ARAG. Your partner for law and protection

Terms of Use

General

Terms and Conditions

This Terms of use Notice forms part of the Terms and Conditions ("the Conditions") that govern your access and use of the ARAG Legal Website (this "Website") or any part thereof or any service offered thereon. By accessing this Website, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and confirmed your acceptance of all the parts, as listed at the bottom of this Website, which collectively make up the Conditions. It is important that you read and understand the Conditions before you start to use this Website. You may print and keep a copy of the Conditions for your reference. If you do not agree with all parts of the Conditions then you are not authorised to use this Website.

Service provider

This service is provided by Epoq Legal Ltd registered in England and Wales under company number 3707955 with registered office at Middlesex House, 29-45 High Street, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7UU ("ELL") under the terms of the policy you have with ARAG Plc registered in England and Wales under company number 02585818 with registered office at 9 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS81NN ("ARAG").

Use of this Website and the Law Guide & Documents

The content of this Website as contained in the online Law Guide and the Documents made available thereon is provided for guidance and information purposes only and is not to be construed as advice. ELL does not in any way recommend that the products and services available on this Website are suitable for you in your particular circumstances.

Documents available on this Website have been prepared by ELL. While every care has been taken in preparing the documents, they may have to be tailored to suit your particular circumstances.

The basis on which you acquire or make use of any document is that the document is suitable to be used by you in conjunction with proper legal advice as to its application and adaptation for your particular requirements. The documents are not made available to you on any other basis.

Please note that the documents are prepared in compliance with the law of a particular jurisdiction only, as is clearly indicated on every document. These jurisdictions are either that of England and Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. You must use a document only for and in the particular jurisdiction for which it is intended and as indicated on it. The documents will not be suitable in other parts of the UK or abroad. You should not use them if;

  • any person who is to sign the document is; or
  • the property which the document deals with is situated;

outside the particular jurisdiction for which the document was prepared.

Reasonable efforts will be made to keep this Website available for use; however access is not guaranteed to be available all the time. We will not be liable for any damage or loss suffered as a result of any periodic unavailability of this Website.

Due to the nature of the internet and the possibility of third party interference, this Website is not guaranteed to be free of all viruses and technical defects of any description or any forms of computer misuse. We will not be liable for any damage or loss caused by such third party interference as a result of your use of this Website. You acknowledge that you are responsible for taking back up copies of your data and taking appropriate precautions to protect your computer systems against technical defects, viruses or computer misuse.

If there are links from this Website to other websites operated by third parties, we do not guarantee you will be able to access the other websites via any link on this Website. ARAG and ELL do not guarantee the content or accuracy of any third party's website, nor do we accept any responsibility for any damage or loss you may suffer as a result of your use of that website.

User Services

1. The Law Guide

Every effort is made to ensure that the online Law Guide and Documents are accurate and reflect the law at the time of use, it may or may not reflect current events of changes in the law. They will over time become outdated and require regular updating. It is therefore important that you should regularly check if the online Law Guide and any Document has been updated.

2. Document Preparation Service

The on-line document preparation service ("the Document Preparation Service") enables you to draft a document ("the Document"). It does not provide legal advice nor does it represent a legal service. It is designed to collect relevant information and data to assist in the preparation of a legal Document. It is designed for use by persons who do not have complicated legal requirements.

The Document Preparation Service uses a document assembly and drafting system ("the System").

When using the Document Preparation Service you will be asked a series of questions by the System. The answers you give will dictate the content of the Documents produced by the System. You alone are responsible for ensuring the answers or any information that you give is correct (this includes information in relation to the identity of any parties or signatories, their age or capacity). The System relies on you providing the correct information.

You must carefully check that the Document produced, fully reflects your wishes. If it does not, you should not execute it. It is your responsibility to ensure that any Document is properly executed in accordance with the instructions that are provided to you.

We recommend that before reusing a Document you check the Website to ensure that you have the latest version. If ELL has replaced it with a revised version, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest version.

Documents completed online will be stored for a maximum period of six years. After this period you may not be able to obtain access to your Documents, and they may be deleted. We reserve the right to levy a reasonable recovery charge in respect of any Documents that are able to be recovered. If you have not logged in to the Website for a period of twelve months or more, then we reserve the right to store your documents offline and levy a reasonable recovery charge for you to access them again.

