Last updated: August 22, 2026
Welcome to Caunsel ("Company", "we", "us", or "our"). These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of our website at www.caunsel.com and our mobile application available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store (collectively, the "Service" or "Platform").
By creating an account or using the Service in any way, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not access or use the Service.
CAUNSEL IS A TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM ONLY. NOTHING ON THIS PLATFORM CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE, CREATES AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP, OR SHOULD BE RELIED UPON AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL LEGAL COUNSEL. AI-GENERATED CONTENT, PANEL REVIEWS, AND FACT-CHECKER OUTPUTS ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY BE INCOMPLETE, INACCURATE, OR OUTDATED. LAWYERS LISTED ON THE PLATFORM ARE INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS; CAUNSEL DOES NOT REPRESENT, WARRANT, OR GUARANTEE THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR LEGALITY OF THEIR ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A LICENSED ATTORNEY FOR YOUR SPECIFIC LEGAL SITUATION.
You must be at least 18 years of age to use the Service. By using the Service you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement. If you are under 18, you may not use the Service.
You must register an account to access core features. You agree to:
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that contain false information or violate these Terms.
Caunsel offers the following features, which may evolve over time:
5.1 AI Legal Advisor (Text Chat)
An AI-powered chatbot that answers general legal questions in text form. Responses are auto-generated and do not constitute legal advice. Chat content we store on our systems is PIN-encrypted. To generate a response, the text is sent to third-party AI model operators and is not PIN-encrypted in that transmission (see §10).
5.2 AI Legal Advisor (Voice Chat)
A real-time voice interface powered by AI that allows you to speak your legal question and receive a spoken response. Sessions are processed using cloud AI services. Audio may be transcribed for session continuity. Audio and transcripts we store on our systems are PIN-encrypted. Audio and related text sent to third-party model operators are not PIN-encrypted in that transmission (see §10).
5.3 AI Legal Expert Panel Review
Five independent AI legal personas deliberate on your query and produce a consensus report. Available in text and audio formats. Reports are informational only and do not constitute legal opinions or professional advice. Panel inputs and reports we store on our systems are PIN-encrypted. Content sent to third-party model operators to generate the report is not PIN-encrypted in that transmission (see §10).
5.4 AI Fact Checker
A real-time research tool that cross-references claims against publicly available legal databases and sources. Results are indicative and must be independently verified.
5.5 Live Video Consultations with Lawyers
Connects you with a licensed lawyer via live video call. Lawyers on the Platform are independent contractors, not employees of Caunsel. The consultation session is facilitated through the 100ms (HMS) real-time communication SDK. We do not monitor, record, or control the content of consultations. Any advice given during a consultation is the sole responsibility of the participating lawyer.
5.6 Post-Consultation Messaging
After a completed live consultation where both parties mutually initiate a connection, users may exchange direct messages including text and file attachments. Message credits are consumed per exchange as specified in the subscription plan. We do not read or monitor message content.
5.7 Lawyer Registration and Profile
Licensed legal professionals may register as lawyers on the Platform by submitting credentials, certificates, and licenses. All lawyer profiles are subject to manual review and approval by Caunsel before they may offer consultations. Approval does not constitute our endorsement of the lawyer's competence, bar membership status, or legal standing.
5.8 Document Vault (Digital Locker)
Subscribers may upload, store, and manage personal legal documents within a private encrypted Document Vault. Documents are encrypted on-device using a PIN-derived key before being stored on our servers; Caunsel cannot access the plaintext contents of stored Vault documents. Storage capacity is allocated via a credit-based system (credits consumed per megabyte stored, as specified in your subscription plan). You are solely responsible for maintaining access to your PIN — if your PIN is lost or reset, encrypted documents cannot be recovered. Documents uploaded to the Vault may also be used as context for AI features where you explicitly choose to do so; in that case they are decrypted so the model can process them, and that transmission to the model operator is not PIN-encrypted (see §10). We do not analyse, share, or index your Vault documents for any purpose other than providing the Service to you.
5.9 Cases
The Cases feature allows you to create and manage legal matters ("Cases") within the Platform. Each Case may contain documents, voice memos, AI-assisted analysis, chat messages, and court debrief reports. Key terms of the Cases feature:
5.10 Case Marketplace
The Case Marketplace ("Marketplace") allows customers to anonymously list a Case for review and receive bids from registered lawyers. Key terms:
6.1 Credits
Most AI features and consultations consume credits. Credits are non-transferable, have no cash value, and expire upon plan cancellation or account termination.
