Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) form a binding contract between you and StenoScore (“StenoScore”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) and govern your access to and use of the StenoScore website, applications, content, and related services (collectively, the “Service”).

By creating a StenoScore account, accessing the Service, or submitting any content to the Service, you confirm that:

• you are at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract;
• you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy; and
• if you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an employer, firm, or other legal entity, you have authority to bind that entity.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service.

We may update these Terms from time to time (see Section 17). Your continued use of the Service after an update takes effect means you accept the revised Terms.

2. Who the Service is for

StenoScore is a reputation-intelligence platform for the legal-industry community. It is intended for use by:

• Court reporters licensed or working in the United States (in California, holders of an active CSR license issued by the Court Reporters Board of California, or comparable certification in another jurisdiction); and
• Attorneys licensed to practice in the United States who wish to view their professional profile and respond to reviews.

The Service is not directed to consumers, the general public, or children under 18, and you may not use the Service for any personal, household, or non-professional purpose.

3. Your account

To use most features of the Service you must create an account. You agree to:

• provide accurate, current, and complete information at registration and keep it accurate;
• safeguard your account credentials and not share them with any other person;
• accept responsibility for all activity that occurs under your account; and
• notify us promptly at security@stenoscore.com if you believe your account has been compromised.

We may decline to issue an account, suspend an account, or require additional verification — including independent confirmation of professional licensure — at our discretion.

Accounts are personal. You may not sell, lease, transfer, or assign your account to any other person without our prior written consent.

4. User Content: ownership and license

4.1 What “User Content” is

“User Content” means any review, rating, comment, photo, response, message, or other information you submit to or through the Service.

4.2 You keep ownership

As between you and StenoScore, you retain all ownership rights in your User Content. We do not claim any ownership of your User Content.

4.3 The license you grant us

By submitting User Content you grant StenoScore a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, reproduce, modify (for formatting, length, redaction of prohibited material, and translation), aggregate, create derivative works of (for example, aggregate ratings and trend analyses), publicly display, publicly perform, and distribute your User Content in connection with operating, providing, promoting, and improving the Service and StenoScore's business.

This license is perpetual and irrevocable to the extent reasonably necessary to continue displaying User Content to other users who have relied on it (for example, aggregated ratings that are shown on attorney profiles). It otherwise terminates with respect to your individual User Content if you delete it or close your account, subject to Section 4.5 and our backup-retention practices described in the Privacy Policy.

For clarity, this Section grants StenoScore a license, not an assignment, of your User Content. You may continue to use your own User Content elsewhere.

4.4 Your representations and warranties

You represent and warrant that, for every piece of User Content you submit:

• you are the sole author or have all rights necessary to grant the license in Section 4.3;
• the User Content reflects your honest, first-hand professional experience with the subject of the User Content;
• you have not been paid, promised compensation, or otherwise induced by any third party to write the User Content;
• the User Content does not violate any contract, court order, protective order, sealing order, professional ethics rule, or law applicable to you (including, where applicable, the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics, the California Shorthand Reporters Act and regulations of the Court Reporters Board of California, and any analogous rules of your licensing jurisdiction); and
• you have not included content that is otherwise prohibited by Section 6.

4.5 Aggregated and de-identified data

Aggregate ratings, statistics, trend data, and other de-identified information derived from User Content are owned by StenoScore and may be retained and used indefinitely, including after your account is deleted, provided we do not re-attribute that data to you in any human-readable way.

5. Honest-opinion standard

The reviews and ratings displayed on the Service are expressions of opinionbased on the reviewer's first-hand professional experience. They are not statements of objective fact endorsed by StenoScore. Reviewers agree to:

• submit reviews only about attorneys with whom they have personally worked in a court-reporting capacity;
• ground any factual statements in events the reviewer personally witnessed;
• mark statements that are opinion as opinion (for example, “in my view”, “my experience was”);
• avoid stating as fact anything they know to be untrue or have no reasonable basis to believe; and
• update or remove a review if they later determine in good faith that a material factual statement in it is inaccurate.

