Terms of service

LegalLocalGuide is operated by JM Ikeguchi, Inc., a California corporation, 15333 Culver Dr Ste 340 #2210, Irvine, CA 92604(“LegalLocalGuide”, “we”, “us”). We publish general legal information and a directory of law firms and attorneys in the United States at legallocalguide.com (the “Site”), and we offer firms and attorneys free accounts and an optional paid subscription called Enhanced.

These Terms are the agreement between you and us for using the Site. They incorporate:

• the Privacy Policy (what we collect and why), and
• the Cancellation and Refund Policy (how Enhanced is billed, cancelled and refunded).

If those documents and these Terms ever disagree about billing or privacy, those documents control on their subject.

By using the Site you agree to these Terms. If you create an account or subscribe on behalf of a firm, you confirm that you have authority to bind that firm, and “you” includes the firm.

These Terms distinguish three groups, because their rights and obligations differ:

• Visitors and consumers — anyone reading legal information, searching the directory, or contacting a firm. No account is needed.
• Account holders — a firm or attorney who has created a free account, whether or not they have claimed a profile.
• Enhanced subscribers — a firm with a claimed profile that pays for Enhanced.

Sections 3–6 apply to everyone. Sections 7–11 apply to account holders and Enhanced subscribers in addition. Sections 12 onward apply to everyone.

This section states what we do and do not do. It is the most important section for a consumer to read.

We are not a law firm and we do not provide legal representation. Nothing on the Site is legal advice. Legal information is general; it may not reflect the law in your state, recent changes, or the facts of your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship with us or with anyone whose name appears on it.

We do not select, recommend or refer you to an attorney. The directory lists firms and attorneys. Search results are ordered by how well a listing matches what you searched for and how near its office is to the location you gave — never by whether the firm pays us. You decide whom to contact, and you decide whether to hire them. Contacting a firm through the Site is your choice, made on your own judgment.

We do not rate or rank attorneys against one another. We publish no scores, grades or “best of” lists. A “Verified” badge means we reviewed evidence of a firm's identity; it says nothing about quality, results or suitability for your matter.

We are not paid for introductions. We receive no fee, share of fees, or other payment from any firm for a consumer's contact, inquiry or engagement. Enhanced (Section 10) is a flat monthly subscription for how a profile is presented; it does not buy placement, ranking or leads.

We do not vouch for anyone. We do not verify that an attorney is a good lawyer, is currently licensed, is in good standing, or carries insurance. You should confirm licensure with the state bar and ask a firm directly about anything that matters to you.

Our legal guides and answers are written for general understanding. Some are reviewed by licensed attorneys; where a review is shown, it means that at the date shown a licensed attorney read the material and found it generally accurate for its stated jurisdiction. Review is dated and expires; content past its review date is marked. A review is not advice about your situation, and the reviewing attorney has no relationship with you and no duty to you.

LegalLocalGuide provides general legal information, not legal advice. Reading this information does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney review confirms that a licensed attorney reviewed this material for general accuracy; it does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not advice about your situation. Laws change and vary by jurisdiction — consult a licensed attorney in your state about your specific circumstances.

What the directory is. The directory describes firms and attorneys from two kinds of source: information we compile from public sources (firm websites, state bar records, business registrations and similar), and information a firm provides after claiming its profile. Section 8 explains the difference and what each state means.

Searching. You may search by practice area and location, or describe your situation in your own words (Section 6). Results are what the directory holds that matches; there may be firms that handle your matter that are not listed, and listed firms may not be accepting new clients.

Contacting a firm. Firm profiles show the firm's own phone number and website. Some profiles offer a contact form (the “inquiry” form). The inquiry form is not yet enabled; the following applies when it is. When you submit an inquiry:

• Your inquiry is directed only to the firm you chose. LegalLocalGuide processes and stores it to provide the inquiry service, but we do not distribute, sell, resell, or route it to other firms.
• Submitting an inquiry does not by itself create an attorney-client relationship or guarantee that the firm will represent you. Do not send information you expect to be kept confidential or privileged unless and until the firm tells you it is appropriate to do so. A firm's obligations concerning information you send are governed by applicable law and professional rules.
• We show you a disclosure to this effect on the form itself before you send it, and we record which version of that disclosure you agreed to.

