Refund Policy

Refund Policy

Effective: on the earlier of the date the Services launch and the date the first Beta Participant is admitted

Refund Summary

Scope

This refund policy applies to subscription plans, add-on services and prepaid credits purchased for use on the Octicase platform, and states in advance the terms that will apply to prepaid staffing hours if and when Octicase makes staffing services available under Section 2.9 of the Terms of Service; those hours cannot be purchased today. This policy does not apply to: (1) services already consumed or provided; (2) charges for usage you incurred before your cancellation took effect; (3) refunds requested outside the applicable refund window; or (4) Platform Engagements, described in the next section, which no separate agreement can vary. This policy applies to consumers and to business customers alike, and covers prepaid staffing hours under Section 2.9 of the Terms of Service; the Platform Engagements section, the Platform Engagement provisions of the Chargebacks paragraph, the Prepaid Staffing Hours section and the Service Outages section apply to business customers only; the rest of this policy applies to consumers and to business customers alike. Item (3) does not limit the refunds catalogued under Refunds Required by the Agreement below, or the correction of a duplicate, erroneous or misapplied charge under Billing Errors below, neither of which is subject to a window.

Platform Engagements (Expert and Partner Services)

Where a law firm or other verified business customer purchases the services of an expert, consultant or partner through the platform (a "Platform Engagement" under Section 4.16 of the Terms of Service), the amount paid for those services (the "Service Amount") belongs to the seller from the moment of payment and is not a fee paid to Octicase. Service Amounts, and the platform fee the seller pays Octicase, are not subject to this policy. Octicase processes a refund of a Service Amount only: (a) automatically, where nothing has been delivered or recorded by the end of the engagement's delivery period (or, for a continuing service from a partner, a service period) as extended under the Default Engagement Terms, unless the seller successfully contests the cancellation under its agreement with Octicase; (b) on the seller's instruction; (c) as a court or arbitrator orders; or (d) where the seller dies, ceases business or becomes insolvent (for a partner), becomes unable to perform, loses a required license or is disqualified and gives no refund instruction within the period its agreement with Octicase allows. All of this is as Section 4.16 of the Terms of Service, the Expert and Consultant Services Agreement or Partner Agreement (as applicable), and the Default Engagement Terms or the partner's published terms provide. Octicase does not refund a Platform Engagement on a customer's request, on cancellation, or because the customer disagrees with the seller's work; those matters are between the customer and the seller under the Default Engagement Terms. A refund under (a) is paid within ten (10) business days after the seller's period to contest the cancellation has closed; a refund under (b), (c) or (d) within ten (10) business days after Octicase receives the amount from the seller; in each case the refund is paid to the original payment method, in the amount refunded for the scope concerned, which is the full Service Amount for that scope except where the seller instructs a refund of part of it under (b) or where the Default Engagement Terms provide for a retention on a late-cancelled appearance, and with no platform fee or processing charge deducted from it. A duplicate or erroneous charge of a Service Amount is corrected under Section 4.16 as a correction of the charge, not as a refund under this policy. Platform Engagements are available to business customers only.

Subscription Billing Model

Octicase offers subscription plans on a monthly basis. No annual plan is offered today; if one is introduced, this policy will state its terms before it is sold. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period unless canceled. Cancellation may be submitted at any time via the account settings or by contacting support@octicase.com. For business subscriptions, the notice period for non-renewal is the thirty (30) days provided by Section 5.4 of the Terms of Service. For a consumer subscription, cancellation before the renewal date prevents the renewal charge, with no minimum advance notice; online cancellation is available as described under California Automatic Renewal below. A Customer under Schedule E of the Terms of Service whose account owner is a natural person trading in their own name may cancel online through the same medium used to subscribe, notwithstanding the thirty (30) day notice period of Section 5.4, as Section E.6 of those Terms provides.

Refund Eligibility and Cooling-Off Period

Monthly Subscriptions

Customers may request a refund within 7 calendar days of subscription activation or renewal. Refunds are issued pro rata for any unused portion of the monthly subscription, to the original payment method. After 7 days, no refunds are available for monthly subscriptions; however, customers may cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period.

