Platform Terms of Service (Law Practices)

1 About These Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a contract between Lex Stratus Software Pty Ltd (ACN 633 861 275), trading as Lex Etheris, of Suite 101, 975 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill VIC 3128, Australia (“we”, “us”, “our”), and the law practice, incorporated legal practice, sole practitioner or registered migration agency that registers for or subscribes to the Platform (“you”, “your”, the “Customer”).

1. The “Platform” is the Lex Etheris practice-support software available at lexetheris.com.au, as described in section 2.
2. You accept these Terms by creating an account, subscribing to the Platform, or permitting an Authorised User to use it — whichever happens first.
3. The individual who accepts these Terms warrants that they are authorised to bind the Customer, and these Terms bind the Customer from that acceptance.
4. Your agreement with us consists of:
   1. these Terms;
   2. the Subscription Service Agreement presented to you at registration or purchase;
   3. our Privacy Policy; and
   4. our Cookie Policy.
5. If there is an inconsistency, the Subscription Service Agreement prevails over these Terms to the extent of the inconsistency, except that section 13 and section 14 (fees, renewal and cancellation) prevail over the Subscription Service Agreement; and these Terms prevail over the policies, except that the Privacy Policy governs how we handle Personal Information.

2 Definitions

In these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise:

• AI Features means the features of the Platform identified in the product as using artificial intelligence, including features that use third-party machine-learning models to generate, summarise, extract or classify content.
• Applicant means a client of yours (such as a visa applicant or sponsor) whom you invite to access the Platform in connection with a matter you conduct.
• Authorised User means an individual you authorise to use the Platform under your subscription as a member of your practice, such as a principal, an employed practitioner or a member of staff. An Applicant is not an Authorised User.
• Confidential Information of a party means information disclosed by or on behalf of that party that is by its nature confidential, and includes Customer Content, but excludes information that is or becomes public other than through a breach of these Terms, was developed independently, or was lawfully received from a third party free of any duty of confidence.
• Customer Content means all content and data uploaded to, entered into or generated in the Platform by or for you, your Authorised Users or your Applicants, including Matter Data, documents, messages, forms, contact records and files.
• Fees means the subscription fees and any other fees for the Platform, as displayed at the point of purchase.
• Matter Data means Customer Content that relates to a particular client, matter or application, including application forms, supporting documents, correspondence, e-signature records and notes.
• Non-Excludable Guarantee means a guarantee, right or remedy under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified by agreement.
• Output means material generated by the AI Features in response to input from you or your Authorised Users.
• Personal Information has the meaning given in section 6 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
• Platform means the Lex Etheris software platform available at lexetheris.com.au, including its web applications, integrations and the related services we provide under these Terms.
• Subscription Term means the initial subscription period selected at purchase and each renewal period under section 14.

3 What the Platform Is — and Is Not

1. We are a software company. We are not a law practice, we are not an Australian legal practitioner, and we are not a registered migration agent.
2. We do not provide legal advice, and we do not provide immigration assistance within the meaning of section 276 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). We do not ask for or receive any fee for giving immigration assistance. Fees are charged to law practices for software.
3. The Platform performs clerical, administrative and technical functions of the kind described in section 276(4) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) — such as storing documents, filling fields you direct, managing appointments and transmitting material — to support the conduct of your practice.
4. You remain solely responsible for all advice given to, and all work performed for, your clients, including every document prepared or lodged using the Platform.
5. Nothing in the Platform — including any template, checklist, knowledge article or Output — is advice to you or to any client.

The information provided does not constitute legal, migration or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. Some content may include AI-generated summaries that may contain inaccuracies due to the inherent risk of AI hallucinations. Readers should always refer to the original source and, where appropriate, seek confirmation from the relevant authority before relying on any information.

4 Eligibility and Practitioner Warranties

1. You warrant, on acceptance and on an ongoing basis, that each Authorised User who gives immigration assistance through or in connection with the Platform is:
   1. an Australian legal practitioner holding a current practising certificate and acting in connection with legal practice; or
   2. a registered migration agent holding a current Migration Agent Registration Number (MARN).
2. You warrant that you hold current professional indemnity insurance as required for your practice, and that you and your Authorised Users comply with the professional conduct rules applicable to you.
3. You must notify us promptly if any warranty in this section ceases to be true for you or any Authorised User — for example, if a practising certificate or registration lapses, is suspended or is cancelled.
4. You are responsible for your Authorised Users’ use of the Platform, and for ensuring they are aware of and comply with these Terms.

