Terms and Conditions
TERMS & CONDITIONS
- Definitions. 2
- Interpretation.. 2
- Our Contract. 2
- Direct Law charges. 3
- Security of your credit card.. 3
- Holding money on your behalf. 4
- Delivery of the Services. 4
- Cancellation and refunds. 4
- Liability for subsequent defects. 4
- Promotions, offers and events. 5
- Disclaimers and limitation of liability. 5
- Your Licence to use a document. 6
- Limitations and permissions on Licences. 6
- Third Party Owners and additional restrictions. 6
- Storage of papers and documents. 7
- Copyright and other Intellectual property. 7
- Interruption to our service.. 7
- Content you Post to Our Website.. 7
- Removal of offensive Content. 8
- Security of Our Website.. 8
- Indemnity. 9
- Miscellaneous matters. 9
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Foreword
This web site is initiated, supervised and overseen by Oppermans Inc. Attorneys, a company incorporated in South Africa and practicing as such under registration 2007/016545/21.
Direct Law (www.directlaw.co.za) (“DL”) and all of their subsidiaries and affiliated websites cannot provide you with legal services until you have agreed to these terms and conditions. It represents the contract between you and DL (“us”, “we”, etc). When you use any of our Services, as defined below, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. It is advisable to make a copy of these terms and conditions and keep on file for your own records.
This agreement may be changed from time to time. When it is changed, your own agreement is not changed. The version you agreed to at the time you instructed us continues to be valid. The new version is valid for all new instructions from you.
1. Definitions
In this agreement, the following words shall have the following meanings, unless the context requires otherwise:
“Content” means all information and/or data in any form published on Our Website by us or any third party with our consent.
“Copy or Publish” relating to a Licensed Product, means reproducing or republishing in whole or partially, using any means, in any medium. It includes breaking up, changing, cropping or any other change or use as part of some other created work.
“Post” means placing content or any other material on or into Our Website by any means.
“Product” means anything we offer for sale on Our Website.
“Licence” means a licence granted by us to you in the terms of this agreement for the use/continued use of a Licensed Product.
“Licensed Product ” means anything, any product or any material offered for licence by us on Our Website, whether bought by you or not. A reference to “Product” shall be a reference to all or part of a Product or to a Product altered by you in any way.
“Our Website/s” means all of the hardware and software installation that enables the functioning of our website. Our websites also include our affiliates which include: www.oppermansinc.co.za, www.diy-law.co.za, www.legaltemplates.co.za, www.oppermanlegal.co.za, www.oppermanlaw.co.za
“Service” or “Services” means all the services we provide, whether or not from Our Web Site. It includes Products, documents and letters for which you buy a licence to use, documents we prepare for you, all advice we give, information we provide and all other actions we take for you.
“Third Party Owner” means an owner of a Licensed Product which is not owned by us.
2. Interpretation
In this agreement unless the context otherwise requires:
2.1 any reference to a person includes a human individual, a corporate entity and any organisation which is managed or controlled as a unit.
2.2 in the context of permission, “may not” in connection with your actions, means “must not”.
2.3 any agreement by any party not to do or omit to do something includes an obligation not to allow another other person to do or omit to do the same thing;
2.4 a reference to a deed or regulation includes new law of substantially the same intent as the deed or regulation referred to;
2.5 these terms and conditions apply to all supplies of a Service or Licensed Products by us. They overrule any terms proposed by you.
2.6 this agreement is drafted only in the English language. If there is any conflict in meaning between the English language version of this agreement and any version or translation of this agreement in any other language, the English language version shall prevail.
3. Our Contract
3.1 In the event that you use Our Website in any way on behalf of another individual you warrant that you have that person’s full authority to do so and you accept personal responsibility for every act or omission by you.
3.2 In entering into this contract you have not relied on any representation or information from any source except Our Website.
