable Law and are not barred from doing so.

6.2 If you use the Website on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you are authorised to accept these Terms on that organisation’s behalf, and references to “you” include that organisation.

6.3 The Website is intended for a general professional and adult audience and is not directed at children. The Firm does not knowingly collect information from children through the Website.

7. Permitted use and limited licence

7.1 Subject to your compliance with these Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy, the Firm grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and view the Website and its Content for your own information and for the purpose of considering whether to contact the Firm.

7.2 You may print or download individual pages of the Website for your own reference, provided that you do not remove any copyright, trade mark, or other proprietary notices, and that you do not modify the material.

7.3 Except as permitted by section 7.2 or by Applicable Law that cannot be excluded by agreement, you must not: (a) reproduce, republish, distribute, or commercially exploit any Content; (b) use any Content to create a derivative work or a competing resource; (c) use the Firm’s emblem, wordmark, or name in a way that suggests association, endorsement, or authorisation that does not exist; or (d) use the Website or Content to train, fine-tune, or develop any machine-learning model or dataset without the Firm’s prior written consent.

7.4 The licence in section 7.1 ends automatically if you breach these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

8. Intellectual property

8.1 The Website and all Content are owned by the Firm or its licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. This includes the selection, arrangement, and presentation of the Content, and the Firm’s emblem and wordmark.

8.2 Nothing on the Website transfers any intellectual property right to you or grants any right beyond the limited licence in section 7.

8.3 If you believe that Content on the Website infringes a right you hold, please contact the Firm using the details in section 27 with enough information to identify the material and the right concerned. The Firm will review credible notices and take appropriate action, which may include removing or amending the material.

9. Acceptable use and prohibited conduct

9.1 Your use of the Website must at all times be lawful. The Acceptable Use Policy forms part of these Terms and sets out in detail what is and is not permitted.

9.2 Without limiting the Acceptable Use Policy, you must not use the Website to:

engage in or facilitate fraud, phishing, deception, impersonation, or social engineering, including impersonating the Firm, its personnel, or any other person;
further money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, corruption, sanctions evasion, tax evasion, or any other financial crime;
gain or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, its servers, or any connected system, or to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system without authorisation;
introduce or transmit any malware, ransomware, harmful code, or automated agent that could damage, disable, or impair the Website or interfere with any other user’s use of it;
collect, harvest, scrape, or index personal information or Content by automated means, or frame or mirror any part of the Website, except as expressly permitted in writing;
send abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or threatening communications, or communications that infringe the rights of others;
misuse personal information obtained from or through the Website, or upload personal information of third parties without a lawful basis to do so; or
infringe the intellectual property rights, confidentiality, privacy, or other legal rights of the Firm or any third party.

9.3 The Firm may report suspected unlawful conduct to the relevant authorities and may preserve and disclose information as described in the Compliance and Law Enforcement Requests Policy.

10. Submissions, communications, and your responsibility

10.1 You are responsible for every Submission you make and for all activity that takes place through your use of the Website. You must ensure that your Submissions are accurate, lawful, and not misleading, and that you are entitled to provide any information they contain.

10.2 The Firm does not undertake to read, act on, or respond to any Submission within any particular time, or at all, unless and until an Engagement Agreement is in place.

10.3 You grant the Firm permission to retain and use Submissions to the extent necessary to respond to your inquiry, to run conflict checks, to comply with the Firm’s legal and professional obligations, and to keep records, in each case as described in the Privacy Policy.

10.4 The Firm may decline to receive, may delete, or may return any Submission, and may decline to respond, without giving reasons, subject to Applicable Law.

11. Unsolicited and confidential information

11.1 Please keep any first contact with the Firm brief and general. Do not send sensitive, privileged, or confidential information through the Website or by email until the Firm has confirmed it can consider your matter and has told you how to share information securely.

11.2 Information you send before a lawyer–client relationship is formed may not be treated as confidential or privileged, may need to be reviewed for conflicts, and may not prevent the Firm from acting for another person in the same or a related matter, in each case to the extent permitted by Applicable Law and the applicable rules of professional conduct.

11.3 The Firm will nonetheless handle personal information in Submissions in accordance with the Privacy Policy and Applicable Law.

12. No legal advice and no reliance

12.1 The Content is general information about legal topics and about the Firm. It is not legal advice, is not a substitute for advice on your particular circumstances, and must not be relied upon as such.

12.2 The law changes and its application depends on the facts. The Content may not be current, complete, or applicable to your situation. You should obtain specific advice before acting or refraining from acting on any matter covered by the Content.

