Legal Helpline Terms and Conditions
Scope of service
The Legal helpline service is available to current UK and EU members of the IoD, including Jersey and Guernsey members, who have paid their membership fee and received confirmation of membership from the IoD. If you are unsure about whether your membership is up to date please contact the membership department before using the service.
You should contact and take advice from the service personally and not via a member of your staff.
Advice is only available on the matters relating to the running of your business or issues related to your own employment and other personal issues affecting you. The Legal helpline is not able to give advice to members’ friends or clients. If you are a consultant or professional advisor, we do not give advice for you to pass on to your clients.
Advice is given by telephone only and not in writing.
The service is provided by LAW Express Ltd, (lawexpress.co.uk), which focuses exclusively on providing legal advice by telephone to companies and membership organisations and is not a legal practice.
Advice is given by legal advisers with experience of the subject in question.
The Legal helpline does not give advice on litigation, tax and pensions.
These terms and conditions shall govern your use of the IoD’s Information and Advisory Service (IAS), including the Legal Helpline. Additional terms and conditions may also apply to other services provided by the IoD and these will be explained or made available to you if you use these services. By using or accessing the IoD’s IAS you will be deemed to have accepted these terms in full.
If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, please refrain from using the IAS service.
Without prejudice to the IoD’s rights under these terms and conditions, if a member is in breach of the terms and conditions in any way, or if the IoD reasonably suspects that the member has breached these terms and conditions in any way, the IoD may:
- Send the member one or more formal warnings;
- Temporarily suspend the member’s access to the IAS service
- Permanently prohibit the member from access to and use of the IAS service
- Commence legal action against the member for breach of contract
Opening hours
Due to the different time zones in the UK and Europe:
UK jurisdiction queries will be dealt with during the hours of 8am-8pm (GMT), Monday to Friday, and 9am-12 noon (GMT), Saturday & Sunday, excluding UK public holidays.
European jurisdiction queries will be dealt with during the hours of 9am-5pm (GMT), Monday to Friday only, excluding UK and country-specific European public holidays.
Number and duration of telephone calls
Advice is free, but call charges will apply when you telephone the Legal helpline to request a conversation with a legal adviser.
Charges for calls from outside the UK and from mobile phones may vary.
You may use the Legal helpline up to 25 times per year.
Please have your membership number ready. Requests for advice cannot be accepted unless a current membership number is quoted.
Service administrators will ask you for a concise summary of your situation and the question which you wish to ask.
You will receive a call back from a legal adviser within two hours.
Paperwork
Documents (including letters and other written communications) cannot be considered or drafted.
Countries covered by the Legal helpline
The list of countries is not exhaustive or definitive and may be amended by Law Express from time to time.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Channel Islands Guernsey and Jersey, Estonia, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden & Switzerland.
Queries within the UK jurisdiction
IoD members should contact the legal helpline reception team, who will relay the call to an appropriate legal adviser with experience of the subject in question.
If at the time of the member’s call, the legal adviser is engaged with another member, the call will be returned within two hours if this is possible during the helpline opening hours; otherwise it will be returned the following working day.
Initial 20 minutes of free advice on the specified legal subject will be provided by legal advisers who are qualified to give advice under the law of England and Wales. The helpline also covers Scottish law and the law of Northern Ireland.
Queries in other jurisdictions
IoD members should contact the legal helpline reception team, who will liaise with solicitors in the specified country (see the list above), which is covered by the service.
Solicitors will return calls to IoD members within 24 hours of notification by the Legal helpline. Where they cannot provide advice on a specified subject they will redirect the IoD member back to the helpline who will refer them to an alternative firm within the jurisdiction.
Initial 20 minutes of free advice on the specified legal subject will be provided by an English-speaking solicitor with experience of the subject in question and who is qualified under that particular country’s jurisdiction.
Advice given outside of the initial 20-minute period may attract charges at rates applicable at the time of calling and as agreed with the firm. IoD members will be responsible for the payment of these additional charges and are advised to make themselves aware of the scale of fees payable at the outset. The IoD and Law Express have no responsibility for such work and they in no way encourage members to use the private services of the firm’s solicitors.
Where there is a requirement for an EU member firm to provide ongoing legal services for an IoD member then terms must be agreed between the IoD member and the EU member firm and confirmed in writing by both parties.