ELL will not have any responsibility for the following:

  • Verifying your answers or any information given by you when using the Document Preparation Service
  • Proof reading all data you have input for typographical errors
  • Any alterations made by you or on your behalf to a Document once it has been made available to you
  • Supervising or checking the due and proper execution of any Document
  • Any use of a Document or execution of a Document by a person or entity outside of the jurisdiction or country it is drafted to be used in
  • Any adverse consequences if you use any Document without taking appropriate legal advice as to its suitability for your particular circumstances
  • Undertaking any future review of any document or to provide any advice, legal or otherwise, as to the continuing effectiveness for legal, taxation or any other purpose of any Document

3. Pay As You Go

There are three sets of documents and linked services ("Content Schemes"), one of which will be available to you on the Website, depending on the type of policy you hold with ARAG. In each of these Content Schemes some documents are available free of charge and others are only available on a 'pay per use' basis. ("PAYG"). The document review services, discussed below, are however only available, in respect of certain documents and only if the document was purchased as a PAYG

If you are not happy with the document you have purchased, you may contact ELL at support@araglegal.co.uk for a refund within 14 days of the date you purchased it, provided that, where a document review service was used, the document has not been finally approved.

If you are a new user you will have to register to gain access to your applicable Content Scheme. If you do wish to purchase a document you will have the opportunity to select the document and then purchase it through the shopping basket provided. After purchasing it the document will be added to your My templates page.

4. Document Review

4.1. Legal Assisted Service

This service is provided by FirstAssist Services Limited registered in England and Wales under company number 1404718, whose registered office is at Marshall's Court, Marshall's Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 4DU. (FirstAssist)

You may purchase (PAYG) a document with a Legal Assisted Service. This means that once a document has been drafted using the Document Preparation Service, you may (if you have paid for or been provided with this service as a benefit) send it electronically for review to FirstAssist. They may contact you by telephone to clarify your requirements. FirstAssist will review your document to make sure it is appropriate for your circumstances. When discussing a document with FirstAssist over the telephone, you must have it visible on-screen or printed out.

When FirstAssist advises you on the preparation of any Document they will exercise reasonable care in the provision of this service to you. They will perform work, as quickly as is reasonably possible, but they shall not be liable in respect of any failure to meet any specified deadline or completion date.

FirstAssist will endeavour to answer any questions you have sent them with your Document, review the Document for its suitability to your intended purpose, and advise you what changes you may need to make to the Document to make it suitable for your requirements. FirstAssist do not make alterations to the Documents themselves. Please note that FirstAssist do not proof read all data you have input to the Document for typographical errors. If FirstAssist considers that the Document requires substantial drafting changes to make it suitable for your requirements, they may advise you to seek bespoke legal advice from a solicitor. You may be referred to a firm of solicitors on a panel operated by ELL on the basis of that firm's location and ability to handle that type of work. You will have no financial obligation to the firm of solicitors unless you wish formally to instruct them. Any such referral will comply with the Solicitors' Code of Conduct relating to referrals.

Note that should you require telephone legal advice that does not relate to your document you should use the telephone legal advice number provided in your policy document.

4.2. Solicitor Managed Service

You may choose to purchase (PAYG) a document with a Solicitor Managed Service. A Solicitor Managed Service means that once your document has been drafted using the Document Preparation Service, you are given the opportunity to send it electronically to a law firm on a panel operated by ELL. The law firm will issue to you their written terms of engagement and their review of your document will be in accordance with those written terms.

The law firm will review and make amendments to your document where required. The panel law firm may contact you or email you to clarify your requirements.

When a law firm advises you on the preparation of any Document it will exercise reasonable skill and care in the provision of this service to you in accordance with it's terms of engagement. It will perform its work as quickly as is reasonably possible, but neither the panel law firm nor ELL shall be liable in respect of any failure to meet any specified deadline or completion date.

The panel law firm's responsibility, to ensure that the Document meets your reasonable requirements, is based on the answers you gave the System. The panel law firm shall, to the extent that this can be achieved:

  • Review the answers you gave the System;
  • Review the Document that has been produced by you using the System;
  • Communicate with you by email, telephone or in person and make amendments to the Document to the extent that it, in its absolute discretion, considers appropriate, until it is satisfied that the Document meets your reasonable requirements based on the answers you gave the System.