5 Your Account and Security

1. Each Authorised User must have their own credentials. Credentials must be kept confidential and must not be shared, and an account must not be used by anyone other than the person it was issued to.
2. Time-based one-time-password (TOTP) two-factor authentication is available and is required for practitioner accounts.
3. You must notify us promptly at support@lexstratus.com.au if you become aware of any unauthorised access to, or use of, an account or the Platform.
4. We maintain access-security and audit logging, and our authorised staff may review a per-account timeline of platform activity for security, abuse-investigation and support purposes, as described in the Privacy Policy.
5. We may suspend credentials that we reasonably believe are compromised, and will notify you and restore access once the risk is resolved.

6 Licence and Acceptable Use

1. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence for your Authorised Users to use the Platform for your internal practice purposes during the Subscription Term, subject to these Terms.
2. You must not, and must ensure your Authorised Users and Applicants do not:
   1. use the Platform for any unlawful purpose or in breach of any law;
   2. infringe any person’s intellectual property rights;
   3. circumvent or attempt to circumvent any security or authentication measure;
   4. reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Platform, except to the extent a law permits despite this clause;
   5. scrape, harvest or bulk-extract data from the Platform other than through features we provide;
   6. resell, sublicense or make the Platform available to any third party without our prior written consent;
   7. use messaging or any other feature to harass, threaten or abuse any person;
   8. publish another person’s personal information with intent to cause harm; or
   9. use the Platform to make, or assist in making, a statement to the Department of Home Affairs, a tribunal or a court that you know or ought to know is false or misleading.
3. We may apply reasonable fair-use and volume limits (for example, on storage, messaging, e-signature envelopes or AI requests) to protect the stability and security of the Platform. Where a limit would materially affect your use, we will tell you and work with you in good faith.

7 Customer Content and Matter Data

1. As between you and us, all Customer Content is and remains your property (or the property of your clients, as applicable). These Terms transfer no ownership of Customer Content to us.
2. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to host, copy, process, transmit and display Customer Content solely to the extent necessary to provide, secure and support the Platform, and for no other purpose.
3. You warrant, in respect of all Customer Content, that:
   1. you have the right to upload it to and process it in the Platform;
   2. you have obtained all consents and given all collection notices required by law from the individuals concerned, including for sensitive information;
   3. to the best of your knowledge it is accurate; and
   4. your use of it in the Platform does not breach any law or any duty you owe to a third party.

8 Confidentiality and Legal Professional Privilege

1. Each party must keep the other party’s Confidential Information confidential, use it only to perform this agreement, and disclose it only to personnel and advisers who need it and are bound by comparable obligations, or as required by law.
2. We acknowledge that Customer Content may be subject to legal professional privilege and to your duties of confidentiality to your clients.
3. In hosting and processing Customer Content we act as a service provider engaged by you for the purposes of delivering or administering legal services. Nothing in these Terms waives or diminishes any privilege attaching to Customer Content, and we will not assert that your use of the Platform, or our hosting of Customer Content, waived any privilege.
4. We access Customer Content only as necessary to provide, secure and support the Platform, or as required by law.
5. If we receive a subpoena, notice to produce or other compulsory process seeking Customer Content, we will, to the extent permitted by law, promptly notify you before responding and provide reasonable assistance so that you can assert privilege or otherwise object to production.

9 Privacy and Data Protection

1. Our collection, use, storage, disclosure and retention of Personal Information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which includes the technical and organisational measures we maintain and the third-party sub-processors we use.
2. You must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles in connection with your use of the Platform. Where you are not bound by that Act, you must handle Personal Information in the Platform as if the Australian Privacy Principles applied to you.
3. Where you enter Personal Information about a client or any other individual into the Platform, you are responsible for the consents and collection notices that lawfully permit that entry and our processing of it on your behalf.
4. Each party must notify the other without undue delay on becoming aware of a data breach involving Personal Information held in the Platform that is likely to affect the other party, and must cooperate reasonably in assessing, containing and (where required) notifying the breach.

10 Applicants

1. Applicant access to the Platform is provided at your direction and under the separate Applicant Terms of Use.
2. You are responsible for deciding which Applicants to invite, for the accuracy of the invitations you send, and for offboarding Applicants when their access should end.
3. No lawyer–client, agent–client or other professional relationship arises between us and any Applicant. The Applicant’s professional relationship is with you alone.
4. We do not charge Applicants for the Platform, and we do not use Applicant information for our own marketing.

11 Third-Party Services and Integrations

1. The Platform offers optional integrations with third-party services. Each integration is enabled only if you choose to connect it, and your use of the third-party service remains governed by that provider’s own terms and policies.
2. Third-party services are not owned or controlled by us. We are not responsible for their availability, accuracy, fees, acts or omissions, and we may change, suspend or withdraw an integration where the provider’s service or terms change; we will give you notice where the change materially affects your use.

