The use of the Scottish Legal Aid Board's web site at www.slab.org.uk is subject to the following terms and conditions which you should read carefully: slab.org.uk is managed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (referred to as ‘We’ or "us" or "our" below). In entering our site you as a user (‘You’ or "Your") are accepting our terms and conditions.

Using our web site
You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this site by any third party. Such restriction or inhibition includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful, or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person, and the transmission of obscene or offensive content or disruption of normal flow of dialogue within this site.

You are prohibited from posting or transmitting any unlawful, defamatory, obscene or offensive material or any material that constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, likely to give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violates any law. We will fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials on this web site.

Intellectual property
The names, images and logos identifying the Scottish Legal Aid Board and Scottish Legal Aid, are proprietary marks of the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The logo for criminal legal assistance may only be used as authorised by registration on the criminal legal assistance register. Copying of our logos and/or any other third party logos accessed via this web site is not permitted without prior approval from the relevant copyright owner.

We retain copyright in all of our material placed on the site, and while it can be copied for use by an individual or within an organisation with a legal aid account number, permission must be sought for any other uses.

Parliamentary and Scottish Parliamentary legislation and regulations featured on this site are subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material (other than the Royal Arms and departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Where any of the Crown copyright items on this site are being republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.

The permission to reproduce Crown protected material does not extend to any material on this site which is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

For further information on Crown copyright policy and licensing arrangements, including those from the Queen's Printer for Scotland, see the guidance featured on OPSI's web site at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/crown-copyright/copyright-guidance/index.htm.

Requests for permission to use our logo or copyright material should be directed to the Communications office, email general@slab.org.uk. Tell us how and why your wish to use our logo(s) and/or copyright material. Please include your contact details: name, address, telephone number, fax number and email.

Hyperlinking to us
You do not have to ask permission to link directly to pages hosted on this site. We do not object to you linking directly to the information that is hosted on our site. However, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on your site. Our pages must load into the user's entire window.

Hyperlinking by us
We are not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked web sites provided by both connected organisations and independent third parties and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. The existence of links to other web sites on this web site should not be taken as endorsement of any kind of the other web sites in question. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Virus protection
We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production. However, we make no representation that the web site is free from infection by viruses or anything else that has contaminating or destructive properties. It is always wise for you to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the Internet. We cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur whilst using material derived from this web site.

Disclaimer
Our web site and material relating to Government information, products and services (or to third party information, products and services), is provided 'as is', without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.

We do not warrant that the functions contained in the material contained in this site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or represent the full functionality, accuracy, reliability of the materials.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use of, data or profits arising out of or in connection with the use of our web site.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Scotland. Any dispute arising under these Terms and Conditions shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Scotland.

Privacy statement
If you are a user with general public and anonymous access our web site does not store or capture personal information, but merely logs the user's Internet Protocol (IP) address that is automatically recognised by the web server.

We use "cookies" to identify you when you visit our site and to enhance your experience of the site. Cookies are small files that your Web browser places on your computer’s hard drive. We use cookies for remembering user names and preferences and to track users' progress through the site, allowing us to make improvements based on usage data.

You can delete cookies from your hard drive at any time. Further information on how to delete cookies can be found on www.allaboutcookies.org. You can set your Internet browser so that it will not allow cookies to be stored on your computer. [Further information on how to prevent cookies from being stored on your computer can be found on www.allaboutcookies.org under the "manage cookies" section. Alternatively go to the help menu within your Internet browser.

This privacy statement only covers our web site at www.slab.org.uk. This statement does not cover links within this site to other websites.

The system will record your email address and other information if volunteered to us by you. This shall be treated as proprietary and confidential. It may be used for internal review and to notify you about updates to Scottish Legal Aid Board web site or to provide you with our online newsletter (when available) if you so request or to send you any other materials that may be requested by you.

Other than where stated information collected by us is used for internal review, to improve the content of this web site, to customise the content and/or layout, to notify users about updates, and to contact users for marketing purposes and is not shared with other organisations for commercial purposes.

Monitoring
Please note that the Board monitors employee communications, including all email sent or received.

Find my nearest legal aid solicitor service
The Board provides information on firms who are registered to provide legal aid services, including through "find my nearest" services for the purposes of public information. Every reasonable care is taken to avoid errors and omissions. However, we will not accept responsibility for any errors and/or omissions that may occur, save for correcting the error, or making good the omission, as soon as is reasonable.

Information on firms has been provided by the solicitors' firms that are contained in the list. An entry in this list, therefore, must not be taken as implying any recommendation or endorsement by us of any kind in respect of any of the solicitors' firms contained therein.

The "find my nearest solicitor" service allows you to enter a postcode or placename to view their nearest stores or outlets as icons on a map. The nearest service is calculated using advanced mathematical techniques through a third party, and we take no responsibility for any errors in how the nearest service is determined or shown.

The accuracy of the advice provided by all firms mentioned on these pages or on other sites to which these pages are linked, is the responsibility of the particular organisation, company or individual and no responsibility is accepted by us for inaccurate or misleading advice provided by such companies, organisations or individuals.

Disclosure of Information
The Board has general obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, as regards the publication and disclosure of information. In any event the Board is committed to openness and transparency. However, people entrust us with both sensitive personal information and details about cases. We cannot provide information where it is exempted from disclosure in terms of Section 34 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 and the Data Protection Act 1998. In addition we would look to withhold information where this is appropriate in terms of the exemptions under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Section 34 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 provides that, subject to certain limited exceptions, we may not supply information provided to us under the Act (including, for example, information contained in legal aid applications) without the consent of the person who supplied that information. A Board member or employee who supplied information in breach of this section would be guilty of a summary criminal offence.

Comments
The Board welcomes any comments on the structure or contents of its site. We shall use these comments to inform and assist us in the development of the site. In the unlikely event that you find any inaccurate information on our web site or have any complaint about what we have published please email general@slab.org.uk. We will investigate on receipt and take such action which we, in our sole discretion, determine as being appropriate having regard to all the circumstances.

While we may enter into correspondence with commentators, we undertake not to release e-mail addresses or names of any commentators to any third parties.

Last updated: 19 February 2008

We may at any time revise these terms and conditions without notice. Please check regularly. Continued use of our websites after a change has been made is your acceptance of the change.