General Terms & Conditions

These terms and conditions relate to consumers of Oratto Limited’s services and govern the relationship between Oratto Limited and users of the oratto.co.uk website – Oratto Member Lawyers or lawyers wishing to become an Oratto Member Lawyer should refer to the Oratto Referral Agreement in respect of the relationship and agreement between Oratto Limited and lawyers featured on the website.

The purpose of these Terms & Conditions is to form an agreement (“Agreement’) between you (“You, Your”) and Oratto Limited (“Oratto, We, Our, Us”). Oratto Limited is a Private Limited Company whose registered office address is at and is a registered company in England & Wales under company number 9558808.

Oratto.co.uk (“the Website”) is a website operated by Oratto.

The purpose of this Agreement is to govern the relationship between You and Us and sets out the terms and conditions of use by You of the Website, the information displayed on the Website and use of the services and any facilities offered through the Website.

You must read these terms and conditions carefully before using the Website or any facilities or services provided by Us to You via the Website.

 

Background

Oratto is not a firm of solicitors or barristers and does not operate as a legal practice. Our directors and employees do not give legal advice and we cannot act for you in a legal case. The Oratto website does not exist to create a solicitor-client relationship between You and Us. The Wiki pages within the Oratto website exist to provide general information and are not a substitute for legal advice.

Oratto exists to help consumers of legal services to identify and locate a lawyer to handle their legal case. The Oratto website portal contains detailed profiles of lawyers from many different law firms, so that those seeking to find a lawyer to deal with their case are able to compare a range of different lawyers and thus make properly informed choices as to whom to instruct.

Oratto is open to all qualified solicitors and lawyers registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and operating within the UK to become Oratto Member Lawyers, with the exception of lawyers that practice personal injury as their main practice area. The lawyers featured on the Oratto website portal have chosen to become Oratto Member Lawyers and have signed an agreement with Oratto to adhere to certain service level standards.

 

Your Privacy

Through the Website portal We facilitate You making contact with an Oratto Member Lawyer via telephone, online chat or contact form. We also provide a service whereby we will endeavour to match You with a lawyer through the Oratto Match service. If You choose to use Oratto Match, We will ask You for brief details of Your potential case and You will need to provide these details on an online form via the Website. Such details may include personal information including Your name, address, telephone number, email address and other confidential details about You and Your potential case. In providing these details to Us You agree that We can share these details with any Oratto Member Lawyer on the Website in order to identify a lawyer prepared to consider taking on Your case.

When You instruct a lawyer via Oratto, the Member Lawyer will, during the course of dealing with Your case, report to Oratto that they have taken Your case on or rejected it. If that Member Lawyer does not take Your case on, they will inform Oratto that they have rejected the case and will set-out the reasons for doing so. From time-to-time during the progress of Your case, the Oratto Member Lawyer will write to Oratto and inform Us of progress on Your case. They will also inform Oratto when they have concluded matters.

We take Your privacy very seriously and protecting Your rights to Privacy is very important to Us. Please read our Privacy Policy which provides a detailed explanation of how we protect Your privacy.

 

Changes to these General Terms & Conditions

We reserve the right to make alterations to these General Terms & Conditions at any time. We will give You notice of any changes that We make that are likely to have a material effect on You or Your use of the Website. By using the Website You agree with Us your acceptance that any changes We make will take effect from the date the change was made.

 

General

The Oratto Website is made available to You conditional upon You accepting these General Terms & Conditions. By using the Website and acting upon any information You find on the Website or utilising any functionality on the Website or engaging with a lawyer or lawyers on the Website You implicitly agree with this Agreement.

You agree that there is no partnership, employment or agency agreement between You and Us, as a consequence of You using the Website.

We will endeavour to make the Website available to You at all times, but from time-to-time there may be occasions when the Website is taken off-line for maintenance purposes or to perform an upgrade to Our systems and software. Due to the nature of the Internet and the technology involved, Oratto takes no responsibility for and will not be liable for the Website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues (or otherwise) beyond Our control. It may on occasion be necessary for Us to suspend the Website or take it off-line for a prolonged period of time or even indefinitely. In such circumstances We shall not be liable to You for any losses arising through any claims, actions, lawsuits, damages, awards or judgments arising as a result of Your inability to access or use the Website at any time.

