Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you (“User,” “you”) and the Company and govern your access to and use of the Company’s environmental document review and summarization service, including any reports, summaries, traceback files, and other outputs it produces (collectively, the “Service”).

By creating an account, placing an order, paying for the Service, submitting a request, or accessing or using any output of the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Description of the Service

The Service retrieves publicly available environmental regulatory documents (for example, from the Illinois EPA Document Explorer), and uses automated document processing, optical character recognition (OCR), data extraction, and artificial-intelligence-assisted analysis to produce summaries, timelines, references, and a source-traceability verification report.

The Service is a document review and information-management aid. It is intended to support qualified professionals in their own review and analysis. It is not a substitute for professional judgment.

3. No Professional Advice; No Professional Relationship

The Service does not provide environmental consulting, engineering, geological, hydrogeological, legal, regulatory, or any other professional advice, and does not create any professional-client relationship. The Service does not, and does not purport to:

• determine regulatory compliance or non-compliance;
• conclude whether a property is environmentally impaired or suitable for any use;
• assess risk, recommend remediation, or specify remediation requirements;
• certify findings or render professional opinions; or
• replace the professional judgment of a licensed or qualified professional.

Any conclusion, interpretation, recommendation, certification, or decision derived from the Service’s outputs is the sole work product and sole responsibility of the User.

4. User Responsibilities

You agree that you are solely responsible for:

1. independently reviewing all source documents;
2. validating and verifying all outputs of the Service before relying on them;
3. exercising independent professional judgment before incorporating any output into any report, recommendation, decision, regulatory submission, property transaction, environmental assessment, Phase I/II ESA, transaction screen, lender review, or other work product;
4. ensuring you have the legal right to submit any documents you provide to the Service; and
5. complying with all laws and professional standards applicable to your use of the outputs.

5. No Warranty

THE SERVICE AND ALL OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Company disclaims all warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. Without limiting the foregoing, the Company does not warrant or guarantee:

• the completeness, accuracy, reliability, currency, or suitability of any output;
• that all available records for a site were obtained, identified, or reviewed;
• that any particular document, release, regulatory action, institutional control, or site condition will be identified; or
• that source documents are free of errors, omissions, illegible text, or incomplete records.

The User remains responsible for independent verification of all findings.

6. AI Disclosure

The Service uses artificial intelligence for document extraction and drafting. The Service includes automated verification routines that compare generated statements against source OCR text before output; however, these routines reduce but do not eliminate the possibility of error, and do not constitute professional review. Outputs may contain inaccuracies inherent to OCR and automated analysis.

7. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

(a) The Company shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages, or for any lost profits, lost data, lost business, or business interruption, arising out of or relating to the Service or any output, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

(b) The Company’s total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms shall not exceed the total fees actually paid by the User to the Company for the Service during the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

(c) These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise) and form an essential basis of the bargain between the parties.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in those jurisdictions liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

8. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Company and its owners, officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, demands, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Service or any output; (b) your reliance on, distribution, or republication of any output; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

9. Data, Privacy, and Document Retention

9.1 Documents you submit. You retain ownership of documents you submit. You grant the Company a limited license to process those documents solely to provide the Service.

9.2 Confidentiality. The Company will treat non-public documents you submit as confidential and will not disclose them to third parties except as needed to provide the Service or as required by law.

9.3 Retention. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the Company retains outputs and source documents associated with an engagement for thirty (30) days after delivery, after which they are deleted. Public records obtained from government portals are not confidential.

9.4 Security. Where the Company stores User data, it will use reasonable, industry-standard measures including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and authentication. No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure.

9.5 Privacy Policy.The Company’s Privacy Policy, incorporated by reference, describes how personal information is handled.

10. Intellectual Property

10.1 Public records. Government records retrieved by the Service are public records; the Company claims no ownership of them.

10.2 Outputs. Subject to your payment of applicable fees and compliance with these Terms, you own the report outputs the Service generates for you and may use them in your own work product.

10.3 The Service. The Company retains all rights in the Service itself, including its software, methods, prompts, templates, and verification routines.

10.4 Restrictions.You may not reverse engineer, resell, or sublicense the Service itself, and you are responsible for ensuring that any third-party documents you submit do not infringe others’ rights.

11. Fees and Payment

Fees, billing frequency, and refund terms are as stated at the point of purchase or in a separate order or statement of work. [Specify pricing / invoicing / taxes.] Unpaid amounts may result in suspension of the Service.

12. Term and Termination

These Terms apply for as long as you use the Service. Either party may terminate for convenience on reasonable notice. The Company may suspend or terminate access immediately for breach. Sections 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13–15 survive termination.

13. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Lake County, Illinois.

14. Changes to These Terms

The Company may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email or by posting with an updated Effective Date. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

15. Miscellaneous

15.1 Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with any order or statement of work and the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between the parties regarding the Service.

15.2 Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

15.3 No Waiver. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

15.4 Assignment.You may not assign these Terms without the Company’s consent; the Company may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

15.5 Force Majeure. Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including outages of third-party portals or services on which the Service depends.

15.6 Relationship of the Report Disclaimer. The disclaimer printed in each report provides notice of these limitations; these Terms are the binding agreement. In the event of a conflict regarding enforceability, these Terms govern.