Terms of Service
Please read these Terms of Service (the Terms) carefully as they contain important information about your legal rights, remedies and obligations. These Terms apply to all users of the Site (defined below), including users who contribute information, ideas, and other materials or services through the Platform (defined below).
By accessing or using the Platform, you consent to both these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. The Legal Collective cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with any provision of these Terms.
Last updated: 7 December 2018
Thank you for using The Legal Collective!
The Legal Collective
The Legal Collective Pte. Ltd., is a private limited company, registered in Singapore under registration number 201825323M with its office at 1 North Bridge Road, #08-08 High Street Centre, Singapore 179094 (The Legal Collective, we, us, our or similar).
To contact us, please email enquiries@thelegalcollective.sg
1. Terms of Service
1.1 These Terms govern your access to and use of The Legal Collective website at https://www.thelegalcollective.sg (the Site), through which The Legal Collective makes its services available (the Services). The Site and Services are hereinafter collectively referred to as the Platform.
1.2 By using the Platform, you confirm that you accept these Terms and that you agree to comply with them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use our Site or any of our related Services.
2. Modification of these Terms
The Legal Collective reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time without notice. If we make changes to these Terms, we will post the revised Terms on the Site and update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. If you disagree with the revised Terms, you must not use our Platform. Your continued access to or use of the Platform will constitute acceptance by you of the revised Terms.
3. Scope of Services
3.1 The Platform includes an online marketplace that enables consumers (Clients) to submit details of matters in respect of which they require legal advice and assistance (Requests). The Legal Collective sources and receives responses to Requests from independent legal professionals and certain third parties (Advisors), with an indication of the fees chargeable by the Advisors for the provision of their Legal Services (Fee Quotes). The term Legal Services may include the provision by an Advisor of legal advice and/or other advisory and related legal and business services.
3.2 Users alone are responsible for identifying, understanding, and complying with all laws, rules and regulations that apply to them.
3.3 Clients are responsible for: (i) ensuring that they are legally entitled to submit any information which they submit via the Site; and (ii) accurately describing their requirements for any matters in respect of which they submit a Request.
3.4 Clients may withdraw a Request at any time by emailing us at enquiries@thelegalcollective.sg. This will not affect any engagement you have already entered into with an Advisor.
3.5 As the provider of the Platform, The Legal Collective does not create, sell, resell, provide, control, manage, deliver or supply legal services or legal advice to Clients. Advisors alone are responsible for the provision of their Legal Services.
3.6 When Clients and Advisors agree to work together, they are entering into a contract directly with each other. The Legal Collective is not and does not become a party to, or other participant in, any contractual relationship between users, nor is The Legal Collective an agent, broker or insurer.
3.7 The Legal Collective has no control over and does not guarantee (i) the quality, suitability, or legality of any Advisor or Legal Services, (ii) the truth or accuracy of any Ratings, Reviews, or other content, or (iii) the performance or conduct of any Advisor or third party.
3.8 The Legal Collective does not endorse any Advisor or Legal Service. Any reference to an Advisor being "verified" (or similar language) only indicates that the Advisor has completed a relevant verification or identification process and nothing else. Any such description is not an endorsement, certification or guarantee by The Legal Collective about any Advisor, including the Advisor's identity or background or whether the Advisor is sufficiently qualified or suitable. You should always exercise due care when deciding whether to instruct an Advisor and engage their Legal Services, or communicate and interact with Advisors, whether online or in person.
3.9 If you choose to use the Platform as an Advisor, your relationship with The Legal Collective is limited to being an independent, third-party contractor, and not an employee, agent, joint venture or partner of The Legal Collective, and you act exclusively on your own behalf and for your own benefit, and not on behalf, or for the benefit of, The Legal Collective. The Legal Collective does not, and shall not be deemed to, direct control of you generally or in your performance under these Terms specifically, including in connection with your provision of Legal Services. You acknowledge and agree that you have complete discretion whether to provide Legal Services to other users or otherwise engage in other business or employment activities.
3.10 Advisors alone are responsible for identifying and obtaining any required licenses, practising certificates (or similar), permits, registrations or insurance for any Legal Services they offer. Certain types of Legal Services may be prohibited altogether. Penalties may include fines or other enforcement action.