3.3 You acknowledge that you are satisfied that the Product or Service you have selected is suitable and adequate for your needs;
3.4 The Services you buy on Our Website are supplied by both us and third party lawyers (“TPLs”) not connected to us in any other way.
3.5 These terms apply to every purchase you make from us (excluding advertising space) except where the terms of a TPL may be in conflict. In that case, the TPL’s terms take precedence so far only as his relationship with you is concerned.
3.6 When you click to purchase a Product or Service from us, by law you are offering to buy. Your contract with us is made only on the first to happen of:
3.6.1 we send you a Product; or
3.6.2 we give you permission to download a Product; or
3.6.3 you have sent a completed instruction to us and paid for the Service you have ordered and we have commenced work for you.
3.7 Every Product or Service you buy which is individually identifiable is subject to a separate contract. Accordingly, performance or breach of one contract does not affect any other.
3.8 You cease to be a client of DL our contract with you is concluded on the first to happen of:
3.8.1 your receipt of a document or form you have bought, by any means;
3.8.2 our sending of a document or form by e-mail without receiving any notification from our service provider of a non-delivery;
3.8.3 our completion of any other task or Service for which we have collected payment from you. If there exists any doubt as to when this is, or was, then our decision is final;
3.8.4 our having worked for the amount of time for which you have paid us, even if the work is incomplete.
3.9 As a result you are not our client for the time between our completing one piece of work for you and commencing another. Each piece of work is a new retainer which terminates when that work is completed. In the event that we should give advice on the same case at a later time, such advice constitutes a separate contract and does not retrospectively extend the first contract for our Services.
3.10 There is no contract between us for any free Service, so you do not legally become our client by using any free Service and we are not liable to you in any way resulting from your use of any free Service provided by us.
3.11 The price of any document or any other Service may be changed by us at any point in time. We will never change a price so as to affect the price charged to you at the time when you buy a Service.
3.12 Services will be delivered by your free download, by e-mail or by both of these, at our choice.
3.13 You agree that you are bound by these terms (or the latest version of them) for all future contracts with DL, whether ordered through Our Website or in some other way.
3.14 You now agree that you commit a breach of this contract if you seek repayment of money paid to us by asking your credit card provider to credit back a payment you made to us, without first attempting to seek repayment from us. In that event, you agree that you will owe us first the sum charged to us by our merchant service provider and secondly a sum based on time spent at R10000 per hour in dealing with your breach. You also agree that this provision is reasonable.
4. Direct Law charges
4.1 The prices payable for our Licensed Products and Services are clearly set out on Our Website.
4.2 Charges for our Services are estimated.
4.3 As we (DL) are not VAT registered, we do not charge VAT.
4.4 When we cannot provide a fixed price, we will charge by the hour. In that case all work done, including all letters, e-mails, and telephone calls made and received will be charged on a time basis in minimum units of one tenth of an hour.
4.5 Estimates of applicable fees will be provided to you wherever possible.
4.6 Our Service requires payment in advance in each case.
5. Security of your credit card
5.1 We take care to make Our Websites safe for you to use. Card payments are not processed through pages we control. We use one or more online payment service providers who will encrypt your card or bank account details in a secure environment.
5.2 If you have asked us to remember your credit card details in readiness for your next purchase or subscription, your payment details will be securely stored on our systems. These details will be fully encrypted and only used to process your automatic monthly payments or other transactions which you have initiated.
6. Holding money on your behalf
6.1 We do not conduct monetary transactions nor make payments on the behalf of our clients. We can therefore not accept or hold any money on your behalf, beyond money paid for our immediate Services.
6.2 If you decide to terminate your instructions to us before we have “spent” all of the money you have sent to us, we shall immediately refund the remaining balance to you.
7. Delivery of the Services
7.1 Advice and document drafting as well as any other Services supplied personally will be delivered within an estimated time frame. You may cancel any undelivered balance at any time, in which case we will refund the appropriate proportion of your money.
7.2 Products supplied instantaneously or almost so, will be delivered by e-mail or by your own down-load from Our Web Site. You may obtain re-delivery as often as you wish for a period of 60 days.
