Off The Record

Terms of Use

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Hi there, we’re Off The Record, Inc. (“OTR,” “we,” “our”). We help connect people who need legal help with lawyers willing to provide such help. We focus primarily on traffic tickets and traffic misdemeanors, but may also assist with other types of cases. These terms (the “Terms”) govern your (“you,” “your”) use of our websites, mobile applications, and other services (the “OTR Services”). <ol> <li>USING THE OTR SERVICES</li> By accessing the website or using the OTR Services you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the website or the OTR Services. You may only use the OTR Services if you are legally authorized to form a binding contract with OTR. You may not use the OTR Services if you are under the age of majority in your state. <li>ACCEPTABLE USES AND LIQUIDATED DAMAGES</li> Your use of the OTR Services must comply with the following Acceptable Uses (the “Acceptable Uses”): <ul> <li> You may only use the OTR Services for the purposes described in these Terms and as described on the OTR website. </li> <li> You may only use the OTR Services for your use or for the use of an entity where you are authorized to enter into contracts on behalf of the entity. If you are using these Terms on behalf of an entity, you agree to these terms on behalf of that entity. </li> <li> You may not impersonate another person when using the OTR Services. </li> <li> You may not use the OTR Services in order to discover the identity of lawyers or others using the OTR Services. </li> <li> You may not by any means, technical, manual, or otherwise, harvest, scrape, index or collect information about the users or lawyers participating on, or affiliated with, the OTR Services. </li> <li> You may not, by any means, disrupt or attempt to disrupt the operation of the OTR Services or the technology used to make the OTR Services available. </li> </ul> OTR reserves the right to determine, in its sole discretion, your compliance with the Acceptable Uses. In the event that OTR concludes you have not complied with the Acceptable Uses, OTR has the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend or terminate your use of the OTR Services, with or without prior notice. In addition, any violation of the Acceptable Uses in specific or these Terms in general will subject the violator to liquidated damages in the amount of $20,000 per impermissible use. <li>MODIFICATIONS</li> We reserve the right to change these Terms at any time. Your continued use of the OTR Services indicates your acceptance of the revised Terms. In the event of changes to these terms we will revise the “Last Updated” date listed on these Terms. <li>OTR AND LEGAL SERVICES </li> OTR is not a law firm, does not offer legal advice, and does not dispense legal advice. The OTR Services are not legal advice and you should not consider them to be legal advice. All legal matters submitted to OTR are handled by independent licensed attorneys who are not employees or agents of OTR. Any use of OTR Services is not intended to, and does not, create an attorney-client privilege between you and OTR. Any communication via OTR may not be held confidential. OTR cannot be held liable for the actions, omissions, quality or accuracy of legal services provided by attorneys. While OTR uses commercially reasonable efforts to confirm that attorneys are licensed and qualified, we do not make any warranty, guarantee, or representation as to the legal ability, competence, quality, or qualifications of any individual attorney. <li>ATTORNEY SELECTION AND THE OTR MATCHING ALGORITHM</li> When you submit your ticket and/or case details to OTR our algorithm connects you with an independent attorney licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction to handle your matter. Our algorithm takes into account a variety of factors (i.e. the attorney's license, their fees, their success rate with other OTR customers, their customer service reviews and ratings, etc.) in order to determine which attorney to match you to. You may also request to be matched to a specific participating attorney, and we will honor your request as long as the attorney is available and willing to take on your case. OTR does not currently have participating attorneys in every jurisdiction. If we do not have any participating attorneys in the jurisdiction where you received your legal matter, we will not be able to connect you with an attorney. In some cases, the attorney with whom we match you may decline the case or counter-offer with modified terms (i.e. a higher fee, a modified money back guarantee, etc.). In the event of an attorney declining your case we will attempt to match you to an equivalent attorney with an equivalent fee and equivalent terms, but we cannot guarantee the same fee or the same terms. If we cannot match you to an equivalent attorney, we will request your approval before matching you to an attorney with a higher fee or different terms. If you choose not to move forward, we will cancel your case and