Service Terms and Conditions
Barrister Terms and Conditions
1. Introduction
1.1 These terms and conditions (Terms) are the terms and conditions on which we provide the myBarrister service (Service) to you (you, your). Please read these Terms carefully before subscribing to the Service.
1.2 A contract between us and you for your subscription to the Service is only formed when you have registered and paid your subscription fee.
1.3 We may update or amend these Terms from time to time to comply with law or to meet our changing business requirements without notice to you. By using the Service you agree to be bound by these updates and amendments.
2. About us
2.1 We are MYBARRISTER LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (registration number 08136883) and with registered address of 6th Floor One London Wall, London, United Kingdom, EC2Y 5EB (myBarrister, we, us, our).
2.2 If you have any questions, complaints or comments about the Service or these Terms then please email us on [email protected]
2.3 See the 'Terms' menu tab above to read our privacy policy to see how we use your personal information.
3. The Service
3.1 The Service is designed to potential clients (clients) to a barrister. We accept no responsibility or liability for, and shall have no involvement with, any contact, relationship or dealings you may have with any clients introduced to you via the Service.
3.2 You agree to compensate and defend us fully against any claims or legal proceedings bought against us by any other person in respect of any relationship or dealings you may have with clients. You agree that you will not involve us in any dispute between you and any client.
3.3 We do not offer any legal advice or any type of legal service, nor make any statement (express or implied) that your use of the Service will produce and/or generate any particular outcome (whether in relation to volumes and/or quality of clients or otherwise).
3.4 We are constantly looking for ways to improve and expand the Service. You agree that we may do so.
3.5 We do not undertake any checks of any sort on clients. You are responsible for carrying out all checks required prior to your representing any client, including with respect to any checks required by any applicable law.
4. Your obligations
4.1 You must at all times act in accordance to the standards of conduct prescribed or enforced by all relevant regulatory bodies and law. This includes that you will at all times comply with the Bar Council Code of Conduct, have a current practising certificate, be qualified for Direct Access and not under investigation by any relevant regulatory authority.
4.2 You agree:
(a) to use best endeavours to respond to client enquiries directed to you via the Service on the day you receive them, and in any event within 24 hours. You may accept or decline any enquiry;
(b) we will have no part in any advice, relationship, contract or transaction that you may have, or enter into, with a client following an enquiry you receive via the Service, and we shall not be liable to you for any loss or damage which you suffer in respect of the same. You agree that you will not involve us in any dispute between you and any client.
5. Your use of the Service
5.1 Registration, Passwords and Security
As part of the Service you will be asked to set-up a password and username. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and username and are responsible for all activities that are carried out under them. We will not be responsible for losses suffered by you where your password or user name is used by someone else. You agree to notify us immediately by email to [email protected] if you become aware of or suspect any unauthorised use of your password or username.
5.2 Your promises to us
You confirm that:
(a) all information and details provided by you to us (including on registration and as displayed on any profile) are true, accurate and up to date in all respects and at all times; and
(b) you will at all times comply with the restrictions on your use of the Service as set out in these Terms.
5.3 Your conduct
You agree that in using the Service you will not:
(a) use the Service for any unlawful purpose;
(b) use the Service in any way that interrupts, damages, impairs or renders the Service less efficient;
(c) impersonate any other person (living or dead), misrepresent your connection with a person or entity, or provide false or otherwise misleading information;
(d) sell, pass-on or refer any inquiries or cases from users of the Service unless it is to a barrister within your current Chambers, and that you will make best efforts to refer any such enquiry or case to a member of myBarrister within your Chambers, and that you will undertake that your clerk(s) do the same;
(e) transfer files that contain viruses, trojans or other harmful programs;
(f) authorise, encourage or assist any other person to, copy, modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, alter or otherwise tamper with any software (including source code), databases and other technology that forms part of the Service;
(g) access or attempt to access the accounts of other users or to penetrate or attempt to penetrate the Service security measures;
(h) email, publish or otherwise disseminate any Content which is defamatory, obscene, or may have the effect of being harassing, threatening or abusive to an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability or that is otherwise inappropriate; or
(i) advertise or promote third party or your own products or services by way of the distribution of 'spam' email.
6. Rights Granted and Reserved
6.1 Your use of the Service and its contents grants no rights to you in relation to our intellectual property rights (IPR) or the IPR of third parties.
