Terms & Conditions
The purpose of the O’Brien Watters & Davis, LLP (“OW&D LLP”) website is to access the information about the law firm, the services it provides and the background, education, training and experience of its attorneys and staff.
All of its attorneys are licensed to practice law in California. This can be verified at any time by checking the California State Bar website, www.calbar.ca.gov. Two of our lawyers are Certified Specialists in their respective areas of law practice by the State Bar of California, California Board of Legal Specialization.
The information contained in the website is believed to be reasonably accurate but may not be perfect.
Confidential Communications Via the O’Brien Watters & Davis, LLP Website
Confidential communications between an attorney and client, in most instances, are confidential and protected by the attorney-client privilege. However, none of the information on this website is meant in any way to be confidential. Consequently, any communication sent to our website must be of a non-confidential nature and very general so it is not covered by the attorney-client privilege. We do not accept such confidential communications on the website. We do not agree to keep confidential any such communication.
Hiring Our Firm or One of Our Attorneys
The hiring of an attorney is a highly personal as well as subjective decision. It should not be made lightly; it should not be made on the basis of any TV commercial or Yellow Pages™ ad. Before a prospective client can hire one of our attorneys, we must be able to verify the client’s personal identity to prevent identity theft, or worse. We then prefer to meet in person with the prospective client to see if there is a good fit, but only after we perform a conflict of interest check in order to avoid the representation of adverse interests.
So the prospective client will have to forward sufficient, detailed information we need to perform the conflict check. Assuming there is no conflict of interest, if the client decides to hire us, the firm requires a written Legal Services Agreement to establish the attorney-client relationship and the scope of the work as well as before any legal work is commenced. The firm also requires an advance deposit before starting any work for clients new to the firm. Thus, we can’t represent any client without going through the process and there can be no attorney-client relationship established without going through this process.
Practice Areas
The website provides a list of law practice areas that the firm handles. The description of the kinds of law work we do is thought to be accurate. Some of these practice areas may contain references to current law. However, the law is constantly changing and some of the new changes may not make it into the website immediately. Such information can change without notice. The references to the law are meant for general reference purposes only. The references are not meant to be relied on by any particular person or in any particular case or situation. By accessing and/or using our website, the user agrees not to make any important decision about his or her case or legal circumstances based on the content of the website. The user will need to hire an attorney, be interviewed about the facts of the case, provide key documents, and possibly have some investigation conducted. The attorney will do necessary legal research and analyze the user’s case or legal circumstances and then be in a position to provide the user with legal advice.
Advertising / Solicitation
Advertising by lawyers has been legal as commercial speech since 1977. Nonetheless, advertising by lawyers is subject to some control. For example, lawyers are not allowed to personally solicit your business. California Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1-400(C). This website is not intended to personally solicit any law business or advertise legal services where such advertising would be illegal.
No Liability / No Warranty
We accept no liability of any kind for our website or any users of same. We make no warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied.
Links to Other Websites
Some of our practice areas contain references and/or links to other websites. These are exclusively to state or federal government websites. We cannot be responsible for the content of those websites which could change at any time. No one has authority to, nor do we consent to, link our website to or with any other website.
Copyrighted Material
Our website may contain copyrighted material written by one or more of our attorneys. These materials may be copied for the personal, non-commercial use of the website user or for teaching or educational purposes and the like.
Security & Privacy Policy
We believe our website to be secure. We have taken reasonable steps, in our opinion, to reduce the possibility of hacking or being hosts for malware. However, we can’t guarantee the security of our website given today’s environment. The ingenuity of today’s hackers and cyber criminals cannot be underestimated.
Information we receive by way of our website is considered by us to be private. We don’t allow others internal access to or use of our website; we don’t sell mailing lists or web addresses to anyone.
Webmaster / Person-in-charge of Website Content
The attorney responsible for the content of the OW&D, LLP website is Michael G. Watters.