Terms of Use

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE.

Acceptance of Terms of Use

The terms, conditions and notices contained or referenced herein (these “Terms of Use”) govern the use of the website www.masslegalservices.org (the “Site”). By using the Site, you accept and agree to these Terms of Use. Please do not use the Site if you do not agree to these Terms of Use. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Inc. (“MLRI,” “we” or “us”), as the owner of the Site, reserves the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms of Use at its discretion at any time. Please check these Terms of Use periodically for changes. Your continued use of this Site following the posting of changes to the Terms of Use constitutes acceptance of the changes.

Information Not Legal Advice

Our goal is to provide information to help Massachusetts residents resolve their legal problems. However, THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. The legal information provided on this Site is not the same as legal advice, which is the application of law to an individual's specific circumstances. The information on this Site is not a substitute for, and does not replace, the advice or representation of a licensed attorney. Although we go to great lengths to make sure the information on the Site is accurate and up to date, we are not able to make, and do not make, any claim as to the accuracy of this information and we are not responsible for any consequences that may result from the use of this Site or any information on this Site. We recommend that you consult with a licensed attorney to determine whether the information on this Site and your interpretation of it are appropriate for your particular situation. You should not rely, and are not authorized to rely, on this Site or any information on it as a source of legal advice. The use of this Site does not create an attorney-client relationship between us or our affiliates and any user or any entity or person associated with a user.

Registered User Conduct

All information, data, text, photographs, graphics, messages or other materials including any user feedback (“Content”) publicly posted, sent, submitted, published, transmitted or otherwise made available through the Site (collectively, “Posted”) is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not MLRI, bear all risks and liabilities for all Content that you Post (“User Content”). For our protection and the protection of all users, you agree not to Post any Content on the Site that:

  • infringes any intellectual property or other rights or any entity or person, including infringing on anyone’s copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, rights of publicity or any other proprietary right;
  • intentionally or unintentionally violates any law or may be considered to violate any law or advocates illegal activity or discusses an intent to commit an illegal act;
  • is vulgar, obscene, pornographic, indecent, threatening, abusive to others, libelous, defamatory, invasive of privacy, racist, harassing or offensive;
  • does not pertain directly to this Site;
  • seeks to exploit or harm children by exposing them to inappropriate Content, asking for personally identifiable details or otherwise;
  • impersonates or misrepresents your connection to any other entity or person or otherwise manipulates headers or identifiers to disguise the origin of the Content;
  • advertises any commercial endeavor (e.g. offering for sale products or services) or otherwise engages in any commercial activity (e.g., conducting raffles or contests, displaying sponsorship banners, and/or any form of soliciting, including but not limited to soliciting funds, advertisers, sponsors, goods or services) except as may be specifically authorized on this Site;
  • includes programs that contain viruses, worms and/or Trojan horses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, harm, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications;
  • harvests or otherwise collects or stores personal data about other users or any other person;
  • disobeys any policy or regulations established from time to time regarding the use the Site or any network connection to the Site; or
  • contains hyperlinks to other sites that contain Content that falls within the descriptions set forth above.

Our goal is to provide information to help Massachusetts residents resolve their legal problems, and User Content that you Post may be a valuable tool in helping us achieve our goal. You hereby grant to us and our affiliates the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display all User Content communicated by you to us through this Site, and to incorporate any such User Content in any other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed. We and our affiliates will not be required to treat any such User Content as confidential, and may use any such User Content in our respective businesses (including, without limitation, for products or advertising) without incurring any liability for royalties or any other consideration of any kind, and will not incur any liability as result of any similarities that may appear in our or our affiliates’ respective future operations.

We reserve the right, but are not obligated, to monitor use of the Site to determine compliance with these Terms of Use, as well as the right to remove or refuse any Content for any reason. Notwithstanding these rights, you remain solely responsible for the Content you may Post.

You acknowledge and agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of Content. Neither we, nor any third party that provides any Content to us, will assume or have any liability for any action or inaction by us or such third party with respect to any submission. On behalf of yourself and your relatives, heirs, estate, beneficiaries, administrators, executors and any and all other types of agents or representatives, you release and hold us and our affiliates harmless from any and all claims resulting from any action or inaction taken by us during or as a result of our monitoring and/or from any actions taken as a consequence of the monitoring by either MLRI or law enforcement authorities, and irrevocably waive any and all such claims against us.

Proprietary Rights

Except for Content that is in the public domain, the Content accessible on this Site, and all copyrights and other rights therein, are owned solely by us or our licensors, with all rights reserved. We own the copyright in the Site as a whole. Other than as expressly set forth herein, the Content may not be copied, reproduced, transmitted, displayed, performed, distributed, sublicensed, altered, stored for subsequent use or otherwise used in whole or in part in any manner without our prior written consent. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you reserve the right to use your own User Content for any purpose.

You are authorized to view, download, copy, display and distribute the Content from the Site for non-commercial uses only, provided that you keep all copyright and other proprietary notices intact. If you would like to obtain permission from us to use the Content in any other manner, please contact us at info@masslegalservices.org.

Any use of the Content other than as specifically authorized by these Terms of Use, or by our prior written consent, is prohibited and will terminate the limited license to the Content granted herein. Such unauthorized use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws and applicable communications regulations and statutes. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, nothing in these Terms of Use will be construed as conferring any license to intellectual property rights, by estoppel, implication or otherwise. The license granted to you herein is revocable at any time with or without cause.

