OUT-LAW Compliance: FAQ

What is it?

OUT-LAW Compliance involves a review of your web site by one of a dedicated team of lawyers from Pinsent Masons, the international law firm behind OUT-LAW. The review analyses up to 6 different aspects of your web site (see the question "What does it cover?") to make sure that you comply with all the latest laws regulating different aspects of operation of web sites in the UK .

The review looks at almost 100 different elements of your web site, using a checklist designed to pick up the most common problem areas in legal web site compliance. We then provide you with a report discussing each aspect, setting out our analysis of your site, and our recommendations for any changes you should make.

Where relevant the report will give you wording that you can incorporate straight into the web site, for example to include in your web site terms and conditions of use, or privacy notice.

What does it cost?

In most cases the OUT-LAW Compliance service costs £1,000 + VAT for each web site reviewed. This price covers the review and the report, including all the relevant advice and any suggested wording. On occasion we might have to charge more than this, for example if your web site is particularly complicated, or if there are a number of special issues which we need to consider. However, we will always carry out an initial review of your site before starting any work, and will let you know if any increase has to be made to the standard price.

What will the review cover?

The review will look at up to six key legal issues to help ensure that your web site complies with all the relevant e-business laws in the UK , and that you are legally protected. The areas examined by us are:

the extent to which your web site incorporates information which the law requires you tell visitors is incorporated;

the conditions which regulate a visitor's use of your web site;

the way in which you protect the copyright, trade marks and design rights of the content of your web site;

the extent to which your web site complies with the Data Protection Act whenever you collect information about people;

the way in which any e-commerce sales processes are set up, and whether a valid contract is formed when you make a sale; and

advice in relation to the laws relating to disabled access to web sites, and a brief analysis of obvious problem areas of your web site.

What do I get?

After carrying out our review we will prepare an in-depth report about your web site. The report will discuss each of the key legal issues, and for each will give you some background information, a list of the problems with your web site, and clear explanations of what you need to do to solve those problems.

Whenever we suggest that you change or add wording on your site– for instance adding a new clause to your terms and conditions of use, or amending your privacy notice – we will give you suggested wording, which you can incorporate straight onto the site.

In addition, if you sell goods or services over your web site we will briefly review these to see whether they seem appropriate to what you are doing. If your current terms and conditions of sale are not appropriate, or you don't have any at all, we will provide you with our standard web site terms and conditions of sale, which should be suitable as the starting point for using on your own web site.

Why should I use OUT-LAW to carry out a compliance check?

OUT-LAW is part of Pinsent Masons, an international law firm. Our approach is to provide expert legal advice from some of the most experienced lawyers in the industry, in an accessible, practical and commercial way. This is what the OUT-LAW Compliance service is all about– there's no legal jargon, just good, practical advice. We'll offer solutions whenever we find a problem, and at the end of the day, you pay the fixed price we quote you, and nothing more.

Is the review done by lawyers from OUT-LAW or Pinsent Masons?

They are the same. OUT-LAW is a separate brand of Pinsent Masons, but the people involved are the same.

What does the review not cover?

To be able to offer the OUT-LAW Compliance service at a reasonable fixed price there are certain things that it simply cannot cover. For instance, we can't give you specific advice about the commercial aspects of your existing terms and conditions that your business uses to sell to customers. To do this properly we would need to meet with you and spend time finding out more information about your business, and what the terms and conditions need to cover.

If you sell goods or services online but don't have any existing terms and conditions of sale, or your terms and conditions of sale are not broadly suitable for your business, then we will give you a set of standard terms and conditions for selling goods or services. These should be suitable as a starting point for using on your own web site. However, these standard terms may need to be tailored afterwards to make sure that they cover all of your commercial issues.

Equally, the report isn't designed to deal with laws or rules which relate to specific business areas – for instance your type of business might be governed by specific rules about what you can and cannot do, and how you deal with customers.

For obvious time and cost reasons we can't look at every page of your web site, it may simply be too big. However, we will review those pages which are most relevant in terms of compliance with e-business laws. We will always review the home page, your web site terms and conditions of use, your privacy policy, and any page which appears to cover important regulatory information. Where relevant we will look at other pages, for instance "contact us" pages or "about us" pages.

If you are in any doubt at all about what aspects of your web site the review will and won't cover, then please get in touch, and we would be happy to talk through your web site with you.

What if I want advice on other things?

Although the OUT-LAW Compliance service can't cover every aspect of your web site, we will always be happy to advise you on the other parts of your site, and we will be happy to provide you with a quote for this. For example, you may want us to review your terms and conditions of sale to make sure that you are getting the most commercial protection and the best deal out of your contract with consumers.

If there are any particular legal issues or problem areas with your web site that you would like us to consider in the report, or separately, you should let us know. Before we carry out the review we will tell you whether we will be able to look at those issues as a part of the review. If not, we will give you a clear price for what it would cost to include them.

What do I need to do?

If your site is still under development then we will need access to the pre-launch pages. Where you have an e-commerce sales process we might need access to run a dummy transaction. If your site is only accessible to registered users then we might need you to set us up with a dummy account. Basically we need to be able to use the site as your visitors will, so that we understand how your site works, ensuring that you get the most out of the review.