Annual Subscriptions

Octicase does not offer an annual subscription today, so nothing in this paragraph applies to any plan currently sold. If an annual plan is introduced, customers may request a full refund within 30 calendar days of subscription activation or renewal; after 30 days, refunds are not available and customers may only cancel for future billing periods or, if eligible under Special Situations below, receive service credits.

Usage-Based Fees

Charges for consumed services (e.g., AI token usage, additional user seats provisioned and used, fax transmissions sent, SMS messages sent) are non-refundable once the service has been consumed. Customers are responsible for monitoring their usage and setting rate limits or token budgets to avoid unexpected charges.

Add-Ons and Premium Features

Premium add-ons (e.g., the HIPAA-eligible feature tier, advanced analytics) are non-refundable once provisioned or activated. AI credits purchased separately are governed by Prepaid AI Credits below, not by this paragraph. Customers must request cancellation of add-ons prior to the next billing cycle to avoid continued charges. Fax numbers and watermarked, view-only share links for video-library content are add-ons charged for a stated period: both are non-refundable once activated; share links are renewable on notice as Section 5.5 of the Terms of Service provides, and fax numbers are available to verified Customers only. On termination of the subscription, the number is released and the link disabled after the data-retrieval window of Section 6.3 of the Terms of Service.

Prepaid AI Credits

AI features are metered in credits. One credit is one United States cent (US$0.01). The number of credits an AI action consumes is shown in the Services before the action is taken, and the current figure for every action is published in the Services. Octicase gives at least thirty (30) days' notice on the Services and by email to the account's billing contact before increasing the number of credits that any action consumes, and an increase applies only from the end of that notice period. Credits included with a subscription tier are provided as part of that tier, reset at the start of each billing period, and do not carry forward. Credits purchased separately as a top-up are additional to the included allowance.

Credits may be purchased up to the maximum prepaid balance stated in the product at the time of purchase. Credits pay only for Octicase's own subscription, add-on and metered charges. A credit balance is never applied to a Service Amount payable to an expert, consultant or partner under a Platform Engagement; those are charged to the payment method on file when the engagement is formed, as Section 4.16 of the Terms of Service provides, and Octicase holds no balance for them. Octicase records the date and amount of every purchased credit balance and its age, and treats a balance that remains unused as unclaimed property where applicable law so requires. Purchased credits do not expire while the account remains active, are not transferable between accounts, and are not redeemable for cash. On termination or cancellation of the account for any reason, unused purchased credits are refunded at the price paid for them, to the original payment method, on request; included credits are not refundable, since they form part of the subscription price rather than a separate purchase. Where a credit is charged for an AI action that fails for a reason attributable to us, the credit is returned automatically. AI actions draw first on promotional credits, then on included credits, then on purchased credits.

Prepaid Staffing Hours

This section applies to staffing services under Section 2.9 of the Terms of Service only; hours of personnel supplied by a partner are a Platform Engagement governed by the section above. Staffing services are not available today: no case manager is placed with any Customer under Section 2.9 of the Terms of Service and staffing hours cannot be purchased. This section states the terms that will apply if and when Octicase makes the service available, and has no present application. Where a firm purchases case-manager hours in advance under Section 2.9, those hours will be recorded as a balance against which time actually worked is drawn. Purchased hours will not expire while the placement is active and will not be redeemable for cash. If a placement is suspended for want of funds, the balance will be preserved and the placement will resume when the balance is restored; suspension is not termination. On termination of a placement, any unused purchased hours will be refunded pro rata to the original payment method on request. On termination of a placement, any unused purchased hours are refunded pro rata to the original payment method on request.

