Terms of use

Effective Date: July 15, 2016

Thank you for visiting our website. Our website provides information about the legal services that we offer, general information and resources, and allows you to contact us. All references to "Firm," "we," "us," or "our" refer Environmental Litigation Group, P.C.  and our affiliated and related entities. Please read these Terms of Use carefully. They are legally binding terms and conditions under which you may access and use the website. If you do not agree to abide by these Terms, stop using this website.

These Terms of Use govern your use of our website including, without limitation, both mobile and online versions of our website. By using our website, you accept and consent to the collection and use of your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By using our website, you further agree that we may change, alter, or modify the settings or configurations on your Device in order to allow for or optimize your use of the website.

We reserve the right to terminate or limit your access to the website for any violation of these Terms, or for any other reason, at our sole discretion.

1. Legal notices and disclaimers

No attorney-client relationship is created by your use of the website

No attorney-client relationship is or may be created by your access to or use of the website or any information contained on it. The only way to become our client is through a mutual agreement in writing. Any information you submit via the website will not be considered confidential and may be subject to applicable disclosure and reporting requirements, as required by law.

Call us or otherwise contact us so we can determine whether the matter is one for which we are willing or able to accept professional responsibility. The website includes a submission form through which you can request that we contact you about potential representation, and a phone number that you can use to contact us.

Do not submit confidential or sensitive information

If you submit information to us in any way through our website in connection with a matter for which we do not presently represent you, you acknowledge that it will not be considered to be confidential and consent to our sharing it with other law firms to determine whether we will agree to represent you. We cannot represent you until we know that doing so will not create a conflict-of-interest.

Do not send us any information about any matter that may involve you or the matter until you and we enter into an engagement letter or other written agreement stating that we agree to represent you. We reserve the right to decline any representation, and may be required to decline representation if it would create a conflict of interest with our other clients.

Do not rely on the information contained on the website

The information provided on the website is general in nature and does not apply to any particular factual, legal, medical, financial, insurance, or other situation. As such, you should not rely on any information on our website, and should seek professional advice as you determine appropriate. In particular, you should consult personally and directly with appropriate medical, health, counseling, or other professionals for any medical, health, counseling, or other similar advice.

Any opinions expressed may not reflect the opinions of the Firm or any individual attorney. Although we strive to keep the content on the website relevant and useful, laws are often changing, and we cannot guarantee that all of the content is complete, accurate or current.

2. Third-party content and sites

The website, including User-Generated Content, may contain links to third-party sites and ads (collectively, "Third-Party Sites") that are not owned, controlled or operated by the Firm, including Third-Party Sites operated by advertisers, licensors, licensees, and other third parties such as our service providers or parties who have business relationships with the Firm.

We may have no control over the content, operations, policies, terms, or other elements of Third-Party Sites, and the Firm does not assume any obligation to review any Third-Party Sites. We do not endorse, approve, or sponsor any Third-Party Sites, or any third-party content, advertising, information, materials, products, services or other items.

Furthermore, we are not responsible for the quality or delivery of the products or services offered, accessed, obtained by or advertised at such Third-Party Sites. Any activities you engage in connection with any of the same are subject to the privacy and other policies, terms and conditions of use and/or sale, and rules issued by the operator of the Third-Party Sites.

3. User generated content

The Firm may now or in the future offer website users the opportunity to create, build, post, upload, display, publish, distribute, transmit, broadcast, or otherwise make available on or submit through the website (collectively, "submit") messages, text, illustrations, files, images, articles, graphics, photos, comments, responses, audio, videos, information, content, ratings, reviews, data, questions, suggestions, personally identifiable information, or other information or materials and the ideas contained therein (collectively, "User-Generated Content"). Subject to the rights and license you grant in these Terms, you retain whatever legally cognizable right, title, and interest that you have in your User-Generated Content and you remain ultimately responsible for it.

You agree that:

  • Your User-Generated Content will be treated as non-confidential - regardless of whether you mark them "confidential" "proprietary," or the like - and will not be returned, and
  • The Firm does not assume any obligation of any kind to you or any third party with respect to your User-Generated Content.

License to the firm of your user-generated content

You hereby grant to the Firm, the non-exclusive, unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, and cost-free right and license to use, copy, record, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, re-sell, sublicense (through multiple levels), display, publicly perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, translate, make derivative works of, and otherwise use and exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User-Generated Content (and derivative works thereof), for any purpose whatsoever in all formats, on or through any means or medium now known or hereafter developed, and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed, and to advertise, market, and promote the same.

