Terms of Use

A2J.org Terms of Use

Updated: Sep 24, 2020

The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (“CALI”) is a joint owner of the Access to Justice Authoring System (“A2J System”), including any associated trademarks and copyrights. The A2J System is comprised of four parts:

  • A2J Author®, a software program that allows authors to create A2J Guided Interviews and A2J Templates
  • A2J Guided Interviews®, interactive interviews that ask questions and gather information from end users
  • A2J Templates, automated documents,
  • A2J Viewer, a software component that allows A2J Guided Interviews and A2J Templates created using A2J Author to be displayed and used by the viewer, and,

CALI also provides a web hosting service at the website, www.a2j.org, for the hosting of A2J Guided Interviews and A2J Templates. This Terms of Use applies only to www.a2j.org.

 

When End Users of A2J Guided Interviews, “You”, use this website, you agree to all of the terms listed below. Please read the following legal information carefully. Also check this page periodically because these terms can be updated from time to time. All updates become effective 60 days after they are posted. The posted date will appear at the top of the update.

Using this site, www.a2j.org, means you agree to review and follow these:

  • Terms of Use,
  • All updates, and
  • Other rules posted at this site.

 

Together, these terms of use, updates, and other rules form the complete agreement between you and CALI. The most recent version always supersedes any previous version, whether oral or written.

 

Click on any topic to read more:

 

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WE ARE NOT YOUR LAWYER

You are not CALI’s client and we are not your lawyer. This website gives you information, not legal advice. We do not warrant or guarantee that the information on this website is accurate or up-to-date. When you use this site, you do so at your own risk.

 

Because this website is not a lawyer, it cannot:

  • Give you advice, opinions, or recommendations about your rights, your case, or your legal documents,
  • Apply the law to the facts of your case,
  • Make conclusions about your case,
  • Tell you if your answers are legally sufficient,
  • Tell you about possible defenses, choices, or outcomes,
  • Choose or review your court forms, or,
  • Represent or protect your interests or your Advocate’s interests. (An Advocate is a lawyer who works for a non-profit organization and helps you with your case.)

 

For legal advice about your case, you should see a lawyer. Documents created using this website may require consultation with a lawyer before signing or filing them with the court.

 

By using this website, you agree:

  • You will not detrimentally rely on any information received from this website,
  • You do not have the right to make a claim that you were harmed because you used this website,
  • That use of this website does not create any attorney-client relationship or any other fiduciary relationship between you and CALI,
  • To use this website in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction where you are located.

 

GRANT OF LICENSE

CALI grants a royalty-free license, for non-commercial use of the www.a2j.org website only if you agree to all of the following terms and conditions:

  • Copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the A2J System are owned by CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent. The right to use the A2J System hosted on www.a2j.org is provided under the terms of this Agreement. The A2J System and www.a2j.org is protected by copyright and/or other applicable law. Any use of the A2J System and www.a2j.org other than as authorized under this Agreement or copyright law is prohibited.

 

If you are interested in commercially using the A2J System or www.a2j.org, please contact CALI’s Executive Director, John Mayer, [email protected].

 

PERMITTED USE

The website, www.a2j.org, may be used for non-commercial purposes pursuant to this Agreement to host internet based A2J Guided Interviews and A2J Templates.

 

To use any part of this website, you must be:

  • 13 years of age or older, and
  • Legally able to agree to the terms of using this website or use the website with a guardian or other representative who is able to agree to the terms of using this website.

 

You may use this site if you:

  • Use it only for your own legal problem, or if you are an authorized Advocate, only for your client’s legal problem.
  • Do not let anyone else use your account,
  • Do not use it for commercial purposes, and
  • Consent to having any data you provide to us, including personal data, transferred to and processed in the United States, unless otherwise noted.  

 

Warning! We can cancel your account at any time if you do not follow these Terms of Use.

 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

Contributors must:

 

Take reasonable steps to be sure your material will not harm the operation of our website. Your material must:

  • Be carefully read and tested,
  • Not contain a computer virus,
  • Not violate another’s intellectual property rights, and
  • Not be defamatory or violate any law or regulation.