The Website and some information within the Wiki section of the Website may contain links to other websites. We provide such links to give You access to other useful resources or information that may be of help to You. We do not sponsor and We are not affiliated or associated with, or legally authorised by any of the Websites that We may link to. In addition We are not responsible for any loss, claim, liability, or damages as a result of Your use of any website linked to from the Website.

A printed version of this Agreement is available on request.

 

The Oratto Rating

Each lawyer featured on the Website is given an Oratto rating by Us.

The Oratto rating is unique to Us and therefore another organization may rate the same lawyer in a different way, or use different information, or a different algorithm to calculate their rating of the same lawyer.  

The Oratto rating is calculated by using information derived from each Member Lawyer’s profile. We do this by using an algorithm that we have developed. This takes into account a variety of factors and these are used in the algorithmic formula to determine the rating awarded to each lawyer. The rating applied takes into consideration factors such as the number of years post qualification experience each lawyer has, whether they specialise in more than one area of law, their legal qualifications, the number of case studies, published cases and testimonials they have uploaded to the Oratto Website, along with the frequency of updates and other data. 

In calculating the rating We believe that some things are more important than others and so it may be that certain elements like specialisation in just one or two areas of law is more important to Us than whether a lawyer went to a particular university.

Lawyers can earn improved ratings for keeping their profile up to date as well as frequently adding new case studies and testimonials. Keeping their profile current is an important part of the rating algorithm as we want to encourage lawyers to provide as much up to date information on themselves as possible in order that You can get an accurate picture of each lawyer so that You can make properly informed choices. 

We rate every lawyer in the same way. Lawyers cannot ask for their rating to be manually improved and We do not publish exact details of how the best ratings can be achieved. The lawyers rated with the best scores are those that our algorithm considers to have the most comprehensive profiles and whom are true specialists in their field of expertise. 

The Oratto rating is not a guarantee of quality, ability or competence in a lawyer. You should not use it to pre-determine the likely outcome of Your case.

 

Indemnity

You Agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Us from any claims, actions, lawsuits, damages, awards or judgments arising out of any arrangements You make with Oratto Members Lawyers or as a result of Your use of the Website.

 

Referral Fees

Oratto is a commercial enterprise and We make money by providing marketing services to Oratto Member Lawyers. Oratto receives marketing fees from Oratto Member Lawyers in the form of referral fees. The referral fees are calculated using a simple formula based either on the number and type of cases each Oratto Lawyer receives from the Website, or as a percentage of the fees charged by the Member Lawyers. Referral fees are paid by Oratto Member Lawyers to Oratto on a monthly basis.

 

Entire Agreement

This Agreement constitutes the sole and entire understanding between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and may not be altered or amended except in writing signed by both parties. This Agreement supersedes all prior communications or agreements written or oral, and is intended as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the Agreement between the parties.

 

Liability Disclaimer

The information and services contained on the Website is for general information purposes only and to help You to make properly informed choices. However, You should not rely upon the material or information on the Website as the sole basis for making any business, legal or any other decisions. Whilst We endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the Website, the information within the Oratto Wiki section or the Member Lawyer’s profiles featured on the Website. Any reliance you place on such material is therefore strictly at your own risk.

Oratto will not be liable for any false, inaccurate, inappropriate or incomplete information presented on the website.

Whilst precautions are taken to detect computer viruses and ensure security, Oratto cannot guarantee that the Website is virus-free and secure.  Oratto shall not be liable for any loss or damage which may occur as a result of any virus or breach of security. Whilst making every attempt to secure personal data, Oratto cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond the control of the Oratto.

 

No Unlawful or Prohibited Use

As a condition of Your use of this Website, You warrant to Us that You will not use this website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices.

 

Copyright

All content on the Website is the property of and is copyright © 2015 Oratto Limited. All rights reserved.

 

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

This Agreement and any disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with its subject matter are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England

and Wales.  

The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this Agreement.