12.3 No general material on the Website is individualised legal advice, and reading it does not put the Firm on notice of your circumstances or create any obligation to correct or update that material for you.

13. No guarantee of outcomes

13.1 The Firm does not guarantee any particular result in any matter. Statements on the Website about the Firm’s approach describe how it intends to work; they are not promises about outcomes, timescales, or costs.

13.2 Legal matters are inherently uncertain and depend on factors outside the Firm’s control, including the conduct of third parties, the decisions of courts and authorities, and changes in the law. Any assessment the Firm gives, whether on the Website or under an Engagement Agreement, is an opinion and not a warranty.

14. Availability, changes, and discontinuation

14.1 The Firm aims to keep the Website available but does not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free. Access may be suspended, withdrawn, or restricted for maintenance, security, legal, or operational reasons.

14.2 The Firm may change, add to, or remove any part of the Website or the Content at any time. The Firm is not obliged to keep any Content available or up to date.

14.3 The Firm may set technical limits on use of the Website, including limits on request rates and automated access, to protect the Website and its users.

15. Third-party links and resources

15.1 The Website may contain links to third-party websites or resources. Those links are provided for convenience only. The Firm does not control, endorse, or accept responsibility for the content, products, or services of any third-party site.

15.2 Your use of any third-party website is at your own risk and is governed by that website’s own terms and privacy practices.

16. Access restrictions and refusal of new engagements

16.1 The Firm may, in its discretion and to the extent permitted by Applicable Law, restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to the Website if it considers that you have breached these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, that your use presents a legal, security, or reputational risk, or that restriction is required by law or by a competent authority.

16.2 The Firm is entitled to decline to accept any new matter or any prospective client, and is not obliged to give reasons, except where Applicable Law or the applicable rules of professional conduct require otherwise. Reasons for declining may include conflicts of interest, capacity, the nature of the matter, the results of client due diligence, sanctions or anti-money-laundering considerations, or the Firm’s assessment that it is not well placed to assist.

16.3 A decision to decline a new engagement is not legal advice about the merits of the matter and should not be understood as such.

17. Withdrawal from existing representation

17.1 Where the Firm is already acting for a client under an Engagement Agreement, the Firm may cease to act or withdraw from the representation only as permitted or required by the applicable rules of professional conduct, any applicable court rules or orders, and Applicable Law, and in accordance with the Engagement Agreement.

17.2 Circumstances in which the Firm may be permitted or required to withdraw include a conflict of interest that cannot be managed, non-payment of fees after due notice, a breakdown in the working relationship, the client requiring the Firm to act in a way that is unlawful or contrary to professional obligations, or a legal or regulatory prohibition on continuing.

17.3 Where the Firm withdraws, it will take the steps reasonably practicable and professionally required to protect the client’s position, including giving reasonable notice where possible, cooperating with successor counsel, and dealing with client property and files in accordance with Applicable Law and professional rules.

17.4 Nothing in this section allows the Firm to abandon a client in a manner that the applicable rules of professional conduct prohibit.

18. Disclaimers of warranties

18.1 The Website and the Content are provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by Applicable Law, the Firm disclaims all warranties, conditions, and representations of any kind, whether express or implied, in relation to the Website and the Content, including any implied warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

18.2 The Firm does not warrant that the Website will be free of viruses or other harmful components, and you are responsible for using appropriate protection.

18.3 This section does not exclude or limit any warranty or other right that cannot be excluded or limited under Applicable Law, and does not affect the Firm’s professional obligations to its clients under an Engagement Agreement.

19. Limitation of liability

19.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits the Firm’s liability where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes, depending on the jurisdiction, liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, liability that cannot be excluded under consumer-protection law, and liability that cannot be excluded under the rules of professional conduct that apply to the Firm.

19.2 Subject to section 19.1, and to the fullest extent permitted by Applicable Law, the Firm will not be liable to you for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Website or the Content, including: (a) loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, or anticipated savings; (b) loss or corruption of data; (c) loss arising from your reliance on the Content; and (d) any indirect or consequential loss.

19.3 Subject to section 19.1, the Firm’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Website and these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, is limited to Owner to insert a reasonable cap consistent with Applicable Law and the Firm’s professional indemnity arrangements.

19.4 This section governs liability connected with use of the Website. It does not govern, cap, or reduce the Firm’s liability to a client for the provision of legal services, which is dealt with in the relevant Engagement Agreement and is subject to the applicable rules of professional conduct and any mandatory minimum cover requirements.

19.5 The Firm does not represent that it, its owners, or its personnel have any immunity from liability. Any limitation in these Terms applies only to the extent the law allows.

