Terms and Conditions – A2J Partners

Effective Date: July 2026 | Next Review: January 2027

About These Terms

These Terms and Conditions govern your use of the LawNeeds mobile application (“the App”) as an Access to Justice (“A2J”) partner. They form a legally binding agreement between you and LawNeeds Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales (company number 15610058), with registered address at 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ (“LawNeeds”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

By registering for and using the App you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the App. These Terms apply to organisations and individuals participating in the LawNeeds platform as A2J partners — meaning organisations or individuals who provide free or low-cost legal information, signposting, or support (including pro bono legal services) to users of the platform. They do not apply to the following groups, each of which is subject to separate Terms and Conditions:

• Users of the App accessing LawNeeds for personal legal guidance
• Solicitors, barristers, CILEX lawyers, and IAA-regulated immigration advisers using the platform as legal professionals
• SME in-house professional users

These Terms should be read alongside our Privacy Policy (Mobile Application), our Cancellation, No Show, Rescheduling and Refund Policy (“Cancellation Policy”) (to the extent applicable), and your LawNeeds Partner Agreement (“Partner Agreement”). Together these documents constitute the full framework governing your relationship with LawNeeds. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and the Partner Agreement, the Partner Agreement shall prevail for commercial and operational matters.

The LawNeeds website is governed by separate Terms and Conditions (Website – A2J Partners).

1. Eligibility and Registration

1.1 You may only register and use the App as an A2J partner if you are one of the following:

• A registered charity, community interest company, or other not-for-profit organisation delivering legal information or support services
• A law centre, citizens advice bureau, or equivalent access to justice organisation
• A pro bono legal programme operated by or affiliated with a regulated legal professional body
• An organisation or individual specifically approved by LawNeeds in writing as an A2J partner

1.2 You warrant that at the point of registration and throughout the duration of your use of the App:

• All information provided during registration is accurate, current, and complete
• You hold any relevant registration, charitable status, or authorisation required to operate your organisation in the United Kingdom
• Where you or your staff or volunteers provide or facilitate immigration advice or immigration services, or any reserved legal activity, you do so only through individuals who are lawfully authorised to carry out that activity — whether under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Legal Services Act 2007, or otherwise permitted by law. Where your organisation provides legal advice that falls outside these regulated categories, you ensure it is delivered only by individuals with appropriate qualifications, training, or supervision for the subject matter involved
• You do not hold yourself out, expressly or implicitly, as providing regulated legal advice or reserved legal activities unless you are separately authorised to do so by an appropriate regulatory body
• You have in place appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures for any staff or volunteers who interact with users through the platform
• You will notify LawNeeds promptly at support@lawneeds.co.uk if any of the foregoing warranties ceases to be accurate

1.3 LawNeeds reserves the right to verify your eligibility at any time, including by requesting evidence of your charitable or organisational status. LawNeeds may decline, suspend, or terminate your registration where it cannot verify your status or where your eligibility changes.

1.4 You may only hold one account on the App. Organisations wishing to register multiple staff members or volunteers should contact support@lawneeds.co.uk for account arrangements. The organisation is responsible for ensuring that all individuals using the platform under its account comply with these Terms and with the Partner Agreement.

1.5 You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately at support@lawneeds.co.uk if you become aware of any unauthorised access to or use of your account.

2. Partner Agreement

2.1 Your relationship with LawNeeds, including the operational terms on which you participate as an A2J partner, your obligations regarding safeguarding, service delivery, non-circumvention, the matching system, client acquisition compliance, and the consequences of termination, is governed by your Partner Agreement. These Terms address your use of the App as a technology platform and do not modify or supplement the operational terms in your Partner Agreement.

2.2 You must have executed a Partner Agreement with LawNeeds before you may be matched with or receive referrals from users through the App. LawNeeds may restrict your access to relevant App features until a Partner Agreement is in place.

2.3 Where these Terms refer to obligations that are also addressed in the Partner Agreement, the Partner Agreement provision governs.

3. Nature of A2J Partner Services

3.1 As an A2J partner, you provide free or low-cost legal information, signposting, or support to users. You do not charge users for services delivered through the LawNeeds platform in your capacity as an A2J partner.

3.2 LawNeeds does not process payments on your behalf or charge commission on services you deliver in your A2J partner capacity. If you or your organisation separately provide paid regulated legal services through another route, those services are governed by the Lawyer/Law Firm Terms and Conditions and the relevant Partner Agreement provisions which would need to be agreed separately.

