Effective as of 9/20/17
Welcome to the FairClaims, Inc. service which may include but is not limited to dispute resolution software and related offerings (the “Service”). The following Terms of Service apply when you view or use the Service via our website fairclaims.com, or any child domain therein. Please review the following terms carefully. By accessing or using the Service, you signify your agreement to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, you may not access or use the Service.
PRIVACY POLICY
The Company respects the privacy of its Service users. Please refer to the Company’s Privacy Policy found here which explains how we collect, use, and disclose information that pertains to your privacy. When you access or use the Service, you signify your agreement to this Privacy Policy.
RULES AND PROCEDURES
By using Company’s Service you are also agreeing to be bound by Company’s “Rules & Procedures,” if applicable to your dispute and as-posted at here, including any changes which are made to those rules from time to time as updated here.
ABOUT THE SERVICE
The Service allows you to resolve disputes with another party.
REGISTRATION; RULES FOR USER CONDUCT AND USE OF THE SERVICE
You need to be at least 18 years old and a resident of the United States to register for and use the Service.
If you are a user who signs up for the Service, we will create a personalized account which includes a unique username and a password to access the Service and to receive messages from the Company. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your password and/or account. The Company will not be responsible for any liabilities, losses, or damages arising out of the unauthorized use of your member name, password and/or account.
USE RESTRICTIONS
Your permission to use the Site is conditioned upon the following Use Restrictions and Conduct Restrictions: You agree that you will not under any circumstances:
- post any information that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory, libelous, or racially, sexually, religiously, or otherwise objectionable and offensive; notwithstanding the aforementioned, you may post sensitive content if it is relevant and necessary towards explaining your side of the story for the strict purpose of arbitration - if you have any questions about that please contact us at help@fairclaims.com to double check before uploading evidence or posting;
- use the service for any unlawful purpose or for the promotion of illegal activities;
- attempt to, or harass, abuse or harm another person or group;
- use another user’s account without permission;
- provide false or inaccurate information when registering an account;
- provide false or inaccurate evidence or witness statements;
- interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Service;
- make any automated use of the system, or take any action that we deem to impose or to potentially impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or network infrastructure;
- bypass any robot exclusion headers or other measures we take to restrict access to the Service or use any software, technology, or device to scrape, spider, or crawl the Service or harvest or manipulate data; or
- publish or link to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another user’s browser or computer.
POSTING AND CONDUCT RESTRICTIONS
When you create your own personalized account, you may be able to provide content and may also be given the option of providing evidence for your arbitration, mediation, FairChat or other dispute resolution mechanism if applicable (“User Content”). You are solely responsible for the User Content that you post, upload, link to or otherwise make available via the Service. You agree that we are only acting as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of your User Content. The Company, however, reserves the right to remove any User Content from the Service at its discretion other than evidence which we must maintain under governing arbitration and/or dispute resolution regulations, if applicable, as outlined in our Rules & Procedures.
The following rules pertain to User Content. By transmitting and submitting any User Content while using the Service, you agree as follows:
- You are solely responsible for your account and the activity that occurs while signed in to or while using your account;
- You will not post information or evidence that is malicious, false or inaccurate;
- You will not submit content that is copyrighted or subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy, publicity, trade secret, etc., unless it is necessary to explain your side of the story for the strict purpose of arbitration or you are the owner of such rights or have the appropriate permission from their rightful owner to specifically submit such content; and
- You hereby affirm we have the right to determine whether any of your User Content submissions are appropriate and comply with these Terms of Service, remove any and/or all of your submissions, and terminate your account with or without prior notice, unless we must maintain it as evidence under our Rules & Procedures.
You understand and agree that any liability, loss or damage that occurs as a result of the use of any User Content that you make available or access through your use of the Service is solely your responsibility. The Company is not responsible for any public display or misuse of your User Content. The Company does not, and cannot, pre-screen or monitor all User Content. However, at our discretion, we, or technology we employ, may monitor and/or record your interactions with the Service.