The panel law firm will not have any responsibility for the following:

  • Verifying your answers or any information given by you when using the System;
  • Proofreading for typographical errors, the data you input into the System;
  • Any alterations made by you or on your behalf to the Document once it has been returned to you by the panel law firm unless such alteration has been approved by the panel law firm;
  • Supervising or checking the due, proper and valid execution of any Document;
  • Any use of a Document outside of the jurisdiction for which that Document is indicated to be suitable;
  • Any adverse consequences if you use or rely on any Document for a purpose, or in circumstances, other than that or those indicated by you to the panel law firm without taking appropriate further legal advice from the panel law firm as to its suitability for that particular purpose or in those particular circumstances;
  • Undertaking, after the completion or termination of its terms of engagement, any further review of any Document, or providing any advice, legal or otherwise, as to the continuing effectiveness for legal, taxation or any other purpose of any Document, unless it has expressly agreed to do so under another written terms of engagement.

The full terms upon which the panel law firm will provide this service to you, will be set out in their written terms of engagement. If you do not use the Solicitor Managed service within 12 months of purchase you will not be able to obtain access to it thereafter. In such circumstances we shall not have any obligation to rebate you any part of the sum you have paid us.

Notice of disclaimer relating to advice

For the avoidance of doubt, any advice you receive is the responsibility of the party advising you whether that is FirstAssist or any other party and ELL will not be responsible or liable for any damage or loss you may suffer resulting from such advice.

Complaints

ELL is committed to providing quality services and products. However, in the event that you have a complaint in relation to services or products available form this Website you should follow the procedure detailed in the Complaints Procedure on this Website.

Privacy Policy

Please refer to the Data and Privacy Policy on this Website for terms of our Privacy Policy.

Website copyright and database rights

Please also refer to the Copyright Notice on this Website.

Your use of the Content

Reproduction of part or all of the Content in any form is subject to the Copyright Notice on this website and is prohibited other than in accordance with the following terms:

  • You may print or download to a single local hard disk, extracts from the Content for your personal use or use in your business in accordance with the type of policy you hold with ARAG.
  • You may not sell or make a commercial profit by selling or exploiting in any way any Content
  • You may not use any data mining, robots or similar extraction methods in relation to the Content.
  • You must not remove any proprietary notices from such extracts.
  • You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, show or play in public, adapt or change in any way, the Content or any other part of this Website for any purpose whatsoever in breach of the Conditions or the terms of the agreement you have with ARAG or ELL without the prior written permission of ARAG or ELL.
  • Any software or applications may only be used as is expressly or impliedly licensed, and you may not modify in any way, decompile, reverse engineer or resell it or any part thereof. The reproduction of all trademarks, both registered and unregistered is strictly prohibited.

Any application in relation to the licensing of the Content of any of these website pages (other than detailed above) should be addressed to EGL at support@epoq.co.uk

Prohibited use

As a condition of your use of this Website, you warrant to us that you will not use this Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices.

General liability disclaimer

Any claim in respect of breach of contract or for negligence or in any other way for or related to the provision or failure to provide a User Service shall be against the applicable Service Provider of the User Service.

ARAG, FirstAssist and ELL:

The material displayed on the Website is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy. To the extent permitted by law, the following is hereby expressly excluded:

(i) all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity;

(ii) any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with the Website or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of the Website, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it;

(iii) any liability for:

  • loss of income or revenue;
  • loss of business;
  • loss of profits or contracts;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of data;
  • loss of goodwill;
  • wasted management or office time;

(iv) any liability for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

If ARAG, FirstAssist or ELL is held liable for any loss or damage to you for or in relation to the provision of or failure to provide a User Service, whether in contract or negligence or any form of liability, such liability shall in all cases be limited to the payment of an amount not exceeding £50,000 (fifty thousand pounds) in respect of any one claim or series of connected claims.

This does not affect ARAG, FirstAssist or ELL's liability for death or personal injury arising from ARAG, FirstAssist or ELL's negligence, nor liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

You acknowledge that the exclusions and/or limitations in these Conditions are reasonable having regard to the fact that the Website, the Law Guide, and the Document Preparation Services are freely accessible and available at no or low cost.

Modifications

We reserve the right to change the terms, conditions, and disclaimers under which this Website or any service offered through it is offered. This right shall not affect the existing terms and conditions accepted by you upon making a legitimate purchase using this Website.

These terms and conditions shall not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

General

This agreement is governed by the laws of England. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Website. Use of this Website is unauthorised in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms and conditions, including without limitation this paragraph.

If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and us with respect to this Website and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral, or written. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.