3.3 You acknowledge that:

• You are solely responsible for the quality, accuracy, and appropriateness of any information, signposting, or support you provide to users through the App
• LawNeeds does not supervise, direct, or control your activities and assumes no liability for the information or support you provide
• Where your activities involve the provision of immigration advice, immigration services, or any reserved legal activity, those activities must be carried out only by appropriately authorised individuals within your organisation
• Use of the App or the LawNeeds AI Support Assistant does not discharge your own obligations to users or create a legal adviser-client relationship between LawNeeds and any user

3.4 You must not receive or pay any fee, commission, or other financial benefit in connection with the introduction or referral of any user to a paid legal service provider, whether through the LawNeeds platform or otherwise, where that introduction arose from your participation as an A2J partner on the platform. Nothing in this clause prevents you from operating your own separate, lawfully constituted referral arrangements entirely unconnected with LawNeeds or any user introduced through it.

3.5 LawNeeds operates as a technology platform. It is not a regulated law firm. Nothing provided by LawNeeds through the App – including matching suggestions, platform guidance, or AI-generated content – constitutes legal advice. A2J partners are solely responsible for the legal accuracy and appropriateness of any information or support they provide to users.

4. Use of the App

4.1 You agree to use the App only for lawful purposes, in accordance with these Terms, your Partner Agreement, and any applicable regulatory obligations.

4.2 You agree not to:

• Use the App to carry out or facilitate any unlawful, malicious, or unethical activity including fraud, money laundering, or any activity that would constitute a breach of applicable law or your own regulatory obligations
• Hold yourself out through the App as providing regulated legal advice or reserved legal activities unless you are separately authorised to do so
• Interfere with or attempt to disrupt the App or any servers or networks connected to it
• Reverse engineer, copy, modify, or create derivative works from any part of the App
• Upload or transmit any content that is unlawful, harmful, defamatory, or infringes any third party’s rights
• Use automated tools, bots, or scripts to access or interact with the App without our prior written consent
• Misrepresent your identity, organisational status, or the nature of the services you provide
• Use the App or any data obtained through it to compete with LawNeeds or to develop a competing product or service
• Bypass, circumvent, or manipulate any feature, safety guardrail, or restriction of the App or the AI Support Assistant

4.3 LawNeeds may be subject to limitations, delays, and other issues inherent in the use of internet and electronic communications. LawNeeds is not responsible for delays or delivery failures arising from such issues.

4.4 LawNeeds is a member of the Legal Software Suppliers Association (LSSA) and is bound by the LSSA Code of Conduct, which ensures members maintain high service quality, data security, and ethical standards.

5. Professional Obligations and Conduct

5.1 You are solely responsible for ensuring that all interactions with users through the App comply with applicable law and any regulatory or professional obligations relevant to your organisation and the services you provide.

5.2 Where your organisation includes or works with regulated legal professionals (for example, solicitors or IAA-registered advisers delivering pro bono services), those individuals remain subject to their own professional regulatory obligations. LawNeeds does not supervise their professional conduct.

5.3 You must ensure that all interactions with users meet appropriate standards of care, confidentiality, and quality. Where applicable, you must comply with your own organisation’s safeguarding policies and with any relevant statutory or regulatory requirements for the protection of vulnerable persons. This includes compliance with any sector-specific safeguarding or vulnerability legislation applicable to your organisation, including but not limited to the Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 where relevant.

5.4 You agree to respond to user queries and referrals through the App in a timely and competent manner. Excessive delays or a pattern of poor responsiveness that materially affects user experience may result in a review of your platform profile visibility and, where serious, suspension or termination of your account. 5.5 You must not use the App to engage in any form of unsolicited marketing, cold calling, or touting of potential service users. LawNeeds operates on the basis of users approaching the platform voluntarily.

5.6 Where you are a provider of legal aid-funded services under a contract with the Legal Aid Agency, or are subject to any other statutory or regulatory funding obligations, those obligations take precedence over these Terms to the extent of any conflict. Nothing in these Terms requires you to act in a manner inconsistent with your Legal Aid Agency contract or any other applicable statutory funding requirement. Where any such conflict arises, you must notify LawNeeds promptly in writing.

5.7 LawNeeds does not provide insurance cover of any kind for activities carried out by you or your staff or volunteers through the platform. You are responsible for ensuring that you hold whatever insurance cover is appropriate for your organisation’s activities, including in respect of any information, signposting, or support provided to users through the App.