Google Integration (Gmail and Google Calendar)

1. A practitioner may connect their own Google account (a Google Workspace account or a personal Gmail account) so that their email — and, where they also connect it, their Google Calendar — can be viewed and managed within the Platform (“Google Integration”).
2. Use of the Google Integration is voluntary. It is enabled only after the practitioner grants access through Google’s secure OAuth consent screen, using only the limited scopes approved there (for mail, the gmail.modify scope), and it can be disconnected at any time.
3. Within the mail integration we only:
   1. read and display messages, message contents and attachments within the Platform; and
   2. organise those messages by marking them read or unread, starring them, marking them as important, archiving them, marking them as spam, and moving them to or restoring them from the Trash.
4. The Google Integration does not, and will not:
   1. send, compose, draft or reply to email on the practitioner’s behalf;
   2. permanently delete email; or
   3. change Google account settings, filters or forwarding.
5. You warrant that each practitioner who connects a Google account is authorised to do so and that the connection does not breach any policy, contract or duty of confidentiality owed to any third party, including clients or an employer.
6. Our access to, use of, storage of and disclosure of data obtained through the Google Integration is governed by our Privacy Policy and complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
7. The integration can be disconnected from within the Platform at any time, or access can be revoked directly from the Google Account security settings, which removes our access to the relevant account.

Microsoft Integration (Outlook Mail and Calendar)

1. A practitioner may likewise connect a Microsoft account to view and manage Outlook mail and calendar within the Platform. The connection is made through Microsoft’s OAuth consent flow, uses only the permissions approved there, and can be disconnected from within the Platform or revoked from the Microsoft account’s own settings at any time.
2. Data obtained through the Microsoft integration is handled as described in our Privacy Policy. The warranty in the Google section above applies equally to connecting a Microsoft account.

Stripe

1. Card payments for platform subscriptions are processed by Stripe (see section 13), and the optional client-payment feature is provided through Stripe Connect (see section 19).
2. Your use of Stripe — including any Stripe Connect account your practice holds — is governed by Stripe’s own terms. Information about where Stripe and its service providers process data is in our Privacy Policy.

Skript (Consumer Data Right)

1. The optional bank-feed and trust-accounting features use Skript, an Australian CDR-accredited data recipient, to receive bank data under the Consumer Data Right with your consent given through the CDR consent flow.
2. Your use of those features is also subject to Skript’s terms and the CDR rules, and the data flows involved are described in our Privacy Policy.

12 AI Features

1. AI Features are clearly identified as such in the product.
2. Output may be incomplete, inaccurate, out of date or speculative, and is provided as-is. Output is not legal advice and is not immigration assistance.
3. A qualified practitioner must review and verify all Output before relying on it, providing it to a client, or lodging any document based on it. Your professional obligations remain solely yours; the AI Features do not discharge or dilute them.
4. As between you and us, you own the Output generated for you. Because the same models serve all customers, similar or identical output may be generated for others.
5. Inputs to the AI Features are processed by the third-party AI providers named in our Privacy Policy, partly outside Australia (including in the United States). Under those providers’ published API terms, API inputs and outputs are not used to train their models. Do not input content you are not permitted to disclose to those sub-processors.
6. AI Features can be disabled for your practice on request to support@lexstratus.com.au.
7. We may change the AI models or providers we use, and will give you notice of a change that materially affects the AI Features.

13 Fees, GST and Payment

1. You must pay the Fees for your subscription. The applicable price, and any GST treatment that applies to it, are shown at the point of purchase.
2. For platform subscriptions, Lex Stratus Software Pty Ltd is the merchant and Stripe processes card payments. We do not store card numbers; they are held by Stripe.
3. If Fees remain unpaid when due, we will notify you and allow at least 14 days to pay before any suspension under section 15. We will not suspend access over an amount you genuinely dispute in good faith while the dispute is being resolved under section 28.

14 Subscription Term, Renewal and Cancellation

1. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each Subscription Term for a further term of the same length, unless cancelled under this section.
2. For annual terms, we will email a renewal notice to your account administrator at least 30 days before each renewal, stating the renewal date and the then-current price.
3. You may cancel your subscription at any time, in the product or by emailing support@lexstratus.com.au, with no exit penalty. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you retain access until then.
4. Any change to the Fees takes effect only from your next renewal, and only if we have given you at least 30 days’ notice of the change. Prices never change mid-term.
5. Fees already paid for the current Subscription Term are not refunded, except as set out in these Terms or as required by law, including under a Non-Excludable Guarantee (see section 21).
6. We will refund prepaid Fees pro-rata for the unexpired part of the Subscription Term where:
   1. we terminate for convenience under section 15; or
   2. we materially reduce the Platform and you elect to terminate under section 16.

