What this covers
These terms apply to the free complaint builder at carveresq.com/civil-litigation/build and to the pages where you read back the draft it produces. They are an addition to the Carver Esq. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, not a replacement for them: those two documents govern your use of this site, and this one states the things that are true only of the builder. Where this document and the Terms of Use address the same subject, this one controls for the builder.
Nothing you enter in this builder is published, listed, shared or shown to anyone. The tool has no mechanism to publish a draft and never asks you whether to, and the draft is stored private. Any other tool, policy or service, whether reached from this site or not, is a separate thing and its terms are not these.
Document assembly, not legal advice
This is a document-assembly tool. It is not legal advice, and it does not tell you whether you have a case. You answer questions about your own dispute and it returns a complaint you can print, sign and file, together with the forms your court requires, the filing fee and the rule that sets it, and the rules on who may serve the papers.
Using it does not retain any attorney and creates no attorney-client relationship with Carver Esq., with Eric Adar Carver, or with anyone. Nothing you type here is a confidential communication to a lawyer, and none of it is protected by the attorney-client privilege. Nothing here predicts or assesses the outcome of your case.
No attorney reads your answers or reviews what this produces, unless you separately hire the attorney under a signed engagement letter.
The attorney's package is a separate engagement
The page above the builder also offers a flat-fee package in which the attorney drafts the complaint, files it and makes the first appearance. That is the practice of law and it is a different transaction entirely: it begins with a conflicts check and a signed engagement letter, and it is governed by that letter and the firm's Terms of Use rather than by this document.
Using the free builder is not a step toward that engagement and does not begin one. It gives you no claim on the attorney's time, creates no duty on the attorney's part, and does not put the attorney on notice of your matter. If you want the attorney to act for you, the engagement letter is the only way that happens.
You are the one who files
The builder does not file anything, does not transmit your documents to any court, and does not serve anyone. You print the complaint, you sign it, you submit it yourself, and you arrange for the papers to be served. California's electronic filing runs through providers where the account must be in your own name, so no website can submit on your behalf.
Deadlines are yours to meet. The tool states the rule and what the deadline runs from; it does not compute a date for your case, because a computed deadline would be an opinion about your matter.
Every document the builder produces is signed by the person bringing the action, in propria persona. If you have a lawyer, this tool is not for you, and if you are a lawyer filing for a client it is not for you either.
Three California courts, and nothing else
The builder covers the Superior Courts of Los Angeles County, San Francisco County and Alameda County. It offers no other court, in California or anywhere else, and a packet it produces is formatted for one of those three. If your matter belongs somewhere else, this tool cannot help you and does not try to decide the question for you.
Court fees, forms and local rules change, and local practice is not always written down. Every form, fee and deadline in the tool cites the court, statute or rule it came from and the date it was read. Verify each one against the court's own source before you file. Whether a filing is accepted is the clerk's decision and whether a claim succeeds is the court's.
Nothing is charged, and no fee passes through this site
The builder is free. There is no fee, no subscription and no payment step, and nothing in it takes a card. The court's filing fee goes to the court. A process server's fee goes to the server, at a price you agree with them. Neither passes through this site, and the firm takes no part of either.
Your draft link is the only credential, and it cannot be recovered
A draft is reached by a single secret link. There is no account, no password and no email address, which means there is no way to prove to us that a draft is yours and no way for us to send you a new link. If you lose the link you lose access to that draft permanently. Save it somewhere you will find it again, and treat it the way you would treat a password: anyone who has it can read what you typed.
What the builder stores, what it encrypts, and what it strips from an uploaded photograph are described in the Carver Esq. Privacy Policy.
Acceptable use
Use the builder for your own dispute. Do not use it to prepare documents for anyone else, whether for a fee or not, and do not use it to file anything you know to be false. Do not attempt to reach drafts that are not yours, to defeat the rate limits, or to extract the tool's court data in bulk.
No warranty, and the limit of the firm's liability
The builder is provided as is. The firm does not warrant that a document it assembles will be accepted by any court, that the court data in it is current, or that the tool is suitable for your matter. To the fullest extent the law allows, Carver Esq. and Eric Adar Carver are not liable for any loss arising from your use of the builder, including a rejected filing, a missed deadline or an adverse result. Nothing in this paragraph limits any liability that cannot be limited under California law, including under the Rules of Professional Conduct.
Governing law, changes and contact
These terms are governed by California law, and the venue provisions of the Carver Esq. Terms of Use apply to them. If they change materially the effective date above changes with them, and the prior version stops applying from that date; your continued use of the builder after that date is your acceptance of the current version.
Questions about this document go to adar@carveresq.com. A question about your own dispute is not something the firm can answer without an engagement, and sending one does not create one.