No guarantee of outcome. We have no part in any engagement between you and a firm, and no responsibility for the firm's advice, fees, conduct or results.

The Site offers a box where you can describe a legal situation in your own words. Here is exactly what happens:

1. The text you enter is sent to an AI language-model service (currently Anthropic) with instructions to classify it — to identify which area of law and, where possible, which type of issue it most likely concerns. If the AI service is unavailable or unsure, a rules-based classifier is used instead.
2. The classification is used to run an ordinary directory search: it selects a practice area, and if you gave a location, that too. The results are the same listings, in the same order, that you would get by choosing that practice area yourself.
3. The text and its classification are stored without any identifier of you, so we can see whether classification is working and improve it. See the Privacy Policy.

That is the whole feature. It does not:

• give legal advice, assess your case, or tell you whether you have a claim;
• recommend, select or rank a firm for you;
• send your description to any firm, or to anyone other than the classification service;
• learn about you personally, remember you, or build a profile of you.

Classification can be wrong. If the results do not look like your problem, choose a practice area directly. Do not type names, case numbers, or other details that identify people; describe the kind of problem, not the file.

If we add AI features beyond classification in future, we will describe them here before they are available.

Who may hold one. A firm or an individual attorney may create a free account. You must be at least 18 and provide accurate information. One person may not hold multiple accounts to evade a suspension.

Your credentials. You are responsible for keeping your password secret and for everything done through your account. Tell us at the support address at once if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission. We send a security alert to your email when your password changes; if you did not make the change, follow the alert's instructions immediately.

Roles. A firm account may have more than one member. Any person the firm authorises may administer its profile; an administrator need not be an attorney. The firm is responsible for who its members and administrators are and for what they do, and the firm's attorneys remain responsible under Section 9 for the professional compliance of what is published, whoever published it.

Closing an account. You may close your account by writing to support. Closing an account ends any Enhanced subscription under the Cancellation and Refund Policy, releases the profile claim, and returns the profile to its unclaimed state with the information that existed before the claim, subject to Section 8. We may keep the audit log of changes made through the account, as the Privacy Policy describes.

Suspension. We may suspend or close an account, refuse or reverse a claim, and remove content, where we reasonably believe these Terms have been broken, a claim was not legitimate, or content is unlawful, misleading or in breach of professional rules. Where practical we tell you why and give you a chance to fix it. Suspension ends any Enhanced subscription; see Section 10.

Imported profiles. Most profiles begin as information compiled from public sources. Until a firm claims its profile, the profile is marked as such and the information on it may be incomplete, out of date or wrong. We do not verify unclaimed information, and we make no promise about its accuracy. We correct or remove it on request (below).

Profile states. A profile is shown as one of:

• Unclaimed — compiled from public information; not managed by the firm.
• Claimed — the firm manages the profile and is responsible for its content.
• Verified — in addition, we have reviewed evidence of the firm's identity. Verification is a separate review from claiming, is performed by us, and cannot be bought.

Claiming. A firm or attorney may claim their own profile at no cost. To decide a claim we may ask for a work email address on the firm's own domain or documents that show authority to manage the profile. You may claim only a profile you are entitled to manage; a claim made by someone without authority is a breach of these Terms and may be reversed at any time.

Correction and removal. Anyone — a firm, an attorney, or a third party — may ask us to correct or remove a listing by writing to support. We act on such requests. An attorney may have their individual listing removed on request, and a firm may have its profile removed on request; we may first confirm that the request comes from the person or firm concerned. When we remove a listing we keep an internal record of the removal, so that the listing is not recreated from public sources and so that we can explain what happened if asked; that record is not published. We may decline to remove a listing while a claim or a dispute about it is pending.

Our right to edit. We may correct factual errors on any profile, and may edit or remove content on a claimed profile that breaches Section 9 or the law. We do not otherwise write content on a firm's behalf.

This section applies to every account holder, free or paid. By claiming a profile you take responsibility for it.