15 Suspension and Termination

1. We may suspend access to the Platform, or to an affected part of it, immediately only where:
   1. the Platform is being used unlawfully or in serious breach of section 6;
   2. suspension is necessary to address a serious security threat;
   3. we are required to suspend by law; or
   4. Fees remain unpaid after the notice and 14-day cure period in section 13.
2. Any suspension will be proportionate to the trigger. We will give you notice of a suspension where practicable — before it where we can, and promptly after it where we cannot — and will restore access promptly once the trigger is resolved.
3. Either party may terminate this agreement if the other commits a material breach and fails to remedy it within 14 days after receiving written notice requiring remedy.
4. We may terminate this agreement for convenience only on at least 30 days’ written notice, in which case we will refund prepaid Fees pro-rata for the unexpired part of the Subscription Term.
5. Termination does not affect rights accrued before termination. Section 17 governs Customer Content after termination.

16 Changes to the Platform

1. We may improve and modify the Platform, including by adding, changing or retiring features.
2. If a change would materially reduce the core functionality of the Platform, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice, and you may terminate this agreement before or within that period and receive a pro-rata refund of prepaid Fees for the unexpired part of the Subscription Term.
3. We may make a change immediately, without the notice above, where it is required to address a security risk or to comply with law; we will tell you about the change as soon as practicable.

17 Data on Termination

1. On request during the Subscription Term and for 30 days after it ends, we will provide reasonable assistance to export your Customer Content in a commonly usable format.
2. After that period, we handle Customer Content in accordance with the retention section of our Privacy Policy, your instructions as the law practice, and the statutory retention duties that apply to the records — including rule 14.2 of the Australian Solicitors’ Conduct Rules, section 56(5) of the Migration Agents Code of Conduct 2022, section 147 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law (trust records), and section 286 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (financial records).
3. Where Customer Content is no longer required for any purpose and is not subject to a retention obligation, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it. We do not promise fixed deletion timelines.
4. You remain responsible for meeting your own file-retention obligations, including keeping any copies your professional rules require you to keep.

18 Intellectual Property

1. We (or our licensors) own all intellectual property rights in the Platform, including its software, interfaces, designs, text, graphics and documentation. These Terms grant you only the licence in section 6; no other rights are transferred.
2. If you give us feedback, suggestions or ideas about the Platform, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use them without restriction or obligation to you. Feedback never includes Customer Content.
3. “Lex Etheris”, “Lex Stratus” and our logos are our trade marks. You must not use them except to identify the Platform truthfully, or with our prior written consent.

19 Payments Between Practices and Their Clients

1. The Platform includes an optional feature that lets your practice connect its own Stripe account (via Stripe Connect) so that your clients can pay your invoices online.
2. For every payment collected through that feature, your practice is the merchant of record. Funds settle directly into the practice’s own connected Stripe account. They do not pass through, and are never held in, any account of Lex Stratus Software Pty Ltd.
3. We provide the feature solely as a technical channel. We are not a party to any payment between you and your clients, we do not hold, receive or control client or third-party funds, and we do not act as a payment processor, bank or money-services business.
4. You are solely responsible for your payment relationship with each payer and for compliance with all applicable laws and professional obligations — including trust-accounting, tax, invoicing, refund and chargeback obligations — and for ensuring the receiving account is appropriate for the funds you collect.
5. This section is distinct from platform subscription billing under section 13, where Lex Stratus Software Pty Ltd is the merchant.

20 Warranties and Disclaimers

1. We warrant that the services we supply under these Terms will be performed with due care and skill.
2. Otherwise, and subject to section 21, to the maximum extent permitted by law the Platform is provided as-is, and we give no other warranty, express or implied, including as to merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
3. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that all defects will be corrected.
4. We do not warrant any visa outcome, any eligibility conclusion, or the correctness of any form, filing or Output. Those matters depend on your clients’ circumstances, your professional work and the decisions of government authorities, none of which we control.

21 Australian Consumer Law

1. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any Non-Excludable Guarantee — any guarantee, right or remedy under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or other law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified.
2. Where legislation permits us to limit our liability for failure to comply with a Non-Excludable Guarantee, and the services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, our liability for that failure is limited, at our option, to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having the services supplied again.
3. This section prevails over section 20 and section 22 to the extent of any inconsistency.