7.3 If you pay by Internet bank transfer, we will deliver your Product or Service to you by e-mail within two days (and often very much sooner).
7.4 We accept no responsibility for problems you may have in making payment through a web page belonging to our payment service provider or in down-loading any document or other Service.
8. Cancellation and refunds
This and the following paragraph apply if you buy as a consumer as defined in Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002. Provided the Act apply to the transaction concerned, then the following terms apply to the contract.
8.1 We now inform you that information relating to all aspects of our Products and Services is not in this document but in other web pages from which you select the relevant Product or Service.
8.2 You have a right to cancel the contract within 7 days of the placement of your order.
8.3 Every Product or Service provided by us is designated to be delivered immediately or as soon as we are reasonably able to deliver such a product or service. Most of our products are supplied automatically after you have made your payment.
8.4 We do not supply any products or services intended for future delivery. That means, should you wish to use our Products or Services, you have to instruct us to deliver in accordance with our terms.
8.5 By accepting these terms, you now agree that you are instructing us to deliver immediately and you understand that, by doing so, you lose the right to cancel your order within 7 days.
8.6 So far as Services you purchase from us are concerned, if any service is continuing, you may cancel it at any time before we have completely provided it. If you do, we will return to you any money paid after the deduction of an appropriate amount to cover any part of the work we have already done, including any work we may not by that point have told you about.
8.7 A contract for the drafting of work is a single contract, even in the case where payments are made over a period of time. That means no new cancellation right arises if you add to or alter your original instructions.
8.8 In the event of cancellation of an order by you in compliance with these terms, we will refund any money we owe you within 30 days of the cancellation.
8.9 This paragraph does not affect your rights in the event that there is any material error in the Product.
9. Liability for subsequent defects
9.1 Please check the Product received from us immediately upon download.
9.2 If you find an error in the Product, you must tell us by email message to support@directlaw.co.za.
9.3 The procedure to report an error is as follows:
9.3.1 you must report to us as soon as any error is discovered but no later than one month from receipt by you.
9.3.2 please tell us clearly what the error you complain of is and include any other relevant information to enable us to identify it.
9.4 If we agree that the Product is faulty, then we shall:
9.4.1 correct the error and come back to you within 3 days, or
9.4.2 immediately send you a new copy, or
9.4.3 refund the full price that you have paid us.
10. Promotions, offers and events
Should we offer any Services in some way not anticipated by these terms, then you are entitled to terms no less favourable than those set out here.
11. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
11.1 The law differs from one country to another. This paragraph applies so far as South African law allows.
11.2 All implied conditions, warranties and terms are excluded from this agreement.
11.3 We make no representation or warranty that any Service or Licensed Product will be:
11.3.1 useful to you;
11.3.2 of satisfactory quality;
11.3.3 fit for a particular intent or purpose;
11.3.4 available or accessible, without any interruption, or without error.
11.4 Except in the unfortunate event of personal injury or death, the total amount we are liable for under this agreement, however it arises, shall not exceed the total of R100,000. This applies whether your case is based on contract, delict or any other basis in law.
11.5 We shall not be liable to you for any loss or expense which is:
11.5.1 an indirect or consequential loss; or
11.5.2 economic loss or any other loss of turnover, profits, goodwill or business even if such loss was reasonably foreseeable or we knew you might incur it.
11.6 If you become aware of any breach of any of the terms in this agreement by any person, please tell us via an email to support@directlaw.co.za. We welcome your input but do not guarantee to agree with your judgement.
11.7 Some Services or Licensed Products you might purchase on Our Website are provided by lawyers in practice. Those Services may be subject to the rules and regulations of the professional bodies of which those providers are members. The benefit of their professional indemnity insurance and other professional safeguards extends to you.
