TERMS and CONDITIONS

The following TERMS and CONDITIONS govern all use of the LAWYERS.NET℠ websites and the LAWYERS.NET℠ authorized social media networking accounts (collectively, "the Sites") and all content, services, and products made available at or through the Sites.  The Sites are operated by LAWYERS.NET, LLC (herein, “the Company”).  The Sites are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, the PRIVACY and COOKIES POLICY), disclaimers, and procedures that may be published from time to time on the Sites (collectively, “the Agreement”).

Please read the Agreement carefully before accessing or using the Sites.  You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to access or use the Sites.  By accessing or using the Sites, you warrant and represent that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age, and you agree to become bound by the Agreement.  If you do not agree to all of the Agreement, then do not access or use the Sites.

  1. Your Access to the Sites

Your access to the Sites may only be for authorized purposes.  Unauthorized attempts to upload, download, or change information on the Sites is strictly prohibited and may be subject to civil penalties and criminal prosecution.  If you contribute to the Sites, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account used to access the Sites, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your account and any other actions taken in connection with your contribution to the Sites.  For example, if you author or contribute to a blog on the Sites, you must not describe or assign keywords to your blog in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and the Company may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause the Company liability.  You must immediately notify the Company of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security relating to your access to and use of the Sites.  The Company will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

  1. Responsibility of Contributors to the Sites

If you author a blog, comment on a blog, post material to the Sites, post links on the Sites, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Sites (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the Content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content.  That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software.  By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:

  • The downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
  • If your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
  • You have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end users any required terms;
  • The Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses or other harmful or destructive Content;
  • The Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial Content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party websites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);
  • The Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite violence, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;
  • Your Content is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and similar unsolicited promotional methods;
  • Your Content is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into thinking that you are another person or company. For example, your blog’s URL or name is not the name of a person other than yourself or company other than your own; and
  • You have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the materials.

By submitting Content for inclusion on the Sites, you grant the Company a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting your Content and the Sites.  If you delete Content, the Company will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Sites, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable or may not be possible to remove.

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, the Company has the right (though not the obligation) to, in the Company’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any Content that, in the Company’s reasonable opinion, violates any policies of the Sites or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Sites to any individual or entity for any reason, in the Company’s sole discretion.  The Company will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

  1. Responsibility of Visitors to the Sites

The Company has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the Content, including computer software, posted to the Sites, and cannot therefore be responsible for the uses or effects of the Content.  By operating the Sites, the Company does not represent or imply that it endorses the posted Content (or the person or entity who contributed the Content), or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful.  You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive Content.  The Sites may contain Content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as Content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors.  The Sites may also contain Content that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated.  The Company DISCLAIMS ANY RESPONSIBILITY for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Sites, or from any downloading by those visitors of Content there posted.

  1. Comment Policy

You are fully responsible for everything that you submit in your comments, and all posted comments are in the public domain.  The Company expects comments on the Sites to be courteous.  The Company reserves the right to delete comments and block visitors and users that the Company finds offensive or inappropriate at the Company’s sole discretion.  Please refrain from posting comments on the Sites that are generally understood as any of the following:

  • Violent, racist, obscene, profane, or hateful
  • Comments that threaten or harm the reputation of any person or organization
  • Advertisements or solicitations of any kind
  • Legal advice or requests for legal advice
  • Comments that suggest or encourage illegal activity
  • Multiple, off-topic posts or repetitive posts
  • Personal information including, but not limited to, identification numbers, phone numbers, and email addresses
  • Copyrighted and other proprietary material

  1. Content Posted on Other Websites

The Company has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the Content, including computer software, made available through the external sites and pages to which the Sites link, and that link to the Sites.  The Company does not have any control over external websites and pages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use.  By linking to an external website or page, the Company does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or page.  You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, malware, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content.  The Company DISCLAIMS ANY RESPONSIBILITY for any harm resulting from your use of external websites and pages.

  1. Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy

As the Company asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, the Company respects the intellectual property rights of others.  If you believe that Content located on or linked to the Sites violates your copyright(s), you are encouraged to notify the Company in accordance with the DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (“DMCA”) of 1998, a summary of which can be found here.  The Company will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing Content or disabling all links to the infringing Content.  The Company will terminate a Content contributor’s access to and use of the Sites if, under appropriate circumstances, the Content contributor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of the Company or others.  In the case of such termination, the Company will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to the Company by the Content contributor.

  • Some considerations before filing a notice of claimed infringement

  1. Usage of the Content may fall under “FAIR USE."
  2. The Content may actually be on a third party website, in which case, you should follow the DMCA notification process for that website (see for example Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter, Google (e.g. Google+, YouTube, Blogger, etc.).
  3. Your “Elements of Notification” must comply with the detailed requirements of the United States Code (see 17 U.S.C. Sec. 512(c)(3)).
  4. Your infringement notice may be forwarded to the party who made the allegedly infringing Content available or to third parties such as the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse.
  5. You may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that Content or activity on the Sites is infringing on your copyright(s), and the Company will seek to collect those damages.