Third-party sites

For your convenience, we may provide links to other websites that we feel may be of interest or of use to you. Please note that a link to another website does not constitute an endorsement by us of any such third-party website or an affiliation between us and any such third-party. Further, we have no control over the content, terms of use, or privacy practices of third-party websites to which we may link, and we are not responsible for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, decency, or any other aspect of the content of such websites. For your protection, we recommend that you read and understand the terms of use and privacy policies of any third-party website that you may visit and make sure you are comfortable with them before you use any third-party website. Your use of third-party websites is at your own risk and subject to their terms of use.

Linking to the Site

We permit text links from another website to the Site, provided that you help us to maintain the efficacy of this Site by complying with the following: (a) any text-only link is clearly marked “MassLegalServices.org”; (b) the link, when activated by a user, displays this Site full-screen and not with a frame on the linked website; and (c) the appearance, position and other aspects of either the link or the host website does not in any way have a negative impact on our reputation, dilute our goodwill or create the false appearance that an entity other than us and our affiliates is associated with or sponsored by us. Incorporation of pieces of this Site into a different website or product is prohibited. We reserve the right to revoke our consent to the link at any time in our sole discretion by amending these Terms of Use.

No Warranties and Limitation of Liability

ALL CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” FOR YOUR USE. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE CONTENT IS ACCURATE, RELIABLE OR CORRECT, THAT THE SITE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION, THAT ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE CONTENT IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR HARMFUL COMPONENTS. YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE, MISUSE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR YOUR VIOLATION OF THESE TERMS OF USE. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES WHETHER THE ALLEGED LIABILITY IS BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER BASIS, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. APPLICABLE LAW MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMANGES, AND IN SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, WE WILL HAVE THE LEAST AMOUNT OF LIABILITY PERMITTED BY LAW.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless MLRI and its affiliates and any of its or their respective employees, contractors, officers, directors, licensors, service providers and agents from all liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, that arise from your use, misuse or inability to use the Site or your violation of these Terms of Use. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will cooperate with us in asserting any available defenses.

Registered User Account, Password and Security

In order to access any of the private features of the Site, including having the ability to post User Content on any blogs that the Site may have, you will be asked to create a user account with personalized information, as more fully described in the Privacy Policy. When creating your account, you must provide accurate and complete information. Please also take special care to maintain the confidentiality of your user ID and password as you are solely responsible for the same. We are entitled, but not obligated, to monitor your password and, for your safety and the safety of other users, in our discretion, require you to change it. If you become involved in any violation of system security, we reserve the right to release your details to system administrators at other sites in order to assist them in resolving security incidents. We disclaim any and all liability or responsibility for such use.

International Use

Because we cannot know every jurisdiction in which this Site may be accessed, we cannot and do not make any representation that materials on the Site are appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States. Please be aware that should you choose or need to access the Site from other locations, you are responsible for compliance with local laws.

Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

It is important to us that we act responsibly if someone claims that a copyright infringement is taking place on the Site. If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on the Site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide the following information to us:

  • an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • identification of the copyrighted work that you claim to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by your notice, a representative list of such works;
  • identification of the Content that you claim to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the Content; • your address, telephone number, and email address;
  • a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the Content in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • a statement by you that the above information in your notice 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.

Please send such notice to: info@masslegalservices.org.

We will take reasonable steps to promptly notify the user whose submission was removed or disabled that we have removed or disabled such Content.

Counter-Notice

If you believe that User Content that you Posted was removed (or to which access was disabled) 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 such User Content in your user submission, you may send a counter-notice containing the following information to us:

  • your electronic or physical signature;
  • a description of the User Content that has been removed or to which access has been disabled;
  • identification of the location at which the User Content appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
  • a statement by you under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the User Content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or a misidentification of the Content;
  • your name, address, telephone number, and email address; and
  • a statement by you that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside the United States, for any judicial district in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of claimed infringement or an agent of such person. Please send such notice to:

MassLegalServices.org c/o Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Inc. 40 Court Street, Boston, MA 02108

If we receive a counter-notice, we may send a copy of the counter-notice to the original complaining party informing that person that we will replace the removed User Content or cease disabling access to it in 10 business days. Unless we or our agent first received notice that the original complaining party has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the user from engaging in infringing activity relating to User Content on the Site, we will replace the removed User Content and cease disabling access to it in not less than 10, nor more than 14, business days after receipt of the counter-notice.

Choice of Law and Forum

These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth Massachusetts, excluding its conflicts of laws rules. You expressly agree that the exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or action arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or your use of the Site shall be the state or federal courts located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and you further agree and submit to the exercise of personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim or action.

Severability and Integration

Unless otherwise specified herein, these Terms of Use, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Site and supersede all prior and contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written, or electronic) between you and us with respect to the Site. If any part of these Terms of Use is held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as nearly as possible, the original intentions of the parties, and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect.

Termination

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion at any time, to terminate your access to all or part of the Site and/or to remove any Content from the Site, with or without notice. You agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the Site or for removal of Content from the Site.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms of Use or the Site, please contact us at info@masslegalservices.org, or by mail at MassLegalServices.org, c/o Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Inc., 40 Court Street, Boston, MA 02108.