Accuracy. Everything you publish on your profile — practice areas, case types, offices, service areas, attorneys, credentials, languages, fees, consultation terms, descriptions, images — must be true, current and not misleading. You must keep it current. A firm that lists a practice area it does not handle, an office it does not have, or an attorney who is not with the firm, is in breach of these Terms.

Professional rules. You are responsible for compliance with the rules of professional conduct that apply to you, including the rules on lawyer advertising, solicitation, trade names, specialisation claims and client communication in each state where you are admitted or advertise. We do not review profiles for compliance with those rules, and publishing on the Site does not mean we have.

Credentials. Bar admissions, certifications and specialisations you list must be current and accurately described. You may not describe yourself as certified or specialised in a way your state does not permit.

Attorneys listed on your firm. By listing an attorney on your firm's profile you confirm the attorney is currently with the firm and has authorised the listing. An attorney may ask us to be removed from a firm's profile, and we will act on that request.

Inquiries. When the inquiry form is enabled: inquiries reach you from consumers who chose your firm. You agree to use an inquiry only to respond to the person who sent it; not to add them to marketing lists, sell or share the inquiry, or contact them about anything else. You are responsible for conflict checks, for how you handle information a consumer sends you, and for any duty that arises under your professional rules once you receive it. We give you no assurance that any inquiry is genuine, that the sender is who they say, or that they will engage you.

Your representations to consumers. Anything you say to a consumer — on your profile, in response to an inquiry, or afterwards — is yours. We are not a party to it and are not responsible for it.

Content review. Attorneys with verified profiles may be invited to review our legal information. If you review, you confirm that you are licensed and in good standing, that you review only in areas in which you are competent, that you have no undisclosed conflict, and that you reviewed the material yourself. A review credits you by name; it does not make you the author, does not create a relationship with readers, and does not make you responsible for how readers use the material. We may decline, edit or remove a review, and reviews expire after 365 days.

Images and rights. Every image you upload must be one you have the right to use and publish, must depict what it claims to, and must not include people who have not consented. You confirm this each time you upload. We remove metadata (including location data) from uploaded images. We may take down any image after publication if we believe it breaches these Terms; a takedown record is kept.

What you may not do. You may not: claim a profile you are not entitled to manage; use another firm's name, marks or content; publish testimonials, results or comparisons in ways your professional rules forbid; use the Site to send unsolicited communications; or use automated tools to extract directory data.

What it is. Enhanced is an optional monthly subscription available to a firm with a claimed profile. It changes how the profile is presented — logo, photographs, an expanded description, a richer presentation of the firm's attorneys, a contact form when that feature is enabled, and profile performance analytics — and nothing else.

What it is not. Enhanced does not change where a profile appears in search results, whether it is published, whether it may be indexed by search engines, or whether it is eligible for anything. Organic discovery is decided by relevance to the search and by the profile's eligibility, and a paying firm is treated exactly like a non-paying firm in every one of those decisions. We do not sell rankings, placement or leads, and Enhanced does not include them.

Price, billing, cancellation, refunds. The price, the billing cycle, how to cancel, when access ends, what is refunded and what happens to uploaded images after Enhanced ends are set out in the Cancellation and Refund Policy, which is part of these Terms and controls on those subjects. In short: a flat monthly price billed in advance by card, no contract term, cancel any time from the dashboard, access to the end of the paid month.

Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe under Stripe's own terms. We do not see or store card numbers. By subscribing you authorise Stripe to charge the card you provide for each monthly period until you cancel.

Taxes. The price is exclusive of any sales or similar tax that applies; where we are required to collect tax, we will add it to the charge.

Suspension and Enhanced. If your account is suspended, Enhanced ends with the suspension. Where the suspension results from your breach of these Terms, no refund is made for the remainder of the month. Where the suspension resulted from our error, we refund the unused part of the month.

Changes to Enhanced. We may change what Enhanced includes. If we remove something material, we tell subscribers by email at least 30 days before, and a subscriber may cancel under the Cancellation and Refund Policy. Price changes are governed by that policy (30 days' notice).

Ownership. Content you publish on your profile, images you upload, and reviews you contribute remain yours.