6.2 By submitting information, text, photos, graphics or any other content whatsoever to us in connection with the Service (for example, as part your profile) (Content), you grant us the right to use such Content at our own discretion in any media including, without limitation, the right to store, edit, copy, reproduce, disclose, and make such materials publicly available on the Service. You agree that we can edit or take down from the Service any Content you submit to us without notice if we believe it is in breach of these Terms (and will use reasonable efforts to promptly inform you of this). You also acknowledge that certain types of Content formats (for example video and audio files) may not be uploaded to the Service. You are responsible for keeping copies of your Content, and we will not make any back-up copies or return any Content to you when you cease to use the Service.
6.3 You promise us that any Content you submit to us via the Service will be true and accurate, and will not infringe the intellectual property or any rights of any third parties. You agree not to submit, without our express written consent, any Content which contains the personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 2018, Personal Data) of any third party.
6.4 You agree to compensate and defend us fully against any claims or legal proceedings bought against us by any other person as a result of your breach of this clause 6 (including if you are unable to validly grant us the rights you agree to grant).
6.5 You acknowledge and agree that, although we use reasonable efforts to alert users of the Service that they may not misuse your Content (for example, by using it for commercial purposes), we cannot guarantee this and accept no liability to you if it is misused by third parties.
6.6 myBarrister is a trade mark and may not be used without the express written authorisation of myBarrister Ltd, other than to refer to myBarrister Ltd, or the business, services, products or website of myBarrister Ltd.
7. Fees, Term and Cancellation
7.1 The Fees
(a) The fees for the Services are
• £100 + VAT = £120.00 per month
(b) You confirm that any credit or debit card that is being used is yours. All credit and debit card holders are subject to validation checks and authorisation by the card issuer. If the issuer of your card refuses to authorise payment we will not accept your request to subscribe and we will not be responsible for any non-provision of the Service. We are not responsible for your card issuer or bank charging you as a result of our processing of your credit or debit card payment.
(c) We may adjust your fees at any time. If we do so, we will give you at least 15 days’ written notice.
7.2 Term and cancellation
(a) This agreement between us will begin when you subscribe to this Serviceand will continue until we or you terminate under these Terms.
(b) We may terminate this Agreement for convenience at any time by giving you 10 days' notice in writing by email to your registered email address. We will refund the fees which you have paid in advance for the Service for the period after the Terms have been terminated.
(c) We may also immediately suspend your access to the Service and/or terminate this Agreement (in whole or in part) without notice and without refunding any fees if:
· you breach any of your obligations or restrictions under this Agreement; or
· if bankruptcy proceedings are brought against you, or if you do not pay a court judgment on time, or if you make an arrangement with your creditors or if your assets are the subject of any form of seizure.
(d) You may terminate this Agreement at any time by giving us 30 days’ written notice (which notice may be by email).
8. Limits on liability
8.1 We accept liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or that of our employees. We do not seek to exclude liability for fraudulent misrepresentation by us or our employees.
8.2 We are not liable to you for:
(a) any losses not caused by our breach;
(b) any loss of profits, loss of revenues, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or damage to reputation;
(c) any indirect or consequential losses; or
(d) any failure to provide the Service or to meet any of our obligations under these Terms where such failure is due to your breach or events beyond our reasonable control.
8.3 Our total liability to you for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be limited to the total fees you have paid to us in respect of the Service up to the date on which the relevant loss or damage is suffered. Other than in respect of the indemnities under clauses 3.2 and 6.4, your total liability to us will be limited to the lower of:
(a) the total fees you have paid to us in respect of the Service in the 12 months prior to the date on which the relevant loss or damage is suffered; or (b) £1,000.
8.4 We provide the Service on an 'as-is' basis and do not guarantee that the Service will be available or fault free and do not accept any liability for any errors or omissions. We may suspend or terminate the Service without notice at any time if we feel this is necessary (for example for maintenance or upgrades), but will use best endeavours to notify you of the same in advance. Save as set out in these Terms, we specifically disclaim all warranties and/or conditions, express or implied, in relation to the Service including, but not limited to, any implied term, condition, representation or warranty of satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose.
8.5 While we take reasonable precautions to prevent the existence of computer viruses and/or other malicious programs in the Service, we accept no liability for them.
9. Data Protection
9.1 We will collect and use your Personal Data in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which is available on the this website.
9.2 The remainder of this Section 9 sets out the framework for the sharing of personal data between the parties as controllers. Each party acknowledges that myBarrister will regularly disclose to you Personal Data collected by myBarrister for the purpose of providing the Service to you and to clients (the Agreed Purpose).
9.3 In this clause 9, Controller, Process, Data Subject, Data Subject Access Request, Appropriate Technical and Organisational Measures and Personal Data Breach have the meanings set out in the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679); the Data Protection Act 2018; the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002/58/EC (as updated by Directive 2009/136/EC) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2426) as amended (UK Data Protection Legislation).
