Terms & Conditions

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms & Conditions (the "Terms") are a binding legal agreement between you and Gavelocity LLC ("Gavelocity," "we," "our," or "us") governing your access to and use of the website located at gavelocity.com, our API, email digests, notifications, and all related services (collectively, the "Service").

BY ACCESSING, BROWSING, OR USING THE SERVICE IN ANY MANNER, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND OUR PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, YOU MUST NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE.

Your continued use of the Service after any update to these Terms constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you use the Service on behalf of a firm, company, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" includes that organization.

2. Description of the Service

Gavelocity aggregates publicly available appellate court opinions and uses artificial intelligence to generate summaries, headlines, classifications, and related editorial aids. The court opinions themselves are public records authored by courts and judges — not by Gavelocity. The Service is an informational research aid only.

The Service is currently offered free of charge. We may in the future offer some or all features for a fee (see Section 8).

3. AI-Generated Content — Mandatory Disclaimer

4. No Legal Advice; No Attorney-Client Relationship

• No Legal Advice: The Service provides general information about publicly available court opinions. Nothing on the Service constitutes legal advice, a legal opinion, or a recommendation about any legal matter.
• No Attorney-Client Relationship: Your use of the Service does not create an attorney-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship between you and Gavelocity or anyone associated with it.
• Consult Counsel: If you need legal advice, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. If you are an attorney, you remain solely responsible for your own professional judgment, research, and compliance with applicable rules of professional conduct.

5. Interactive Computer Service; Third-Party Content (47 U.S.C. § 230)

Gavelocity is a provider of an "interactive computer service" within the meaning of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230. The court opinions made available through the Service are public records created by third parties — the issuing courts and judges — and Gavelocity is not the publisher or speaker of that third-party content.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Gavelocity claims and reserves all immunities, protections, and defenses available to interactive computer service providers, distributors, and republishers of third-party and public-record content under 47 U.S.C. § 230 and any other applicable federal or state law. Nothing in these Terms waives, limits, or modifies any such immunity or protection.

Gavelocity makes no claim of copyright to original works of the United States government or of any state government, including court opinions.

6. Intellectual Property; License to You

Except for the underlying government works, the Service — including its design, code, branding, compilation, arrangement, and AI-generated summaries — is owned by Gavelocity LLC and protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Service for your personal or internal professional research, subject to these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree that you will not:

• Scrape, crawl, harvest, or use automated means to access the Service or extract its content in bulk, except through interfaces we expressly provide;
• Resell, sublicense, redistribute, or commercially exploit the Service or its summaries, or use them to build a competing product or to train machine-learning models;
• Represent any AI-generated summary as an official court document, or remove, obscure, or alter disclaimers, attributions, or notices;
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, probe or circumvent its security, or impose an unreasonable load on our infrastructure;
• Use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation.

8. Fees and Payment

The Service may be offered free of charge or, for some or all features, for a fee. If we introduce or change fees, we will provide notice through the Service before they apply to you. You are responsible for all applicable taxes. Except where required by law, fees are non-refundable. We may modify, limit, or discontinue free features at any time.

9. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH IT (INCLUDING ALL AI-GENERATED SUMMARIES) ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GAVELOCITY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. GAVELOCITY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY SUMMARY ACCURATELY REFLECTS THE UNDERLYING OPINION, THAT THE SERVICE INCLUDES ALL OPINIONS ISSUED BY ANY COURT, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED.

10. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GAVELOCITY AND ITS MEMBERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM RELIANCE ON AI-GENERATED CONTENT — INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM MISSED DEADLINES, ERRONEOUS ANALYSIS, MALPRACTICE CLAIMS, OR PROFESSIONAL DISCIPLINE — WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF GAVELOCITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100) OR (B) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID TO GAVELOCITY FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or damages; in those jurisdictions, the above exclusions and limitations apply to the fullest extent permitted by law. The limitations in this Section 10 are a fundamental basis of the bargain between you and Gavelocity and apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Gavelocity and its members, officers, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and service providers from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to (a) your use of the Service, (b) your reliance on any content available through the Service, including AI-generated summaries, (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

12. Dispute Resolution — Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver

12.1 Agreement to Arbitrate

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms — including their formation, interpretation, breach, or termination, and including statutory and common-law claims — shall be resolved exclusively by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq.) governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section 12.

12.2 Procedure; Resolution on Written Submissions

The arbitration shall be conducted by a single arbitrator and seated in Cook County, Illinois. To the fullest extent permitted by the AAA rules and applicable law, the arbitration shall be resolved solely on the basis of written submissions and documentary evidence — "on the papers" — without any in-person, telephonic, or video evidentiary hearing and without live testimony. If the arbitrator determines that a hearing is essential to a fair resolution, or the applicable AAA rules entitle a party to a hearing upon request, any such hearing shall be conducted by video or telephone conference and shall be as brief as practicable. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve any dispute about the interpretation, applicability, or enforceability of this arbitration agreement, except that a court shall decide the enforceability of the class action waiver in Section 12.5.

12.3 No Discovery; Cost Minimization

To the fullest extent permitted by the AAA rules and applicable law, the parties waive all discovery. There shall be no depositions, interrogatories, requests for admission, document requests, or third-party subpoenas. Instead, each party shall exchange copies of the documents it intends to rely on at least fourteen (14) days before written submissions are due. The arbitrator may permit a narrowly targeted, limited exchange of specific documents only upon a showing that a fair resolution of the dispute is impossible without it.

The arbitrator and the parties shall conduct the proceeding in the manner that minimizes costs, fees, and expenses for all parties, including by using a single round of written submissions absent good cause, reasonable page limits set by the arbitrator, and no live testimony. Each party shall bear its own attorneys' fees and costs, except where an applicable statute provides otherwise or the arbitrator finds a claim or defense frivolous or brought for an improper purpose.

12.4 Small Claims Carve-Out

Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court in Cook County, Illinois (or, if you are a consumer, in the county where you reside) instead of arbitration, so long as the claim remains in small claims court and is not removed or appealed to a court of general jurisdiction.

12.5 Class Action and Jury Trial Waiver

YOU AND GAVELOCITY EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. All claims must be brought in the parties' individual capacities. If the class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) shall proceed in court, and the remainder shall be arbitrated.

12.6 Opt-Out

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to [email protected] within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name, the email address you use with the Service (if any), and your intent to opt out of arbitration. Opting out of arbitration does not affect any other provision of these Terms.

12.7 Time Limit on Claims

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms must be filed within one (1) year after the claim accrues, or it is permanently barred.

13. Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Service are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 12. Subject to Section 12, the state and federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois shall have exclusive jurisdiction, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

14. Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe content available through the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice compliant with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to [email protected], including identification of the work, the allegedly infringing material and its location, your contact information, the required good-faith and accuracy statements, and your physical or electronic signature. We may remove content alleged to be infringing and may terminate access for repeat infringers.

15. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason, including violation of these Terms, without notice or liability. You may stop using the Service at any time. Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 17 survive any termination.

16. Changes to the Service and These Terms

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service (or any feature) at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the Effective Date and Version above and provide notice through the Service. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

17. General Provisions

• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Gavelocity regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements on that subject.
• No Waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment: You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Force Majeure: We are not liable for any delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages of hosting, AI, or court data providers.

18. Contact Us