Terms

These Terms govern your relationship with Epistemic Labs Inc. as a user of People’s Court.

A case proceeds under the parties’ separate arbitration agreement, the consent recorded for that case, and its recorded Rules. Those instruments govern the case. These Terms govern use of the service and claims between you and Epistemic Labs Inc.

The service receives written submissions and exhibits, applies the Rules and agreed procedure recorded for the case, and produces an operative Award. The decision-maker, any human sign-off before service, and any appeal rights depend on those Rules and that recorded procedure.

Under some procedures, an Award is final when served and no internal appeal is available.

Where the Rules permit a human appeal, the appeal is decided on the existing Record under the standards stated in the Rules and is not a new hearing.

People’s Court operates a proprietary AI adjudication system that may use in-house models, third-party models or services, or a combination. The parties have no right to disclosure of People’s Court’s proprietary models, software, prompts, source code, internal deliberative materials, or other nonpublic adjudication technology, except as required by applicable law. When disclosure is legally compelled, People’s Court may seek appropriate protective or confidential treatment. The service does not represent either party, provide legal advice, or guarantee recognition, enforcement, collection, or any result.

Quick Ruling is a separate paid service that provides a nonbinding AI opinion for an informal dispute: $5.67 for the requester and $5.67 for the other side to view the opinion. A request keeps the price shown when it was created. A Quick Ruling is not arbitration and not an Award. It does not open an arbitral case, use escrow, direct execution, create precedent, or permit a human appeal.

The requesting user supplies the question, their private position, optional files, and an email address for the other side, and pays the Quick Ruling fee when submitting. The invitation is sent only after that payment. A request that is not paid within 24 hours is abandoned and nothing is charged. The recipient may voluntarily use a one-time link to submit a separate private position without creating an account. Replying is free, and a reply is included whether or not the recipient pays to view the opinion.

If the recipient replies within seven days, a two-sided opinion is generated. If the recipient does not reply within seven days, the requester receives a one-sided opinion that is clearly labeled as based only on the requester’s account. It restates the requester’s position, says how the dispute looks on that account alone, and describes what the other side might show that would change the outcome. No adverse inference is drawn from the recipient’s silence. The recipient may still reply within 30 days after a one-sided opinion is issued, and a two-sided opinion then replaces it.

The requester receives the opinion. The recipient may view the same opinion after paying the viewing fee. A paid request cannot be cancelled, and both fees are non-refundable once paid, with one exception: if every attempt to prepare the opinion fails before any opinion exists, the request is closed and the amount the requester actually paid is refunded automatically to the original payment method. The recipient is never charged in that case, because the viewing fee is paid only for an opinion that already exists.

A Quick Ruling cannot be converted into a binding Award. To seek a binding result, the parties must open a new binding case and complete the arbitration intake and procedure from the beginning. Either side may start that separate case, and nothing from the Quick Ruling is carried into it.

• You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding agreement.
• You must provide a current physical or mailing address and keep it current.
• If you act for a company, person, wallet, or software agent, you must have authority to do so.
• If an agent acts for you, you are responsible for authorized acts performed within that authority.
• Account identity and authority information is self-attested unless we expressly state otherwise.
• The service is not intended for disputes involving rights that cannot lawfully be submitted to this process.
• You may not use the service where doing so would violate sanctions, export controls, or other law.

Provide accurate account information and keep it current. You are responsible for activity under your credentials, connected sign-in identity, wallet, API key, connected application, or agent authorization. Do not share credentials or permit unauthorized access. Tell us promptly if you believe any credential or authorization has been compromised.

We may rely on authenticated activity and recorded signatures as evidence that the associated account or credential acted. That evidence does not by itself resolve disputed legal identity, capacity, or authority.

You may connect an AI assistant or other application to your account. It acts only for your account and only within the permissions you grant, and you are responsible for actions taken through it within those permissions. Through the hosted assistant connector, an assistant cannot accept arbitration for you. You accept arbitration, and the exact claim or Answer being filed, yourself on People’s Court. After you do, an assistant you have connected can open the case or file that Answer for you. If you tell it to, it can also send your response to the summary of your submissions, either your confirmation or the omissions you report, so review that summary yourself before you tell it to send. Connecting an assistant, or not responding, never confirms the summary for you. The application’s provider is not part of People’s Court. Its terms govern your use of it and its handling of your information, and we are not responsible for its service or output. You can revoke its access at any time on the Applications and authority page in your account.

Each party must provide the consent required for the particular case. The case record identifies the applicable Rules, schedule, Tribunal composition, appeal rights, fees, and any escrow or execution mechanism. Later website or Terms changes do not alter the Rules governing a pending case.

We may refuse or pause a case when consent, notice, identity, authority, jurisdiction, safety, payment, or Record integrity cannot be established.

Requesting, replying to, or paying for a Quick Ruling, by either side, does not record consent to arbitrate, create a case, or bind another person. A later binding case requires its own party consent, filing, fee, Rules, and procedure.

You retain ownership of material you submit.