20. Indemnity for unlawful misuse

20.1 You agree to indemnify the Firm, and its personnel, against reasonable losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal costs) that the Firm actually incurs and that arise directly from: (a) your unlawful use of the Website; (b) your breach of section 9 or of the Acceptable Use Policy; (c) your infringement of a third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights through your use of the Website; or (d) a Submission you make that is unlawful, fraudulent, or knowingly false.

20.2 This indemnity does not apply to the extent that the loss or liability results from the Firm’s own negligence, wilful misconduct, breach of these Terms, or breach of its professional or legal obligations, and it does not shift to you any responsibility for the Firm’s professional conduct or for advice the Firm gives to its clients.

20.3 The Firm will notify you promptly of any claim to which the indemnity may apply, will not settle such a claim in a way that imposes obligations on you without your consent (not to be unreasonably withheld), and will take reasonable steps to mitigate its loss.

21. Sanctions, export controls, and client due diligence

21.1 The Firm is subject to laws on economic sanctions, and may be subject to export-control and anti-money-laundering laws, that affect whom it may deal with and what services it may provide. Details of the regimes that apply to the Firm are at Owner to identify applicable sanctions, export-control, and AML regimes, or state that this is under review.

21.2 By using the Website you confirm that, to your knowledge, you are not a person with whom the Firm is prohibited from dealing under applicable sanctions laws, and that you are not using the Website to arrange services that would breach such laws.

21.3 Before accepting any engagement, the Firm may be required to carry out client identification and verification and other due-diligence checks, and to decline or discontinue work if those requirements cannot be met. This is described further in the Compliance and Law Enforcement Requests Policy.

22. Privacy and cookies

22.1 The Firm’s handling of personal information in connection with the Website is described in the Privacy Policy.

22.2 The Website is built to operate without analytics, tracking cookies, advertising technology, or third-party embeds by default. If the Firm later introduces any cookie or similar technology that is not strictly necessary, it will update the Privacy Policy and obtain consent where Applicable Law requires it.

23. Governing law and jurisdiction

23.1 These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter, are governed by the laws of Owner to insert governing law; do not assume a jurisdiction.

23.2 The courts of Owner to insert agreed forum have exclusive / non-exclusive — owner to choose jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim, subject to section 23.3.

23.3 If you are a consumer, you may benefit from mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident, and nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of those provisions or of your right to bring proceedings in the courts that Applicable Law says are available to you.

24. Complaints, dispute resolution, and non-waivable rights

24.1 If you have a concern about the Website, please contact the Firm using the details in section 27. The Firm will acknowledge your concern and aim to respond within a reasonable time.

24.2 Complaints about legal services provided under an Engagement Agreement are handled under the Firm’s client-complaints procedure and the applicable professional rules, which may also give you the right to refer a complaint to an independent body at Owner to insert relevant ombudsman or regulator, where applicable.

24.3 Nothing in these Terms removes or limits any right you have that cannot be waived under Applicable Law, including non-waivable consumer rights and any right to bring a matter before a court or competent authority.

25. Changes to these Terms

25.1 The Firm may amend these Terms from time to time. The current version is always the one published on the Website, with the effective date shown at the top.

25.2 Material changes will be indicated by updating the effective date and, where the Firm considers it appropriate, by a notice on the Website. Your continued use of the Website after a change takes effect means you accept the amended Terms. If you do not accept them, you must stop using the Website.

26. General provisions

26.1 Entire agreement. These Terms and the other Website Documents are the entire agreement between you and the Firm regarding your use of the Website, and replace any earlier understanding on that subject. This does not affect any Engagement Agreement.

26.2 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary or severed, and the remaining provisions will continue in effect.

26.3 No waiver. A failure or delay by the Firm in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of its right to do so later.

26.4 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms. The Firm may assign or transfer its rights and obligations to a successor to its practice, subject to Applicable Law and professional rules, and provided your rights are not prejudiced.

26.5 No third-party rights. Except for the Firm’s personnel in relation to sections 19 and 20, a person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to enforce them.

26.6 Notices. The Firm may give notices under these Terms by posting them on the Website or by emailing an address you have provided. You should send notices to the Firm using the details in section 27.

26.7 Force majeure. The Firm is not liable for any failure or delay in making the Website available that is caused by events beyond its reasonable control.

27. How to contact us

27.1 Questions about these Terms should be sent to the Firm at inquiries@ioannadigital.example (Owner to confirm the monitored contact address) or to Owner to insert postal address for legal notices.

27.2 Please remember the guidance in section 11: do not include sensitive or confidential information in a first message.