These Terms should be read together with the Privacy Policy. If you enable AI assistance, the separate AI processing disclosure also applies to that processing.
1. About these Terms
These Terms of Use govern access to and use of CivilDocket, including its case workspace, document tools, court-form tools, procedural resources, CaseBrain features, artificial-intelligence features, case-law research tools, and related services (collectively, the “Service”). In these Terms, “CivilDocket”, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to the operator of the CivilDocket Service.
By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Service.
2. CivilDocket is not a law firm
CivilDocket is a technology and information service. It is not a law firm, does not act as your lawyer or legal representative, and does not create a lawyer-client or solicitor-client relationship.
Information, organization tools, automated outputs, form assistance, procedural resources, summaries, case-law search results, and AI-generated content are not legal advice. You remain responsible for deciding what to file, serve, sign, swear or affirm, submit to a court, communicate to another party, or rely on in your case.
3. Court forms and legal information
CivilDocket may reproduce, organize, link to, or help complete publicly available court forms, legislation, rules, practice directions, court information, and case law. Official sources control. Court forms, rules, procedures, filing requirements, fees, deadlines, and authorities may change without notice.
CanLII metadata, citation relationships, source links, and result counts do not by themselves establish that a decision remains current, has been followed, or supports a particular legal proposition. You must read the decision and verify its treatment and relevance before relying on it.
You should review the current official source and your completed document before filing, serving, signing, swearing, affirming, or otherwise relying on it. CivilDocket does not guarantee that any form, deadline, procedural step, authority, or generated document is complete or appropriate for your circumstances.
4. Artificial intelligence is optional
CivilDocket can be used without AI assistance. AI processing of user case information requires the separate express authorization presented by CivilDocket. You can later turn AI assistance off in Settings.
AI systems can make mistakes, omit important information, misunderstand documents, produce incomplete or inaccurate summaries, or generate text that should not be used. AI output must be reviewed by you before it is relied on. A paid subscription does not change these limitations and does not replace professional legal advice.
5. Your account
You must provide accurate account information, keep your credentials confidential, and promptly protect your account if you believe it has been compromised. You are responsible for activity performed through your account except to the extent caused by CivilDocket’s own systems or personnel.
CivilDocket is intended for persons who can lawfully create an account and manage litigation or legal-document information. Do not create an account for a child. Case records may contain information about children where it is relevant to a user’s case.
6. Your documents and information
You retain ownership of documents, text, records, and other material you upload or enter. You give CivilDocket a limited right to store, copy, process, transform, display, and transmit that material only as reasonably necessary to operate the Service, provide features you request, maintain security, create backups, and comply with law.
You are responsible for having lawful authority to upload and process the information you provide, including personal information about other parties, children, witnesses, lawyers, experts, and other persons. Do not upload material that you are prohibited from possessing, copying, or disclosing.
7. Confidential and privileged material
CivilDocket is designed to handle sensitive litigation information, but CivilDocket is not your lawyer. Uploading information to CivilDocket does not by itself create solicitor-client privilege or litigation privilege.
You are responsible for deciding whether particular confidential, privileged, sealed, restricted, or third-party material may lawfully be uploaded or processed. If AI is enabled, review the separate AI disclosure before submitting material to an AI-assisted feature.
8. Acceptable use
You may use the Service only for lawful purposes. You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access to another account or case, interfere with the Service, bypass access controls or usage limits, introduce malicious code, scrape or reverse engineer protected portions of the Service except where law expressly permits it, impersonate another person, or use the Service to facilitate fraud, harassment, unlawful surveillance, or other unlawful conduct.
You must not use CivilDocket to misrepresent AI-generated or automatically prepared content as having been independently verified by a lawyer, court, public authority, or CivilDocket.
9. Paid features and subscriptions
Some features may require a paid subscription or other entitlement. Pricing, included usage, billing periods, renewal terms, taxes, cancellation rules, and any trial terms will be presented before a paid purchase is completed.
CivilDocket may apply reasonable usage limits to protect system availability and control third-party processing costs. AI consent and paid entitlement are separate: paying for a feature never authorizes AI processing if you have not separately enabled AI assistance.
10. Service changes and availability
We may update, improve, replace, limit, suspend, or discontinue features to maintain security, comply with law, respond to changes in court or third-party systems, control abuse or costs, or improve the Service. We will take reasonable steps to avoid unnecessary disruption to stored user data.
The Service may occasionally be unavailable because of maintenance, hosting failures, internet failures, third-party outages, security events, or circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
11. Third-party services and sources
CivilDocket may rely on hosting providers, AI processors, public legal-information services, court websites, document-processing software, and other third-party services. Third-party services and websites have their own terms and privacy practices, and CivilDocket does not control their independent services.
Links or references to courts, CanLII, legislation, case law, government services, or other third-party sources are provided for convenience and do not imply endorsement or guarantee availability or accuracy.
12. Intellectual property
Except for user content, public legal materials, official court forms, and third-party materials, the CivilDocket software, design, branding, compilation, and original content are owned by or licensed to CivilDocket and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
These Terms give you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive right to use the Service for its intended purpose. They do not transfer ownership of CivilDocket intellectual property to you.
13. No guarantee of outcomes; disclaimers
CivilDocket does not predict or guarantee legal outcomes, court acceptance, filing success, procedural compliance, or the accuracy of automated analysis. Courts and other decision-makers remain independent, and litigation outcomes depend on facts, evidence, law, procedure, judicial decisions, and actions outside CivilDocket’s control.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided on an “as available” basis without warranties that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty, remedy, or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
14. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, CivilDocket will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss caused by your reliance on unverified automated output, failure to meet a legal deadline, failure to file or serve a document, or an action of a court or third party.
Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, these Terms limit liability only to the extent permitted by applicable law. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, or any other liability that law does not permit us to limit.
15. Suspension and termination
You may stop using CivilDocket at any time. We may suspend or restrict an account where reasonably necessary for security, suspected unlawful activity, abuse, non-payment of a paid service, material breach of these Terms, or protection of other users or the Service.
Where practical and lawful, we will provide notice of a material account restriction and a reasonable opportunity to export or retrieve user-controlled information that remains available.
16. Privacy
Our collection, use, disclosure, retention, and protection of personal information is described in the CivilDocket Privacy Policy. The separate AI consent process describes additional processing that applies only when you enable AI assistance.
17. Changes to these Terms
We may revise these Terms when the Service, law, business model, or data-processing practices materially change. The current version and effective date will be posted on this page. Where a change materially affects existing users’ rights or obligations, CivilDocket may provide additional notice or require renewed acceptance as appropriate.
18. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, without limiting any mandatory consumer or other protections that apply to you. Subject to any law requiring a different forum, disputes relating to these Terms or the Service will be determined in Ontario, Canada.
19. Contact
Questions about these Terms may be sent using the current contact information published by CivilDocket.