4. Use of the Site
4.1 You agree that in using our Site you will not:
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use the Site for any unlawful or nefarious purpose;
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use the Site in any way which interrupts, damages, impairs or renders the Site less efficient;
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provide false or misleading information;
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misuse the Site by knowingly introducing viruses or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful;
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submit via the Site any corrupted files, files that contain viruses, or any other item that may damage the operation of a computer or other electronic device; and
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attempt to gain unauthorised access to our Site, the server on which our Site is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to our Site.
4.2 To the extent it would constitute a criminal offence, we will report any breach of this provision to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our Site will cease immediately.
5. Intellectual Property Infringement
5.1 The Legal Collective respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Thus, in your use of and interactions with The Legal Collective and the Platform, you may not post any submissions or document templates (Templates) that contains copyrighted material belonging to others, or any material that infringes another intellectual property right of others, without obtaining their prior written consent. The Legal Collective reserves the right, in its discretion, to remove or reject any content or Templates if we believe it may infringe any right of a third party, and/or to terminate the account of any user that we reasonably believe may be infringing our or any third party’s rights.
5.2 If you believe that any user submission, content or Template infringes your copyright or other intellectual property right, then you may send to us a written communication that includes the following: (i) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed, (ii) identification of any copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, (iii) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material, (iv) information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you about your complaint, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address, (v) a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or applicable law; and (iv) a sworn statement that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. Such written notice should be sent to:
The Legal Collective Pte. Ltd
7500A Beach Rd
#05-319 The Plaza
Singapore 199591
Email: enquiries@thelegalcollective.sg
6. Fees and Payment
6.1 There are no fees for Advisors to join the Platform and respond to Requests from Clients. The Legal Collective may charge fees to Clients (Clients Fees) and/or Advisors (Advisor Fees) (collectively, Service Fees) for any Legal Services billed by an Advisor to a Client introduced through the Platform.
6.2 Any applicable Service Fees (including any applicable taxes) will be displayed to Clients and Advisors as part of the total amount quoted to a Client for the provision of the relevant Legal Services.
6.3 The Legal Collective reserves the right to change the Service Fees at any time, and will provide users with adequate notice of any fee changes before they become effective. This will not affect any Service Fees you have previously agreed with The Legal Collective.
6.4 You are responsible for paying any Service Fees that you owe to The Legal Collective. The Legal Collective will deduct any Member Fees from the total fees collected by The Legal Collective from a Client before remitting payment to the Advisor. Any Client Fees are included in the total amount collected by The Legal Collective. All Service Fees are non-refundable.
7. Insurance
7.1 Advisors on our Platform are independent lawyers or lawyers working in boutique law firms. As such, The Legal Collective does not provide liability insurance. Each Advisor must procure and maintain liability insurance of not less than S$1,000,000 (or an equivalent amount in another currency), prior to being onboarded to the Platform.
7.2 Legal consultants on our Platform are employed by The Legal Collective. As such, different terms apply.
8. Ratings and Reviews
8.1 Within a certain timeframe after completing a matter, Clients will be invited to provide a review (Review) and submit a rating (Rating) about their Advisor. Ratings and Reviews reflect the opinions of individual Clients and do not reflect the opinion of The Legal Collective. Ratings and Reviews may not be verified by The Legal Collective for accuracy and may be incorrect or misleading.
8.2 Clients are solely responsible for the content of any Review they provide. You agree to ensure that all Reviews you submit are in accordance with the terms, and you will indemnify The Legal Collective in full for any breach of these terms.
8.3 Ratings and Reviews by Clients must be accurate and may not contain any offensive or defamatory language. To the extent that all or any part of a Review contains potentially unlawful or inappropriate content, we may at our absolute discretion, delete it entirely or remove all or any part of a Review. We are not under any obligation to notify you of this decision.
8.4 By providing a Review, you confirm that: (i) the Review is your independent, honest, genuine opinion of an Advisor that you have instructed by means of our Platform, (ii) you have no personal relationship with the Advisor being reviewed, and (iii) you have not been offered any incentive to write the Review. You acknowledge that we offer the Advisor a right of reply, which is subject to the Advisor’s usual confidentiality obligations.