5.8 You acknowledge that LawNeeds requires users to be at least 18 years old to create an account. Where you have reason to believe a user may be a minor, you must not continue to interact with that user through the platform without first taking appropriate steps in accordance with your own safeguarding policies and applicable law.

6. AI Tools

6.1 The App provides AI-powered tools including the LawNeeds AI Support Assistant. You acknowledge that:

• AI-generated outputs are automated informational tools and do not constitute regulated legal advice
• AI outputs may contain errors, omissions, or outdated information
• Legal developments are subject to frequent change and AI tools may not reflect the most recent changes in law or practice
• You must independently review and verify any AI-generated output before relying on it or communicating it to a user
• Using an AI tool does not discharge your own obligations to users

6.2 Where you use AI tools on the App in the course of providing support to users, you must ensure that user data is not inputted into any AI tool in a manner that would breach UK GDPR or any applicable confidentiality obligations.

6.3 LawNeeds maintains governance and review processes for its AI systems but cannot guarantee the accuracy of all AI outputs. LawNeeds accepts no responsibility for any interpretation, reliance, or use of AI-generated outputs by you or any user.

6.4 Use of the AI tools on the App does not create any advisory relationship between you and LawNeeds. LawNeeds is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice through its AI systems.

7. Profile and Account Management

7.1 Where the App provides access to your A2J partner profile, availability settings, and account preferences, you are responsible for ensuring that all information displayed on your profile is accurate, current, and consistent with your actual organisational status and the services you provide.

7.2 Your profile must clearly describe the nature of the services you offer (for example, free legal information, signposting, pro bono advice) and must not misrepresent those services as regulated legal advice where they are not.

8. Platform Integrity and Non-Circumvention

8.1 The non-circumvention obligations governing your relationship with users introduced through the LawNeeds platform are set out in your Partner Agreement. By registering and using the App you confirm that you are bound by those obligations and that a breach of the non-circumvention provisions in your Partner Agreement shall also constitute a breach of these Terms.

8.2 Where LawNeeds has reasonable grounds to believe you have breached this Clause or the non circumvention provisions of your Partner Agreement, LawNeeds may suspend or remove your profile and visibility on the App with immediate effect pending investigation and may terminate your account and Partner Agreement in accordance with the termination provisions of the Partner Agreement.

9. Intellectual Property

9.1 The App and all its content, features, and functionality are and shall remain the exclusive property of LawNeeds Ltd and its licensors, protected by copyright, trademark, registered design rights, database rights, and other laws of the United Kingdom.

9.2 You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the App for the purpose of delivering A2J partner services to users and managing your A2J partner account, in accordance with these Terms and your Partner Agreement. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from any part of the App without our prior written consent.

9.3 You retain ownership of any content you upload to the App. By uploading content you grant LawNeeds a limited licence to process that content solely for the purposes of delivering the services you and users have requested, in accordance with our Privacy Policy. LawNeeds may use anonymised and aggregated data derived from your platform activity for the purpose of improving its services, provided that such data could not reasonably identify any individual user or specific legal matter. LawNeeds will not use any content you upload, including documents, case materials, or user communications, for the purpose of training AI models or other AI development without your separate written consent.

10. Anti-Money Laundering

10.1 LawNeeds is a technology platform and does not provide legal advice or handle client funds. Where your organisation’s activities bring you within the scope of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, you are solely responsible for your own AML compliance obligations.

10.2 LawNeeds does not conduct identity verification or due diligence on users and makes no representation that users have been verified or screened against sanctions lists.

10.3 LawNeeds may suspend your account and restrict access without notice where there is reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity including money laundering, fraud, or terrorist financing.

11. Confidentiality and Data Protection

11.1 You are responsible for handling all user data obtained through the App in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, and any confidentiality obligations applicable to your organisation.

11.2 You and LawNeeds are independent data controllers in respect of the personal data processed through the App for your respective purposes, as set out in the Privacy Policy (Mobile Application). Where you receive user data through the platform, you act as an independent data controller for that data and remain responsible for obtaining appropriate consent and complying with applicable data protection law.

11.3 You must not misuse, disclose, or distribute any data shared with you through the platform. User data must be retained and deleted in accordance with applicable data protection law and any record keeping requirements relevant to your organisation.

11.4 You must notify LawNeeds promptly at support@lawneeds.co.uk if you become aware of any data breach involving user data received through the platform that is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of those individuals.

11.5 Your personal and organisational data as a registered A2J partner is processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy (Mobile Application), which is available within the App and at lawneeds.co.uk.

12. Limitation of Liability

12.1 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, LawNeeds shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from or in connection with your use of the App, including loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunity.