work with the attorney to issue you a full refund of the fee paid. Similarly, in the event of an attorney counter-offer, you may elect to work with the attorney with whom you were originally matched under the terms of the counter offer (i.e. higher fee and/or modified terms) or elect to find an attorney via other means. When purchasing a service through OTR, it is your responsibility to provide accurate and complete information. This includes, but is not limited to, an accurate representation of your legal matter, an accurate representation or your driving and/or criminal record, and accurate contact information. <li>CANCELLATIONS</li> You may cancel your case on OTR at any time. For standard traffic infractions, you will only receive a refund for your case if you cancel your case less than one business day after you have formally booked a case on OTR. For more serious matters, such as driving under the influence (“DUI”), driving while intoxicated (“DWI”), driving on a suspended license, or hit and run, you will only receive a refund for your case if you cancel your case less than one business day after your initial consultation with the attorney with whom OTR has connected you. <li>FEES</li> When you book a case with OTR, you provide your payment information to us on our platform. The entirety of your fee is paid directly to the attorney who works on your case, not to OTR. This fee is paid when an attorney accepts your case. Your fee will be quoted to you at the time of booking your case. The cost to handle more serious traffic offenses, including but not limited to misdemeanors, DUIs, and other similar infractions and violations may exceed the initially quoted fee. In such a case, OTR will inform you of the higher fee and you will have the options described in the event of an attorney counter-offer in Section 5 above. Attorneys pay OTR a marketing fee for cases provided to them by OTR. The amount of the marketing fee varies depending upon a wide variety of factors including the geography of the ticket, the availability of local attorneys, and many others. All payments are processed by OTR’s third-party payment processor, Stripe. <li>MONEY BACK GUARANTEE AND PARTIAL REFUNDS</li> At the sole discretion of OTR, OTR will offer you a full or partial refund in the event of an unfavorable legal outcome. We will indicate if the money back guarantee is available when you are booking a case. The OTR money back guarantee only applies to non-criminal traffic tickets. You will not receive a refund if: <ul> <li> Your ticket is dismissed, amended to a non-moving violation, or deferred. </li> <li> You received the ticket in a state that has a point system and the points associated with your ticket are reduced. </li> <li> The attorney negotiates a deal for you that was not previously available. </li> <li> You are able to keep the ticket off of your record by taking traffic school or a defensive driving course. or </li> <li> Your fine is reduced by an amount that is greater than, or equal to, the legal fee that you paid. </li> </ul> You will receive a partial refund if you are found to have committed the infraction but you receive a fine reduction. Generally, our policy with refunds is to make you no worse off economically than if you had paid the fee outright. For example: Assume your original fine is $300 and you pay a $250 legal fee. If your lawyer is able to get the fine reduced to $200 instead of $300, you'll receive a refund of $150 ($250 legal fee - $100 fine reduction). In such a case you would pay a $100 legal fee ($250 initial legal fee minus $150 refund) plus a $200 fine ($300 reduced to $200), equaling a cost of $300—the same as if you had paid the fine outright. OTR does not offer the money back guarantee where it is prohibited by law. <li>UNPAID BALANCE OWED TO OTR. COLLECTIONS</li> You understand if you have an unpaid balance to OTR for any reason and do not make satisfactory payment arrangements, your account may be placed with an external collection agency. You will be responsible for reimbursement of any fees from the collection agency, including all costs and expenses incurred collecting your account, and possibly including reasonable attorney’s fees if so incurred during collection efforts. In order for OTR or their designated external collection agency to service your account, and where not prohibited by applicable law, you agree that OTR and the designated external collection agency are authorized to (i) contact you by telephone at the telephone number(s) you are providing, including wireless telephone numbers, which could result in charges to you, (ii) contact you by sending text messages (message and data rates may apply) or emails, using any email address you provide and (iii) methods of contact may include using pre-recorded/artificial voice message and/or use of an automatic dialing device, as applicable. <li>YOUR PRIVACY</li> Personal information you submit to OTR is subject to the OTR Privacy Policy. We protect information that you provide us consistent with our Privacy Policy but it is