Terms of Service

VakilBox is a practice-management service for advocates and law firms in India. It is run by [legal name of the company], [registered office address] (“VakilBox”, “we”, “us”).

These terms are a contract between us and the firm or advocate that registers (“the firm”, “you”). They cover the website, the web app, the Android app, the client portal and every related service (together, “the service”).

By ticking the box at sign-up, or by using the service, the person registering confirms they may bind the firm, and the firm accepts these terms, the Data Processing Agreement and the renewal, cancellation and refund rules. The Privacy notice explains how we handle personal data.

• Firm data: everything the firm and its people put into the service — cases, clients, hearings, documents, notes, fees, messages — and anything the service creates from it.
• Member: a person the firm adds: partners, associates, clerks, interns, accounts staff and outside experts.
• Client: a person or organisation the firm represents and invites to the client portal.
• Plan: the subscription the firm chooses (for example Solo, Chamber, Firm or Enterprise), with its seats, limits and price.
• Seat: one member who can sign in. Clients in the portal do not use seats.

1. The service is for practising advocates, law firms, legal departments and their staff. Every member must be at least 18 years old.
2. The firm decides who becomes a member, what role each member has, and what each member may see. The firm is responsible for what its members do in the service.
3. Each member signs in with their own mobile number or e-mail and password. Passwords must not be shared. Tell us at once at support@vakilbox.com if you think an account has been misused.
4. The managing partner (or the person the firm names as administrator) manages the subscription, members, exports and closure.

A new firm gets a 14-day free trial with the limits shown on the pricing page. No payment details are needed for the trial.

If the firm does not choose a plan by the end of the trial, the account becomes read-only. Members can still sign in, read, search, print and export everything. Nothing is deleted because a trial ends.

1. Prices, seats and limits for each plan are on the pricing page and on the firm’s Subscription screen. The price shown before payment is the price charged.
2. Prices are in Indian rupees and do not include GST. GST at the applicable rate (currently 18%) is added and shown on every invoice. Firms outside India are billed in US dollars, with taxes as the law of their country requires.
3. Adding a seat during a billing period is charged for the days left in that period. Removing a seat, or moving to a smaller plan, takes effect from the next renewal.
4. Some plans include a monthly allowance of metered items, such as WhatsApp messages, scanned pages read and case-number look-ups. Use beyond the allowance is charged at the rates on the pricing page and shown on the next invoice. Extra use is on by default; the managing partner can switch it off on the Subscription screen, and the feature then pauses until the next period. We warn the firm at 80% and at 100% of each allowance.
5. We may change prices for future periods. We will tell the managing partner at least 30 days before a new price applies. The new price applies from the next renewal after that notice. If the firm does not agree, it may cancel before that renewal.
6. We send a GST tax invoice for every payment. A firm that gives its GSTIN gets it printed on the invoice.

1. Plans renew automatically every month or every year, as chosen, until the firm cancels. The firm authorises us and our payment providers to charge the saved payment method at each renewal.
2. Payments are taken by Razorpay (India) or Stripe (outside India) on their own secure pages. Card and bank details go to them, never to us. Recurring payments in India follow the Reserve Bank of India’s rules for e-mandates, including any notice before a debit and any extra approval the bank asks for.
3. If a renewal payment fails, we try again over the following days and tell the managing partner each time. If payment still has not succeeded, the account enters a 7-day grace period with full use, and then becomes read-only until payment is made.
4. Read-only never blocks export, and alerts for statutory deadlines keep working, because missing a court date over a billing problem is not acceptable.

The managing partner can cancel renewal at any time from the Subscription screen. The plan stays active until the end of the period already paid for. Refunds follow the renewal, cancellation and refund rules.

The firm can also close its account. After closure, firm data is kept for 90 days so the firm can change its mind or take a final export. It is then deleted, and we issue a certificate of what was deleted. The Data Processing Agreement sets out the details.

1. Firm data belongs to the firm. We claim no ownership of it.
2. The firm gives us permission to store, process and transmit firm data only to provide, secure and support the service, as the firm instructs through its use of the service and as the Data Processing Agreement sets out. That agreement forms part of these terms.
3. Our staff cannot read case data. A support person can see named cases only if the firm’s administrator grants a time-limited support session, which the firm can end at any time and which is recorded.
4. The firm can export all its data at any time, in any account state, as a zip file holding every table in CSV and JSON, with a checksum for each file so its completeness can be checked.
5. We may use counts and measurements that do not identify any firm, member, client or case (for example, how many hearings were recorded in a month across the service) to run and improve the service.

1. VakilBox is a software tool. We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice. Nothing in the service creates an advocate–client relationship with us.
2. Court dates, cause-list entries, deadline calculations, holiday calendars, drafts, document readings, summaries and other suggestions are aids. They can be wrong or late, for example when a court’s own system is wrong, late or unavailable. The advocate must check every date and every filing against the court’s official record and the law.
3. Features that use artificial intelligence produce drafts and suggestions only. A qualified person must review them before they are used or sent.
4. The firm is responsible for its duties to its clients and courts, including confidentiality, conflict checks, fee arrangements, notices and consent required by law, and what it shares with clients through the portal.

