Plain talk about the serious things.

1. Who you are agreeing with

Who I am, and where to find me.

This website and the services offered through it are operated by Naresh Duggal Consulting, doing business as The Old Man with a Cane, with its principal place of business at [full street address], San Jose, California [postal code], United States, referred to below as the Company, we, or I. Correspondence may be sent to nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com or to [telephone].

2. Accepting these Terms, and how long that acceptance lasts

You agree once, and it covers everything that follows.

These Terms form a binding agreement between you and the Company. You accept them by ticking the acceptance box when you create an account, by ticking the acceptance box at checkout, or by signing an engagement letter or statement of work that refers to them. If you do not accept them, do not create an account, do not submit a question, and do not purchase anything.

A continuing agreement. Your acceptance is not limited to the occasion on which it is given, and is not limited to your use of the website. It is a continuing framework agreement, and these Terms, together with the policies they incorporate, govern every service the Company provides to you from that moment onward, including every question you submit, every consulting engagement, every deliverable, every publication or course you obtain, and every meeting, whether arranged through this website, by email, by telephone or in person. You will not be asked to accept them again for each engagement, and no separate signature is required for these Terms to apply to a particular piece of work.

Order of precedence. Where a signed engagement letter, statement of work, master services agreement, or non-disclosure agreement exists between us, that document governs the matter it covers and prevails over these Terms to the extent of any conflict, for that engagement only. These Terms continue to govern everything it does not address, and everything else between us. A purchase order, vendor portal term, or standard form issued by you does not vary these Terms unless the Company has signed it.

Acting for an organisation. Where you accept on behalf of a company, institution, government body or other organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind it, and the word you in these Terms then means both you and that organisation, and this continuing acceptance extends to work the Company performs for that organisation. Where an account represents an organisation, the Company may require that acceptance be given by a person the organisation has designated as authorised to give it.

When acceptance is asked for again. The Company will ask you to accept these Terms again only where they change substantively, in which case you will be notified in advance under clause 36 and asked to accept the new version when you next sign in. The version you accepted continues to govern any engagement begun before the new version took effect. A copy of the exact text you accepted, and the date you accepted it, is available to you at any time from your account.

Separate confirmations required by law. A small number of matters require their own confirmation at the time, because the law does not permit them to be given in advance: your consent to immediate access to digital content at the point of purchase, your consent to any recurring charge before it begins, and consent to the recording of a meeting, which is asked for at the start of each meeting under Policy 4. Giving or withholding any of those does not affect this acceptance.

3. Definitions

A few words used throughout, defined once.

4. Eligibility, and the adults only rule

Eighteen or older, and a guardian speaks for a child.

The Services are offered only to persons eighteen years of age or older. When you create an account you confirm your date of birth, used solely to verify adulthood. A question concerning a child must be submitted by that child’s parent or legal guardian, who accepts responsibility for the inquiry and confirms that relationship at the point of submission.

The Site is not directed to children and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under thirteen years of age, or under sixteen where local law sets that higher age. An account found to belong to a person under eighteen is closed and its information deleted, keeping only the minimum record needed to enforce the block.

You must also not be a person, and must not act for an entity, barred from receiving services under the sanctions and export control laws described in clause 22.

5. Your account

Keep your password to yourself, and tell me if something looks wrong.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your account details, for keeping your password confidential, and for everything done through your account. Tell the Company promptly if you believe your account has been used without your authority. The Company may suspend or close an account it reasonably believes has been compromised, is being used in breach of these Terms, or was opened by a person under eighteen.

6. What the Services are, and what they are not

Considered professional opinion, not a licensed determination.

The Company provides independent professional consulting, advisory, research, drafting, review and educational services drawing on more than four decades of practice in integrated sanitation and pest management, regulatory affairs, environmental policy, climate action, sustainability, strategy and operations, research and analytics, and grants and funding.

The Services are informational and advisory. They are a considered professional opinion applied to the facts, documents and objectives you supply. They are not a substitute for advice from a licensed professional in a regulated field, they are not an audit, certification, inspection, appraisal, assurance engagement or regulatory determination, and they create no fiduciary duty beyond the duties expressly set out here or in a signed engagement letter.

A Deliverable speaks as of its date and is prepared on the facts then known. Law, regulation, product registration, label language, agency guidance and field conditions change. The Company has no obligation to update a Deliverable after delivery unless a signed engagement provides for it.

The Company does not take custody of client funds, does not act as an escrow agent, and does not accept an engagement requiring it to hold, transfer or direct money on a client’s behalf.

7. Limits set by professional licensing

Some advice may only be given by a licence holder, and I respect that line.

Some kinds of advice may lawfully be given only by a person holding a specific licence in a specific jurisdiction. The following limits apply to every engagement unless the Company has confirmed to you in writing that it holds the relevant licence for your jurisdiction and matter.

Pesticide and pest control advice. In California, and in many other jurisdictions, a person who offers a recommendation on the use of an agricultural pesticide must hold an Agricultural Pest Control Adviser licence issued by the Department of Pesticide Regulation and must register with the county agricultural commissioner in each county where that advice is given. Structural pest control for hire is separately licensed by the Structural Pest Control Board. Other states and other countries impose comparable requirements.