Subject to the confidentiality and privacy obligations in the Rules, Privacy Notice, and any applicable case agreement, you grant Epistemic Labs Inc. and those we work with a perpetual license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, and distribute that material for the limited purposes of operating, promoting, providing, and improving the service and developing new services. This license is nonexclusive, fully paid, royalty-free, worldwide, and applies in any media.

This license does not make case filings or raw evidence public. Publication remains limited by the Rules, these Terms, and the Privacy Notice.

A file you upload to a case is shared with the other party and the Tribunal as uploaded. People’s Court does not remove metadata from uploaded files. The Tribunal may consider the file’s contents and metadata as evidence.

We keep each uploaded file exactly as filed. The original is the exhibit, and it is what the parties and the case record receive. To review a file, the Tribunal may also receive processed copies of it, such as rotated, resized, or re-encoded images, rendered page images, or extracted or transcribed text.

A Quick Ruling input may be used to provide, secure, support, and improve that account service. A side’s full statement, uploaded files, and file names are not shown to the other side. The requester receives the opinion, and the recipient may view the same opinion after paying the viewing fee. The opinion’s explanation may summarize material assertions from either submission, and a one-sided opinion restates the requester’s position. Quick Ruling content is not published as an Award or precedent.

• Submit only material you are authorized to share and that is relevant to the dispute.
• Provide truthful and complete information after reasonable inquiry.
• Preserve relevant material while the case is pending and keep your own copies.
• Follow applicable filing, confidentiality, privacy, and intellectual-property obligations.
• Do not submit forged, unlawfully obtained, malicious, or deliberately misleading material.
• Do not embed instructions intended to manipulate an AI system or interfere with a case.

Do not assume a filing is privileged or confidential merely because you submitted it through the service. Material may be disclosed as described in the Rules and Privacy Notice. People’s Court is not responsible for how parties use case material disclosed to them.

The current fee schedule is on the Fees page. A case-specific written quote may provide a different fee. The filing screen displays the applicable fee before docketing. The applicable fee is disclosed before the relevant filing is made and does not change for that filing because of a later fee change.

Court fees are listed in Rule 11.1 and on the Fees page. Refunds do not include card processing costs. This limitation applies only to Court-fee refunds; the Quick Ruling refund exception in Section 2 returns the amount the requester actually paid.

People’s Court may waive or sponsor fees. Fees charged by People’s Court are separate from disputed or escrowed funds and do not depend on which party prevails. A Quick Ruling is subject to the price stated for that service and does not pay any part of a later binding-case filing or appeal fee. The requester’s Quick Ruling fee is charged when the request is submitted, and the recipient’s viewing fee when the recipient chooses to view the opinion. Paid Quick Ruling fees are non-refundable, including when the recipient does not reply. The one exception is a request closed because no opinion could be prepared: the amount the requester actually paid is then refunded automatically to the original payment method, as stated in Section 2.

An Award may execute through an authorized escrow or payment mechanism when the case record permits it and the mechanism is within the service’s lawful and technical control. When People’s Court does not control the means of performance, an Award does not automatically transfer funds.

You are responsible for applicable taxes, network fees, wallet security, and third-party provider terms.

• Use the binding-case procedure only for a genuine dispute. Do not open or participate in a binding case for amusement, testing, a demonstration, benchmarking, evaluation, training, or a simulated dispute without our prior written authorization.
• Quick Ruling may be used in good faith for an informal or hypothetical dispute, but not to harass, deceive, impersonate, send spam, submit unlawful material, or invite a person without authority to contact them about the stated dispute.
• Do not access an account, case, Record, or system without authorization.
• Do not bypass controls, share credentials, or evade rate limits, sanctions controls, review gates, or execution safeguards.
• Do not impersonate another person or agent or act for a party without authority.
• Do not harass, threaten, obstruct, manipulate, destroy relevant evidence, or knowingly submit false material.
• Do not introduce malware, denial-of-service traffic, prompt injections, or other materials or instructions designed to compromise or manipulate the service or its AI systems.
• Do not use the service for unlawful activity.

A knowing violation of the binding-case restriction above is a material breach of these Terms and may result in suspension, termination, or permanent exclusion from the service. We may investigate suspected violations, preserve records, warn a user, quarantine or reject material, pause or restrict access, seek available civil relief, or refer suspected unlawful conduct to appropriate authorities.

We may suspend or terminate an account, refuse future use of the service, or take other reasonable institutional measures to protect the security, integrity, availability, or lawful operation of the service. We may take immediate temporary action when reasonably necessary for these purposes.

These are institutional enforcement measures taken by Epistemic Labs Inc. They are separate from any procedural or case sanction that the Tribunal or an assigned Arbitrator may impose under the Rules in a genuine pending case.

The Privacy Notice explains how the service handles account, case, technical, payment, and blockchain information. Case filings and evidence are not public by default. By opening, joining, or participating in a case, you authorize Epistemic Labs Inc. to publish a public version of any final Award as permitted by the Rules. This authorization survives conclusion of the case and termination of your account.

Quick Ruling inputs, results, and payment records are account service data handled under the Privacy Notice’s retention and deletion policy, for the requester and the recipient alike. The invited address, delivery status, one-time-link, reply-deadline, and reminder records, and each side’s separate submission are also service data. They are not case material, a public Award, or precedent, and we do not publish them through Award or precedent features.