 

Provide quality control of your material. You must:

  • Monitor your material on an ongoing basis to make sure it is accurate, current, and free of technical problems,
  • Change or remove any material if you find any of these problems, and
  • Notify us about those problems.

 

Provide support for your submission. You must:

  • Give instructions for proper use of the material,
  • Let users know if they should talk to a lawyer when using your materials,
  • Provide links to other information when useful, and
  • Answer and respond to any complaints, or assign someone else to do so.

 

WHO OWNS A2J GUIDED INTERVIEWS AND A2J TEMPLATES

You, as the contributing author of the A2J Guided Interview or the A2J Template, own the content of the interview or template. However, when you create A2J Guided Interviews or A2J Templates and post them to this website or contribute other materials to it, you license it to CALI for any purpose. That license gives CALI a lasting, worldwide, and royalty-free right to use your materials and sublicense them to other contributors. CALI has the right to use any idea, knowledge, or technique in your material in any way, including making derivative works. You cannot terminate that right. You agree to give up the right to bring a claim against CALI for misuse or other violation of ownership rights in your materials. If you do not own the materials you contribute, you agree that the original owner gives us this same right. You keep any other rights you have in the material. You do not acquire any right beyond this Agreement to the software used to create, view, or distribute the content. (Similar to how you own the words/content written using word processing software, but you do not own the software itself.)

 

A2J Guided Interviews® and A2J Templates created with the A2J System may be shared with other permitted users of A2J Author® on your own website or by any other means. The A2J Guided Interviews® and A2J Templates created with A2J Author or hosted on www.a2j.org cannot be sold or distributed for a fee without express written permission from CALI. The resulting documents from the A2J Guided Interviews or A2J Templates can only be used by clients or the public receiving free assistance from you.

 

CALI may use and change your materials, in any way, at any time, in any medium, and in any part of the world. We also have the right to delete, edit, or refuse to post any material you submit to our servers without your permission for any reason.

 

Other users of www.a2j.org may use your materials, link to your materials, and repost your materials on this website according to these Terms. They may develop new materials or templates based on your original materials. Other users do not have the right to copy, share, or change your original materials at this website without your permission.

 

You may contribute information to existing material on our site that you use to create new material that you may download, store, and print for your personal use. That new material is your work product, which you use at your own risk, and CALI is not liable for its use.

 

When you submit material to us, we will:

  • Identify you as the source of any material you submit,
  • Delete any of your materials at your request, and
  • Act as your agent if we make your materials available to other users of this site.

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PROHIBITED USES

This Agreement does not permit the use of the A2J System or www.a2j.org as part of a for-profit service. Any other use except as permitted in the preceding section is strictly prohibited without the express written permission from CALI. If you engage in any use not authorized by this Agreement, then this Agreement shall automatically be deemed terminated and you shall have no further right to use the A2J System for any purpose.

 

PROHIBITION ON SELLING OR TRANSFERRING RIGHTS

You may not transfer, sell, assign, sub-license, rent or lease all or any portion of the A2J System.  No sale of the A2J System is intended and we may revoke access to your account and any A2J Guided Interviews or A2J Templates and request removal of any A2J System related files on your computer or servers if any sale is attempted. This Agreement is a license for the stated intended use only and does not include the transfer of any additional rights that we own.

 

PROHIBITION ON REVERSE ENGINEERING

You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of any component of the A2J System except to the extent you may be permitted to expressly decompile under applicable law or if you have received our express written permission. If you engage in any activities prohibited by this paragraph, then this Agreement shall automatically be deemed terminated, and you shall have no further right to use the A2J System for any purpose.

 

PROHIBITION ON UNAUTHORIZED UPLOADS

You may not upload unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other forms of solicitation. You may not upload any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment. You may not interfere with this website, the servers, or networks connected to this site.

 

USER INFORMATION

To use certain parts of this site, you must provide your registration information, including a username and password. The information you provide must be correct and complete, and you must update it if any of that information changes.

 

To use this site, you must agree to:

  • Use your chosen username and password when you access the site,
  • Not let anyone else use your username and password to access this site,
  • Be liable for anyone who accesses the site with your user information, and
  • Protect your user information so that others cannot use it.