Accordingly, unless the Company confirms otherwise in writing for your specific matter, nothing supplied through this Site is a pesticide recommendation within the meaning of any licensing statute. The Company provides programme design, integrated pest management strategy, sanitation and exclusion guidance, regulatory interpretation, training, auditing frameworks, literature review and expert opinion. Where a site specific pesticide recommendation is required, the Company will say so and will work alongside a licensed adviser, licensed operator, or in-house licensed staff member in your jurisdiction, who remains responsible for that recommendation.

The pesticide label is the law. No advice from the Company authorises, permits or excuses any use of a pesticide, fumigant, biocide or other regulated material inconsistent with its registered label, its permit, or any applicable requirement. Policy 9 sets out the full position and forms part of these Terms.

Legal, medical, financial, accounting and engineering matters. The Company is not a law firm and does not practise law, is not a medical or veterinary practice, is not an accountancy or tax practice, is not a registered investment adviser or broker, and is not a licensed professional engineer, architect or land surveyor. Nothing supplied is legal advice, a legal opinion, medical or veterinary advice, tax advice, accounting advice, an investment recommendation, or a professional engineering opinion, and no attorney and client, physician and patient, or comparable privileged relationship is created. For health, insurance, litigation, wills, estate planning, powers of attorney, immigration, tax filings, securities, and structural or civil engineering matters, the Company will direct you to an appropriately licensed professional in your jurisdiction.

8. No guarantee of any outcome

Judgement, not a promise. Agencies and counterparties decide for themselves.

The Company gives no guarantee, warranty or assurance that any regulatory submission will be accepted, that any registration, licence, permit, notification, clearance, approval or exemption will be granted or granted within any period, that any grant or funding application will succeed, that any pest population will be eliminated or held below a stated threshold, that any audit, inspection or certification will be passed, that any negotiation or partnership will conclude, or that any financial, environmental or operational result will be achieved.

Agencies, funders, certifying bodies, courts and counterparties exercise independent judgement. Accounts of past work on this Site are accounts of particular circumstances and are not a promise or prediction. See Policy 16.

9. Your responsibilities

Good advice needs good facts, and the decision remains yours.

You agree to supply information that is complete, accurate, current and lawfully in your possession, to tell the Company of any material change, and to disclose any regulatory action, enforcement matter, litigation or safety incident bearing on the engagement.

You are responsible for your own operational and commercial decisions. You agree to have any Deliverable relied on for a legal, regulatory, financial, medical or life safety purpose independently verified by a professional licensed for that purpose in your jurisdiction before you act on it. You are responsible for compliance with every law applying to your own operations, including occupational health and safety, worker protection, environmental, transport, customs, labelling and record keeping requirements.

You warrant that you hold the rights necessary to send the Company any Client Material, that sending it breaches no confidentiality obligation, third party intellectual property right or data protection law, and that any personal data within it was lawfully collected and may lawfully be disclosed to the Company for the engagement.

10. Deliverables are for you alone

A report I write for you is addressed to you, and to nobody else.

Each Deliverable is prepared solely for the client who commissioned it, for the purpose and the facts stated in it, and as at its date. It is not prepared for, and may not be relied upon by, any other person.

The Protected Parties accept no duty of care, and no liability of any kind, to any person other than the client, whether or not that person receives, reads or acts on a Deliverable, and whether or not the Company knew a Deliverable might be shown to them. This includes lenders, investors, purchasers, insurers, landlords, tenants, contractors, certifying bodies, agencies and successors in title.

You may share a Deliverable within your own organisation and with your professional advisers. If you wish a third party to be entitled to rely on it, ask first. Reliance by a third party requires the Company’s prior written consent, which may be given on reasonable conditions including a separate agreement and a separate fee. Where you disclose a Deliverable to a third party without that consent, you will make clear that no reliance is permitted, and you will indemnify the Protected Parties against any claim brought by that third party.

11. Fees, invoicing, taxes and payment

What things cost, when payment is due, and what happens if it is late.

Fees are quoted and payable in United States dollars unless a signed engagement states otherwise, and may be hourly, fixed price, retainer, milestone based, per question, per course or per publication, as stated in the quotation, engagement letter, checkout page or invoice.

Advisory fee schedules are ordinarily disclosed after an initial meeting, so that the fee can be matched to the work. A quotation is valid for [thirty] days unless it states otherwise. Estimates of hours or cost are estimates, not caps, unless expressly marked as a not to exceed figure.

Transparent pricing. The price shown to you is the full price. Any mandatory fee or charge is included in the price displayed before you reach the payment step, and no mandatory fee is added afterwards. Government taxes and shipping, where applicable, are shown separately and clearly before payment.

Reasonable and pre-approved expenses are charged in addition, including travel, air fare, ground transport, accommodation, subsistence, agency and filing fees, laboratory and testing charges, translation, courier, and third party database or subscription costs. Receipts are provided on request.

