Dashboard Membership Terms & Conditions (South Africa)

Scope

These terms govern paid Lawryse membership and use of the member Dashboard. Gold Reserved Placement, advertising bookings, Guest Articles and LARIA participation have their own terms that apply when those services are used.

1. About these terms

These Dashboard Membership Terms and Conditions form an agreement between Lawryse (Pty) Limited (Lawryse, we, us) and the attorney or other legal professional who holds the membership account (the Member, you). Membership is per attorney: each person has their own account.

You accept these terms by creating or activating an account, adding your card, completing checkout, ticking the acceptance box or continuing to use the Dashboard after being notified of an updated version. The Billing Policy and the Privacy Policy form part of this agreement. Service-specific terms prevail for that service if they address the same subject more specifically.

2. Eligibility and verification

Membership is intended for South African attorneys and other legal professionals whom Lawryse admits in a stated role. You must give accurate, current and lawful professional information, including your practising status.

Lawryse may reasonably verify your professional standing, practising status, identity and any firm authority you claim. A public profile may be delayed, hidden or removed if information is incomplete, inaccurate, misleading, out of date or cannot reasonably be verified. You must promptly tell Lawryse about changes affecting your professional status, firm affiliation or contact details.

3. Your account, sign-in and firm pages

Your account is yours alone. You can sign up with an email address and password or with Google. You are responsible for your credentials and for everything done through your account, and you may not share your login.

A firm page is optional and free. You may link your account to a firm page so that your profile shows where you work. Linking to a firm page does not make the firm the holder of your membership, and the firm does not become responsible for your account or payments unless Lawryse agrees otherwise in writing.

4. Plans, benefits and fair use

There are two membership plans, Standard and Premium. The benefits of each are shown on the Compare plans page in the Dashboard and on the Lawryse landing pages. Benefits may be subject to eligibility, availability, published limits and fair use. Lawryse may make reasonable operational changes, provided it does not materially remove a paid entitlement during the current paid period without a comparable benefit or fair adjustment.

The Attorney Directory and LARIA remain closed to members during the pilot in every country and open as the Lawryse community grows. Membership plan may affect published membership, directory and eligible advertising benefits. It does not buy or improve LARIA routing priority: LARIA uses neutral rotation among eligible opted-in members in accordance with the LARIA Participation Terms.

5. Free trial

Every membership starts with a 7 day free trial. The trial starts when your card has been saved. To save it we make a card check charge of R1, which is refunded at once. Nothing else is charged during the trial. If you cancel before the trial ends, you pay nothing.

When the trial ends, your first payment is taken from the saved card, for the first month or the first year (as you chose) at the price shown when you signed up.

6. Membership fees

Membership is charged per attorney, in South African rand, monthly or yearly, in advance. Yearly billing is twelve months less 10%. Current prices are shown on the Compare plans page in the Dashboard.

Lawryse is not currently registered as a VAT vendor and no VAT is presently charged. Membership prices include VAT. When Lawryse becomes registered, membership prices stay VAT-inclusive, and the invoice for each transaction shows the VAT treatment that applied on its date.

7. Pilot founding price

A Member who joins during the Lawryse pilot pays the founding price for their plan. The founding price is held for the first 12 months from the day you join, for Standard or Premium. At the end of that period the normal price for your plan applies. Lawryse tells you in writing at least 40 days before the founding price ends. If you move between plans during your 12 months, the founding price of the plan you move to is held for the rest of that period. A Member who leaves and later rejoins pays the price then in force, unless Lawryse offers otherwise.

8. Automatic renewal and payment authority

Unless you cancel, your membership renews at the end of each monthly or yearly period. By starting a membership you authorize Lawryse and its payment service provider to charge the applicable fee to the payment method you provided at each renewal.

The price you pay covers the whole of that paid month or year, and no price change applies to a period already paid for. A change takes effect only from your next renewal. Lawryse considers any price increase carefully and does not change prices often or without good reason. At least 40 days before any price change affects you, or before a yearly renewal, Lawryse sends a written notice by email to you. The notice states the date, the price that will apply and how to cancel.

Where mandatory law prescribes a particular expiry notice, renewal method or cancellation right, Lawryse will comply with that requirement.

9. Changing plan

Standard to Premium. You may upgrade in the Dashboard. The upgrade takes effect at once. During your free trial nothing is charged. Once you have paid, we charge the difference between the two plans for the rest of your current month or year, calculated by the day, to your saved card. If the card is declined, your plan does not change. From your next payment you pay the Premium price.

Premium to Standard. You may move down in the Dashboard. During your free trial it takes effect at once. Once you have paid, you keep Premium until the end of the period you have paid for, and from then your plan is Standard and your next payment is the Standard price. Nothing is refunded for the time you have already paid for. You may withdraw the change until the period ends.

10. Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, the account enters a 14 day grace period from the first unresolved failure. During that period, Dashboard access continues and eligible public profiles remain visible while you update or authenticate your payment method. Lawryse or its payment provider may make up to three payment retries during the grace period.

If payment remains unresolved when the grace period ends, paid features may be suspended and your public profile hidden. Your information is not deleted. Normal access and your profile may be restored after payment is confirmed.