Without limitation, the granted rights include the right to:

  • Configure, host, index, cache, archive, store, digitize, compress, optimize, modify, reformat, edit, adapt, summarize, publish in searchable format, and remove such User-Generated Content and combine same with other materials; and
  • Use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any User-Generated Content for any purposes whatsoever, including developing, producing, and marketing products and/or services.

In order to further effect the rights and license that you grant to the Firm to your User-Generated Content, you also hereby grant to the Firm, and agree to grant to the Firm, the unconditional, perpetual, irrevocable right to use and exploit your name, persona, and likeness in connection with any User-Generated Content, without any obligation or remuneration to you.

4. Restrictions on use

Use restrictions for the website

You agree that you will not:

  • Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, reverse assemble, or modify any website's source or object code or any software or other products, website, or processes accessible through any portion of the website;
  • Engage in any activity that interferes with a user's access to the website or the proper operation of the website, or otherwise causes harm to the website, the Firm, or other users of the website;
  • Interfere with or circumvent any security feature of the website or any feature that restricts or enforces limitations on use of or access to the website, the Content, or the User-Generated Content;
  • Harvest or otherwise collect or store any information (including personally identifiable information about other users of the website, including e-mail addresses, without the express consent of such users);
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the website, other computer systems or networks connected to the website, through password mining or any other means; or
  • Otherwise violate these Terms.

You also agree that, in using the website:

  • You will not monitor, gather, copy, or distribute the Content(except as may be a result of standard search engine activity or use of a standard browser) on the website by using any robot, rover, "bot", spider, scraper, crawler, spyware, engine, device, software, extraction tool, or any other automatic device, utility, or manual process of any kind;
  • You will not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any such Content (including any images, text, or page layout);
  • You will keep intact all trademark, copyright, and other intellectual property notices contained in such Content;
  • You will not use such Content in a manner that suggests an unauthorized association with any of our or our licensors' products, website, or brands;
  • You will not make any modifications to such Content; and
  • You will not insert any code or product to manipulate such Content in any way that adversely affects any user experience.

We may immediately suspend or terminate the availability of the website and Content (and any elements and features of it), in whole or in part, for any reason, in the Firm's sole discretion, and without advance notice or liability. These Terms include only narrow, limited grants of rights to Content and to use and access the website. All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved by the firm and its licensors and other third parties. Any unauthorized use of any Content or the website for any purpose is prohibited.

5. Governing law

These Terms are to be governed by and construed in accord with the laws of the Commonwealth of Alabama, USA, without regard to choice of law principles.

6. Updates to our terms

THESE TERMS, IN THE FORM POSTED AT THE TIME OF YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE, SHALL GOVERN SUCH USE. AS OUR WEBSITE EVOLVES, THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH WE OFFER THE WEBSITE MAY BE MODIFIED AND WE MAY CEASE OFFERING THE WEBSITE UNDER THE TERMS FOR WHICH THEY WERE PREVIOUSLY OFFERED. ACCORDINGLY, EACH TIME YOU SIGN IN TO OR OTHERWISE USE THE WEBSITE YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A NEW AGREEMENT WITH US ON THE THEN APPLICABLE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND YOU AGREE THAT WE MAY NOTIFY YOU OF OTHER TERMS BY POSTING THEM ON THE WEBSITE (OR IN ANY OTHER REASONABLE MANNER OF NOTICE WHICH WE ELECT), AND THAT YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE AFTER SUCH NOTICE CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE CURRENT TERMS FOR YOUR NEW USE AND TRANSACTIONS.

YOU SHOULD REVIEW THE TERMS OF USE EACH TIME YOU USE THE WEBSITE (AT LEAST PRIOR TO EACH TRANSACTION OR SUBMISSION). ADDITIONAL TERMS WILL BE EFFECTIVE AS TO NEW USE AND TRANSACTIONS AS OF THE TIME THAT WE POST THEM, OR SUCH LATER DATE AS MAY BE SPECIFIED IN THEM OR IN OTHER NOTICE TO YOU.

IN THE EVENT ANY NOTICE TO YOU OF NEW, REVISED OR ADDITIONAL TERMS IS DETERMINED BY A TRIBUNAL TO BE INSUFFICIENT, THE PRIOR AGREEMENT SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL SUFFICIENT NOTICE TO ESTABLISH A NEW AGREEMENT OCCURS. YOU SHOULD FREQUENTLY CHECK THE HOME PAGE, WHICH YOU AGREE IS A REASONABLE MANNER OF PROVIDING YOU NOTICE. YOU CAN REJECT ANY NEW, REVISED OR ADDITIONAL TERMS BY DISCONTINUING USE OF THE WEBSITE AND RELATED SERVICES.