ONLINE CONTENT DISCLAIMER
Opinions, advice, statements, offers, or other information or content made available through the Service, but not directly by the Company, including evidence submissions by other parties, are those of their respective authors, and should not necessarily be relied upon. Such authors are solely responsible for such content. The Company does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information on the Service and neither does the Company adopt nor endorse, nor is the Company responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice, or statement made by parties other than the Company. The Company takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any User Content that you or any other user or third party posts or sends over the Service. Under no circumstances will the Company be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from anyone’s reliance on information or other content posted on the Service, or transmitted to users. This includes but is not limited to content shared for the purposes of dispute resolution, general content shared by Company with a party on behalf of the other party, evidence submitted by parties and statements, settlement agreements, and arbitration award decisions made by arbitrators. You acknowledge and agree that some evidence and award decisions may contain sensitive content given the nature of arbitration and dispute resolution in general, which necessitates evidence evaluation, and you therefore agree not to hold Company or its agents responsible for the sensitive nature of such evidence. However, should any offensive evidence be submitted which is not relevant to the matter at hand you can notify customer support at help@fairclaims.com and we can investigate and consider removing anything that does not conform to our evidence standards and guidelines. However, you agree and acknowledge that this is private arbitration and/or dispute resolution and there may be some sensitive evidence which we are not able to remove given the nature of arbitration and/or dispute resolution, and the regulations which govern it.
Though the Company strives to enforce these Terms of Service, you may be exposed to User Content that is inaccurate or objectionable. The Company reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor the materials posted in the public areas of the service or to limit or deny a user’s access to the Service or take other appropriate action if a user violates these Terms of Service or engages in any activity that violates the rights of any person or entity or which we deem unlawful, offensive, abusive, harmful or malicious. E-mails and exchanges, including evidence uploads and witness statements, sent between you and other participants or made available in the platform that are not readily accessible to the general public will be treated by us as private to the extent required by applicable law. The Company shall have the right to remove any such material that in its sole opinion and within the confines of applicable arbitration and other dispute resolution regulations violates, or is alleged to violate, the law, our evidence guidelines or this agreement or which might be offensive, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of users or others. Unauthorized use may result in criminal and/or civil prosecution under Federal, State and local law. If you become aware of misuse of our Service, please contact us at help@fairclaims.com.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES AND/OR MATERIALS
As part of the Service, the Company may provide you with convenient links to third party website(s) (“Third Party Sites”) as well as content or items belonging to or originating from third parties (the “Third Party Applications, Software or Content”). These links are provided as a courtesy to Service subscribers. The Company has no control over Third Party Sites and Third Party Applications, Software or Content or the promotions, materials, information, goods or services available on these Third Party Sites or Third Party Applications, Software or Content. Such Third Party Sites and Third Party Applications, Software or Content are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness by the Company, and the Company is not responsible for any Third Party Sites accessed through the Site or any Third Party Applications, Software or Content posted on, available through or installed from the Site, including the content, accuracy, offensiveness, opinions, reliability, privacy practices or other policies of or contained in the Third Party Sites or the Third Party Applications, Software or Content. Inclusion of, linking to or permitting the use or installation of any Third Party Site or any Third Party Applications, Software or Content does not imply approval or endorsement thereof by the Company. If you decide to leave the Site and access the Third Party Sites or to use or install any Third Party Applications, Software or Content, you do so at your own risk and you should be aware that our terms and policies no longer govern. You should review the applicable terms and policies, including privacy and data gathering practices, of any site to which you navigate from the Site or relating to any applications you use or install from the site.