11. Cancelling and ending membership

You may cancel automatic renewal at any time through the Dashboard or by emailing accounts@lawryse.com. Lawryse’s approval is never required. A cancellation made in the Dashboard takes effect when it is submitted. The Dashboard asks, but does not require, a short reason for leaving. Lawryse emails you to acknowledge the cancellation. A cancellation emailed to accounts@lawryse.com takes effect when Lawryse receives it.

Unless a mandatory earlier cancellation right applies, cancelling stops the next renewal and your membership stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for. Until then you may withdraw the cancellation and keep your membership. After membership ends, your details are kept as set out in the Privacy Policy, and you are welcome to rejoin at any time.

Where section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act applies, you may exercise the applicable fixed-term cancellation right on the prescribed notice, subject only to a lawful reasonable cancellation charge. Any applicable electronic-transaction cooling-off right is also unaffected.

Lawryse may suspend or terminate an account for serious or repeated breach, fraud, unlawful use, material professional misrepresentation, security abuse or unresolved non-payment. Where reasonably possible, Lawryse will give notice and an opportunity to remedy the issue.

12. Public profile and Signature Page

A profile, including your Signature Page, appears publicly only when it is sufficiently complete, active, verified where required and linked to an account entitled to it. You control and are responsible for the accuracy of what you publish. Lawryse does not guarantee profile views, enquiries, clients, instructions, search rankings or commercial results.

13. Articles, events and other submissions

Members may publish articles and submit events, Public Voices material and other content. Articles and events are checked automatically for legal relevance and basic content requirements, and normally publish soon after. This is not editorial approval, legal fact-checking or legal vetting. You are responsible for what you publish, and you must confirm this when you submit an article.

Published articles carry a notice that they are contributed by the author, and anyone can report an issue with an article to complaints@lawryse.com. Lawryse may request changes to, decline, hide or remove material where reasonably necessary for legality, professional ethics, confidentiality, privilege, privacy, intellectual-property rights, technical suitability or platform integrity.

You keep ownership of your content and grant Lawryse a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, format, reproduce, publish and promote it for the relevant Lawryse service. You warrant that you hold the necessary rights and permissions.

14. Guest Articles, advertising and Gold

Guest Articles are governed by the Guest Article Publication Terms. During the pilot, Members can publish one article a week at no additional charge. Premium also includes one free article a month. Otherwise a Guest Article is bought as a single article or a bundle of publication credits at the prices on the Rates page in the Dashboard. Advertising is bought separately under the Advertising Terms and Booking Conditions.

Gold Reserved Placement is an optional paid article placement for one category and one calendar month, governed by the Gold Reservation Terms.

15. LARIA participation

LARIA participation is optional and requires separate acceptance of the LARIA Participation Terms. LARIA is a neutral routing facility, not a paid referral service. No membership plan receives preferential routing, and Lawryse receives no commission or fee for a professional engagement obtained through LARIA.

16. Credits and promotions

Promotional, referral and service credits are governed by their stated eligibility, permitted use, expiry and adjustment rules. Unless law requires otherwise, credits are non-transferable, have no cash value and may be used only for eligible Lawryse purchases. Referral credits are governed by the Referral Programme Terms.

17. Acceptable use

• Do not submit unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory, fraudulent, deceptive or malicious material.
• Do not breach legal professional privilege, client confidentiality, privacy, intellectual-property rights or professional duties.
• Do not scrape, copy, resell, reverse engineer or misuse the directory, content, data or platform.
• Do not interfere with security or operation, impersonate another person, share access or provide false professional information.
• Do not use Lawryse to send spam, harass another person or obtain information for an unauthorised purpose.

18. Lawryse intellectual property

The Lawryse name, logo, software, platform design, editorial presentation, databases and compiled directory belong to Lawryse or its licensors. Membership grants a limited, revocable right to use the platform during the membership period and does not transfer ownership.

19. No legal advice or professional relationship

Lawryse is a publishing, directory and technology platform and is not a law firm. Platform content is general information, not legal advice. Lawryse is not party to a mandate, retainer or attorney-client relationship between a Member and any client or prospective client.

20. Privacy, records and security

Lawryse processes personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy and applicable law, including the automated tools used to check articles and events. Information you deliberately publish in a profile is public by design. Lawryse may keep account, acceptance, billing, service, security and dispute records for the purposes and periods stated in the Privacy Policy.

21. Platform availability and third-party services

Lawryse aims to keep the platform reasonably available but does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. Hosting, communications, payments and other functions may depend on third-party providers. Planned maintenance, security work and events outside reasonable control may affect availability.

22. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, Lawryse is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, business, reputation, anticipated enquiries or instructions, or loss caused by a third-party service or your inaccurate information. Nothing excludes liability or a right that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

23. Changes to these terms

Lawryse may update these terms for legal, security, operational or service reasons. Material changes will be notified through the Dashboard or by email and will apply from the stated effective date, subject to mandatory law. Acceptance records preserve the version you accepted.

24. Governing law and notices

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any competent South African court has jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory ombud, tribunal or statutory dispute process. Billing and cancellation notices must be sent to accounts@lawryse.com. Member support queries must be sent to support@lawryse.com.