Terms of use

Your Acceptance

These are the terms on which Maurice Blackburn permits users (referred to as you or your) to:

(a)  access and use the Maurice Blackburn website at https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au including any subdomains (Website), and Maurice Blackburn's services and functionality made available through the Website;

(b)  access and use any online platform, portal or chatbot operated or made available by Maurice Blackburn, including any artificial intelligence or automated system functionality (Platform);

(c)   view and interact with any content, information, communications, advice, text or other material provided by Maurice Blackburn through the Website or the Platform, including any outputs generated by the Platform (MB Content);

(d)  upload content, including information, content, text or other material to the Website or the Platform (User Content); and

(e)  communicate with Maurice Blackburn, whether through the Website, the Platform or otherwise.

You agree to be bound by these terms when you use, browse or access any part of the Website or the Platform.

Maurice Blackburn may from time to time review and update these terms including to take account of new laws, products or technology. Your use of the Website and the Platform will be governed by the most recent terms posted on the Website or the Platform and provided to you via the Website or the Platform. By continuing to use the Website or the Platform, you agree to be bound by the most recent terms.

Description and Scope

1.  The Website is only a general guide to legal issues and it is not a substitute for legal advice.

2.  To reflect changes to its services, the law or its business or operational priorities, Maurice Blackburn may modify the Website or the Platform or their contents, or suspend or discontinue the Website or the Platform (or any feature of them) at any time without notice or liability, subject to any separate agreement we may have made with you about the Platform.

3.  The Platform is an automated system that uses artificial intelligence and related technologies to facilitate certain interactions with users, including but not limited to providing general information, collecting preliminary details, triaging enquiries and facilitating matches and referrals. The types of interactions supported by the Platform may change from time to time at Maurice Blackburn’s discretion.

Service Availability and Support

4.  Subject to clause 2, Maurice Blackburn will use reasonable endeavours to make the Website and the Platform available on a continuous basis, however Maurice Blackburn does not guarantee any minimum uptime or availability of either the Website or the Platform.

5.  The Website and the Platform may be unavailable from time to time due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, upgrades, system failures, or circumstances beyond Maurice Blackburn’s control. Where reasonably practicable, Maurice Blackburn will provide advance notice of scheduled maintenance windows.

6.  Although you may browse the Website without creating an account or providing your details, in order to access certain features and functionality of the Website or the Platform, you may have to:

(a)  verify your identity; or

(b)  register as a user and obtain an account (Account) by providing all of the information required at registration (including your personal details) and agreeing to these terms. You warrant that you are of legal age to form a binding contract in the place where you are accessing the Website or the Platform.

7.  You agree to notify Maurice Blackburn if your password is lost, stolen, disclosed to an unauthorised third party, or otherwise compromised. You agree that you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your Account.

Acceptable Use

8.  You must not:

(a)  bypass (or attempt to bypass) any security mechanisms imposed by the Website or the Platform;

(b)  use the Website or the Platform in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage or impair the Website or Platform or interfere with any other party’s use of the Website or the Platform including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Website or the Platform;

(c)  remove, modify or obscure any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary right notices that appear on the Website or the Platform;

(d)  use the Website or the Platform in a manner which is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory or otherwise objectionable, or which would infringe the rights of another person including any intellectual property rights of any other person;

(e)  use any automated means, including bots, crawlers, scrapers or similar technologies, to access, extract, scrape, harvest or index any data or content from the Website or the Platform (including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website or the Platform) or for any other unauthorised purpose, in each case without the prior written consent of Maurice Blackburn;

(f)   attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise derive the source code, algorithms or underlying models of the Website or the Platform;

(g)  input or upload any content to the Platform that is:

(i)  comprised of child exploitation material, pro-terror material, extreme crime and violence material, crime and violence material, or drug-related material; or

(ii)  otherwise unlawful, infringing, defamatory, obscene, harmful to minors, or that contains malware, viruses or other harmful code;

(h)  use the Platform to generate content for any purpose that is illegal or that would cause harm to any person;

(i)  misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person or entity when using the Website or the Platform;

(j)  use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Website or the Platform;

(k)  introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, spyware, computer code, file, program or material which is malicious or technologically harmful;

(l)  attempt to gain unauthorised access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Website or the Platform, the server on which the Website or the Platform is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Website or the Platform;

(m)  attack the Website or the Platform via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack; or

(n)  otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website or the Platform.