COPYRIGHT COMPLAINTS AND COPYRIGHT AGENT
(a) Termination of Repeat Infringer Accounts. The Company respects the intellectual property rights of others and requests that the users do the same. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 512(i) of the United States Copyright Act, the Company has adopted and implemented a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of users of the Service who are repeat infringers. The Company may terminate access for participants or users who are found repeatedly to provide or post protected third party content without necessary rights and permissions. This does not apply to relevant evidence submissions shared privately with the other side to an arbitration, mediation, FairChat, mediated chat, settlement, and arbitrator, mediator or other dispute resolution professional.
(b) DMCA Take-Down Notices. If you are a copyright owner or an agent thereof and believe, in good faith, that any materials provided on the Service infringe upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (see 17 U.S.C 512) (“DMCA”) by sending the following information in writing to the Company’s designated copyright agent via email at info@FairClaims.com:
- The date of your notification;
- A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
- A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
- A description of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and information sufficient to enable us to locate such work;
- Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and/or email address;
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
- A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
(c) Counter-Notices. If you believe that your User Content that has been removed from the Site is not infringing, or that you have the authorization from the copyright owner, the copyright owner's agent, or pursuant to the law, to post and use the content in your User Content, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to our copyright agent using the contact information set forth above:
- Your physical or electronic signature;
- A description of the content that has been removed and the location at which the content appeared before it was removed;
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the content; and
- Your name, address, telephone number, and email address, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in California and a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of the alleged infringement.
If a counter-notice is received by the Company copyright agent, the Company may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing such person that it may reinstate the removed content in 10 business days. Unless the copyright owner files an action seeking a court order against the content provider, member or user, the removed content may (in the Company’s discretion) be reinstated on the Site in 10 to 14 business days or more after receipt of the counter-notice.
LICENSE GRANT
By posting any User Content via the Service, you expressly grant, and you represent and warrant that you have a right to grant, to the Company a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, translate, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, and make derivative works of all such User Content and your name, voice, and/or likeness as contained in your User Content, if applicable, in whole or in part, and in any form, media or technology, whether now known or hereafter developed, for use in connection with the Service.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
You acknowledge and agree that we and our licensors retain ownership of all intellectual property rights of any kind related to the Service, including applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights. Other product and company names that are mentioned on the Service may be trademarks of their respective owners. We reserve all rights that are not expressly granted to you under this Agreement.
EMAIL MAY NOT BE USED TO PROVIDE NOTICE
Except as expressly provided for, communications made through the Service’s e-mail and messaging system, will not constitute legal notice to the Company or any of its officers, employees, agents or representatives in any situation where notice to the Company is required by contract or any law or regulation.
USER CONSENT TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS IN ELECTRONIC FORM
For contractual purposes, you (a) consent to receive communications from the Company in an electronic form via the email address you have submitted; and (b) agree that all Terms of Service, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that the Company provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications would satisfy if it were in writing. The foregoing does not affect your non-waivable rights.
We may also use your email address, to send you other messages, including information about the Company and special offers. You may opt out of such email by changing your account settings or sending an email to help@fairclaims.com. Opting out may prevent you from receiving messages regarding the Company or special offers.
WARRANTY DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICE, IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, THE COMPANY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, REGARDING THE SERVICE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, SECURITY, ACCURACY AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, THE COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION THAT ACCESS TO OR OPERATION OF THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK OF LOSS RESULTING FROM YOUR DOWNLOADING AND/OR USE OF FILES, INFORMATION, CONTENT OR OTHER MATERIAL OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT PERMIT DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTY, SO THIS PROVISION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
LIMITATION OF DAMAGES; RELEASE
TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COMPANY, ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OR EMPLOYEES OR CONTRACTORS OR AGENTS, OR ITS LICENSORS OR PARTNERS, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, USE, OR DATA, OR FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, HOWEVER ARISING, THAT RESULT FROM (A) THE USE, DISCLOSURE, OR DISPLAY OF YOUR USER CONTENT; (B) YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (C) THE SERVICE GENERALLY OR THE SOFTWARE OR SYSTEMS THAT MAKE THE SERVICE AVAILABLE; OR (D) ANY OTHER INTERACTIONS WITH THE COMPANY OR ANY OTHER USER OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COMPANY HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT PERMIT DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY, SO THIS PROVISION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
If you have a dispute with one or more users, whether that dispute arises before, during or after your use of Services, you release us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: “A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor.”