8.5 Any Review you provide will be viewable by other Users. We reserve the right without notice to edit or delete your Review where we have reason to believe it breaches any of these Terms or take such steps as we deem necessary (in our sole discretion) to protect us or others, or if we are required to do so by law or any appropriate authority. We are not responsible if your Review is misused by third parties.
8.6 The Legal Collective does not endorse or recommend any Reviews or Ratings and you rely on the information in any Reviews or any Rating at your own risk.
9. Use of material on our Site
9.1 You must not use any part of the content on our Site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
9.2 You may download and print content from the Site solely for your personal use. Content from our Site must not be copied or reproduced, modified, redistributed, used or otherwise dealt with for any other reason without our express written permission.
10.Disclaimer
10.1 The Legal Collective is a private limited company, does not offer legal services or advice to users, and is not a registered foreign legal practice. Our community of lawyers, consultants and boutique firms are independent and do not constitute a law firm among themselves.
10.2 In some jurisdictions, certain legal work can only be done by legal professionals licensed in that jurisdiction (for example, appearances in court, conveyancing and providing legal opinions). Tell us what you need and we'll find an appropriately qualified Advisor to help you.
11. Your Advisor
11.1 While our services are designed to connect you with the very best in affordable legal talent, you should in all circumstances make your own enquiries as to the suitability of any Advisor for your matter.
11.2 Any contact or relationship that you have with, including any advice you receive from, an Advisor is strictly between you and that Advisor and subject to any separate terms you may agree with them. We accept no responsibility or liability for any such relationship, advice or service you may receive from an Advisor.
11.3 If you accept a Quote you will engage the relevant Advisor by signing a contract with that Advisor (the Engagement Letter). You hereby consent to the Advisor sharing with us the Engagement Letter, details of the agreed scope of work they will complete for you and any fees you agree with an Advisor.
11.4 You acknowledge and agree that we will not be a party to any contract entered into between a Client and an Advisor. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that we shall not be liable for any loss or damage that results from any dealings between a Client and any Advisor.
11.5 You agree to hold The Legal Collective harmless for any legal advice rendered by any Advisor and hereby agree to release and indemnify The Legal Collective in full from and against any and all claims arising in connection therewith.
12. Confidentiality
12.1 We are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your information. Any information you provide via the Platform will be used to identify your legal needs and enable us to properly serve you. We will not rent, sell or trade your personal or company information to others.
12.2 We will store the information you provide on secure servers, and access to it will be restricted to The Legal Collective employees. See our Privacy Policy for further details.
13. Legal Privilege
13.1 By providing information to The Legal Collective via the Platform or otherwise communicating information to The Legal Collective, you are not establishing a lawyer-client relationship.
13.2 You acknowledge that information you provide to us will be kept confidential but may not necessarily be legally privileged and The Legal Collective may be compelled to disclose information you provide to us in certain legal proceedings.
13.3 You should not provide any information concerning your legal needs that you wish to be protected by lawyer-client privilege.
14. Availability of Site
The Site is made available free of charge. We do not guarantee that our Site, or any content on it, will be uninterrupted or fault free and do not accept any liability for any errors or omissions. We may suspend, withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our Site for business or operational reasons at any time.
15. Content and Templates
15.1 The content on our Site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action based on the content on our Site, including (but not limited to) any Templates.
15.2 By submitting a Template to us, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish that Template and materials for any purpose, subject to any compensation terms with agree in writing with you.
15.3 While we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our Site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our Site is accurate, complete or up to date and any reliance is entirely at your own risk.
16. Links to third party Sites
We may provide links to other websites and resources provided by third parties on our Site. These links are provided for your information only and you acknowledge and agree that:
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we have no control over the contents of those websites;
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such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or any information you may obtain from them;
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we shall not be liable to you in respect of any loss or damage which you may suffer by using those websites; and
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you will not involve us in any dispute between you and the relevant third party.
17. Disputes
17.1 In the unlikely event that a dispute arises between a Client and an Advisor, you must promptly raise the dispute directly with the Advisor concerned. You also agree to inform The Legal Collective of any such dispute as soon as reasonably practicable.