12.2 LawNeeds shall not be liable for:

• The accuracy, completeness, or legal sufficiency of any AI-generated output produced through the App
• Any liability arising from information, signposting, or support you provide to users through the platform
• Any regulatory or compliance issue affecting your organisation
• Any loss arising from technical failures or service interruptions affecting the App

12.3 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits LawNeeds’ liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

12.4 LawNeeds’ total liability to you under these Terms shall not exceed £500.

12.5 Force majeure: LawNeeds shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, epidemic, pandemic, cyberattack, failure of third-party services or infrastructure (including cloud hosting, payment processing, or AI model providers), action or inaction by any government or regulatory authority, industrial action, or prolonged power failure. Where a force majeure event occurs, LawNeeds will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable and will use reasonable endeavours to resume normal service as quickly as possible. Where a force majeure event prevents LawNeeds from making the App available for more than 30 consecutive days, either party may terminate these Terms on written notice without liability. LawNeeds will use reasonable endeavours to notify you and any affected users of alternative means of contact during any prolonged outage.

12.6 You will indemnify LawNeeds against any third-party claims, losses, or reasonable costs arising directly from your own negligence, wilful misconduct, breach of the warranties set out in these Terms, or any other material breach of these Terms in connection with services or support delivered through the platform. Where you are an organisation, this indemnity extends to the acts, omissions, negligence, and wilful misconduct of your staff, volunteers, and any other individual delivering services through the platform under your account.

13. Termination

13.1 You may close your account at any time through the App’s account settings. Closing your account does not affect any rights or obligations already accrued. Termination of your account does not terminate your Partner Agreement, which must be separately terminated in accordance with its own provisions. You are directed to review your Partner Agreement before closing your account.

13.2 LawNeeds may suspend or terminate your account immediately without prior notice where you have:

• Breached these Terms in a material way
• Ceased to meet the eligibility criteria for A2J partner status as set out in Clause 1
• Lost any relevant charitable, regulatory, or organisational status that underpins your participation as an A2J partner
• Engaged in conduct that, in LawNeeds’ reasonable opinion, constitutes a serious breach of applicable law or your own regulatory obligations
• Created a risk of regulatory or reputational harm to LawNeeds
• Breached the non-circumvention provisions of your Partner Agreement

13.3 LawNeeds may close your account with 30 days’ written notice in all other circumstances.

13.4 On termination of your account, your right to use the App ceases. Your obligations in respect of user data, confidentiality, and the non-circumvention period in your Partner Agreement survive termination. Data retention following account closure is governed by our Privacy Policy (Mobile Application).

14. Changes to These Terms

14.1 We may update these Terms from time to time. Where a change is material we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by in-app notification or email before the change takes effect.

14.2 By continuing to use the App after any revised Terms take effect, you agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to the revised Terms you may close your account in accordance with Clause 13.

15. Governing Law and Disputes

15.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Both parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

15.2 If you have a complaint about the App or our services, please contact us first at support@lawneeds.co.uk.We aim to resolve complaints within 30 days. If your complaint relates to data protection, our Privacy Policy sets out the escalation route to the ICO. LawNeeds’ ICO registration number is ZC027272. Where your organisation includes regulated legal professionals, those individuals may also be subject to separate complaints processes administered by their own regulatory body, including the Legal Ombudsman (for solicitors and barristers) and the Immigration Advice Authority (for IAA-registered advisers). LawNeeds’ complaints process does not affect or replace those regulatory rights.

15.3 Before commencing legal proceedings under these Terms, the parties should first attempt to resolve the dispute as set out in the Partner Agreement.

16. Contact

General enquiries: info@lawneeds.co.uk

Support and complaints: support@lawneeds.co.uk.

Post: LawNeeds Ltd, 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ

17. General

17.1 No failure or delay by LawNeeds in exercising any right under these Terms shall constitute a waiver of that right.

17.2 If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

17.3 Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, employment, or franchise relationship between the parties.

17.4 These Terms, together with the Partner Agreement, the Privacy Policy (Mobile Application), the Cancellation Policy (to the extent applicable), and any written approval or designation issued by LawNeeds confirming your A2J partner status, constitute the entire agreement between the parties in respect of your use of the App and supersede all prior representations, discussions, and agreements relating to the same subject matter.

17.5 Any notice required under these Terms shall be given in writing by email to the address notified by each party, or by recorded delivery to the registered address of the relevant party. Notices sent by email shall be deemed received on the next business day following transmission unless a delivery failure notification is received.