Terms of Use

1. Agreement to terms

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, govern your relationship with us in respect of the Service. By using the Service, you confirm your acceptance of these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

2. The Service

The Service is a legal research platform that lets you search and retrieve from a corpus of case law and legislation. You can use it in two ways: through our web library, and through a Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector that lets an AI assistant you authorise run searches and retrieve material on your behalf. Your search terms (“Queries”) are processed in real time to return results; we do not store their content (see our Privacy Policy).

The Service and all information it provides (the “Output”) are for informational and research purposes only.

• We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice.
• The Service and its Output do not, and are not intended to, constitute legal advice or form a solicitor-client relationship.
• The Output is produced by automated indexing, search, and ranking over the corpus and may contain inaccuracies, errors, or omissions.
• You must independently verify all Output with qualified legal professionals and primary legal sources. You must exercise your own professional judgment in using the Service.
• Your reliance on any information or Output provided by the Service is solely at your own risk.
• You acknowledge that, from time to time, the Service may be interrupted for the purposes of performing routine work to improve or maintain it.

3. User accounts

• Registration: You must register for an account to use the Service. You agree to provide true, accurate, and complete information during registration and to keep this information updated.
• Responsibility: You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, including any use of the Service by an AI assistant you connect to it through the MCP connector.
• Security: You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and any access tokens issued to your connected assistants. You must notify us immediately at [email protected] upon becoming aware of any breach of security or unauthorised use of your account.

4. User responsibilities and acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to direct or allow third parties to, use the Service for any purpose that is illegal or prohibited by these Terms.

You will not:

• Submit any Query or other content that you do not have the legal right to possess and process (e.g., material that breaches the confidentiality, privacy, or copyright of a third party).
• Use the Service to provide unlicensed legal advice to others.
• Use the Service in any way that violates any applicable New Zealand or international law or regulation.
• Transmit any virus, malware, or other malicious code.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise discover the source code or underlying AI models of the Service.
• Use any automated “scraper” or “bot”, or use the MCP connector, to extract, copy, or replicate the corpus or any substantial part of it in bulk, other than ordinary research use through the Service’s intended functionality.
• Share your account credentials or access tokens, or allow any other person to use your account (unless your subscription plan expressly permits this, e.g., a team account).
• Build similar or competitive products or features to the Res Ipsa platform or to those of our subcontractors.

You are solely responsible for your Queries and your conduct while using the Service.

5. Fees and payment

• Subscriptions: Access to the Service requires a paid subscription. Fees are set out on our pricing page.
• Billing: Depending on your payment preferences, we will bill you either in advance on a recurring basis (e.g., monthly or annually), or in advance on a “top-up” basis, through our third-party payment processor. All payments are non-refundable, except as required by law.
• Changes: We may change our subscription fees at any time, but we will provide you with at least 30 days’ notice of any fee changes.
• Taxes: All fees are, unless stated otherwise, exclusive of GST and other applicable taxes, which you agree to pay.

6. Intellectual property

• Our Service: We (and our licensors) own all right, title, and interest in and to the Service. This includes all source code, software, AI models, our compilation and enrichment of the corpus, databases, functionality, website designs, branding, and logos (collectively, “Our IP”). Our IP is or may be protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Primary legal materials within the corpus remain subject to their own copyright status.
• Your Queries: You retain all ownership rights in your Queries. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to process your Queries solely to return results to you for that request; we do not retain their content.
• Your Licence to Use the Output: We grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, copy, modify, and distribute the Output generated by the Service in response to your Queries, subject to your compliance with these Terms (especially Section 2).

7. Privacy and confidentiality

Our Privacy Policy forms a part of these Terms. By agreeing to these Terms, you also agree to the collection and use of your information as described in the Privacy Policy. The Service is built to hold as little of your information as possible: we do not store the content of your Queries, and the only records we keep of your use are account information and access audit logs.

8. Warranties and disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• The Service is provided on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis.
• We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that the Output will be accurate, complete, or reliable. However, in our absolute discretion we may, in the event of service outages, offer a credit or refund on a pro rata basis.

Consumer Guarantees Act 1993: If you are using the Service for “business” purposes (i.e., you are “in trade”), you agree that the provisions of the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 do not apply to the Service.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• In no event will we or our directors, employees, or agents be liable to you or any third party for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special, or punitive damages (including lost profit, lost revenue, or loss of data) arising from your use of the Service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
• Our total aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or in connection with the Service (whether in contract, tort, or otherwise) will not exceed the greater of: the total amount of fees you paid to us in the 6 months prior to the act giving rise to the liability, or NZD $100.

10. Term and termination

• Term: These Terms remain in full force and effect while you use the Service.
• Termination by You: You may terminate your account at any time by ceasing to use the Service and cancelling your subscription.
• Termination by Us: We may suspend or terminate your account and access to the Service at any time, without prior notice or liability, if you breach these Terms. We also reserve the right to discontinue the Service at any time.
• Survival: Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will do so, including, but not limited to, Section 2, Section 6 (Intellectual Property), Section 8 (Disclaimers), Section 9 (Limitation of Liability), and Section 11 (Governing Law).

11. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms, and any dispute arising from them, will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand. You agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will notify you by email (at the address associated with your account) or by posting a prominent notice within the Service. Your continued use of the Service after such notice constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms.

13. Contact us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at [email protected].