11.8 The fact of your buying Services from a practising lawyer does not of itself indicate that the service is suitable for your use. Advice is inevitably limited by the scope of your instructions and the time available for the drawing of the relevant advice. If you require a full service, it may become a necessity to re-instruct your lawyer for further assistance.
11.9 From time to time, we make arrangements for DL documents and/or services to be available through co-operation with a third party. You may therefore find that you are transferred to Our Website in order to obtain fulfillment of the obligations to that third party. That introduction does not affect your obligations or ours in connection with a Service provided by us.
11.10 Services DL provides are provided “without liability”. We make no representation and give no warranty with respect to any of the Services. We do not suggest that any document or Service is suitable for your particular use.
11.11 Documents in our library are provided to you as template versions to be altered and edited to suit your personal circumstances.
11.12 Documents may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.
11.13 Advice given and documents drawn specifically for you are appropriate only to the facts and circumstances you have informed us of. If you do not give us full instructions, it is possible that our advice may not be complete.
11.14 We are not responsible for any action you decide to take as a result of using a Service or buying a Licensed Product.
11.15 The DL Service does not extend to our handling of your “case”, nor will we contact any third party on your behalf without a special arrangement. Accordingly, we are under no obligation to you to undertake any work beyond what has been specifically agreed.
11.16 Our Website contains links to other Internet web sites. We do not have power or control over any such web site. You acknowledge and agree that we shall not be liable in any way for the content of any such linked web site, nor for any loss or damage resulting from your use of any such web site.
11.17 Advice given and documents produced by DL are valid only within the jurisdiction of Republic of South Africa.
12. Your Licence to use a document
12.1 When you “buy” a DL form or document, what you do in fact buy is a licence to use our document for the purposes of your own business or in a single company. You may use it as often as you like subject to the other terms of this agreement.
12.2 We do not offer the Services in all countries. We are entitled to refuse a Licence if you live in a country we do not serve.
12.3 All ownership rights and intellectual property rights in the Content and software provided by us or by another Content provider shall remain the sole property of us and / or the other Content provider. We will strongly protect our rights in all countries.
12.4 You are not permitted to copy, modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit any of the Content or software, in whole or partially, except as is specifically permitted by this agreement.
12.5 It is a condition of the license you purchase from us to use any document that you preserve our copyright notices as far as reasonably possible and at least once per document.
12.6 No express or implied licence of the Licensed Product or any other material is granted to you other than the express Licence granted in this agreement.
13. Limitations and permissions on Licences
13.1 You must not sub-license a Licensed Product, unless a specific agreement between us were made to enable you to do so.
13.2 You must not Copy or Publish a Licensed Product except as specifically allowed in this agreement.
13.3 You may not allow any other person to use a Licensed Product outside of the situation or context for which you have bought it.
13.4 You may not represent yourself as, or give the impression that you are the owner or originator of any Licensed Product or of the software. This does not apply to a person with whom we have made a specific agreement to use the software for resale.
13.5 You may not remove any identification or reference information which may be embedded in any file of a Licensed Product.
14. Third Party Owners and additional restrictions
Some Products offered for Licence on Our Websites are owned by Third Party Owners and not by us. Where that is indicated, the following additional provisions apply:
14.1 The price of the Licence includes a sum payable by us to the Third Party Owner.
14.2 You are under no obligation to make any payment to the Third Party Owner.
14.3 We are the agent of the Third Party Owner and accept all obligations and liability to you in connection with the Licensed Product.
14.4 You remain liable to the Third Party Owner, via us, for compliance with this agreement.
14.5 In the event where you may be liable to the Third Party Owner for breach of this agreement, you will indemnify us for all cost and liability arising from our relationship with such Third Part Owner, our acting as his agent, or your buying a Licensed Product owned by him.
15. Storage of papers and documents
We are not obliged to keep copies of communications between us, or documents you send to us in any connection. Therefore you should never send original papers to us. In practice, we will endeavour to keep soft copy of advice given, for our own benefit.
