Website terms of use

By using this Website you agree that you have read these terms and conditions and that you agree to them. These terms and conditions and your use of this Website are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions you are not authorised to use this Website.

You may print off and keep a copy of these terms. They are a legal agreement between you and Ascent (“us”) and can only be modified with our consent. We reserve the right to change the terms at our discretion by changing them on the Website.

Other terms may apply in respect of certain areas of the Website. If this is the case, you will be made aware of the terms which apply to those areas. Please read the terms and conditions below.

Legal information

Any information about our products and services provided on the Website is for general information only, does not take account of any individual circumstances and may not reflect recent changes in the law.

The information on the Website refers only to the law of England and Wales and is intended only for residents of England and Wales. Users should be aware that laws and regulations may be different outside England and Wales.

Detailed specialist advice should always be obtained from a suitably qualified lawyer before taking, or not taking, any action.

Disclaimers & exclusion of liability

Although care is taken to ensure that the information on the Website is accurate and up to date, we cannot accept any responsibility for mistakes or omissions. In particular, any articles in our archives may be out of date. We enter into no express or implied conditions, warranties, terms or representations regarding the quality, accuracy or completeness of the information.

We exclude to the extent lawfully permitted all liability for loss or damage, whether direct, indirect or consequential (including, without limitation, loss suffered as a result of breach of these terms which is not a foreseeable consequence of the breach, lost profits, lost opportunity, lost business, loss of goodwill, loss of contracts, increased overheads or administrative expenses or management time) arising out of your use of or inability to use this Website, or from any information or omission contained in this Website.

We do not exclude our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited by law.

While we try to ensure that the Website is available 24 hours a day, we cannot guarantee this and will not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period. Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair, for reasons beyond our control or any other reason we consider to be appropriate in the circumstances. We shall have no liability in respect of any such suspension.

Except where specifically stated in respect of on-line products, nothing in these pages constitutes either an offer, or legal or other professional advice and by using this Website you confirm that you have not relied on any such content.

The Website may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by us. If you use these links, you will leave the Website. These links are provided for convenience only and do not constitute any endorsement by Ascent of the organisation promoted on the linked websites, their products or services.

We do not have any control over such linked websites or the content of them and cannot accept any responsibility for them.

Please note that although reasonable care is taken to ensure that the Website and the materials available from it are virus-free, we cannot accept responsibility for any viruses which may affect any material you download.

You may not misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking, attempting to gain unauthorised access to the Website or any server on which the Website is stored, or by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful). You may not attack the Website via a denial of service attack or a distributed denial of service attack.

By breaching this provision you may commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Website will cease immediately.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial of service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Website.

Intellectual property

The intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, copyright and trade marks) in all material on the Website (including, without limitation, text, images and plans) are owned by Ascent unless otherwise stated and your use of them is limited as set out below.

Except where otherwise stated, you are permitted to display the pages of the Website on your computer screen and print a reasonable number of unmodified copies of any of the pages of the Website for your own, non-commercial use. You may not change or delete any author attribution, trade mark, legend or copyright notice, and by printing or displaying the Website you do not acquire any rights in it.

Except as expressly permitted under copyright law, any other copying, modification, reproduction, permanent storage, repackaging, distribution, transmission or commercial exploitation of any of the material on the Website by any means without our prior written consent is prohibited. This applies to both the visual content of the Website and the source code.

You may create links to the Website but must not frame the Website on any other site nor may you create a link to any part of the Website other than the home page without our prior written consent.

Privacy

Where we send you information about our products and services, we will share your information with Irwin Mitchell LLP (“IM”). IM will put your information on its database, and this may be used by other organisations owned by or under the substantial direct or indirect control of IM (the “Group”) in relation to their products and services. Where you have given us instructions about your marketing preferences, this will apply to all use of your information within the Group.

Cookies

Like many other websites, our website uses cookies. One of the reasons we use cookies is to help us analyse how customers use our site and the success of our marketing campaigns. This means we can make informed decisions about improvements to the site and get a good understanding of the kind of content our customers like to read.

Cookies are small text files places on your computer when you visit our site. While they allow
us to see patterns in customer behaviour, they do not allow us to identify you specifically. No
personal data is gathered about you.

When you visit our site, you will be briefly informed of what cookies are and how you can
manage them. You will also be made aware that if you continue to use the site you are
agreeing to the use of cookies. If you choose to disable the cookies, the majority of the site
will work as normal. However without information on how people use our site, it is harder for
us to make improvements and tailor our service to your needs.

The Cookies That We Use

Session Cookies

These cookies are essential for the website to function and will be set regardless of whether you allow other cookies. These cookies are not stored on your computer and will be deleted when you close your web browser.

COOKIE DESCRIPTION PURPOSE LINKED TO INDIVIDUAL USER DATA? FIRST OR THIRD PARTY
PHP Session Cookie* Used to anonymously identify the site visitor during a session to enable application session state. This cookie is not linked to user data or used for tracking purposes. No First party

* These cookies are essential for the website to function and will be set regardless of whether you allow us to place other cookies.

Functionality Cookies

The functionality cookies that we use allow us to monitor patterns of traffic on our website, accurately measure the success of our marketing campaigns and allow you to interact with social media while on our site. These cookies are stored on your computer and will expire after a set period of time.

COOKIE DESCRIPTION PURPOSE LINKED TO INDIVIDUAL USER DATA? FIRST OR THIRD PARTY
Referrer tracking cookie Allows us to see if a user has found the site through one of our marketing campaigns. It is not linked to any data that allows us to identify users individually. No First party
Google Analytics tracking cookies Collect anonymous information about how visitors use our website. Allows us to identify trends, popular types of content and make informed decisions on No how to improve the site. It is not linked to any data that allows us to identify users individually. No Third party
Marketing Cookies (includes doubleclick.net, atdmt.com and ad.yieldmanager.com) Collect information about how visitors interact with our website and our marketing campaigns. No Third party
Social media cookies (includes Twitter, Facebook, Add This) Allows users to interact with social media through our website. No Third party

How To Delete Cookies

To find out how to delete cookies, please refer to your web browser’s help section. More information is also available on the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s site, All About Cookies.

Protecting Your Security

To ensure that your credit, debit or charge card is not being used without your consent, we will validate name, address and other personal information supplied by you during the order process against appropriate third party databases.

By accepting these terms and conditions you consent to such checks being made. In performing these checks personal information provided by you may be disclosed to a registered Credit Reference Agency which may keep a record of that information.

You can rest assured that this is done only to confirm your identity, that a credit check is not performed and that your credit rating will be unaffected. All information provided by you will be treated securely and strictly in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.