We encourage attorneys who are the subject of reviews to use the response mechanism described in Section 8 rather than escalating to legal action.

6. Prohibited content and conduct

You agree not to submit User Content or otherwise use the Service to:

1. Defame or deceive. Post statements you know to be false, that you have no reasonable basis to believe, or that misrepresent your identity, your professional license, or your relationship to the subject of a review.
2. Harass or threaten. Post hate speech, threats of violence, sexual harassment, slurs targeting protected characteristics, or content that incites violence.
3. Disclose confidential or privileged information. This includes:
   • the contents of any deposition, examination, or other proceeding that has not been made part of the public record;
   • information subject to a protective order, sealing order, or court rule limiting disclosure;
   • attorney-client privileged communications;
   • the identity, testimony, or personal information of any witness, deponent, juror, or party except where that information is already a matter of public record; and
   • any information disclosed to you in confidence by a court, agency, or party.
4. Violate professional ethics.Submit content that, if it were published by you elsewhere, would violate the NCRA Code of Professional Ethics, the California Shorthand Reporters Act, the rules of the Court Reporters Board of California, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, your state bar's rules, or any equivalent professional standard applicable to you.
5. Leak personal data.Disclose another person's home address, personal phone number, government identifier, financial information, immigration status, medical information, sexual orientation, or other sensitive personal data.
6. Impersonate. Pretend to be another person, attorney, court reporter, court official, StenoScore employee, or affiliate of StenoScore.
7. Game the system. Submit duplicate reviews, coordinated review campaigns, paid or solicited reviews, reviews offered in exchange for any consideration, or reviews intended to manipulate aggregate ratings.
8. Infringe. Post content that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, or other intellectual-property or proprietary right of any person.
9. Use automated tools. Scrape, harvest, mass-download, reverse engineer, or otherwise extract data from the Service except as expressly permitted by us in writing or by an exception under applicable law.
10. Disrupt the Service. Probe for vulnerabilities, circumvent security controls, send malware, or attempt to overwhelm the Service.
11. Use the Service unlawfully. Use the Service in violation of any law, regulation, or order applicable to you.

Court reporters who are subject to NCRA, CSR, or equivalent licensing rules acknowledge that those rules continue to govern them and that StenoScore is not a defense to a professional-discipline complaint that arises from User Content the reviewer submits.

7. Our rights regarding content; Section 230 status

StenoScore is an interactive computer service under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230. User Content is provided by independent third-party users. Aggregate ratings are arithmetic summaries of user-submitted ratings (see Section 4.5), and platform-managed metadata is generated by the Service to organize and present content. We do not pre-screen User Content, and we do not adopt User Content as our own.

You agree that:

• we are not the publisher or speaker of User Content;
• we do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any User Content; and
• we are not liable for any User Content posted by another user.

We retain the right (but not the obligation) to monitor, review, edit (for formatting or length), label, refuse to publish, remove, or restrict access to any User Content at our discretion and at any time. Our exercise of (or decision not to exercise) any of these rights does not turn us into the publisher of any User Content. (Cf. Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Browne v. Avvo, 525 F. Supp. 2d 1249 (W.D. Wash. 2007).)

8. Takedown and dispute process

If you believe that any User Content on the Service violates these Terms — for example, that it contains a verifiably false statement of fact, was submitted by someone with no first-hand professional relationship to you, discloses confidential information, or violates professional ethics rules — you may submit a dispute by emailing legal@stenoscore.com with:

1. a link to the specific review, rating, profile, or other content;
2. your name, role (e.g., attorney, court reporter, counsel), and the basis on which you have standing to dispute the content;
3. a specific identification of the statement(s) you contend violate these Terms;
4. the basis for the dispute (for example, “this is factually false because…”, “this discloses a sealed proceeding”, “the reviewer never worked with me”);
5. any documentary support you have; and
6. a signed statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your dispute is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge.