9.4 Each party shall comply with all the obligations imposed on a Controller under the UK Data Protection Legislation, and any material breach of the UK Data Protection Legislation by one party shall, if not remedied within 30 days of written notice from the other party, give grounds to the other party to terminate this agreement with immediate effect.
9.5 Each party will
(a) ensure that it has all necessary notices and consents in place to enable lawful transfer of the shared Personal Data to the parties, their employees, and any third party engaged by a party in connection with these Terms (Permitted Recipients) for the Agreed Purposes;
(b) give full information to any Data Subject whose Personal Data may be processed under this agreement of the nature such Processing. This includes giving notice that, at the termination of the Service, Personal Data relating to them may be retained by or, as the case may be, transferred to one or more of the Permitted Recipients, their successors and assignees;
(c) Process the shared Personal Data only for the Agreed Purposes;
(d) not disclose or allow access to the shared Personal Data to anyone other than the Permitted Recipients;
(e) ensure that all Permitted Recipients are subject to written contractual obligations concerning the shared Personal Data (including obligations of confidentiality) which are no less onerous than those imposed by this clause 9;
(f) ensure that it has in place Appropriate Technical and Organisational Measures, reviewed and approved by the other party, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful Processing of Personal Data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, Personal Data.
(g) not transfer any Personal Data received from myBarrister outside the EEA unless the transferor:
(i) complies with the provisions of Articles 26 of the GDPR (in the event the third party is a joint controller); and
(ii) ensures that (i) the transfer is to a country approved by the European Commission as providing adequate protection pursuant to Article 45 of the GDPR; or (ii) there are appropriate safeguards in place pursuant to Article 46 GDPR; or (iii) binding corporate rules are in place or (iv) one of the derogations for specific situations in Article 49 GDPR applies to the transfer.
9.6 Each party shall assist the other in complying with all applicable requirements of the UK Data Protection Legislation. In particular, each party shall:
(a) consult with the other party about any notices given to Data Subjects in relation to the shared Personal Data;
(b) promptly inform the other party about the receipt of any Data Subject Access Request;
(c) provide the other party with reasonable assistance in complying with any Data Subject Access Request;
(d) not disclose or release any shared Personal Data in response to a Data Subject Access Request without first consulting the other party wherever possible;
(e) assist the other party, at the cost of the other party, in responding to any request from a Data Subject and in ensuring compliance with its obligations under the UK Data Protection Legislation with respect to security, Personal Data Breach notifications, data protection impact assessments and consultations with supervisory authorities or regulators;
(f) notify the other party without undue delay on becoming aware of any breach of the UK Data Protection Legislation;
(g) at the written direction of the myBarrister, delete or return Shared Personal Data and copies thereof to the myBarrister at the at the termination of the Service unless required by law to store the Personal Data;
(h) use compatible technology for the processing of shared Personal Data to ensure that there is no lack of accuracy resulting from Personal Data transfers;
(i) maintain complete and accurate records and information to demonstrate its compliance with this clause 9; and
(j) provide the other party with contact details of at least one employee as point of contact and responsible manager for all issues arising out of the UK Data Protection Legislation, including the joint training of relevant staff, the procedures to be followed in the event of a Data Security Breach, and the regular review of the parties' compliance with the UK Data Protection Legislation.
10 General
10.1 We may transfer our rights or obligations or sub-contract our obligations under these Terms to another other legal entity. These Terms are personal to you. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms to anyone else.
10.2 These Terms constitute the entire agreement and understanding of you and us and supersedes any previous agreement or understanding between you and us. Neither you nor we have relied on any statement, representation, warranty, understanding, undertaking, promise or assurance (whether negligently or innocently made) of any person that is not set out in these Terms.
10.3 If we delay exercising or fail to exercise or enforce any right available to us under these Terms, this does not constitute a waiver of that right or any other rights under these Terms. A waiver by us of any default shall not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default. No waiver by us shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to you.
10.4 If any part of these Terms is disallowed or found to be ineffective by any court or regulator, the other provisions shall continue to apply.
10.5 Subject only to the provisions of clause 1.3 hereof, these Terms shall not be modified or varied without the written consent of you and us.
10.6 Subject to the provisions of paragraph 10.1, these Terms do not give rights to anyone except you and us.
10.7 Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms, including any question regarding their existence, validity or termination, or the Service shall be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration under the LCIA Rules, which Rules are deemed to be incorporated by reference into this clause. The number of arbitrators shall be one, the seat, or legal place, of arbitration shall be London, and the governing law shall be the substantive law of England and Wales.