Dashboard Membership Terms & Conditions

1. About these terms

These Dashboard Membership Terms and Conditions form an agreement between Lawryse (Pty) Limited (Lawryse, we, us) and the law firm, legal practice, sole practitioner or other authorised subscriber that holds the membership account (the Member, you). The person accepting these terms confirms that they are authorised to bind the Member.

You accept these terms by creating or activating an account, completing checkout, ticking the acceptance box or continuing to use the Dashboard after being notified of an updated version. The Billing Policy and Privacy Policy form part of this agreement. Service-specific terms prevail for that service if they address the same subject more specifically.

2. Eligibility and verification

Membership is intended for South African attorneys, legal practitioners, law firms and authorised firm administrators. The Member must provide accurate, current and lawful professional and firm information.

• Lawryse may reasonably verify professional standing, firm identity and authority to administer an account.
• A public profile may be delayed, hidden or removed if information is incomplete, inaccurate, misleading, out of date or cannot reasonably be verified.
• The Member must promptly notify Lawryse of changes affecting professional status, firm ownership, contact details or authority over the account.

3. Accounts, firm administrators and attorney profiles

The Member is responsible for its account, authorised users and all activity performed through its credentials. Login details may not be shared outside the authorised firm team. Each user must use their own credentials where individual access is provided.

A firm account may include multiple attorney profiles within the attorney band purchased. An authorised administrator may manage the account without appearing publicly as an attorney. At least one eligible attorney profile must be complete before member features that depend on an attorney profile can be used.

4. Plans, benefits and fair use

The selected plan and attorney band determine the benefits shown at checkout and in the Dashboard. Benefits may be subject to eligibility, availability, published limits and fair use. Lawryse may make reasonable operational changes, provided it does not materially remove a paid entitlement during the current paid period without a comparable benefit or fair adjustment.

Membership tier may affect published membership, directory and eligible advertising benefits. It does not buy or improve LARIA routing priority. LARIA uses neutral rotation among eligible opted-in firms in accordance with the LARIA Participation Terms.

5. Membership fees and attorney bands

Membership is billed annually in advance. Any monthly amount displayed next to an annual plan is the annual fee divided into a monthly equivalent for comparison and is not a monthly payment option.

The membership fee accepted at checkout applies to the current paid period. Adding attorneys within the current band does not change that fee. Moving beyond the band may require payment of a pro-rata difference for the remaining paid period, and the new-band price will apply at renewal.

VAT treatment

Lawryse is not currently registered as a VAT vendor and no VAT is presently charged. When Lawryse becomes registered as a VAT vendor, stated membership fees will remain VAT-inclusive. The invoice issued for a transaction will show the VAT treatment that applied on the transaction date.

6. Automatic renewal and payment authority

Unless renewal is cancelled, membership renews at the end of each annual billing period. By purchasing a recurring membership, the Member authorises Lawryse and its payment service provider to charge the applicable renewal fee to the payment method provided.

Membership is paid annually in advance. The price a Member pays covers the whole of that paid year, and no price change made during the year applies to it. A change takes effect only from the Member’s next renewal. For example, a firm that joins at a launch or introductory price pays that price for the full year it has paid for, and moves to the price then in force only at its next renewal.

Lawryse considers any increase in membership prices carefully. Membership prices are not changed often or without good reason, and Lawryse aims to keep any increase reasonable, so that a renewal is not an unwelcome surprise.

At least 40 days before each renewal date, Lawryse will send a written renewal notice by email to the account holder and the accounts contact. The notice states the renewal date, the price that will apply and how to cancel renewal. At renewal the Member is charged the price in force for its plan and attorney band on the date of that notice. Where mandatory law prescribes a particular expiry notice, renewal method or cancellation right, Lawryse will comply with that requirement.

7. Failed renewal payments

If a renewal payment fails, the account enters a 14-day grace period from the first unresolved failure. During that period, entitled Dashboard access continues and eligible public profiles remain visible while the Member updates or authenticates its payment method.

Lawryse or its payment provider may make up to three payment retries during the grace period. If payment remains unresolved when the grace period ends, paid features may be suspended and public profiles hidden. Account information is not deleted. Normal access and eligible profiles may be restored after payment is confirmed.

8. Cancelling renewal and ending membership

The Member may cancel automatic renewal at any time through the Dashboard or by emailing accounts@lawryse.com. Lawryse’s approval is never required. A cancellation made in the Dashboard takes effect when it is submitted. The Dashboard asks, but does not require, a short reason for leaving so that Lawryse can improve. Lawryse emails the account holder and the accounts contact to acknowledge the cancellation. A cancellation emailed to accounts@lawryse.com takes effect when Lawryse receives it, and Lawryse will send an acknowledgement as evidence of receipt.