We aim to acknowledge disputes within two (2) business days and to make an initial determination within ten (10) business days of acknowledgment. Complex disputes — for example, disputes that require us to contact the reviewer or evaluate a sealing-order claim — may take longer. Possible outcomes include:

• leaving the content unchanged;
• adding a label or contextual note;
• temporarily hiding the content pending further review;
• redacting specific lines or words;
• removing the content; or
• offering the subject a right to respond on the profile.

Our decisions on disputes are made in our reasonable, good-faith discretion and are not subject to appeal except as provided in Section 15.

This Section describes our current process for handling disputes. It does not create any obligation to any person to remove, retain, restore, or otherwise act on any content, or to complete any review within any particular time, and no failure to meet the targets described in this Section gives rise to any claim or cause of action.

8.1 Attorney response right

An attorney whose profile contains a review may post a single written response to that review, subject to the same prohibited-content rules in Section 6 (and to the rules of professional conduct that apply to the attorney). We reserve the right to format or moderate responses.

8.2 No anti-review penalty (CRFA compliance)

Consistent with the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act (15 U.S.C. § 45b), nothing in these Terms — and nothing in any contract you have with StenoScore — prohibits or penalizes you for writing an honest review of a person or business covered by that Act. Any provision of any StenoScore form contract that purports to do so is void and unenforceable.

9. Copyright and DMCA

We respect intellectual-property rights. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512, to our DMCA Designated Agent at dmca@stenoscore.com. Our designated agent's postal address will be published here once our registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is complete.

A valid DMCA notice must include the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3). Notices that do not substantially comply will not trigger the safe-harbor process.

We may terminate accounts of repeat infringers in accordance with our published policy.

10. Subscription, billing, and free use

The Service is currently offered without charge during the StenoScore public beta. We reserve the right to introduce paid features or paid tiers in the future on notice to existing users. Any paid services will be governed by additional terms posted at the point of purchase, which will be incorporated into these Terms.

11. Termination

11.1 By you

You may close your account at any time by emailing support@stenoscore.com. On closure we will deactivate your account in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Subject to Section 4.3 and the data-retention practices described in the Privacy Policy, your User Content will be removed from public display on the Service following account closure.

11.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Service, with or without notice, if:

• we believe in good faith that you have violated these Terms or any applicable law;
• you have submitted User Content that we determine violates Section 6;
• a regulator, law-enforcement authority, court, or other competent body so requires;
• continued provision of the Service to you creates legal or operational risk for StenoScore or its users; or
• we discontinue the Service or the relevant feature.

11.3 Survival

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including 4.3 (license), 4.5 (aggregate data), 7 (Section 230 status), 12 (disclaimers), 13 (limitation of liability), 14 (indemnification), 15 (dispute resolution), 16 (governing law), and any provisions of these Terms relating to fees or audits — will survive.

12. Disclaimers

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED IN THESE TERMS, THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT (INCLUDING USER CONTENT AND AGGREGATE RATINGS) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, STENOSCORE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, (B) ANY USER CONTENT IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR RELIABLE, OR (C) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

REVIEWS AND RATINGS ON THE SERVICE ARE THE OPINIONS OF THE REVIEWERS AND DO NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, A RECOMMENDATION FROM STENOSCORE, OR A GUARANTEE OF ANY ATTORNEY'S OR COURT REPORTER'S PERFORMANCE IN ANY FUTURE MATTER.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW:

(a) STENOSCORE, ITS AFFILIATES, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUES, DATA, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS, THE SERVICE, OR ANY USER CONTENT, WHETHER UNDER A THEORY OF CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES;

(b) OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100) OR (ii) THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you to the extent prohibited by law. In those jurisdictions our liability is limited to the smallest extent permitted by law.

14. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless StenoScore, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents (the “StenoScore Parties”) from and against any third-party claim, demand, action, or proceeding, and any resulting losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, fines, penalties, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees), arising out of or relating to:

• (a) your User Content, including any claim that it is defamatory, invades privacy, discloses confidential information, infringes or violates any right of any person, or breaches the representations and warranties in Section 4.4;
• (b) your breach of these Terms, including Section 6 (prohibited content and conduct);
• (c) your violation of any law, regulation, court order, protective or sealing order, or professional obligation applicable to you; or
• (d) your misuse of the Service.