  • Steps for filing a notice of claimed infringement

  1. Verify the Content in question is actually on the Sites.
  2. Contact the user, for example the blogger or commenter, who posted the Content to see if the matter can be resolved directly between you and the user.
  3. If the matter cannot be resolved privately, email your notice to the Company’s Designated Agent (the Company’s preferred method).
  4. If you would prefer not to email your notice, you may mail your notice to the Company’s Designated Agent at the following address:

President 
LAWYERS.NET, LLC
25 Highland Park Village, Suite 100-167
Dallas, Texas 75205

  1. Intellectual Property

The Agreement does not transfer from the Company to you any of the Company’s or third party’s intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with the Company. LAWYERS.NET, LLC, LAWYERS.NET℠, and the LAWYERS.NET℠ logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Company or the Sites are trademarks, service marks, or registered trademarks of the Company or the Company’s licensors.  Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with the Sites may be the intellectual property of other third parties.  Your access to and use of the Sites grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any of the Company’s or third-party’s intellectual property.

  1. Payment and Renewal

  • General Terms

Optional paid services such as displaying Ads and leasing sub-domains may be available on the LAWYERS.NET℠ websites (any such services, an “Upgrade”).  By selecting an Upgrade you agree to pay the Company the monthly or annual subscription fees indicated for that service (as well as any taxes).  Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an Upgrade and will cover the use of that service for a monthly or annual subscription period as indicated.  Upgrade fees (as well as any taxes) are not refundable. 

  • Automatic Renewal

Unless you notify the Company before the end of the applicable subscription period that you want to cancel an Upgrade, your Upgrade subscription will automatically renew and you authorize us to collect the then-applicable annual or monthly subscription fee for such Upgrade (as well as any taxes) using any credit card or other payment mechanism we have on record for you.  Upgrades can be canceled at any time with prior written notification to and confirmation from the Company.

  1. Advertisements or Ads

The Company reserves the right to display advertisements or ads on the Sites. 

  1. Attribution

The Company reserves the right to display LAWYERS.NET℠ and other appropriate attribution credits, logos, and links on the Sites, which may not be altered or removed.

  1. Termination

The Company may terminate your access to all or any part of the Sites at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately.  If you wish to terminate the Agreement or your account with the Sites (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using the Sites.  All provisions of the Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

  1. Disclaimer of Endorsement

The Company does not endorse any lawyer, law firm, commercial product, service, process, or enterprise.  Links to third party websites and references to any lawyer, law firm, commercial product, service, or enterprise are provided solely for the information and convenience of the visitor and user and do not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, or referral.  The Company assumes no responsibility for the content or operation of third party websites, products, or services.

  1. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

The Sites are provided on an “AS-IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis.  The Company and its suppliers and licensors hereby DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.  Neither the Company nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the Sites will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted.  You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Sites at your own discretion and risk.

  1. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT WILL THE COMPANY, OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS, BE LIABLE WITH RESPECT TO ANY SUBJECT MATTER OF THE AGREEMENT UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY FOR: (i) ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT FOR SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES; (iii) FOR INTERRUPTION OF USE OR LOSS OR CORRUPTION OF DATA; OR (iv) FOR ANY AMOUNTS THAT EXCEED THE FEES PAID BY YOU TO THE COMPANY UNDER THE AGREEMENT DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTH PERIOD PRIOR TO THE CAUSE OF ACTION.  THE COMPANY SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY FAILURE OR DELAY DUE TO MATTERS BEYOND ITS REASONABLE CONTROL.  THE FOREGOING SHALL NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

  1. General Representation and Warranty

You represent and warrant that (i) your use of the Sites will be in strict accordance with the PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY, with the Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable Content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside) and (ii) your use of the Sites will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

  1. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Sites, including but not limited to your violation of the Agreement. 

  1. Copyright

Copyright is claimed for all Content on the Sites that was created by the Company.  Images and text appearing on the Sites may not be copied without prior written authorization from the Company.  If other copyrighted Content appears on the Sites, or is reached through a link on the Sites, the copyright holder must be consulted before the Content may be reproduced.

  1. Miscellaneous

The Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the Company and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and it may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of the Company, or by the posting by the Company of a revised version.  Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, the Agreement and any access to or use of the Sites will be governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States of America (U.S.A.), excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in Dallas County, Texas, U.S.A.  Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under the Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such rules.  The arbitration shall take place in Dallas, Texas, in the English language, and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court.  The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce the Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees.  If any part of the Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect.  A waiver by either party of any term or condition of the Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.  You may assign your rights under the Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions; the Company may assign its rights under the Agreement without condition.  The Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

  1. Contact Information

You may contact the Company by email or at the mailing address listed below. 

LAWYERS.NET, LLC
25 Highland Park Village, Suite 100-167
Dallas, Texas 75205

  1. Changes

The Company reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any part of the Agreement.  It is your responsibility to check the Agreement periodically for changes.  Your continued use of or access to the Sites following the posting of any changes to the Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes.  The Company may also, in the future, offer new services and / or features through the Sites (including, the release of new tools and resources).  Such new services and / or features shall be subject to the Agreement.  If any changes are made, the Company will update the Last Updated date below.

The Agreement was Last Updated on May 31, 2015.