Licence to us. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce and adapt (for format and size) that content on the Site and in our communications about the Site, for as long as it is published, and thereafter as needed to keep records the Privacy Policy describes. This licence lets us run the Site; it does not let us sell your content or use it to endorse anything.

Removal. You may remove content you published at any time from your dashboard, and it stops being shown; uploaded images are retained for 12 months and then deleted under the Cancellation and Refund Policy's retention rule.

Our content. The Site's legal information, design, software, compilations and marks are ours or our licensors'. You may read and link to the Site. You may not copy the directory or the content in bulk, use automated tools to extract them, remove notices, or use our name or marks to suggest an endorsement.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

You may not: attempt to gain access to accounts, data or systems that are not yours; interfere with the Site's operation or security; submit false claims, false inquiries or false reviews; impersonate anyone; use the Site to send unsolicited marketing; scrape or bulk-download the directory or content; use the Site for anything unlawful; or help anyone else do these things. We may suspend access, remove content and, where warranted, refer conduct to authorities.

The Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, who processes it for us, and your choices. It is part of these Terms.

We aim to keep the Site available, but we do not promise that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, and we may change, suspend or withdraw any part of it. Where a change materially reduces what Enhanced subscribers receive, Section 10 applies.

The Site, its content, the directory and every feature are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty about the accuracy, completeness or currency of legal information or directory listings, or about any firm or attorney listed.

Some states do not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties, so some of this may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive loss, or for lost profits, lost business, or loss of data, however arising.
• We are not liable for the acts, omissions, advice, fees or conduct of any firm or attorney, for any decision you make in reliance on the Site, or for any engagement between a consumer and a firm.
• Our total liability to a visitor, consumer or free account holder for all claims together is limited to $100.
• Our total liability to an Enhanced subscriber for all claims together is limited to the greater of $100 or the subscription fees the subscriber paid to us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence where the law does not allow that to be excluded.

If you are an account holder, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, losses and reasonable legal costs arising from: content you publish; your breach of these Terms or of professional rules; your handling of inquiries or of any consumer's information; a claim that you were not entitled to manage a profile; or any dispute between you and a consumer or another firm. We will notify you of any such claim and may take part in the defence at our own cost. This section does not apply to visitors or consumers who do not hold an account.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where the law of the state where you live gives you protections that cannot be waived. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally shall be brought in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California, and you consent to their jurisdiction, except that either party may bring an eligible claim in small-claims court where they live.

Before starting a formal dispute, write to support@legallocalguide.com with a description of the problem; most issues can be resolved that way, and we will try to do so within 30 days.

California residents. Under California Civil Code § 1789.3, users of the Site who are California residents are entitled to the following notice: the Site is provided by JM Ikeguchi, Inc., 15333 Culver Dr Ste 340 #2210, Irvine, CA 92604. Complaints about the Site or requests for further information may be sent to support@legallocalguide.com. The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

Automatic renewal. Enhanced renews monthly until cancelled. The price, the fact of renewal, the cancellation method (from the dashboard, at any time, online) and the refund terms are presented before purchase on the page a firm reads before paying and in the Cancellation and Refund Policy, and are confirmed in the receipt Stripe sends.

Attorney advertising. Some states treat online attorney profiles as attorney advertising and require particular labels or disclaimers. Responsibility for those sits with the firm under Section 9.

You may stop using the Site at any time and may close your account under Section 7. We may terminate these Terms with you under Section 7 (suspension) or if we withdraw the Site. Sections that by their nature should survive — including 8 (records), 11 (licence for records), 15, 16, 17, 18 and this section — survive termination.

We may update these Terms. When we do, the date at the top changes; for material changes we tell account holders by email at least 30 days before they take effect, and an Enhanced subscriber who does not accept a material change may cancel under the Cancellation and Refund Policy before it takes effect. Continued use after a change takes effect is acceptance of it.

These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Cancellation and Refund Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Site. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them to a successor of the Site on notice to you. Notices to us go to support@legallocalguide.com; notices to you go to the email address on your account.

support@legallocalguide.com · legallocalguide.com/support