Invoices are payable within [fifteen] days of issue. Overdue sums may attract interest at [one and one half] per cent per month or the maximum rate permitted by law, whichever is lower, together with reasonable costs of collection. The Company may suspend work and withhold Deliverables while an invoice is materially overdue.

Prices exclude sales tax, value added tax, goods and services tax and comparable levies, which are added where applicable. Where the law of your country requires you to withhold tax on a payment to the Company, the sum payable is grossed up so that the Company receives what it would have received without that withholding, and you agree to supply the withholding certificate. Bank charges, intermediary bank charges and currency conversion costs on international payments are yours.

Card payments are processed by third party processors and the Company does not receive or store your full card number. If you initiate a chargeback for a Deliverable supplied in accordance with the engagement, you agree to reimburse the Company for the amount charged back and any associated fee, without prejudice to clause 29.

12. Recurring charges, renewal and cancellation

Anything that renews says so first, and cancelling is as easy as starting.

Where a Service is offered on a recurring basis, including a monthly or annual retainer or a paid subscription, the following applies. Before you are charged, and in a manner set out clearly and conspicuously next to the point of purchase, you will be told that the charge recurs, the amount and frequency of the charge, the length of the term, the deadline to cancel without further charge, and how to cancel. You must give affirmative consent to that recurring charge separately from your consent to anything else, and you will receive an acknowledgement by email containing the same information and the cancellation method.

You may cancel a recurring Service at any time, effective at the end of the current period, by a single instruction through your account or by email, without speaking to anyone and without completing any retention process. Cancellation is never made harder than starting. Where a price is to change, or a promotional or free period is to convert to a paid one, you will be notified in advance with the new amount and the date, and told how to cancel before it takes effect.

13. Refunds and cancellations

When money comes back, and when the work has been earned.

Because the Services are professional services and digital goods prepared or released specifically for you, the following applies unless a signed engagement states otherwise.

A single advisory question may be cancelled with a full refund at any time before work begins on it. Once an answer has been prepared, the fee is earned. Where a question is submitted that the Company cannot properly answer, for example because it falls within a licensed field described in clause 7, the fee is refunded in full.

A project engagement may be terminated by either party on [fourteen] days written notice. On termination you pay for work performed and expenses committed to the effective date, and the Company delivers the work in progress on payment of that sum.

Publications, downloads and recordings are refundable within [fourteen] days of purchase where the file has not been downloaded, and are otherwise not refundable, since the product cannot be returned. A defective file, or one that does not match its description, is replaced or refunded in full.

Course and Academy fees are refundable in full if cancellation is requested before the course is accessed, and refundable pro rata for the unaccessed portion within [seven] days of first access. Once a certificate has been issued the fee is not refundable.

Cancellation rights outside the United States. If you are a consumer resident in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction granting a statutory cancellation period for distance contracts, you hold that right in addition to everything above. Where you buy digital content or a download and ask for immediate access, you are asked at checkout to consent expressly to immediate performance and to acknowledge that you thereby lose the statutory cancellation right in respect of that content. Where you do not give that consent, access begins after the statutory period ends.

14. Meetings, scheduling and missed appointments

Book, reschedule, or miss it, and here is what each costs.

Meetings are booked through the scheduling tool, which shows availability in Pacific Time. A booked meeting may be rescheduled or cancelled without charge more than [twenty four] hours before its start. A meeting cancelled inside that window, or missed without notice, may be charged in full at the applicable rate. The Company extends the same courtesy in reverse and reschedules at no charge if it cannot attend. Recording of meetings is governed by Policy 4.

15. Documents you send, and release of work on payment

Your documents stay yours, and finished work is released on payment.

You may send documents through the secure upload in your account, subject to the stated file size and file type limits. Client Material remains yours. The Company stores it in a private repository, uses it only for your engagement, and does not publish, sell or disclose it except as clause 18 permits.

Where an engagement is priced on a release on payment basis, the finished Deliverable is prepared, a preview or summary is made available, and the complete file is released on receipt of cleared payment. Until release the Company retains all rights in it.

The Company retains Client Material and Deliverables for the periods stated in the Privacy Policy and may then destroy them. Keep your own copies of anything you need. The Company is not your system of record.

16. Acceptance of a Deliverable

A short window to raise problems, so that work does not stay open forever.

Unless a signed engagement provides otherwise, you have [ten] business days from delivery to review a Deliverable and to notify the Company in writing of any respect in which it does not conform to the agreed scope. The Company will correct any properly notified non-conformity within a reasonable period at no additional charge. Where no such notice is given within that period, or where you first use the Deliverable for its intended purpose, the Deliverable is accepted. Acceptance does not affect any right you hold under a law that cannot be excluded, nor does it shorten the period in clause 30.

A request for a change of scope, a new question, or an update reflecting circumstances arising after delivery is new work and is quoted separately.

16A. Confirming the limit when an engagement begins

When you start a piece of work, I ask you to confirm the limit once, for that work.

Because the limitation of liability in clause 29 is the most consequential term between us, the Company draws it to your attention again when an engagement begins rather than relying only on your original acceptance of these Terms. Before a project engagement, a retainer, or any engagement above the threshold stated on the engagement page, you will be shown a short notice stating that liability for that engagement is limited to the professional fees you pay for it, and asked to confirm that you have read and accept it. A record of that confirmation is kept with the engagement.