6.2 Subscription Plans
Caunsel offers auto-renewing subscription plans (e.g., Starter, Pro, Unlimited) purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Each plan provides a specified number of monthly credits. By purchasing a subscription, you agree to the following:
6.3 Consultation Payments
Live consultations require advance payment processed via Stripe. Payments are authorised before a consultation begins and captured upon successful completion. Caunsel deducts a platform commission of 20% of the consultation fee before remitting the balance to the lawyer. The net payout rate is disclosed in the lawyer portal. Caunsel reserves the right to adjust the commission rate with reasonable advance notice to registered lawyers.
6.4 Refund Policy for Consultations
If a consultation fails to connect due to a verified technical error attributable to the Platform, you may contact us within 48 hours for a credit or refund at our sole discretion. We are not responsible for failed consultations caused by user device issues, poor internet connectivity, or the lawyer's unavailability.
6.5 Case Marketplace Payments
Payments for Marketplace bids are processed exclusively via Stripe. The full bid amount is charged to the customer's payment method upon bid acceptance. Caunsel deducts a platform commission of 20% of the accepted bid amount before remitting the balance to the lawyer. All Marketplace payments are final and non-refundable once the lawyer has been added to the Case, except where required by applicable law. In the event of a payment processing failure, the bid status will remain as "Payment Pending" and the customer may retry payment; no charge is applied until payment is successfully confirmed. Currency conversion, if applicable, is handled by Stripe at their prevailing exchange rates; Caunsel is not responsible for currency conversion fees or rate fluctuations.
6.6 Lawyer Payouts
Net earnings (after the 20% platform commission) from completed consultations and accepted Marketplace cases are accumulated in the lawyer's platform account and disbursed on a weekly or monthly cycle, at Caunsel's election, subject to the lawyer having completed the payout onboarding process and meeting the minimum payout threshold disclosed in the lawyer portal. Payouts are processed via Stripe Connect or such other payment method as Caunsel may designate from time to time.
6.7 Complaint-Based Withholding and Refunds
Where a customer submits a complaint regarding a consultation or Marketplace case — including but not limited to: non-delivery of the agreed service, material misrepresentation, professional misconduct, or conduct in violation of these Terms — Caunsel may, in its sole discretion:
Complaints must be submitted to contactus@caunsel.com within 7 days of the consultation or case acceptance. Caunsel will review the complaint and notify both parties of the outcome within a reasonable time. Caunsel's decision on complaints is final. Lawyers who accumulate repeated upheld complaints may be permanently removed from the Platform. Lawyers accept that Caunsel's complaint resolution process is a condition of their continued use of the Platform and waive any claim against Caunsel for withheld payments that result from upheld customer complaints.
Lawyers registered on Caunsel are independent contractors. Caunsel:
Lawyers agree that by registering they: (a) are licensed and in good standing in their jurisdiction; (b) will provide only competent advice within their area of expertise; (c) will not solicit clients off-platform or attempt to redirect Marketplace clients to other services to circumvent platform fees; (d) will comply with all applicable professional conduct rules; (e) will not use the Platform for any unlawful purpose; (f) will submit only genuine, good-faith bids on Marketplace cases and will honour accepted bids; (g) acknowledge that a 20% platform commission is deducted from all consultation and Marketplace payments as described in §6.3 and §6.5; and (h) will not misrepresent their specialisations, location, experience, or ratings when submitting bids.
We reserve the right to suspend or remove any lawyer profile at our discretion, including for complaints, credential issues, or violation of these Terms.
You agree not to:
Our AI features are powered by large language models and third-party AI services (including but not limited to Google Gemini). You acknowledge that:
We expressly disclaim any liability for decisions made based on AI-generated content, including legal panel reviews, voice chat outputs, and fact-checker results.
You may upload or submit content including profile information, documents, legal queries, voice recordings, and profile photographs ("User Content"). You retain ownership of your User Content but grant Caunsel a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, transmit, and process your User Content solely for the purpose of providing the Service.
You represent that you have the right to submit all User Content and that doing so does not infringe any third-party rights. We are not responsible for User Content and may remove it at our discretion.
Encrypted stored content. Content we store on our systems — including text chat, audio chat and related transcripts, legal panel inputs and reports, Document Vault files, and Case materials (documents, voice memos, and sensitive metadata) — is encrypted using a key derived from your PIN before it is stored. Because Caunsel does not hold your PIN or the resulting encryption key, we are unable to access, recover, or produce the plaintext of that stored encrypted content. You acknowledge that: (a) loss of your PIN means permanent loss of access to encrypted stored content; (b) Caunsel has no obligation to maintain or recover encrypted content if your PIN becomes inaccessible; and (c) you are solely responsible for maintaining a secure record of your PIN. The licence granted above applies to the encrypted ciphertext of stored User Content; Caunsel does not process or read the plaintext of that stored encrypted User Content.
