TRAFFIC ATTORNEY TERMS & CONDITIONS

Hi there, we’re Off The Record, Inc. (“OTR,” “we,” “our”). We connect people who need legal help with lawyers. We focus primarily on traffic tickets and traffic misdemeanors, but may also assist with other types of cases. These attorney terms and conditions (the “Attorney Terms”) govern attorneys’ (“you,” “your,” “attorney(s)”) use of our websites, mobile applications, and other services (the “OTR Services”). These Attorney Terms incorporate OTR’s Terms of Use. To the extent there is a conflict between these Attorney Terms and the OTR Terms of Use, these Attorney Terms will control.

1. Using the OTR Services and the OTR Attorney Terms

By accessing or using the OTR Services you agree to these Attorney Terms. If you do not agree to these Attorney Terms, please do not use the OTR Services. Participation on OTR is at OTR’s discretion, and subject to these Attorney Terms. OTR may change these Attorney Terms at any time, and your continued use of the OTR Services indicates your acceptance of the modified Attorney Terms. OTR is the sole arbiter of the application of these Attorney Terms.

2. How OTR Works

When a prospective customer submits a ticket and/or case details to OTR our algorithm suggests an independent attorney licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction to handle the 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 the attorney for that particular prospective customer. Prospective customers may also request to be matched to a specific attorney. We will honor that request as long as the attorney is available and willing to take on the case.

We will notify you, usually via email, that an individual has requested legal help. We facilitate your connecting with, communicating with, and getting paid by, that individual.

We work closely with attorneys to provide a quality, seamless experience for customers throughout the process of resolving a traffic matter. In order to ensure a superior and consistent experience for the customer, you agree that the following customer service guidelines apply:

Clients always have the right to select counsel of their choosing. In certain instances OTR may respond to a client request to reassign a case and/or issue a full or partial refund to the client. In response to such an inquiry OTR will act accordingly if you have failed, at OTR’s sole determination, to comply with these guidelines.

Once you have accepted a case from us you should proceed with representation as you normally would. As such, you, the attorney, are responsible for handling all communication and paperwork with the relevant court. It is your responsibility to file a notice of appearance, request a court date, and to perform other similar tasks. The client should not have to mail their ticket to the court or be asked to do other similar tasks that you can easily do.

OTR is not a law firm.

3. Attorney-Client Relationship

If you desire to have clients sent to you by OTR sign an engagement agreement, you are welcome to offer that to them separately. In certain circumstances OTR can facilitate the delivery of the engagement agreement to clients.

Clients sent to you by OTR remain your clients for as long as the terms of your engagement agreement extend with them. We do ask that if a client sent to you by OTR returns to you for assistance with additional traffic matters please contact us and we can facilitate their being connected to you for subsequent traffic matters through OTR.

4. Attorney Fees, Attorney Payouts, and Payment Processing

The fee that you specify on OTR is the total amount that you will be paid. You pay the OTR marketing and services fee after you receive the legal fee you have specified on OTR. All payments are processed by our third-party payment processor, Stripe. Stripe charges a payment processing fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. This payment processing fee is deducted from your legal fee by Stripe and is paid directly to Stripe. This payment processing fee is common across all third party payment processing systems and is consistent with the rules of professional conduct. Generally, Stripe will transfer your full legal fee for a case no more than 48 hours after you accept a case and send your new client a message through OTR in-app messaging.

In the event of a consumer credit card dispute or chargeback, OTR will (1) ask Stripe to reverse the payment made to you, the attorney, and (2) refund OTR’s marketing and services fee to you.

5. OTR Marketing and Services Fee

We charge a marketing and services fee for each case you accept. This fee covers marketing costs and the use of our proprietary case management tools. The OTR fee is based upon a variety of factors including our costs to create and support the OTR platform and technology and our costs to acquire a customer. These fees, particularly the cost to acquire a customer, vary depending upon a number of different factors, including the type of infraction and the geography of the infraction. We charge this fee independently and separately from the fees you receive from customers as a legal fee.

6. Matching and the OTR Matching Algorithm. Accepting and declining cases. Modifying your fee or the terms after acceptance. Clients canceling their cases.

When a prospective customer submits a ticket and/or case details to OTR, our proprietary algorithm connects the prospective customer with an independent attorney licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction to handle the 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 identify the appropriate attorney.

For most standard traffic matters sent to you via OTR, your only option is to accept or decline the case. However, in a few limited circumstances, upon the receipt of a case you may elect to counter-offer with modified terms (i.e. a higher fee, a modified money back guarantee, etc.). You can do this by either declining the case and communicating to OTR the terms under which you would accept the case or negotiating directly with the client and, upon reaching an agreement with the client, communicate the new negotiated terms to OTR.

In the event that you renegotiate a fee with a client sent to you from OTR you will use the OTR platform to charge the client.

Clients may cancel their case on OTR at any time.

For standard traffic infractions, provided that you provide prompt answers to clients’ initial questions, clients will only receive a refund for their case if they cancel their case less than one business day after they have formally booked a case on OTR. If you do not answer clients’ initial questions OTR may elect to extend the refund window at its sole discretion.

For more serious matters, such as driving under the influence (“DUI”) or driving while intoxicated (“DWI”), driving on a suspended license, or hit and run, clients will only receive a refund for their case if they cancel their case less than one business day after their initial consultation with the attorney with whom OTR has connected them.