That confirmation does not create a new agreement and does not replace these Terms. It is an acknowledgement, given for that engagement, that the limit was shown to you before the work began and that you had the opportunity to ask for a higher limit under clause 29.8 and chose not to. Where a signed engagement letter is used instead, the same limit is restated in it and your signature carries the same effect.

17. Intellectual property, and what you may do with a Deliverable

I keep my methods, you get a licence to use the work you paid for.

All content on the Site, including text, structure, photographs, illustrations, video, animation, audio, course material, question banks, manuals, templates, methodologies, checklists, and the Old Man with a Cane name, mascot, logo and tagline, is owned by the Company or used under licence and is protected by copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property law. Nothing on the Site transfers those rights to you.

On payment in full for an engagement, the Company grants you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Deliverable for your own internal business purposes and for the specific regulatory or commercial purpose for which it was prepared. That licence does not permit you to resell it, publish it as your own work, license it to a third party, use it as training data for a machine learning system, or use it for a different site, facility, product or jurisdiction than the one for which it was prepared, without prior written consent.

The Company retains ownership of the underlying methodologies, know how, templates, checklists, question banks, general knowledge and skill used to prepare a Deliverable, and remains free to use them for other clients. Where ownership of a Deliverable is transferred to a client, that is done expressly in writing in the engagement letter, and this clause yields to it.

Free publications, newsletters and preview material may be read and shared unaltered with attribution, and may not be resold, republished behind a paywall, translated for distribution, or incorporated into a commercial training programme without prior written consent.

18. Confidentiality

What you tell me stays with me, with the few exceptions the law requires.

Each party will keep the other’s confidential information in confidence, use it only for the engagement, and protect it with at least the care it applies to its own. Confidential information does not include information that is or becomes public without breach, was already lawfully known, is independently developed, or is lawfully received from a third party free of restriction.

The Company may disclose confidential information where compelled by law, a court or a regulator, and will, where lawful and practicable, tell you first so that you may seek protection. It may also disclose to a collaborator or contractor working on your engagement under equivalent written obligations. Policy 12 sets out the full position and forms part of these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms prevents either party from making a protected disclosure to a regulator or law enforcement body, or requires anyone to conceal a matter of public safety.

19. Use of names, marks and publicity

Neither of us names the other in public without asking.

Neither party will use the other’s name, trade marks, logo, or any description identifying it as a client or supplier, in any public statement, marketing material, website, proposal, case study or social media post, without the other’s prior written consent. Consent may be given generally or for a particular use and may be withdrawn on reasonable notice, in which case the material is removed from active circulation within a reasonable period. Where consent is given, each party will use the other’s marks only in the form and manner approved.

The Company may state, without consent and without identifying anyone, that it has worked in a sector, a country, or on a class of matter.

20. Conflicts of interest

I act for many clients, and I decline work my judgement could not survive.

The Company advises many clients, some of whom compete, and reserves the right to do so. Before accepting an engagement it runs a conflict check, and it will decline or withdraw where a conflict cannot be managed. Policy 12 sets out the full position and forms part of these Terms.

21. Third party services, links and tools

Somebody else's platform is somebody else's responsibility.

The Site links to and may offer third party services, including video meeting platforms, file sharing and storage, scheduling tools, payment processors, and external publications and databases. These are operated by independent companies on their own terms, and the Company does not control and is not responsible for their security, availability, performance, pricing or data practices. A link is not an endorsement. Policy 6 sets out the full position and forms part of these Terms.

22. International work, export control, sanctions and anti-bribery

I work across borders, and I do not cross certain lines to do it.

The Company is based in the United States and its Services are subject to United States law, including the Export Administration Regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations where applicable, and the sanctions programmes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

You confirm that you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or organised under the laws of a country or territory subject to comprehensive United States sanctions, that you are not a person or entity on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the Entity List, the Denied Persons List, or any comparable restricted party list of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United Nations, and that you are not owned or controlled by such a person or entity. You agree to tell the Company promptly if that ceases to be true, and not to export, re-export or transfer any Deliverable in breach of those laws.

The Company will decline any engagement, or part of one, that would require it to breach export control or sanctions law, and may terminate immediately on becoming aware that a client falls within a restricted category. Fees for work already performed remain payable to the extent lawful.

The Company complies with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, and the anti-corruption laws of the countries in which it works. It does not offer, promise, give, request or accept any improper payment or advantage, directly or through an intermediary, to obtain or retain business or to influence an official act, and it will not act for a client who asks it to. Facilitation payments are not made. Any request of that kind ends the engagement immediately and without refund of fees earned.

You agree not to engage the Company to lobby a public official on your behalf, or to represent you before an agency, unless agreed in writing, lawful in the relevant jurisdiction, and compliant with any applicable registration and disclosure requirement.

23. Expert witness and litigation support

If I serve as an expert, I answer to the truth, not to the party paying.