PIN encryption covers stored data, not transmissions to AI model operators. PIN-based encryption applies to content stored on our systems. It does not encrypt text, audio, transcripts, or documents while they are sent to third-party organisations that operate the AI models. In particular:
When you use AI features, the relevant text and audio are transmitted to third-party organisations that operate the models and related infrastructure (including Google Gemini via Vertex AI and their subprocessors). Network connections may use standard transport security (such as TLS). That is not PIN encryption and is not end-to-end encryption of your query or audio to the model operator. Those operators receive the content in a form they can process. Copies we thereafter store on our systems are PIN-encrypted as described above. Caunsel does not control those organisations and is not responsible for their acts or omissions, including their security, retention, logging, model-training or evaluation use, subprocessors, outages, or any access, disclosure, misuse, or loss of data after it has been sent to them. Your use of AI features is also subject to those providers' terms and privacy policies. Do not submit information to AI features that you are not willing to share with those third parties.
Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information. By using the Service you agree to the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
Users and lawyers may rate each other after a consultation. Ratings must be honest and based on genuine experience. We reserve the right to remove ratings that are fraudulent, abusive, or in violation of these Terms. We do not endorse or verify ratings.
All content, design, code, trademarks, and materials on the Platform (excluding User Content) are owned by or licensed to Caunsel and protected by applicable intellectual property laws. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works without our prior written consent.
The Platform integrates third-party services including: payment processing (Stripe), real-time video and audio calls (100ms / HMS), AI language and speech models (Google Gemini via Vertex AI and related Google Cloud services), push notification services (Firebase Cloud Messaging), and cloud storage and hosting (Google Firebase / Google Cloud). Your use of such services is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of third-party providers, including payment failures, AI errors, service outages, or how organisations that operate AI models receive, process, store, log, or further disclose text, audio, transcripts, or documents you submit to AI features.
If you believe content on our Platform infringes your copyright, send a written notice to contact@caunsel.com including: (1) identification of the copyrighted work; (2) identification of the infringing material and its location; (3) your contact information; (4) a good-faith statement; and (5) a statement of accuracy under penalty of perjury. We will respond to valid notices in accordance with applicable law.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES. WE DO NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR RELIABILITY OF ANY AI-GENERATED OUTPUT, LAWYER ADVICE, OR OTHER CONTENT ON THE PLATFORM.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, CAUNSEL, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AND LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR:
Encryption Limitation. PIN-based encryption applies to content we store on our systems, including text chat, audio chat, panel reviews, Document Vault files, and Case materials. It does not encrypt text, audio, or other content while it is sent to third-party AI providers so the model can process it, as described in §10. Network transport security (such as TLS), where used, is not equivalent to PIN encryption and does not make Caunsel responsible for those providers. Caunsel is not liable for any processing of your data by third-party AI providers or other organisations that operate the models.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO CAUNSEL IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $50 (OR EQUIVALENT IN YOUR LOCAL CURRENCY).
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR LIABILITY; IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Caunsel and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation of any law or third-party rights; or (e) any advice you give or receive on the Platform.
We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without notice, for any violation of these Terms or for any other reason at our sole discretion. Upon termination, your right to use the Service immediately ceases and any unused credits are forfeited. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including disclaimers, liability limitations, and indemnification) will survive.
These Terms are governed by the laws of India for users residing in India, and by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, for all other users, without regard to conflict of law provisions.
Any dispute arising out of these Terms or your use of the Service shall first be submitted to good-faith negotiation. If unresolved within 30 days, disputes shall be resolved by binding arbitration (except for claims that qualify for small claims court). Class action and jury trial rights are hereby waived to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Any cause of action must be commenced within one (1) year after it accrues; otherwise it is permanently barred.
We may update these Terms at any time. Material changes will be notified via email or in-app notification at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Caunsel regarding the Service and supersede all prior agreements.
Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.
No Waiver. Failure to enforce any provision does not constitute a waiver of the right to enforce it in the future.
Assignment. You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights freely.
Electronic Notices. You consent to receive communications from us electronically. Such communications satisfy any legal requirement for written notice.
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:
Caunsel
Email: contactus@caunsel.com
Website: www.caunsel.com
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