17.2 By using the Platform and any related services provided by The Legal Collective, you agree to release and indemnify us in full from all claims, demands and damages of every kind arising out of or in any way connected with any dispute you may have with an Advisor or Client (as relevant) from time to time.
17.3 If you are dissatisfied with The Legal Collective, or these Terms, your sole remedy under these Terms shall be to discontinue your use of the Platform and related services. Without limiting the preceding sentence, we shall have no liability for any failure or delay resulting from any matter beyond our reasonable control.
18. Limitation of liability
18.1 We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so.
18.2 We do exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our Site or any content on it, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of fitness for a specific purpose and non-infringement.
18.3 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we will not under any circumstances be liable to you for any direct, indirect, punitive, exemplary, special or consequential loss or damage, whether in contract, tort, negligence, breach of statutory duty, misrepresentation or otherwise, even if foreseeable or we have been advised of the potential for such damages, arising under or in connection with (but not limited to):
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use of, or inability to use, our Site;
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use of or reliance on any content displayed on our Site;
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use of or reliance on any content displayed on a website that we have linked to on our Site;
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bugs or viruses on our Site;
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disruptions, delays or imperfections on our Site;
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security of our Site; or
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download of, or inability to download, any material from our Site.
18.4 We shall not be liable for any loss of business, loss of profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other economic loss (even where we have been advised of the possibility of such loss or damage).
18.5 Except as expressly set out in these Terms, all conditions, warranties and obligations which may be implied or incorporated into these Terms by statute, common law, or otherwise and any liabilities arising from them are expressly excluded to the extent permitted by law.
18.6 If any limitation or exclusion of liability in the Terms is not enforceable, then you agree that we shall not be liable to you for more than S$500 in aggregate in respect of matters arising out of, or in relation to, any individual Request.
19. Viruses and malicious software
We do not guarantee that our Site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our Site. You should use your own virus protection software.
20. Indemnification
You agree to release, defend (at our option), indemnify, and hold The Legal Collective and its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with (i) your breach of these Terms or our Privacy Policy, (ii) your improper use of the Platform or any related services, (iii) your interaction with any Advisor, Client, Legal Service, Template or other service, including without limitation any injuries, losses or damages (whether compensatory, direct, incidental, consequential or otherwise) of any kind arising in connection with or as a result of such interaction, purchase, participation or use, or (iv) your breach of any laws, regulations or third party rights.
21. Feedback
We welcome and encourage you to provide feedback, comments and suggestions for improvements to the Platform (Feedback). You may submit Feedback by emailing us, through the “Contact Us” section of the Site, or by other means of communication. Any Feedback you submit to us will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you. By submitting Feedback to us, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish those ideas and materials for any purpose, without compensation to you.
22. General Provisions
22.1 Except as they may be supplemented by additional terms and conditions, policies, guidelines or standards, these Terms constitute the entire agreement (Agreement) between The Legal Collective and you pertaining to the subject matter hereof, and supersede any and all prior oral or written understandings or agreements between The Legal Collective and you in relation to the access to and use of the Platform.
22.2 These Terms do not and are not intended to confer any rights or remedies upon any person other than the parties.
22.3 If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be struck and will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
22.4 Any failure by The Legal Collective to enforce any right or provision in these Terms will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision unless acknowledged and agreed to by us in writing. Except as expressly set forth in these Terms, the exercise by either party of any of its remedies under these Terms will be without prejudice to its other remedies under these Terms or otherwise permitted under law.
22.5 You may not assign, transfer or delegate this Agreement and your rights and obligations hereunder without The Legal Collective's prior written consent. The Legal Collective may without restriction assign, transfer or delegate this Agreement and any rights and obligations hereunder, at its sole discretion, with 30 days prior notice. Your right to terminate this Agreement at any time remains unaffected.
22.6 Unless specified otherwise, any notices or other communications to users permitted or required under this Agreement, will be provided electronically and given by The Legal Collective via email or notification via the Platform.
22.7 If you have any questions about these Terms please email us.
23. Applicable laws
These Terms are governed by Singapore law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Singapore courts.