not protected by attorney-client privilege or as attorney work product. <li>SOFTWARE</li> You may download software as part of your use of the OTR Services (the “Software”). So long as you comply with these Terms OTR grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Software solely to access and use the OTR Services. Except to the extent that such limitation is prohibited by law you will not reverse engineer or decompile, attempt to reverse engineer or decompile, or assist anyone to reverse engineer or decompile the Software. <li>DISCLAIMERS</li> OTR provides the Software and the OTR Services “as is” and OTR makes no warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the Software and the OTR Services. OTR disclaims all warranties, including warranties of non-infringement and title, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose. In addition, OTR makes no guarantees or promises regarding uptime, accessibility, or that the OTR properties will remain updated, complete, correct or secure. <li>LIMITATION OF LIABILITY</li> TO THE FULLEST EXTENT UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL OTR OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS AND DISTRIBUTORS, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS, BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, HOWEVER THEY MAY BE INCURRED, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF, ACCESS TO, OR INABILITY TO ACCESS, THE OTR SERVICES OR THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE OUTCOME OF ANY LEGAL MATTER. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT UNDER APPLICABLE LAW THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF OTR OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS AND DISTRIBUTORS, OR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS, FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE OTR SERVICES OR THE SOFTWARE WILL BE LIMITED TO THE LESSER OF $100 OR THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID TO OTR TO USE THE OTR SERVICES AND SOFTWARE DURING THE COURSE OF THE LAST 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE FILING OF SUCH CLAIM. <li>INDEMNITY</li> To the fullest extent under applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold OTR harmless from and against all claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses and fees (including attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your use of the OTR Services or your violation of these Terms. <li>GOVERNING LAW</li> These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of Washington. <li>MANDATORY ARBITRATION</li> In the event that you have a dispute with OTR, you and OTR agree to mandatory arbitration administered on a confidential basis by JAMS, a nationally recognized arbitration authority, in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures, and not to sue in court in front of a judge or jury. The arbitrator shall have exclusive authority to resolve all disputes arising out of these Terms. The interpretation and enforcement of this Agreement shall be subject to the Federal Arbitration Act. You and OTR agree that arbitration will be conducted in your individual capacities only and not as a class or representative action. You and OTR each waive your respective right to file class action. If any court or arbitrator determines that the waiver set forth in this paragraph is unenforceable then this paragraph shall be deemed void and the parties shall be deemed not to have agreed to arbitrate disputes. This section does not apply to small claims court actions filed in King County, Washington. This section does not prohibit OTR from bringing a cause of action in any court of competent jurisdiction for injunctive relief to stop any unauthorized use, abuse, or infringement of the OTR Services. In such a case, OTR may seek injunctive relief without engaging in the arbitration process described in these Terms. <li>VENUE</li> To the extent that the terms of Section 14 do not apply the parties agree that any litigation between them shall be filed exclusively in state or federal courts located in King County, Washington. The parties expressly consent to exclusive jurisdiction in King Country, Washington. <li>ENTIRE AGREEMENT</li> These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and OTR with respect to the subject matter of these Terms. These Terms supersede any previous terms, understanding and agreement between you and OTR. <li>WAIVER, SEVERABILITY, AND ASSIGNMENT</li> OTR’s failure to enforce any of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of its right to do so. If any of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remainder of these Terms will remain in full effect and the unenforceable term will be substituted to reflect your and OTR’s intent as closely as possible. You may not assign any right under these Terms and any attempt to do so will be void. OTR may assign its rights to any subsidiary or affiliate or any successor interest of any business associated with the Services. </ol> Last Updated October 3rd, 2019