9.    You must not copy, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, license, sell, transfer or otherwise exploit any code, algorithms, models, software or other technology that Maurice Blackburn (or its licensors) uses to generate, operate or deliver the Website or the Platform or any pages, features or outputs of the Website or the Platform, except with the prior written consent of Maurice Blackburn.

10.  You shall not 'frame' or 'mirror' any materials or third party content contained on or accessible from the Website or the Platform on any other server or internet based device without advance written authorisation from Maurice Blackburn.

11.  Maurice Blackburn reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to restrict, suspend or terminate your access to the Website or the Platform, with or without notice, if you breach any of the acceptable use provisions set out in these terms.

12.  Maurice Blackburn may monitor your use of the Website and Platform, including any data or content submitted or transmitted through the Website and the Platform for purposes of ensuring compliance with these terms, maintaining quality and services standards and improving Maurice Blackburn’s services (including through the use of data for training purposes). Upon any breach of these terms, or inappropriate use of Maurice Blackburn's services, the Website or the Platform as determined by Maurice Blackburn in its sole discretion, Maurice Blackburn reserves the right to terminate your Account.

13.  Any personal information submitted by you (whether personal information of you or another individual which you have the necessary consents to provide) to Maurice Blackburn through the Website or the Platform is subject to and may be handled in accordance with Maurice Blackburn's Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy can be found at https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/privacy. You agree that, by using the Website, the Platform or communicating with Maurice Blackburn, you have read the Privacy Policy, understood its contents and consented to its requirements.

14.  The Website and the Platform are not intended for use by persons under the age of 15 years. If you are under 15 years of age, you must not use the Website or the Platform unless you have the consent of your parent or legal guardian. By using the Website or the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are at least 15 years of age or, if you are under 15, that you have obtained the consent of your parent or legal guardian.

15.  You must not upload any personal information of another individual to the Website or the Platform unless you first make the individual aware of Maurice Blackburn's Privacy Policy and have the individual’s consent to upload such personal information.

Platform Acknowledgement

16.  The Platform uses artificial intelligence and automated technologies to generate responses and outputs. While Maurice Blackburn uses reasonable endeavours to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the Platform, you acknowledge and agree that the outputs generated by the Platform:

(a)  may not be error free;

(b)  may be incomplete or inaccurate; and

(c)  do not constitute legal, financial or other professional advice.

You should independently verify any information or outputs provided by the Platform.

Liability

17.  These terms and conditions are subject to guarantees, warranties and liabilities that cannot by law be excluded. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred on you by the Australian Consumer Law being Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or any other applicable law that cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by agreement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the liability of Maurice Blackburn for a breach of such a non-excludable guarantee is limited to, at Maurice Blackburn’s option:

(a)  the supplying of the services again; or

(b)  the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

18.  Subject to clause 17, the maximum aggregate liability of Maurice Blackburn for all losses and claims arising out of or in connection with the use of the Website or the Platform, including liability for breach, in negligence or in tort or for any other common law or statutory action, is limited to the sum of $100.

19.  Maurice Blackburn does not provide and has no control over communications, networks or services, the internet or other technology required or used across the Website or the Platform and accepts no responsibility for any direct or indirect loss in any form associated with them, whether due to congestion, technical malfunction, viruses or otherwise.

20.  Maurice Blackburn will not be liable for any loss caused by your failure to complete an application for our services via the Website.

21.  To the maximum extent permitted by law and subject to clause 17, Maurice Blackburn will not be liable for any loss or damages (including direct, indirect, consequential, incidental and exemplary) arising from or in connection with:

(a)  any unavailability of the Website or the Platform by virtue of interruption, suspension or termination;

(b)  your use of the Website or the Platform (including services and functionality made available through the Website or the Platform, MB Content or User Content), including loss caused by your failure to provide all information required if applicable

(c)  any deficiency or inaccuracy in the Website attributable to a lack of maintenance of the Website;

(d)  the accuracy, sufficiency or otherwise of your application for our professional services via the Website;

(e)  your application for employment with Maurice Blackburn (which may be advertised on our Website from time to time), including where you are not given or do not obtain a position for any reason; or

(f)  the misuse of your passwords or Accounts.

22.  On lodging User Content, you indemnify Maurice Blackburn and its officers, employees and agents against any claim, demand, injury, direct or indirect damage, loss or cost, liability, right of action or claim for compensation in contract, under statute or in tort (including negligence) made against or suffered by any of those indemnified arising, in whole or in part, as a result of:

(a)  any activity that is expressed in these terms and conditions to be your responsibility; or

(b)  your breach of these terms and conditions.

