DISCLAIMER

MOST IMPORTANT - THIS CONTAINS LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY AND USE WHICH YOU MUST AGREE TO IN ORDER TO USE THE SITE.

PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY.

A. The Reasons why we need to include a disclaimer

1. You should not need a warning to be told if you climb out of the window and stand on the ledge on the 57th floor of a high-rise block you might come to harm. If this was an Internet site giving details as to the medical procedures required for a lobotomy, would you go home and use it to try and administer home-based brain surgery on yourself? That would be about as much sense as using the contents of this site to decide how to pursue or protect your legal rights or cases. It is a general interest information site, not a site which advises you or which you should rely on in the conduct of your legal affairs. That is so obvious it should go without saying, but it is said here anyway.

2. Work and skill goes into the general interest pieces here. The copyright restrictions are to make sure you can use it fairly, but that does not allow you to download material and send it to others or pass it off as your own. Nor should it. If you think it is of interest to someone else you can send them the link as specified below under the conditions.

3. Only people of full age can agree to the conditions. Whilst there are many parts of this site which would be educationally useful for younger people, some parts will inevitably be inappropriate. Some areas of law or cases or discussions of professional work involve unsuitable material. It might be a sex case, or an account of forensic work or a law report which inevitably has to go into gruesome detail regarding violence or determining cause of death. You have to be alert to make sure that anyone under 18 you allow to use the site and you're signing in is doing so sensibly. If you are under 18 then do not proceed into the site unless someone who is 18 or over and who can supervise you signs in.

B. The Conditions

1. This is a site providing general information for general interest purposes, not legal advice. You must not treat anything on this site as legal advice to you. You must not use it in any way to decide what your rights are, what others rights are against you, whether to bring or defend proceedings, or if you do how to conduct them. You agree that you will not rely upon this site for any of those purposes and will be responsible for taking your own legal advice as regards your legal rights and liabilities and any legal proceedings you happen to be involved in. If you do not, you appreciate that you cannot use or rely upon anything you have read here as a substitute. You also agree that you will not use any information you have read here to advise anyone else about their legal rights, and that if (contrary to this) you do that that is in breach of the terms of use of this site and is your own responsibility.

2. I also agree that neither Michael J. Booth QC, any contributor to this site or www.leadingcounsel.co.uk owe me any duty of care in respect of all or any of the contents of this site or any use I may make of them.

3. Any material on this site (whether specified as copyright to www.leadingcounsel.co.uk or not) is either the copyright material of www.leadingcounsel.co.uk (hence of Michael J. Booth QC) or is the copyright material of contributors in respect of which an irrevocable licence for use for the purposes of this site has been granted. In either case, you are welcome to read this information, download it onto your computer for your personal use (subject to the limitations referred to in paragraph 1 above) and likewise retention for your personal use, or likewise print a copy off for your personal use. You are not allowed to distribute this material to others, or to incorporate all or any of it into your own work (save in respect of any attributed quotation which would be permitted by statute under the Copyright Designs and Patent Acts 1988 as amended from time to time or pursuant to any statutory successor thereto) and/or suggest to any person that all or any of this material is your work (unless you are the person who has originally contributed the piece to www.leadingcounsel.co.uk). If you want a friend or relative or colleague to look at something off the site, whilst you cannot send them a copy of the document, you can go to the file menu and when it drops down use the "send as" button to send a link to them. By December 2006 there will be a specific e-mail facility on the site for you to e-mail the page link directly to others.

4. You have to be 18 years or over to use this site, although provided you supervise them, ensure that they do not rely upon the information on this site as specified in clause 2 or use it for any purpose forbidden by clause 1, and ensure that the material they are accessing is appropriate and suitable for them given their age and other characteristics, you can allow those under 18 years to look at the material you have decided is suitable for them. If you do you will ensure both that they do not breach the copyright conditions specified in clause 3, and will also be responsible (in addition to any liability they may have) for any breach of those copyright conditions that they either do themselves or cause to occur.

What you agree by using the site

I confirm that I am 18 or over and that I will supervise and control any use of the site by anyone under 18 years of age able to access the site through my computer and/or because I have ticked this box. I confirm that I will comply with all of the above referred to conditions set out under heading "B. The Conditions" and in particular will not use or rely upon any information on this site in order to decide how or whether to pursue any legal rights I may have, or how or whether to defend any potential claims against me, or how and in what way to bring or defend any legal claims brought by me or against me. Nor will I rely upon this information to advise any other person to help them decide how or whether to pursue any legal rights they may have or how or whether to defend any potential claims against them, or how and in what way to bring or defend any legal claims brought by them or against them. I also agree that neither Michael J. Booth QC, any contributor to this site or www.leadingcounsel.co.uk owe me any duty of care in respect of all or any of the contents of this site or any use I may make of them.

(c) 2006 leadingcounsel.co.uk