We will give you prompt notice of any claim subject to this Section. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense. You may not settle any claim covered by this Section in a manner that imposes any obligation or admission on any StenoScore Party without our prior written consent. This Section does not require you to indemnify any StenoScore Party for that Party's own fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct.

Nothing in this Section limits Section 8.2 or applies to any covered communication protected by the Consumer Review Fairness Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45b. This Section applies to review content only to the extent that content falls outside that Act's protection — for example, content that is defamatory, unlawful, or submitted in breach of the representations and warranties in Section 4.4.

15. Dispute resolution; arbitration; class waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION OF MOST DISPUTES AND LIMITS YOUR ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDINGS.

15.1 Informal resolution

Before initiating any formal proceeding, you and StenoScore agree to attempt to resolve any dispute by sending written notice to the other party describing the dispute and the relief sought and negotiating in good faith for sixty (60) days. Notices to StenoScore should be sent to legal@stenoscore.com.

15.2 Binding arbitration

If informal resolution does not succeed, you and StenoScore agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service (each, a “Dispute”) will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures then in effect, rather than in court, except as set out in Sections 15.3 (carve-outs) and 15.5 (opt-out). The Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., governs this Section.

Arbitration will be conducted in San Francisco County, California, or by videoconference at the arbitrator's discretion. The arbitrator (not a court) has exclusive authority to resolve any question about the formation, scope, or enforceability of this arbitration agreement, except that a court (not an arbitrator) decides whether the class-action waiver in Section 15.4 is enforceable.

15.3 Carve-outs

This arbitration requirement does not apply to:

• claims that may be brought in small-claims court in a forum where both parties are subject to jurisdiction;
• claims for injunctive relief to stop unauthorized use or abuse of the Service or infringement of intellectual-property rights; or
• to the extent it is found unenforceable, any claim for public injunctive relief under California law (see McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal. 5th 945 (2017)). A claim for public injunctive relief may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in California; the remainder of the disputes will still be arbitrated.

15.4 Class-action waiver

You and StenoScore agree to bring Disputes only in your individual capacity. You waive any right to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative proceeding. If a court decides that this class-action waiver is unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) will be litigated in court; the rest of the Disputes will still be arbitrated.

15.5 Thirty-day opt-out

You may opt out of Sections 15.2 and 15.4 within thirty (30) days of the date on which you first accept these Terms by emailing legal@stenoscore.com with:

• the subject line “Arbitration Opt-Out”;
• your full legal name;
• the email address associated with your StenoScore account; and
• a clear statement that you wish to opt out of the arbitration and class-action waiver provisions.

If you opt out within the 30-day window, Sections 15.2 and 15.4 will not apply to you, but the rest of these Terms (including Section 16) will continue to apply. Opting out has no other effect on your account.

16. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any Dispute are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. To the extent any matter is not subject to arbitration under Section 15, the exclusive venue is the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make a material change, we will:

• update the “Last updated” date at the top of these Terms;
• post a prominent notice on the Service for a reasonable period; and
• where practical, send an email to the address associated with your account.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of an update means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service and may close your account.

18. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms applicable to specific features) are the entire agreement between you and StenoScore regarding the Service.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the rest of the Terms remain in effect, and the unenforceable provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign or transfer these Terms in connection with a corporate transaction, financing, or reorganization without notice to you.
• No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint-venture, employment, or fiduciary relationship between you and StenoScore.
• Notices to you. We may send notices to you by email (to the address on your account), by a banner on the Service, or by other reasonable means.
• Notices to us. Legal notices to StenoScore must be sent in writing to legal@stenoscore.com and, if requested by us, also by mail to the postal address we provide for that purpose.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control.
• Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

19. Contact