22 Limitation of Liability

1. This section applies subject to section 21.
2. Neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profits, revenue or goodwill, loss of data, or business interruption, however arising.
3. Each party’s aggregate liability to the other under or in connection with these Terms is capped at the Fees paid by you in the 12 months before the first event giving rise to liability.
4. The exclusions and cap above do not apply to:
   1. liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law;
   2. liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence;
   3. fraud or wilful misconduct;
   4. a party’s breach of section 8 (confidentiality) or of its privacy and data-protection obligations under section 9; or
   5. your obligation to pay the Fees.

23 Indemnities

1. You indemnify us against loss we suffer from a third-party claim to the extent it arises from:
   1. your unlawful use of the Platform or your breach of section 6;
   2. Customer Content, including a claim that it infringes a third party’s rights or was uploaded without the required consents; or
   3. a claim by your own client about the services or advice you provided.
2. We indemnify you against loss you suffer from a third-party claim that the Platform, as provided by us and used in accordance with these Terms, infringes that third party’s Australian intellectual property rights. This indemnity does not apply to the extent the claim arises from Customer Content, from modification of the Platform by anyone other than us, from combination of the Platform with items we did not supply, or from use in breach of these Terms.
3. For each indemnity: the indemnified party must notify the other promptly of the claim, must not admit liability or settle without the indemnifying party’s consent, and must take reasonable steps to mitigate its loss. The indemnifying party may conduct the defence and settlement of the claim, and the indemnified party may participate at its own cost.

24 Force Majeure

1. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure to perform an obligation (other than an obligation to pay money) to the extent it is caused by an event beyond that party’s reasonable control, including natural disaster, war, terrorism, civil disturbance, epidemic, government action, or failure of power, telecommunications or third-party infrastructure.
2. The affected party must notify the other promptly, take reasonable steps to mitigate the effect of the event, and resume performance as soon as practicable.
3. If the event prevents performance for more than 60 consecutive days, either party may terminate this agreement on written notice, and we will refund prepaid Fees pro-rata for any period in which the Platform was not provided.

25 Notices

1. We give notices to you by email to your account administrator’s registered email address. You are responsible for keeping that address current.
2. You give notices to us by email to support@lexstratus.com.au, or by post to Lex Stratus Software Pty Ltd, Suite 101, 975 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill VIC 3128, Australia. Privacy matters may be raised with our Privacy Officer at privacy@lexstratus.com.au.
3. An emailed notice is taken to be received on the business day it is sent or, if sent after 5.00 pm at the recipient’s location or on a non-business day, on the next business day.

26 Assignment and Subcontracting

1. Neither party may assign this agreement without the other’s prior written consent, which must not be unreasonably withheld, except that we may assign it to a related body corporate, or in connection with a merger or a sale of our business, on notice to you.
2. We may subcontract parts of the Platform — including to the sub-processors named in our Privacy Policy — but we remain responsible to you for their performance as if it were our own.

27 Changes to These Terms

1. We may change these Terms. Where a change is material, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email to your account administrator before it takes effect.
2. If you object to a material change, you may terminate this agreement by notice before the change takes effect and receive a pro-rata refund of prepaid Fees for the unexpired part of the Subscription Term.
3. Non-material changes — corrections, clarifications and changes that do not reduce your rights — take effect when posted on this page with an updated date and version number.

28 Dispute Resolution

1. A party with a dispute under these Terms must give the other party written notice describing it. Senior representatives of each party must then negotiate in good faith for up to 20 business days to try to resolve it.
2. If the dispute is not resolved by negotiation, the parties must refer it to mediation in Victoria before starting court proceedings, with the mediator agreed between the parties or, failing agreement, appointed by the Resolution Institute. The parties share the mediator’s costs equally.
3. Nothing in this section prevents a party from seeking urgent injunctive or other interlocutory relief, or from bringing proceedings to recover unpaid Fees that are not genuinely disputed.

29 Governing Law and General

1. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Victoria, Australia, and applicable Commonwealth laws. Each party submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Australian courts competent to hear disputes under these Terms.
2. If a provision of these Terms is invalid or unenforceable, it is severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder continues in force.
3. A failure or delay in exercising a right is not a waiver of it. A waiver is effective only if in writing and only for the instance it is given for.
4. These Terms, together with the documents listed in section 1, are the entire agreement between the parties about the Platform and supersede prior agreements on that subject. This clause does not exclude liability for fraud, and does not exclude or limit any right under the Australian Consumer Law.
5. The parties are independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency, employment or fiduciary relationship.
6. Sections 2, 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28 and this section survive termination, together with any other provision that by its nature should survive.