How many times have you logged onto a website, read the front page and noticed the “Terms and Conditions” section? How many times have you actually checked out that page? Are you really bothered?

While many people who use the internet will not be remotely interested in the Terms and Conditions a site may have, they can prove crucial in the event of mishaps, disagreements and ultimately legal action. Never forget that while you probably do not pretend to be an expert in any particular field, if someone were to use you advice and incur losses or some form of damage, they might come back to you for some kind of recourse. As unlikely as this may seem, it does happen and is likely to become more frequent in the months and years ahead.

So what do you need to do?

If you are serious about making a name for yourself on the internet and actually making money, or offering a popular service, you do need to cover yourself. There are many standard “Terms and Conditions” formats out there, many of which are free and can be amended to cover your site.

It is not a big task or particularly difficult, and the chances are that you will never need it, but it may well save you a lot of money in the future. If you can prove that a customer or reader of your site was warned prior to taking a certain action, that will cover you. You only need to show that you had the relevant terms and conditions on your site, you don’t need to prove that a user read them - that is there problem, not yours!