DocketDB

Terms of Service

By using the DocketDB website (the "Service"), which is operated by BlindCarbon LLC ("We" or "Us"), you agree to these Terms.

As our service evolves, we may make changes to these Terms to reflect our new features and offerings. As we do so, your continued use of the Service represents your continued agreement. You can always review the current version of the Terms of Service at http://docketdb.com/about/terms.

I. Subscriptions and Access by Non-Subscribers

Registered Users and Paid Subscribers

Registered users are those who have registered for an account on the site. Registered users include both paid subscribers and unpaid subscribers.

  • Free Plan. Users on the Free Plan are unpaid subscribers to the site. The Free Plan permits limited access to our site. Users on the Free Plan will not be charged unless they change their plan level.
  • Solo Plan. Individuals on the Solo Plan are paid subscribers to the site. Each subscription authorizes one user account at a rate of $35 per month.
  • Firm Plan. Organizations on the Firm Plan are paid subscribers to the site. Each set of 10 user accounts is priced $249 per month.

We may, from time to time, change these service bundles. We will not reduce the service level offered to paid subscribers without 30 days notice.

Although we reserve the right to change these at any time, we will not make material changes to the subscription terms for paid subscribers until 30 days after those changes are noted here. Notice of any changes to subscription pricing will also be sent to the administrative user assigned to each account.

Non-Subscribers (General Public)

If you use this site without logging in, you are treated as a non-subscriber. Non-subscribers do not have an obligation to pay a subscription fee to access those parts of the site that we make available to the public, but they agree to the remainder of these Terms.

II. Payments and Free Trials

Subscription Period. The Service is billed in advance on a monthly basis and is non-refundable. For any upgrade or downgrade, your credit card will automatically be charged the new rate on your next billing cycle.

Credit Card Payments. By subscribing and sharing your credit card information, you authorize us to charge your account for the amount of your subscription each month. If your credit card is declined, your account will be automatically suspended until payment can be made.

Free Trials. Certain accounts may receive a 30-day free trial period. At the conclusion of the trial period, the credit card on file is charged. If the trial account was created without giving credit card information, the account will be automatically cancelled and made inactive at the end of the trial period. Users who reactivate an account that was previously cancelled do not receive a free trial.

III. Cancellation

Your Cancellation Option. Cancellations made through the website take effect immediately. Because we bill in advance, we will not charge you again after you have cancelled. We do not offer refunds for partial months.

Our Power To Terminate. We may terminate a user's access at any time. No notice is necessary, although paid subscribers will not be terminated with less than 30 days notice, other than for violation of these terms or other good cause.

Data Associated With Closed Accounts. When you cancel your account, your private data may be deleted from our system, and it might or might not be possible to recover this information after you have cancelled. If you need to extract your data from our system, you should do so before canceling. (If you need assistance in doing this, please contact us.)

IV. Information on the Site

Rights in the Underlying Data. BlindCarbon owns the underlying database, including the processed versions of court information, judicial opinions, and other materials that have been reprocessed or modified from public documents, to the extent permitted by copyright law.

Not Official Government Information. Information about the Court's docket presented here is not official government information, and neither the way that information is presented here nor this website itself is endorsed by any governmental agency.

Not Legal Advice. Neither DocketDB nor BlindCarbon LLC offers legal advice. The Service is a tool for research; any legal conclusions that you draw from that research are up to you.

Information You Enter. Some information entered onto the site (such as "keywords") is shared by design with other users. When you enter or edit this information in our system, you transfer to the Service a nonexclusive right to use that information, including but not limited to the rights to redisplay, store, and process that information into derivative works.

Information the Site Treats as Private. Paid subscribers can enter certain information as "private" information, including private notes attached to cases. We do not claim any intellectual property interest in information that paid subscribers submit to our Service as private notes or private tags. Your submission of the information does grant us a nonexclusive license to display the information within the Service according to your instructions.

Look and Feel; the Service Itself. The look and feel of the site, as well as the visual presentation of the information here, is protected by copyright.

No Scraping. It is a violation of these Terms of Service to use any automated method to "scrape" or otherwise remove data from this site, other than as may later be outlined in a formal API (Application Programming Interface).

Academic Uses. If you want to use some of our data for academic purposes, you are encouraged to contact us directly. It might be possible for you to get the data you need in an easier to use form.

V. Miscellaneous Terms

  • You must provide a valid email address to complete the signup process.
  • You are responsible for choosing a secure password. Unlike some less secure sites, we cannot email you your old password, because we do not store your unencrypted password in our system. If you forget your password, we can email you a link that will let you generate a new password known only to you.
  • You must not use the Service for any unauthorized or illegal purpose. You must not use the Service to violate the law, including but not limited to laws governing copyright.
  • You must agree not to use the service to upload, post, host, or transmit unsolicited email, SMS, or other messages.
  • You must be at least thirteen years old to use this Service.

VI. Legal Disclaimers

Limitation of Remedies. You understand and agree that BlindCarbon will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to lost profits, loss of data, or diminution of goodwill, resulting from use of the Service or its temporary inaccessibility. Your remedy for any claim relating to the use of the Service or its inability shall be limited to recovery of the subscription fees you have actually paid during a period not to exceed the previous twelve months.

Warranty Disclaimer. We do apologize for the all-caps type, but if you’re the typical user of a legal research site, you should understand why we might be required to: EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED IN THIS SECTION, ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT AND ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT THESE DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. BLINDCARBON AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE AND/OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. BLINDCARBON ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OF THE SERVICE(S). BLINDCARBON AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION MADE ACCESSIBLE BY OR THROUGH THE SERVICE. BLINDCARBON MAKES NO REPRESENTATION THAT BLINDCARBON (OR ANY THIRD PARTY) WILL ISSUE UPDATES OR ENHANCEMENTS TO THE SERVICE. BLINDCARBON DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN THAT EVENT, TO THE EXTENT PERMISSIBLE, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARE LIMITED IN DURATION TO NINETY (90) DAYS FROM THE EFFECTIVE DATE.

Choice of Law and Forum. Any disputes arising from this agreement will be handled under Texas law, exclusive of its choice-of-law principles, in a court based in Travis County, Texas.


last update: August 9, 2009