Where the Company is engaged to give expert evidence, to prepare an expert report, or to provide technical support in litigation, arbitration or a regulatory proceeding, the engagement is separate from these Terms and is documented in writing before any work begins.

In any such engagement the Company acts as an independent expert and not as an advocate. Its duty is to give its honest professional opinion on the facts and the science, and that duty is not displaced by the interest of the party engaging it. The Company will not adopt an opinion it does not hold, will not omit a material qualification, and will withdraw rather than give evidence it believes to be misleading. No expert engagement is accepted on a contingent, conditional or success-related fee, and no fee is dependent on the content of any opinion or on the outcome of any proceeding.

24. Non-solicitation

Please do not hire away the people I bring to your work.

During an engagement and for [twelve] months afterwards, you agree not to solicit or engage, directly or through another entity, any collaborator, contractor or specialist introduced to you by the Company, for work of the kind the Company was engaged to perform, without the Company’s prior written consent. This does not restrict a response to a public advertisement not directed at that person, and it does not prevent you engaging anyone with whom you had an established prior relationship.

25. Insurance

Each of us carries the cover our own obligations call for.

The Company maintains insurance appropriate to the nature and scale of the Services, including professional liability cover, and will confirm the classes and limits carried on reasonable request. You confirm that you maintain the insurance appropriate to your own operations, and that you will not rely on the Company’s cover in place of your own.

26. User content and acceptable use

The few things you may not do here.

You retain ownership of your User Content and grant the Company a non-exclusive licence to store, process, translate and reproduce it only so far as necessary to operate the Services and answer your question. Where the Company wishes to publish an anonymised account of an engagement, it will seek your consent first.

You agree not to use the Site to break any law, infringe anyone’s rights, send malicious code, attempt unauthorised access to any system or account, scrape or harvest content or personal data by automated means, circumvent any access control, rate limit or payment gate, use the Services or their outputs to train a machine learning model, impersonate anyone, post material that is defamatory, harassing, obscene or that infringes a third party’s confidence, or seek advice for the purpose of doing harm, evading a lawful regulatory duty, or misusing a regulated material. Policy 15 sets out the full position and forms part of these Terms.

27. Feedback

Suggestions are welcome, and I may act on them freely.

If you send a suggestion for improving the Site or the Services, the Company may use it freely and without obligation, and you waive any claim to compensation for it. This does not affect your rights in Client Material or in a Deliverable.

28. Disclaimer of warranties

The site is provided as it is, and I do not promise it will never fail.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Site, the Services and every Deliverable are provided on an as is and as available basis. The Protected Parties disclaim all warranties, express, implied, statutory, or arising from a course of dealing or trade usage, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy and non-infringement.

The Protected Parties do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or free of error or malicious code, that any defect will be corrected, or that any information on the Site is complete or current. You use the Site and the Services at your own risk.

Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of implied warranties, so parts of this clause may not apply to you, and nothing in it limits any right you hold under a consumer protection law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

29. Limitation of liability

If something goes wrong, what I can be made to pay is limited to the fees you paid me, and nothing more.

29.1 The cap. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of the Protected Parties for all claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and causes of action of every kind arising out of or in any way connected with the Site, the Services, any Deliverable, any engagement, or these Terms, shall not exceed the total professional fees actually paid by you to the Company for the engagement out of which the claim arises.

This is a single aggregate cap. It applies to all claims taken together and not to each claim separately. It applies to all of the Protected Parties taken together and not to each of them separately. It is not increased by the number of claims, claimants, engagements, deliverables, breaches or causes of action, nor by the passage of time. Where a claim arises out of or relates to more than one engagement, or to a series of related or connected engagements, the cap is the professional fees paid for those engagements taken together and no more.

Professional fees means the sums invoiced and actually paid for the Company’s own work. Reimbursed expenses and disbursements, third party charges paid through the Company, laboratory, agency, filing and translation charges, travel, and taxes are not professional fees and do not increase the cap. Sums invoiced but not paid do not increase the cap. Fees refunded to you are treated as not paid.

29.2 Losses that are excluded altogether. To the fullest extent permitted by law, and separately from and in addition to the cap, the Protected Parties shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, nor for any loss of profit, revenue, turnover, business, production, use, goodwill, reputation, opportunity, contract, expected saving or anticipated benefit, nor for any loss or corruption of data, nor for any regulatory fine, penalty, sanction or enforcement cost, nor for any cost of recall, remediation, re-treatment, re-application, re-submission, re-inspection, business interruption, closure or delay, nor for any cost of substitute services or of engaging another adviser, nor for any liability you incur to any third party, in each case whether direct or indirect and whether or not foreseeable, and whether or not the Protected Parties were advised that such loss was possible.

29.3 However the claim is framed. The cap and the exclusions apply to every claim however it is characterised, including in contract, in tort, in negligence, in gross negligence to the fullest extent the law permits, for breach of statutory duty, for misrepresentation other than fraudulent misrepresentation, in restitution, under an indemnity, in contribution, for strict or product liability, or otherwise. You agree not to bring any claim in tort or under any statute for the purpose of avoiding the cap or the exclusions, and where such a claim is brought it is subject to them in the same way.