How to Request a Refund

To request a refund, customers must:

• Email support@octicase.com with the subject line "Refund Request -- [your name or organization]"
• Include the following information: (a) subscription plan or service purchased, (b) invoice or order number if you have one, (c) date of purchase, (d) reason for refund request, (e) requested refund amount
• Requests must be submitted within the applicable refund window, except for Refunds Required by the Agreement and billing errors, which are not subject to a window

Refund Processing Time

Upon approval, refunds are processed within 10 business days. Depending on the payment method and financial institution, refunds may take an additional 3--5 business days to appear in the customer's account. Customers will receive a confirmation email when the refund is initiated.

Chargebacks

If a customer initiates a chargeback through their financial institution instead of requesting a refund directly, Octicase will work with the financial institution to resolve the dispute. Fraudulent or abusive chargebacks may result in account termination. We encourage customers to contact us first at support@octicase.com to resolve billing issues. A charge for a Platform Engagement is authorized by the customer on the platform; Section 4.16 of the Terms of Service provides that the customer will not dispute such a charge with its payment-method provider, and states the consequences of a chargeback, including reimbursement of the amount reversed. Instead, a customer raises a dispute about a Platform Engagement with the seller under the Default Engagement Terms. Nothing in this paragraph limits a right to dispute a charge that the law does not allow to be waived.

Special Situations

Service Outages

Where the Service Level Commitments apply to a business customer's plan and the Monthly Uptime Percentage falls below the commitment, the customer is eligible for a credit against the affected subscription fees for that month: (1) 5% where availability is below the commitment but at least 99.0%; (2) 10% where availability is below 99.0% but at least 98.0%; (3) 15% where availability is below 98.0%. The credit must be claimed within thirty (30) days of the end of the affected month, is applied to the next invoice, does not constitute a refund, and is the sole and exclusive remedy for unavailability, as the Service Level Commitments provide.

Bankruptcy or Wind-Down

In the event Octicase discontinues service or files for bankruptcy, customers may receive a refund of any prepaid amount that remains unused -- the monthly subscription pro rata, unused purchased credits at the price paid for them, and any prepaid staffing hours (if and when that service is made available) pro rata -- subject to applicable bankruptcy law.

Cancellation Before Service Use

If a customer cancels a monthly subscription within the 7-day window and has not used any of the Services in that billing period, the full amount charged for that period is refunded; the pro-rata rule under Monthly Subscriptions above applies where any part of the Services has been used.

Termination for Breach

Where Octicase terminates an account, a listing or portal access because of a violation of the Agreement, the Acceptable Use Policy or the Expert and Vendor Portal Terms, prepaid subscription, listing and add-on fees for the remainder of the period are not refunded. Unused purchased credits and unused prepaid staffing hours are refunded as the sections above provide, less any amount the customer owes Octicase.

Refunds Required by the Agreement

Independently of the windows above, a refund provided for elsewhere in the Agreement is honored on its own terms, and nothing in this policy limits it. These include: the pro-rata refund where a customer terminates because an objection to a new subprocessor is not resolved (Section 4.3 of the Data Processing Addendum, Section 5 of the Business Associate Agreement, and Section 3 of the Subprocessor List); the pro-rata refund where a material adverse modification of terms leads to termination (Section 4.9 of the Client and Consumer Portal Terms and Section 12.2 of the Consumer Terms of Service); the refund of the unused portion of anything prepaid where Octicase closes a consumer's account for a reason other than the consumer's breach (Section 11 of the Consumer Terms of Service); the right to terminate without further fees on a material adverse change under Section 17.7 of the Terms of Service; the pro-rata refund available as a warranty remedy (Section 10.2 of the Terms of Service); the pro-rata refund where the Services are terminated on an infringement claim (Section 11.1 of the Terms of Service); and the refund of unused purchased staffing hours on termination of a placement (Prepaid Staffing Hours above). The automatic cancellation refund of a Platform Engagement is governed by Section 4.16 of the Terms of Service, as the Platform Engagements section above states.

Promotional Credits

Promotional credits, trial accounts, and discounts are non-refundable and non-transferable. Unused promotional credits expire at the end of the promotional period unless otherwise stated at the time of offer.

Refund Method

All refunds are issued to the original payment method used to make the purchase. If the original payment method is no longer available or the account has been closed, we will contact the customer to arrange alternative refund methods.