7. Unpaid balance owed to OTR; Collections

You understand if you have an unpaid balance to OTR for any reason, including in the event of OTR’s decision to issue a refund or refunds to a client, 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.

8. Money Back Guarantee

By participating on the OTR platform you agree to offer users a money back guarantee for certain cases. In general the money back guarantee applies only to non-criminal traffic cases. However, when we send you a case for review, we will indicate if money back guarantee should apply to that case. You may review the case and determine if you agree that the money back guarantee should apply.

If you do not agree with OTR’s decision regarding the applicability of the money back guarantee to a given case your sole remedy is to terminate your relationship with OTR.

For your information OTR uses the following guidelines when applying the money back guarantee.

The client will not receive a refund if:

The client may receive a partial refund if they are found to have committed the infraction but receive a fine reduction. Generally, our policy with partial refunds is to make the client no worse off economically than if they had paid the fee outright. For example: Assume the original fine is $300 and they pay a $250 legal fee. If the attorney is able to get the fine reduced to $200 instead of $300, the client will receive a refund of $150 ($250 legal fee - $100 fine reduction). In such a case the client would pay $100 ($250 initial legal fee minus $150 refund) plus $200 ($300 fine reduced to $200), equaling a cost of $300 - the same as if the client had paid the fine outright.

OTR will inform you when it has elected to apply the money back guarantee . In such a case you agree that OTR may reverse the fee paid to you and repay the client. OTR will also return to you a proportional share of its marketing fee in the event of a partial refund or its entire fee in the event of a total refund. These transactions will all be conducted through Stripe.

OTR does not offer the money back guarantee where it is prohibited by law.

The money back guarantee is applied based upon the state in which the client receives a ticket. Without regard to any consequences in the state in which the client is licensed, if you achieve an outcome that meets the terms of the money back guarantee in the state in which the ticket was issued, the client will not be entitled to receive a refund.

9. Law Firm Portal

You access your OTR account at https://mylawfirm.offtherecord.com. Your OTR account allows you to do the following, among other things:

Any changes you make to the courts in which you work or the fees you charge on the OTR law firm portal will take effect immediately. You can also contact us to change the default fee that appears automatically in any new court.

10. Customer communications with attorneys and with Off The Record

OTR strives to provide a quality, seamless customer experience to people seeking to fight their tickets. Because OTR strives for convenience and ease, customers often ask us to provide information about their pending, active or complete cases. Examples include which attorney is working on their matter, whether the attorney has accepted the case, questions about court dates, or other questions. In the event of such a request from a customer, in order to provide this seamless and quality experience, we may review the client’s matter, including correspondence between you and the customer. While we expect you to communicate all transactional pieces of information on OTR, and while most attorneys use OTR exclusively for communication, it is your responsibility to ensure that any communication that requires attorney-client privilege is appropriately protected.

Similarly, in order to make communication with you as seamless as possible for customers that you engage on OTR, we ask that the OTR Services be the exclusive technology platform that you use to manage the cases you receive on OTR. While we understand that, from time to time, you may need to use email, text, or telephone for communications with customers, we ask that you not ask or require customers to sign up for another technology platform in order to communicate with you about the matter for which they connected with you on OTR.

11. Confidentiality

For purposes of this section, “OTR Proprietary Information” is defined as any and all proprietary information not already in the public domain, including but not limited to trade secrets, intellectual property, business strategy, creative concepts, design and production processes, marketing information or techniques, price lists, pricing information and estimates and client lists or other client information, names or identities of lawyers or law firms who work or have worked with OTR, whether in written, electronic or oral form.

You agree that you will not disclose any OTR Proprietary Information to any third-party or the public. You will not use the OTR Proprietary Information for any purpose other than to connect and work with clients and/or OTR. You acknowledge that any disclosure of the OTR Proprietary Information will cause harm to OTR. Consequently, you agree that if you fail to abide by these terms, OTR will be entitled to specific performance, including issuance of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction enforcing these terms, and a judgment for damages caused by breach of contract, and to any other remedies provided by applicable law.

Upon termination of these Attorney Terms, to the extent that you received OTR Proprietary Information, you will destroy all OTR Proprietary Information or copies thereof, and, within 10 days of the termination of these Attorney Terms, certify to OTR that the OTR Proprietary Information has been destroyed.

12. Termination

You can terminate the relationship at any time but the Attorney Terms will remain in effect until all active cases are resolved.

We can suspend or remove you from OTR at any time at our discretion. Here’s a list of reasons why we might remove or suspend you, but it is by no means an exhaustive list:

13. REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES

You expressly represent and warrant to OTR that:

14. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

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. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION ARE A MATERIAL ELEMENT OF OTR’S DECISION TO PROVIDE THE OTR SERVICES.

15. INDEMNITY

To the fullest extent under applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold OTR (and its affiliates, officers, directors, shareholders, agents, and employees) harmless from and against all claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses and fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to (i) your use of the OTR Services, (ii) your violation of these Terms, (iii) your violation of any law or the rights of any person or entity arising out of or related to the use of the Services, including without limitation the rules of professional conduct, or (iv) your operation of your legal practice and the marketing of your legal practice. We will provide you with prior written notice of any such claim.

NOTE: OTR has some unique, separately-negotiated terms for attorneys in Florida. Please inquire at attorneysupport@offtherecord.com for more information.