29.4 Your claim is against the practice, not against individuals. You agree that your sole recourse in respect of any matter arising out of or connected with the Services is against Naresh Duggal Consulting, and that you will not commence or pursue any claim against Naresh Duggal in a personal capacity, nor against any employee, adviser, collaborator, contractor, agent or associate of the Company in a personal capacity, whether in contract, tort, negligence or otherwise. You waive every such claim.

Each of those persons may rely on and enforce this paragraph, and the cap and exclusions in this clause 29, directly and in their own right, as an intended beneficiary of these Terms. Where such a claim is nonetheless brought, it is subject to the same single aggregate cap, which is not increased by the addition of any further party. Nothing in this paragraph limits liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

29.5 Correction first, and your sole remedy. Where a Deliverable is alleged to be defective or not to conform to the agreed scope, you will notify the Company promptly and give it a reasonable opportunity to investigate and, at its option, to correct or re-perform the work at no additional charge. Correction or re-performance is your primary remedy. Where correction or re-performance is not reasonably possible, your remedy is a refund of the professional fees paid for the affected work, and, subject to clause 29.1, that refund together with any other sums payable shall not exceed the cap. You agree to take reasonable steps to mitigate any loss.

29.6 Your own insurance comes first. You confirm that you maintain insurance appropriate to your own operations and to the risks of your own business, that you will look first to that insurance in respect of any loss, and that you will not rely on the Company’s insurance in place of your own. You will procure that your insurers waive any right of subrogation against the Protected Parties. The existence, extent or absence of any insurance held by either party does not increase or reduce the cap.

29.7 Where you contributed to the loss. The liability of the Protected Parties is reduced to the extent that any loss is caused or contributed to by you or by anyone acting for you, including by information you supplied that was inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, by your failure to disclose something material, by your failure to obtain the independent professional verification described in clause 9, by your use of a Deliverable beyond the licence granted or for a purpose or place for which it was not prepared, by your disclosure of a Deliverable contrary to clause 10, by your failure to follow a label, permit condition or regulatory requirement, or by any act or omission of a third party you engaged. Where loss is caused partly by the Company and partly by another person, the Protected Parties are liable only for their own proportionate share and are not liable jointly or severally for the whole.

29.8 Why this limit is set here, and how to change it. You acknowledge and agree the following. The limits in this clause are a deliberate and negotiated allocation of risk between us. The Company’s fees are calculated on the basis that these limits apply, and they would be materially higher if they did not. The limits have been drawn to your attention plainly, in ordinary language, in the summary at the top of the Trust Centre and in the plain heading of this clause, and you have had a full opportunity to read them, to take advice on them, and to decline. You are better placed than the Company to assess, control and insure against the consequences of your own operational decisions.

If you require a higher limit of liability for an engagement, ask before the work begins. The Company will consider it and, where it is able to, will offer a higher limit for an increased fee reflecting the additional risk, recorded in the engagement letter. Where you do not ask, the limits in this clause apply.

29.9 What cannot be excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Some jurisdictions do not permit certain exclusions or limitations, so parts of this clause may not apply to you, and nothing in it limits any right you hold under a consumer protection law that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where any part of this clause is held unenforceable, the remainder continues to apply, and the unenforceable part is reduced to the maximum limitation the law permits rather than removed.

29.10 The limits are fundamental, and they survive. These limits are an essential basis of the bargain between us and a condition of the Company accepting the engagement at the fees charged. They apply even if a limited remedy is found to have failed of its essential purpose, and they survive the completion or termination of any engagement, the closure of your account, and the termination of these Terms.

30. Time limit for bringing a claim

One year to raise a claim, deliberately and clearly agreed.

The parties expressly agree to shorten the statutory limitation period that would otherwise apply. Any claim or cause of action arising out of or relating to the Site, the Services, a Deliverable or these Terms must be commenced within one year after the claim or cause of action accrues, and the parties intend by this clause to waive and shorten any longer statutory period that would otherwise apply. A claim not commenced within that one year period is permanently barred.

This clause does not apply to any claim or period that cannot lawfully be shortened by agreement, nor to any claim for non-payment of fees, and it does not limit any right you hold under a consumer protection law that cannot lawfully be waived.

31. Indemnification

If your use of my work causes a claim against me, you cover it.

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Protected Parties against any claim, demand, proceeding, loss, liability, damage, penalty, cost and expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or connected with your breach of these Terms, your User Content or Client Material, your use of a Deliverable beyond the licence granted or for a purpose for which it was not prepared, disclosure of a Deliverable to a third party contrary to clause 10, your failure to obtain the independent professional verification described in clause 9, your violation of any law or third party right, or your operational decisions.

The Company will notify you of any claim to which this clause applies, will not settle it without your consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, and may participate in the defence with counsel of its own choosing at its own cost.

Set off. The Company may set off against any sum payable by it to you any sum then due from you to the Company. You may not withhold or set off any sum payable to the Company on account of a claim that has not been finally determined or agreed.