Billing Errors

A duplicate, erroneous or misapplied charge is corrected and refunded in full once verified, regardless of any refund window in this policy. Report it to support@octicase.com with the invoice number and the charge concerned.

Changes to This Policy

Octicase reserves the right to update this refund policy at any time. Material changes will be communicated to customers via email at least 30 days in advance. For a change that is material and adverse, consumers will be asked to accept the updated policy affirmatively before it applies to them; for other changes and for business customers, continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

Nothing in this policy waives, limits or modifies a right that cannot be waived by contract, including a California consumer's rights under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the Unfair Competition Law and the Automatic Renewal Law. Any provision of this policy that would have that effect does not apply to that consumer. Nothing in this policy waives, limits or modifies any right of a California resident under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended (any such waiver being void under Civil Code Section 1798.192), or the right to seek public injunctive relief in any forum. The Platform Engagements section and the Platform Engagement provisions of the Chargebacks paragraph apply to business customers only.

Questions and Disputes

For questions about refunds or to dispute a billing charge, please contact:

Email: support@octicase.com

Billing disputes should include the invoice number, charge description, and a detailed explanation of the concern.

Payment Processing and California Automatic Renewal

• Fees this policy covers that are payable to Octicase, including subscription, add-on and prepaid-credit fees, are processed by Stripe, Inc., which is the payment processor in production for those charges. No case type, injury type, matter identifier, or outcome appears in any payment description or metadata. Platform Engagement charges, payouts to sellers, refunds and chargebacks are processed by the payment processor identified for that purpose in the Subprocessor List; that processor is not yet engaged through connected payout accounts. Platform Engagement charges, payouts to sellers, refunds and chargebacks are not available until Provider enables Platform Engagements, as the Expert and Consultant Services Agreement and the Partner Agreement provide, and connected accounts will govern the payout once Stripe Connect is engaged.
• Because the Services launch in California, consumer subscriptions that renew automatically are subject to the California Automatic Renewal Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code sections 17600 et seq.). That statute applies to goods and services acquired for personal, family, or household purposes. Accordingly, for consumer subscriptions: the automatic renewal terms, the recurring charge, and the cancellation method are presented clearly and conspicuously, in visual proximity to the request for consent, before the consumer is charged; the consumer gives affirmative consent to those terms separately from any other terms; the consumer receives an acknowledgment after purchase that includes the automatic renewal terms and the cancellation method in a retainable form; and the consumer may cancel online, through the same medium used to subscribe, without speaking to a representative and without completing any retention flow to reach the cancellation. Where Section 17602(b) of that Code requires a reminder, we send one identifying the upcoming charge, the renewal terms and the cancellation method within the window that section sets: three to twenty-one days before a free or discounted period longer than thirty-one days expires, and fifteen to forty-five days before a plan with an initial term of a year or longer renews. Where a consumer subscription begins with a free trial or promotional period longer than thirty-one (31) days, we send a reminder of the upcoming charge and the cancellation method before the trial converts to a paid subscription.
• Subscriptions purchased by law firms, professionals, and other business customers are acquired for business purposes and therefore fall outside the scope of that statute. Their renewal, notice, and cancellation terms are governed by the Terms of Service. Where a subscriber is an individual purchasing for personal, family, or household purposes, the consumer terms in the preceding paragraph apply.
• Fees charged to law firms and other professionals are flat subscription or flat listing fees; a basic directory listing claimed under the Expert and Vendor Portal Terms is free today, and any fee later introduced is charged only after acceptance, as Section D.4 of those Terms provides. No fee is contingent on a professional being contacted by, or retained by, any consumer, and no invoice line is generated from any client a professional obtains. Apart from the subscription, usage and add-on fees described in this policy, the only other amount Octicase receives in connection with the platform is the fee an expert, consultant or partner pays Octicase on a Platform Engagement, which is a fee for platform services payable by that seller, is fixed when the engagement is formed, and does not vary with any consumer's contact with, or retention of, any professional or with the outcome of any matter.