Intellectual Property

23.  All intellectual property rights including copyright in the Website, the Platform and MB Content are owned or licensed by Maurice Blackburn or any of its related entities. You may not sell or modify, reproduce, display, distribute, or otherwise use the MB Content on this Website or the Platform in any way for any public or commercial purpose without the express written authorisation of Maurice Blackburn.

24.  All data, outputs and other content generated by the Platform (Platform Data) is owned by Maurice Blackburn.

25.  By inputting User Content into the Platform, you grant Maurice Blackburn a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt and process that User Content for the purposes of:

(a)  operating and providing the Website or Platform;

(b)  improving, developing and enhancing the Website, Platform or Maurice Blackburn’s other products and services; and

(c)  creating general insights, analytics or reports.

26.  You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights, consents and permissions to grant the licence in clause 25 and that the User Content does not infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of any third party.

Third Party Components and Websites

27.  The Website and/or the Platform may contain links to other websites. We have not reviewed all of the third party websites linked on the Website or the Platform and are not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of their content or accuracy (including websites linked through advertisements). Maurice Blackburn provides those links as a ready reference for searching for third party goods and services on the internet and not as an endorsement, support or sponsorship of those web sites, their operators, the goods, services or content that they describe.

28.  The Website and/or the Platform may incorporate or rely on third party software, services, application programming interfaces, artificial intelligence models or other components (Third Party Components). Maurice Blackburn does not warrant or represent that any Third Party Components will be available, accurate, reliable or free from error. To the maximum extent permitted by law and subject to clause 17, Maurice Blackburn is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of any loss or damage arising from or in connection with any Third Party Components.

29.  Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, YouTube and other third party websites which are linked to the Website or the Platform, are not covered by these terms, and may have their own terms and conditions and privacy policy. If you choose to access these third party linked sites, you do so at your own risk. Maurice Blackburn is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of the content or operation of those websites or any of the goods, services or content that they describe. Maurice Blackburn is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of any incorrect link to an external website.

Complaints

30.  If you have a complaint about the Website, the Platform or these terms, you may submit your complaint to Maurice Blackburn by:

(a)  Phone at 1800 111 222; or

(b)  Email at contact@mauriceblackburn.com.au.

Scams and Fraudulent Activity

31.  Scam or fraudulent emails often implement domain names similar to those of genuine law firms.

32.  Legitimate emails from Maurice Blackburn exclusively come from the domain of ‘@mauriceblackburn.com.au’.  This extends to invoices sent by email. 

33.  Act with caution if you receive an unsolicited or suspicious email or invoice and if you are in any doubt, please call 1800 111 222 or your usual Maurice Blackburn contact to alert us of the suspicious activity and to confirm the legitimacy of the email communication.

34.  Beyond Maurice Blackburn, you can also report any scam or fraudulent activity you encounter to the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s online platform, ReportCyber https://www.cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report.

General

35.  We make no representation or warranty that any offering or content accessible through the Website or the Platform is appropriate or available for use in locations outside Australia. If you choose to access the Website or the Platform from other locations, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. You are not authorised to access the Website or the Platform from any location where doing so would be illegal.

36.  You understand that some countries have import restrictions on certain goods or materials. If you are outside Australia, you will be responsible for checking whether such restrictions apply before using the Website or the Platform, downloading MB Content or uploading User Content. If you are outside Australia, you will become the importer and will be liable to pay local taxes or duties, and you will assume all liability under any customs or import laws and regulations.

37.  You warrant that all information you provide on the Website or the Platform is accurate and does not breach any law or the rights of any person.

38.  You warrant that you have not relied on any representation made by Maurice Blackburn which has not been expressly stated in these terms and conditions, or upon any descriptions, illustrations or specifications contained in any document including publicity material produced by Maurice Blackburn.

39.  These terms are governed by and must be construed in accordance with the laws in force in the State of Victoria, Australia. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State and the Commonwealth of Australia in respect of all matters arising out of or relating to these terms, its performance or subject matter.

40.  If any provision of these terms is held to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be severed from these terms to the extent of such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability, and the remaining provisions of these terms shall continue in full force and effect.

41.  A failure or delay by Maurice Blackburn to exercise any right or remedy under these terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or remedy. A waiver by Maurice Blackburn of any right or remedy under these terms is only effective if it is in writing and does not operate as a waiver of any other right or remedy.