The service, software, interfaces, designs, Rules, adjudication system, prompts, model configurations, routing logic, source code, and materials supplied by us are owned by Epistemic Labs Inc. or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property, trade-secret, and other applicable law. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable right to use the service for its intended purpose. You may not copy, reverse engineer, decompile, extract, discover, or attempt to obtain nonpublic components of the service or adjudication system. Use of the service does not create a right to disclosure, inspection, or audit of our proprietary models, software, prompts, source code, internal deliberative materials, or other nonpublic adjudication technology. To the extent disclosure of proprietary or confidential materials is required by law or binding order, you agree that People’s Court may seek appropriate protective, confidential, sealed, in camera, or attorney’s-eyes-only treatment. To the extent permitted by law, you waive any objection to the use of such protective treatment.

You may provide feedback and grant us a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use it without restriction or compensation, provided we do not identify you as its source without permission.

The service may change, pause, or discontinue features or operations. We do not promise uninterrupted availability or that every feature will remain available. Keep your own copies of important material.

We may modify these Terms prospectively. Material changes will be posted with a new effective date and presented for acceptance when required. A Terms change does not alter a pending case’s Rules.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the service is provided “as is” and “as available.”

Epistemic Labs Inc. disclaims all express and implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, accuracy, availability, security, and uninterrupted operation. We do not warrant any particular case outcome, that an Award is correct or enforceable by a court, that a party will comply, that an integration will execute, or uninterrupted preservation or availability of records.

Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty that cannot lawfully be excluded.

For Sections 13 through 16, “Covered Persons” means Epistemic Labs Inc., its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, Administrators, Arbitrators, and Tribunal members.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you release the Covered Persons from claims arising from good-faith acts or omissions in accepting, declining, administering, deciding, reviewing, publishing, correcting, or executing a case. You agree not to assert a claim based on disagreement with a procedural decision, Award, correction, appellate disposition, publication decision, or authorized escrow action.

This release does not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, or liability that cannot lawfully be released.

• The Covered Persons are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages.
• The Covered Persons are not liable for lost profits, opportunities, data, reputation, digital assets, blockchain fees, or the result of an Award.
• Their aggregate liability will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you paid to Epistemic Labs Inc. for the service during the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Covered Persons from third-party claims, losses, liabilities, and reasonable legal expenses arising from your submissions, instructions, breach, violation of law or another person’s rights, lack of authority, fraud, willful misconduct, or misuse of the service.

This does not require indemnification for a Covered Person’s own fraud or willful misconduct.

This Section governs claims about the service or these Terms involving you and any Covered Person. It is separate from a case People’s Court administers between disputing parties. The People’s Court Tribunal does not decide claims covered by this Section.

16.1 Informal notice

Before filing a claim, the complaining party must send written notice describing the claim, relevant facts, and requested relief. The parties will try in good faith to resolve it for thirty days. This does not prevent urgent temporary relief when delay would cause irreparable harm.

16.2 Exclusive Florida forum

Except for an individual claim properly kept in a small-claims court with jurisdiction, a covered claim must be filed exclusively in a state court in Miami-Dade County, Florida, or, if federal subject-matter jurisdiction exists, in the Miami Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. You and the Covered Persons consent to jurisdiction and venue there and waive an inconvenient-forum objection to the extent permitted by law.

16.3 Class, representative, and jury waiver

You and the Covered Persons agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity. No party may bring or participate in a class, collective, consolidated, coordinated, mass, private-attorney-general, or representative proceeding to the extent this waiver is permitted by law. You and the Covered Persons waive trial by jury to the extent permitted by law.

16.4 Small claims

Any party may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court with jurisdiction if it remains there.

16.5 Governing law

Florida law governs these Terms and covered claims, subject to any law that must apply.

16.6 Severability of dispute terms

If the waiver of class, representative, or other nonindividual proceedings cannot be enforced as to a particular claim or requested relief, that claim or relief must instead proceed as an individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable rules before one Arbitrator. The seat is Miami-Dade County, Florida, and the Federal Arbitration Act governs. The remaining terms continue to the extent permitted by law.

In any proceeding involving a Covered Person, you agree to waive any objections to appropriate protective, sealed, in camera, or attorneys’-eyes-only treatment of proprietary or confidential materials to the extent permitted by the tribunal or court.

We may suspend or terminate access to the service for a violation of these Terms, legal or security risk, nonpayment, or discontinuation of the service. You may stop using the service at any time. Suspension or termination does not alter an Award already served or the Rules governing a pending case.

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Notice govern service use; the separate arbitration agreement and Rules govern a case.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them with a merger, financing, reorganization, asset sale, or service transfer.
• No waiver. Failure to enforce a provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that provision or any other provision.
• Severability. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to the extent permitted by law.
• Electronic communications. You agree to receive account, legal, security, payment, and case communications electronically, including by email and through the Case Page where applicable.

Questions or requests may be sent through the email or channel associated with your account, case, integration, or invitation.