Protect your password: Do not use your name, birthday, a single word, or other information that is easy to guess. Instead, you should use a random string of letters and numbers or a phrase.

 

If you suspect someone is using your login information, contact us right away at [email protected].

 

PRIVACY

To you this site, you must agree to our Privacy Policy[a].

 

CONFIDENTIALITY

We take reasonable steps to keep your information confidential. Warning! Other people involved in your case may be able to use the legal system to access the information you provide at this site.

 

CLOSING YOUR ACCOUNT

You may:

  • Delete any answer files (answer files are an xml document that contains any answers to questions you have given within an A2J Guided Interview) saved to this site,
  • Delete any A2J Guided Interviews or A2J Templates that you have created, and
  • Close your account at this site.

 

You may also have your registration information deleted from our database by contacting [email protected]. Send your request from the email account that you used to register.

CALI may terminate or suspend your license to this website at any time for any reason, without notice to you. We may also close this website at any time, for any reason, without notice to you.

 

NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT

 

We do not provide support to users of this site and we may not respond to user comments, but we appreciate you telling us about any errors or problems with the site.

 

Exception: If you are an author contributing materials to this site, we will provide reasonable support to help you submit those materials.  

 

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

YOU AGREE THAT WE HAVE MADE NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE A2J SYSTEM OR WWW.A2J.ORG AND THAT THIS SOFTWARE AND WEBSITE ARE BEING PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY KIND. WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WORLDWIDE WITH REGARD TO THE SOFTWARE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE, AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE, ACCURACY, OR MERCHANTABILITY OF COMPUTER PROGRAM, MERCHANTABLE QUALITY OR NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS PRODUCT COULD INCLUDE INACCURACIES IN THE INFORMATION THEREIN OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY RELATED TO SUCH INACCURACIES OR ERRORS. YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE PRODUCT SHALL BE THE AMOUNT PAID FOR THE PRODUCT. THE MATERIAL IS NOT TO BE INTERPRETED AS LEGAL ADVICE; IT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. USERS SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE SHOULD CONSULT A LICENSED ATTORNEY IN THEIR JURISDICTION.

 

LIMIT OF LIABILITY

 

In no event will we be liable to you for any loss of use, interruption of business, or any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages of any kind (including lost profits) regardless of the form of action whether in contract, tort (including negligence), strict product liability or otherwise, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states or jurisdictions do not allow or limit the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages; in such instances, the above limitation or exclusion shall only apply to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law.

 

LINKS

This website may list links to other websites. We do this for your convenience only. When you click on a link to other websites, you leave this website. Links to other websites from this website are not a  recommendation or approval of those sites or their owners. Those websites are not under CALI’s control. We are not responsible for those websites, the information, services or productions they may offer, or any loss or damage you may have at those sites.

 

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK

The A2J System and this website are protected by copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, service marks, and other proprietary rights and laws of the United States and by International Treaty Provisions.  All rights are reserved. CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent own the copyrights to this site’s layout, graphics, navigation design, source code, the collective and compiled copyrights in its databases, and all other content created by employees, contractors, and consultants of CALI or IIT Chicago-Kent.

 

A2J™, A2J Authoring System™, Access to Justice Authoring System™, A2J Author®, A2J Player™, and A2J Guided Interviews® are trademarks protected by state and federal trademark laws and owned by CALI and IIT Chicago-Kent.  The use of any of these marks on your website, printed materials, or in any other manner must include the full name of the mark, along with the appropriate ® or ™ symbol.

 

CHOICE OF LAW

This Agreement is governed by the laws of Illinois, USA. Venue for any dispute in any way related to this Agreement or to the Agreement provided hereunder shall be in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois or the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, as appropriate, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts with respect to such matters.

 

RIGHT TO MODIFY AGREEMENT

 

This Agreement may be modified in the future by CALI, at our sole discretion. We may amend this Agreement by posting amended terms on one of the A2J Author websites (www.a2jauthor.org or www.a2j.org); such amended terms will become effective 60 days after they are posted. Your continued use of the A2J System constitutes your acceptance of any modifications to this Agreement.

 

Continuing to use the www.a2j.org website or accessing the A2J Author software application will constitute acceptance of this Agreement.