No assignment of claims. You may not assign, transfer, charge or otherwise dispose of any claim arising out of or connected with the Services, or any right to bring such a claim, to any other person without the Company’s prior written consent, and any purported assignment without that consent is of no effect. This paragraph does not restrict a transfer to your own insurer exercising rights of subrogation to the extent clause 29.6 permits.

32. Force majeure

Neither of us is blamed for what neither of us can control.

Neither party is liable for a failure or delay in performance caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, fire, flood, extreme weather, epidemic, war, civil unrest, terrorism, strike, government or regulatory action, embargo, sanction, failure of a utility, telecommunications or internet service, or a cyber attack. The affected party will notify the other promptly and resume as soon as it reasonably can. Where the event continues for more than [sixty] days, either party may terminate the affected engagement, and you pay for work performed to that date.

33. Suspension, termination and survival

How either of us ends this, and what outlives the ending.

You may close your account at any time. The Company may suspend or terminate your access, refuse a question, or end an engagement where you breach these Terms, where an invoice is materially overdue, where a conflict of interest arises that cannot be managed, where continuing would require a breach of law or of a professional or licensing obligation, or where the working relationship has broken down. Where practicable the Company will give notice and an opportunity to remedy.

Clauses that by their nature should survive do survive termination, including definitions, accrued fees, no third party reliance, intellectual property, confidentiality, publicity, disclaimers, limitation of liability, the time limit for claims, indemnification, dispute resolution and governing law.

34. Dispute resolution, arbitration and class action waiver

Please read this clause carefully — it affects your legal rights.

It requires most disputes to be resolved by individual arbitration rather than in court, and it waives your right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action. You may opt out of arbitration within thirty days of first accepting these Terms, at no cost and with no effect on your relationship with the Company.

Step one, talk to me first. Before starting any formal proceeding, the party raising the dispute will send the other a written notice describing the dispute, the relief sought and the facts behind it. Notice to the Company goes to nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com and to the address in clause 1. The parties will then try in good faith to resolve the matter, including by a telephone or video discussion if either asks for one. Neither party may begin arbitration or court proceedings until sixty days after that notice, and any limitation period, including the one year period in clause 30, is suspended for that time. Most disagreements end here.

Step two, arbitration. If the dispute is not resolved within sixty days, it shall be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by [the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules for consumer disputes and its Commercial Arbitration Rules for business disputes], before a single arbitrator. The seat is the County of Santa Clara, California, United States. Hearings shall be held by telephone or video conference where the claim can be decided that way, or at a location reasonably convenient to both parties, and a party may elect a documents only determination for a claim under [ten thousand] United States dollars. The arbitrator may award any relief a court could award on an individual basis and shall issue a reasoned written award. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

The scope of this arbitration provision is limited to disputes arising out of or relating to the use, payment or provision of the Services provided under these Terms and to the parties’ dealings in connection with them. It does not extend to unrelated matters.

Allocation of costs. For a consumer dispute, the Company will pay the arbitration filing, administrative and arbitrator fees exceeding what the claimant would have paid to file the same claim in a California state court, and will pay those fees within the period the applicable rules and California law require. Each party otherwise bears its own legal costs, unless the arbitrator finds a claim or defence frivolous or brought for an improper purpose, or a statute provides for the recovery of fees.

What is not sent to arbitration. Either party may bring an individual claim in a small claims court of competent jurisdiction if it qualifies, and either party may seek temporary or permanent injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property, confidential information or trade secrets. Nothing in this clause prevents either party from reporting a matter to a government agency or regulator, or from taking part in an investigation by one.

Individual basis only. All claims must be brought in the parties’ individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, coordinated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate the claims of more than one person and may not preside over any representative proceeding. If this paragraph is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request shall be severed and heard in a court of competent jurisdiction, and the remainder shall proceed in arbitration.

Coordinated filings. Where twenty five or more substantially similar demands are filed against the Company by or with the assistance of the same counsel or coordinated group, the parties will ask the administrator to apply its mass or multiple case procedures, including staged bellwether determinations, and any limitation period shall be suspended for cases held in abeyance.

Your right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration and class waiver provision by written notice to nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com, or through the form at /legal/arbitration-opt-out, within thirty days of the date you first accept these Terms, stating your name, the email address on your account, and that you are opting out of arbitration. Opting out has no effect on any other part of these Terms and no effect on your relationship with the Company. If you opt out, disputes shall be resolved in the courts identified in clause 35.

Consumers outside the United States. If you are a consumer resident in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction whose law gives you a non-waivable right to bring proceedings in your local courts or to use a local dispute resolution body, this clause does not deprive you of that right, and nothing in these Terms limits any mandatory protection of the law of your country of residence.

Severability and survival of this clause. If any part of this clause other than the individual basis requirement is found unenforceable, that part shall be severed and the remainder shall continue. This clause survives termination of these Terms and closure of your account.

35. Governing law and venue

California law, Santa Clara County, subject to your local consumer rights.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. Where a dispute is not subject to arbitration, the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the County of Santa Clara, California, subject to the rights of consumers described in clause 34.

36. Changes, notice, and your email address

If I change these terms I will email you first, then ask you to tick once when you next sign in.