16. Copyright and other Intellectual property
16.1 You agree that at all times you will:
16.1.1 not cause or allow anything which may damage or endanger our title to any Licensed Product or other intellectual property or the title of any Third Party Owner whose work has been made available to us as a Licensed Product;
16.1.2 notify us of any suspected infringement of intellectual property.
16.2 In the event that you use a Licensed Product in any way not permitted by this agreement we may take legal action anywhere in the World. If loss to us or any other individual results from your wrongful action, you will be liable to pay.
16.3 Should we terminate the Licence on account of your breach, you agree that you will:
16.3.1 immediately cease the use of the Licensed Product;
16.3.2 destroy all copies in your possession of the Licensed Product;
16.3.3 destroy any work of yours derived from a Licensed Product.
16.4 To give assurance both to you and to us that you are using the Licensed Product in accordance with the terms of the Licence, you agree that you will provide us with copies of your works and materials containing or using a Licensed Product. We will give you [14] days worth of notice of this requirement. You agree also to provide access to any relevant pages which have restricted access or are fire-walled.
16.5 If we reasonably believe that you are using a Licensed Product outside the scope of this Licence, you agree to provide written confirmation of your compliance, in a form to be drafted by us.
17. Interruption to our service
17.1 Should it become necessary for us to interrupt our service, we will give you reasonable notice where possible and when we judge the down time justifies telling you.
17.2 You acknowledge that you understand our service may be interrupted for a variety of reasons outside of our control.
17.3 You agree that we are not liable to you for any loss, foreseeable or not, arising from any interruption to our service.
18. Content you Post to Our Website
You agree that you will not use or allow anyone else to use Our Website to Post a Content which is or may:
18.1 be information which could promote or assist any illegal purpose;
18.2 be of malicious or defamatory nature;
18.3 consist in commercial audio, video or music files;
18.4 be illegal, obscene, offensive, threatening or violent;
18.5 promote discrimination or animosity to any person on grounds of gender, race, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
18.6 be likely to harass, intimidate, bully, or alarm any other individual;
18.7 solicit any personal information or passwords from anyone;
18.8 be likely to deceive anyone or be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity, age or affiliation with any other person;
18.9 present the impression that it emanates from us or that you are connected with us in any way or that we have endorsed you or your business;
18.10 link to any of the material specified in this paragraph.
19. Removal of offensive Content
19.1 In the pursuit of eliminating any doubt, this paragraph is addressed to any person who comes on Our Websites for any purpose.
19.2 We are under no obligation to monitor or record the activity of any user or visitor to Our Website for any purpose, nor do we assume any responsibility to monitor or police Internet-related activities. However, we may do so without notice to you and without giving you a reason.
19.3 If you are offended by any Content, the following procedure is applicable:
19.3.1 you must submit your claim or complaint to us in the form available on our website, or include the same information as that requested in our form. It must be sent to us by post or email.
19.3.2 we assume the responsibility to remove the offending Content as soon as can be reasonably expected.
19.3.3 after we receive notice of a claim or complaint, we shall investigate so far as we alone decide;
19.3.4 we may choose whether we re-instate the Content about which you have complained or not.
19.4 In respect of any complaint made by you or any person on your behalf, whether using our form of complaint or not, you now irrevocably grant to us a licence to publish the complaint and all ensuing correspondence and communication, without limit.
19.5 You now agree that if any complaint made by you is frivolous or aggravating in nature you will repay us the cost of our investigation including legal fees, if any.
20. Security of Our Website
If you violate Our Website we shall take legal action against you.
You now agree that you will not, and will not allow any other person to:
20.1 modify, copy, or cause damage or unintended effect to any portion of Our Websites, or any software used therein.