ARBITRAL IMMUNITY
(a) An arbitrator or mediator, or an arbitration or alternative dispute resolution organization acting in that capacity is immune from civil liability to the same extent as a judge of a court of this State acting in a judicial capacity. As such Company and Company arbitrators and mediators are likewise immune.
(b) The immunity afforded by this section supplements any immunity under other law.
(c) The failure of an arbitrator or mediator to make any required disclosures does not cause any loss of immunity
(d) In a judicial, administrative, or similar proceeding, a Company arbitrator, mediator or representative of Company is not competent to testify, and may not be required to produce records as to any statement, conduct, decision, or ruling occurring during the arbitration or mediation proceeding, to the same extent as a judge of a court of this State acting in a judicial capacity. This subsection does not apply:
- to the extent necessary to determine the claim of a Company arbitrator or mediator, Company, or representative of Company against a party to the arbitration or mediation proceeding; or
- to a hearing on a motion to vacate an award if the movant establishes prima facie that a ground for vacating the award exists.
(e) If a person commences a civil action against a Company arbitrator or mediator, Company, or representative of Company arising from the services of the Company arbitrator, Company, or Company representative or if a person seeks to compel a Company arbitrator, mediator or a representative of Company to testify or produce records in violation of subsection (d), and the court decides that the Company arbitrator, mediator, Company, or Company representative is immune from civil liability or that the Company arbitrator, mediator or representative of Company is not competent to testify, the court shall award to the Company arbitrator, mediator, Company, or Company representative reasonable attorney’s fees and other reasonable expenses of litigation.
You may or may not participate in arbitration or mediation related services. But this section applies if you do.
NO LEGAL ADVICE PROVIDED
Company representatives may, from time to time, provide you with information and resources relevant to your arbitration, dispute, mediation or use of our Service as applicable. Such information may include legal resources and referrals. However, you are not to construe such communication as legal advice in any way, shape or form.
Company is not at any time acting as a legal representative. All communications are for informational purposes only, and not for the purpose of providing legal advice.
MODIFICATION OF Terms of Service
We can amend these Terms of Service at any time and will update these Terms of Service in the event of any such amendments. It is your sole responsibility to check the Site from time to time to view any such changes in the Agreement. If you continue to use the Site, you signify your agreement to our revisions to these Terms of Service. However, we will notify you of material chances to the Terms by posting a notice on our homepage and/or sending an email to the email address you provided to us upon registration. For this additional reason, you should keep your contact and profile information current. Any changes to these Terms (other than as set forth in this paragraph) or waiver of the Company’s rights hereunder shall not be valid or effective except in a written agreement bearing the physical signature of an officer of the Company. No purported waiver or modification of this Agreement by the Company via telephonic or email communications shall be valid.
GENERAL TERMS
If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion of the Agreement will be construed consistent with applicable law. The remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. Any failure on the part of the Company to enforce any provision of this Agreement will not be considered a waiver of our right to enforce such provision. Our rights under this Agreement will survive any termination of this Agreement.
You agree that any cause of action related to or arising out of your relationship with the Company must commence within ONE year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.
These Terms of Service and your use of the Site are governed by the federal laws of the United States of America and the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict of law provisions.
The Company may assign or delegate these Terms of Service and/or the Company’s Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, to any person or entity at any time with or without your consent. You may not assign or delegate any rights or obligations under the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy without the Company’s prior written consent, and any unauthorized assignment and delegation by you is void
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, UNDERSTAND THE TERMS OF SERVICE, AND WILL BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THESE TERMS OF SERVICE TOGETHER WITH THE PRIVACY POLICY HERE REPRESENT THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US AND THAT IT SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT.
