Is your website compliant with the law?

Prisoner Following on from Richard Jenkins' previous guest post on the importance of a written contract, he has written us a short summary of the essential, legally required information for a limited company's website. Have you got all of these on yours?

Every company should state on its website its:

full name
registration number
place of registration
registered office address
where applicable, VAT number
(even if the website is not being used for ecommerce)
if being wound up, that fact

If you want to know more about legal compliance for your website, then we would definitely recommend having a chat with Richard. Got any more quick questions, why not pose them as a comment and we'll see if we can persuade Richard to write a few more guest posts.

About Richard
Richard Jenkins of Claric Legal Services Ltd is a Chartered Secretary with 20+ years experience of providing legal support to businesses/organisations, specialising in Commercial Law, Company Law and Corporate Governance.

Should you require any further information, he can be contacted on richard@clariclegal.co.uk

Website: www.clariclegal.co.uk

September 2, 2011 at 2:02 pm | Design, Legal | No comment

Should you have a contract on your website?

Website contracts One of the questions we often get asked is about the ins and outs of website law, to which we replay "we're not legal experts" and point people in the direction of someone who is, or at out-law.com! One such expert is Richard Jenkins of Claric Legal Services, based in Coventry, who specialises in commercial and company law. I asked him to write a guest post on the importance of a written contract.

Why Have a Written Contract?

Benjamin Franklin stated "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". In the commercial world, written contracts are the ounce of prevention that helps to reduce costly disputes.

A carefully drafted written contract serves as an important point of reference for both you and the other party. Having a written description of the rights, obligations and responsibilities prevents potential confusion between the parties. It helps to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty and there is less likely to be miscommunication and misinterpretation.

A good written contract clearly states the responsibilities of all parties, often setting out things such as the outcomes expected, performance measures, timeframes and financial arrangements. Whilst it may contain some “legalese” (which often protects and/or clarifies the positions of the parties), it does not need to be complicated. In fact, the plainer the English, the better, in my view.

If a contract is not in writing, it may well be difficult to prove that you have a contract at all. It is often true to say: “a verbal contract is not worth the paper it’s written on!”

Should you require any further information, he can be contacted on richard@clariclegal.co.uk

Website: www.clariclegal.co.uk

August 22, 2011 at 4:17 pm | Business Thinking, Design, Legal | 1 comment