20.2 link to our site in any way that would cause the appearance or presentation of Our Websites to be different from what would be seen by a user who accessed Our Websites by typing the URL into a standard browser;
20.3 download any part of Our Websites, without our explicit written consent;
20.4 collect or use any product listings, descriptions, or prices;
20.5 collect or make use of any information obtained from or about Our Websites or the Content except as intended by this agreement;
20.6 accumulate, copy or duplicate in any manner any of the Content or information available from Our Websites, other than as permitted by this agreement or as is reasonably necessary for your use of the Services;
20.7 for any purpose use our name, any proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of ours or of our affiliates in any way and in particular to entice search robots to some other website;
20.8 upload or republish any part of our Content on any Internet, intranet or extranet site.
20.9 share with any third party any login credentials to Our Websites;
20.10 use on Our Website’s software which assists in:
20.10.1 data mining, extraction or collection;
20.10.2 performing any automated procedures;
20.11 Despite the above terms, we now grant a licence to you to:
20.11.1 create a hyperlink to Our Websites for the purpose of promoting an interest common to both of us. You may do this without specific permission. This licence is conditional to you not portraying us or any Product or Service in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive manner.
20.11.2 you may copy the text of any page for your personal use in connection with the purpose of Our Websites or a Service that we provide. You are not permitted to use any logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark of ours as part of the link without our explicit written consent.
21. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify us against any claim or demand, including reasonable lawyers’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising in any way out of your use of Our Website, or the infringement by you, or by any other person using your computer, of any intellectual property or other right of any person.
22. Miscellaneous matters
22.1 You undertake to provide to us your current physical address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers as often as they are changed together with all the information that we may require to enable us to fulfill our obligations under this contract.
22.2 We may change this agreement in any way at any time. The version applicable to your contract is the version which is Posted on Our Website at the time you buy a Product or Service.
22.3 If any term or provision of this agreement is at any time held by any jurisdiction to be void, invalid or unenforceable, then it shall be treated as changed or reduced, only to the minimum extent necessary to make it compliable to the laws of that jurisdiction and to prevent it from being void and it shall be binding in that changed or reduced form. Subject to that, each provision shall be interpreted as severable and shall not in any way affect any other of these terms.
22.4 The rights and obligations of the parties set out in this agreement shall pass to any permitted successor in title.
22.5 For the purposes of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2000 and Protection of Personal Information Act 2013 as amended and any comparable law of any other country having jurisdiction and relating to the location of data processing, you consent to the processing of your personal data (in manual, electronic or any other form) relevant to this agreement, by us and/or any agent or third party nominated by us and bound by a duty of confidentiality. Processing includes but is not limited to obtaining, recording, using and holding data in any country.
22.6 If you are in breach of any term of this agreement, we may:
22.6.1 publish all text and content relating to the claimed breach, including your name and email address and all correspondence between us and our respective advisers; and you now irrevocably give your consent to such publication.
22.6.2 terminate any Licence of a Licensed Product.
22.7 Any obligation stipulated in this agreement intended to continue to have effect after termination shall so continue.
22.8 No failure or delay by any party to exercise any right, power or remedy will serve as a waiver of it nor indicate any intention to reduce that or any other right in the future.
22.9 When you visit Our Websites or send messages to us via email, you are communicating with us electronically. We communicate with you by e-mail or by posting notices on Our Websites. You agree that all our electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
22.10 Any communication to be served on either of the parties by the other shall be delivered by e-mail.
If no notice of non-receipt has been received by the sender within a period of 24 hours upon sending communication to the last e-mail address used by the receiving party, the communication shall be deemed to have been delivered.
22.11 In the event of a dispute between the parties to this agreement, then they undertake to attempt to settle the dispute by engaging in good faith with the other party in a process of mediation before commencing arbitration or litigation.
22.12 This agreement does not give any right to any third party.
22.13 In the event of any conflict between any term of this agreement and the provisions of the articles of a limited company or any comparable document intended to regulate any other corporate or collective body, then the terms of this agreement shall prevail.
22.14 This agreement shall not be governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the application of which is hereby expressly excluded.
22.15 The validity, construction and performance of this agreement shall be governed by the laws of South Africa.