The firm and its members must not use the service to:

• break any law, a court’s order, or the Bar Council of India Rules;
• advertise or solicit work in a way the Bar Council of India Rules do not allow;
• upload malware, or try to break into, overload, test the security of, or work around the limits of the service without our written permission;
• copy, resell or reverse-engineer the service, or use it to build a competing product;
• collect data about other firms or their members;
• store material the firm has no right to hold, or send messages the recipient has not agreed to receive.

Some features let advocates from different firms work together, for example to ask for appearance cover (the proxy network) or to share anonymised notes.

1. Only enrolled advocates may take part. Each is responsible for their own conduct under the Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bar Council of India Rules.
2. Fees for cover are agreed between advocates. No fee may be shared with anyone who is not an advocate, and the service must not be used to pay or receive referral fees that the Bar Council of India Rules forbid.
3. Before sharing any detail of a client’s matter with another firm, the advocate must have the client’s consent where the law or professional rules require it. Share only what the other advocate needs to appear.
4. Anonymised notes must not identify a client, a party or a case. We may remove any post that breaks these rules.

The firm decides which clients to invite and what each client sees. Clients use the portal under these terms as the firm’s guests. The firm is responsible for giving its clients any notice and getting any consent the law requires before their data is processed or shared with them.

1. We work to keep the service available at all times, but we do not promise it will never be interrupted. We announce planned maintenance in advance in the app and on the status page where we can.
2. The Android app keeps a copy of the firm’s data on the phone so it can be used without signal. Changes made offline reach the firm when the phone next connects.
3. Support is by e-mail at support@vakilbox.com and in the app. Plans that include priority support get faster replies, as described on the pricing page. Enterprise plans may have a separate written service level.
4. We may change or improve features. We will not remove a feature that is central to a paid plan during a period the firm has already paid for.

We protect firm data with the safeguards described in the Data Processing Agreement and on the Trust & security page. The firm must protect its own devices and accounts: use the app lock, keep passwords private, remove members who leave, and report lost phones so they can be signed out and wiped.

We own the service, its software, design and content, other than firm data. We give the firm a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service during its subscription, for its own legal practice. Suggestions the firm sends us may be used to improve the service without any payment or obligation.

The service relies on other providers, for example for hosting, storage, payments and messaging. They are listed in the Data Processing Agreement. Court websites and government systems are run by others; we are not responsible for what they publish or when they are unavailable.

Each side keeps the other’s confidential information private and uses it only for this contract. Firm data is always confidential. This does not cover information that is public through no fault of the receiving side, or that the law or a court requires to be disclosed; in that case, where the law allows, the receiving side tells the other first.

We will provide the service with reasonable skill and care, and in line with its description.

Apart from that and to the extent the law allows, the service is provided “as is”. We do not promise that it will be free of errors, that it will meet every need, or that information taken from courts or other third parties will be complete, correct or on time.

1. Neither side is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, business, goodwill or opportunity.
2. Our total liability under or in connection with these terms in any 12 months is limited to the fees the firm paid us for the service in those 12 months.
3. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, to fraud, or to a firm’s duty to pay fees.

The firm will compensate us for third-party claims, and the costs of defending them, that arise from firm data the firm had no right to use, or from the firm or its members breaking the law, the Bar Council of India Rules or the acceptable-use rules. We will compensate the firm for third-party claims that the service itself, used as these terms allow, infringes their intellectual property rights.

1. We may suspend an account, or the part of it at risk, if it is being used to break the law or these terms, or if this is needed to stop a security threat. We will tell the managing partner why, and restore access once the problem is fixed. Export stays available unless a court or authority orders otherwise.
2. Either side may end the contract if the other seriously breaks it and does not put it right within 30 days of written notice.
3. When the contract ends, the data rules in the Data Processing Agreement apply. Clauses that by their nature should continue (fees owed, confidentiality, liability, disputes) survive.

We may update these terms. For changes that reduce the firm’s rights, we will tell the managing partner in the app and by e-mail at least 30 days before they apply. The version number and date at the top of this page change with every update. If the firm does not agree, it may cancel before the change applies; continuing to use the service after that date means the firm accepts the change.

These terms are governed by the laws of India.

Both sides will first try to settle any dispute by talking for 30 days. If that fails, the dispute will be decided by arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, by one arbitrator appointed by agreement. The seat and venue of arbitration will be [city], and the language English. Subject to this, the courts at [city] have exclusive jurisdiction.

• Notices: we send notices to the managing partner’s e-mail and in the app. The firm sends notices to support@vakilbox.com.
• Events beyond control: neither side is responsible for delay caused by events it cannot reasonably control, such as natural disasters, war, government action or failure of public networks.
• Transfer: the firm may not transfer this contract without our written consent. We may transfer it to a company that takes over the service, and will tell the firm.
• Whole agreement: these terms, the Data Processing Agreement, the refund rules and any signed order form are the whole agreement. If an order form differs, the order form wins for that point.
• Severability: if a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest stays in force.

Questions about these terms: support@vakilbox.com. Privacy and grievances: grievance@vakilbox.com. Post: [legal name of the company], [registered office address].