I’m in the process of gathering content and ideas (getting inspiration from other websites and dribbble) for my own website.
Coming to think of terms and conditions I would like to know how you did it. Did you ask a lawyer to counsel you concerning your terms and conditions? Did you write terms yourself? What should a new Webdesigner like me be aware of, … jeez, the more read about it, the more it confuses me.
I’d love to hear your ideas. Since I cannot simply copy another web designers legal notice… do you have any advice?
I based my original T&C’s on these and it looks like they have been updated since I used them a few years ago. Thats a reminder that these need to be updated.
I am looking to produce something much tighter and more specific with the new site I am working on. My plan was to check half a dozen sites with detailed terms and go through them together to see broad areas that should be included, then run them by a lawyer.
The way web designers work is very specific, dependent on the services we offer and where we operate etc, so I doubt a local lawyer in your area dealing with house sales etc would have any understanding of the technical issues that need to be detailed. Having said that I am not aware of any lawyers specialised in web designer specific T&C’s let alone for my country. Remember that any conditions also need to take account of national laws.
First of all I would start by carefully seeing what services you intend to offer and then start from there. On my new site I have 21 listed services so far and many of those will require separate sections I suspect. No doubt some other Blocs users who have been operating for longer can provide you with some solid guidance and I would be interested to hear their thoughts.
Thanks @Flashman. That site is already a good starting point. I might as well check lots of T&Cs from different web designers and try to write down something, that fits to the services I’m going to offer. Lots of ideas already. Eventually I’ll have to ask a lawyer to check my T&Cs, just to be safe.
Attached is a Zip of agreements and T&C’s that were developed for use on all our client websites by our own legal advisors. There are two agreements which cover website development. One is for where you are acting as a consultant in the development of the website, the other is where you are charged with designing and delivering a complete website. You use whichever is applicable to your situation.
There are four other documents which are designed for publication within a website. The first is a simple ant–spam policy notice. Typically this would be used in conjunction with enquiry forms which contain a link to your anti-spam policy. The policy itself can be made to open in a modal so people can read the terms before submitting the form.
Next is a GDPR Privacy Policy, this is designed for websites that do collect visitor data and need to be fully compliant with GDPR Regulations. There is also a general website privacy policy which is typically used where no specific data is collected by your site, but certain tracking data may get collected and passed to third parties. Typically, you would use one or the other - not both. Finally, there is a website legal notice. This sets out your terms and conditions of use of the website and firmly establishes your ownership of the materials contained within the site. This should be a standard on all websites and would usually be accessed through a footer link.
Anyway, feel free to use any or all of these documents. They are provided in Pages format. Also note these are created as British English documents. If you want to use them in jurisdictions that use US English, you will have to make a few adjustments to certain spellings.
Very wise and prudent, this should always be done.
This is true for anyone regardless if you plan to cobble together things you find by extracting from various sources or using complete documents. Its always important to have it reviewed legally for proper validity. This will ensure it adequately meets your demographic governing laws, interpretations and jurisdictions. By doing so it will ensure that you will be legally covered depending on where you will be operating your business. It’s always best not to assume everything (anything) is legally universal even across your own local municipalities.
There is nothing worse than thinking you are legally covered only then to find out you are not when the time arises. If that does happen then its only ourselves to blame.
Also worth remembering that legal opinion is not infallible. If it was there would be no court cases. Basically you just do the best you can in line with the kind of work you are doing.
I don’t know how much experience you have in dealing with web clients, but as a rule of thumb try to deal with reasonable people and you’ll never have to fall back on such terms if a problem arises. If the first contact seems tricky it will only become worse.
I have one client I work well with that recently hired some young guy to help push their business. His first email started with a friendly introduction, followed by references to my FAQ and terms & conditions with follow up questions. That’s a red flag.
I pay for the full and now I can use with all my clients, every time the conditions, or legal agreements changed in the country that the sites origin, it alerts me and as the legal cookies, or terms are always like links it changes automatically without changing any page.
Very generous of you.