Unless a mandatory earlier cancellation right applies, cancelling renewal stops the next annual renewal and the membership remains active until the end of the period already paid for. Until that period ends, the Member may withdraw the cancellation and keep its membership. The notification to the account holder and the accounts contact is a safeguard only and does not delay or invalidate the cancellation. After membership ends, the Member’s details are kept as set out in the Privacy Policy, and the Member is welcome to rejoin at any time.

Where section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act applies, the Member may exercise the applicable fixed-term cancellation right on the prescribed notice, subject only to a lawful reasonable cancellation charge. Any applicable electronic-transaction cooling-off right is also unaffected.

Lawryse may suspend or terminate an account for serious or repeated breach, fraud, unlawful use, material professional misrepresentation, security abuse or unresolved non-payment. Where reasonably possible, Lawryse will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the issue.

9. Public directory listings

A profile appears publicly only when it is sufficiently complete, active, verified where required and linked to an account entitled to a listing. The Member controls and is responsible for the accuracy of information it elects to publish. Lawryse does not guarantee profile views, enquiries, clients, instructions, search rankings or commercial results.

10. Member submissions and editorial decisions

Members may submit attorney comments, event notices, Public Voices material and other content. Submission does not guarantee publication or placement unless a service-specific term expressly states otherwise.

Lawryse may review, request changes, approve, schedule, format, decline or remove material where reasonably necessary for quality, accuracy, legality, professional ethics, confidentiality, privilege, privacy, intellectual-property rights, technical suitability or platform integrity.

The Member retains ownership of its content and grants Lawryse a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, format, reproduce, publish and promote that content for the relevant Lawryse service. The Member warrants that it holds the necessary rights and permissions.

11. Guest Articles and advertising

Guest Articles are governed by the Guest Article Publication Terms. During the Pilot Launch Promotion, eligible submissions are included at no additional charge. After that period, a Guest Article is bought as a single article or as a bundle of publication credits, at the prices shown on the Rates page in the Dashboard, with VAT treatment as stated in the Guest Article Publication Terms. Advertising is purchased separately under the Advertising Terms and Booking Conditions.

12. LARIA participation

LARIA participation is optional and requires separate acceptance of the LARIA Participation Terms. LARIA is a neutral routing facility, not a paid referral service. No membership tier receives preferential routing, and Lawryse receives no commission or fee for a professional mandate obtained through LARIA.

13. Credits and promotions

Promotional, referral and service credits are governed by their stated eligibility, permitted use, expiry and adjustment rules. Unless law requires otherwise, credits are non-transferable, have no cash value and may be used only for eligible Lawryse purchases. Referral credits are governed by the Referral Programme Terms.

14. Acceptable use

• Do not submit unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory, fraudulent, deceptive or malicious material.
• Do not breach legal professional privilege, client confidentiality, privacy, intellectual-property rights or professional duties.
• Do not scrape, copy, resell, reverse engineer or misuse the directory, content, data or platform.
• Do not interfere with security or operation, impersonate another person, share access improperly or provide false professional information.
• Do not use Lawryse to send spam, harass another person or obtain information for an unauthorised purpose.

15. Lawryse intellectual property

The Lawryse name, logo, software, platform design, editorial presentation, databases and compiled directory belong to Lawryse or its licensors. Membership grants a limited, revocable right to use the platform during the membership period and does not transfer ownership.

16. No legal advice or professional relationship

Lawryse is a publishing, directory and technology platform and is not a law firm. Platform content is general information, not legal advice. Lawryse is not party to a mandate, retainer or attorney-client relationship between a Member and any client or prospective client.

17. Privacy, records and security

Lawryse processes personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy and applicable law. Information deliberately published in a directory profile is public by design. Lawryse may retain account, acceptance, billing, service, security and dispute records for the purposes and periods stated in the Privacy Policy.

18. Platform availability and third-party services

Lawryse aims to keep the platform reasonably available but does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. Hosting, communications, payments and other functions may depend on third-party providers. Planned maintenance, security work and events outside reasonable control may affect availability.

19. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, Lawryse is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, business, reputation, anticipated enquiries or instructions, or loss caused by a third-party service or the Member’s inaccurate information. Nothing excludes liability or a right that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

20. Changes to these terms

Lawryse may update these terms for legal, security, operational or service reasons. Material changes will be notified through the Dashboard or by email and will apply from the stated effective date, subject to mandatory law. Acceptance records will preserve the version accepted.

21. Governing law and notices

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any competent South African court has jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory ombud, tribunal or statutory dispute process. Billing and cancellation notices must be sent to accounts@lawryse.com. Existing-member support queries must be sent to support@lawryse.com.