The Company may amend these Terms and the policies they incorporate. The version in force is always published in the Trust Centre with its version number and effective date, and every superseded version remains available there with the dates between which it was in force.

Notice by email. You agree that the email address held on your account is a valid address for notices under these Terms, that notice sent to it is effective notice to you, and that you will keep it current. Where a change is substantive, meaning any change other than a correction that leaves the meaning unaltered, the Company will send notice to that address at least [thirty] days before the change takes effect, stating plainly what is changing and linking to both the current and the proposed text. A reminder is sent seven days before the effective date. The Company keeps a record of every notice sent and of the delivery result reported by its mail provider.

How a change is accepted. A substantive change is accepted only by your affirmative acceptance of the amended Terms. On or after the effective date, the next time you sign in you will be shown what has changed and asked to accept the amended Terms by ticking a box. Until you do, your account is in a read only state as described below. Your continued use of the Services alone is not treated as acceptance, and the Company will not assert that it is.

While a change is unaccepted. You retain full access to your account, your documents, your deliverables and your invoices, and you may download all of them. Work already commissioned and paid for is completed and delivered to you. You may write to the Company, and you may close your account. You may not start a new engagement, submit a new question, make a purchase, book a meeting or enrol in a course until the amended Terms are accepted. There is no charge, penalty or disadvantage of any kind attached to declining, and the Company will not treat a decision to decline as a reason to refuse future work if you later accept.

If you do not accept a change. You may close your account at any time, before or after the effective date, and any prepaid and unused fees will be refunded. Closing your account is free, immediate, and requires no explanation.

A change is never retrospective. An engagement begun before the effective date of a change remains governed by the version you had accepted when it began, until that engagement is complete. No change applies to a dispute of which the Company has already received notice.

If notice cannot reach you. Where a notice to your account email is returned as undeliverable, or your mail provider reports that address as invalid or has suppressed messages to it, that address ceases to be verified and your account is restricted on the same read only terms set out above. To restore it you verify a working email address and accept the current Terms, at which point the Company sends a dated confirmation to the new address. The Company does this because it cannot fairly hold you to terms it has no means of telling you about, and because it will not begin new work with a client it cannot reach. Where an account remains restricted for more than [ninety] days, the Company may close it, refund any prepaid and unused fees, and retain the records the Privacy Policy requires it to keep.

37. Electronic communications and signatures

Email counts as writing, and an electronic signature counts as a signature.

By using the Services you consent to receive communications electronically, including notices, invoices, receipts, engagement letters and disclosures, and you agree that an electronic record satisfies any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. You may sign engagement documents electronically, with the same effect as an ink signature under the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act and the California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. You may withdraw this consent and ask for paper communications by writing to nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com, and the Company may then close accounts that cannot practically be operated on paper.

Marketing emails and the newsletter are sent only where you have subscribed, every message carries an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing is honoured promptly. Transactional messages about an engagement you have entered continue regardless.

38. Notices

Where to write, and when a notice counts as received.

Notices to you are sent to the email address on your account and are treated as received on the day of sending. Notices to the Company are sent to nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com, and where the notice concerns a dispute, also to the postal address in clause 1, and are treated as received on the next business day for email and five business days after posting for mail.

39. General

The usual machinery, kept short.

Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if that is not possible, severed, and the remainder shall continue in full force.

No waiver. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it, and a waiver is effective only in writing.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without prior written consent. The Company may assign them to a successor in connection with a reorganisation, a change of legal form, or a transfer of the practice, on notice to you.

Entire agreement. These Terms, the policies incorporated by reference, the Privacy Policy, and any signed engagement letter or statement of work are the entire agreement between the parties on their subject matter and supersede all prior discussions, proposals and representations, other than a fraudulent misrepresentation.

No partnership. Nothing creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise or employment relationship. The Company is an independent contractor.

No third party beneficiaries. Other than the Protected Parties, no person who is not a party has any right to enforce these Terms.

Headings. Headings and the plain English lines above each clause are for convenience and guidance. Where a plain English line differs from the clause beneath it, the clause governs.

Language. These Terms are written in English. Any translation is provided for convenience and the English version governs in the event of a conflict.

40. Contact

How to reach a person.

Naresh Duggal Consulting, doing business as The Old Man with a Cane. [Full street address], San Jose, California [postal code], United States. Email nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com. Telephone [number].

Effective [date]. Version 3.0.

1. What these tools are

Somebody else's platform, on somebody else's terms.

This Site links to and may offer third party communication and file sharing tools, including video meeting services, secure file storage, scheduling services and messaging applications. Those tools are operated by independent companies, not by Naresh Duggal Consulting, and your use of them is governed by their own terms of service and privacy policies. The Company does not control, and is not responsible for, the security, availability, performance, pricing or data practices of any third party tool. A link is not an endorsement.

2. Sending sensitive material

Use the secure upload, and keep your own copies.

No method of electronic communication or storage is completely secure. While the Company recommends and prefers tools that use strong encryption, you use all such tools at your own risk. Please do not transmit information more sensitive than you are comfortable sharing electronically, do not send government identifiers, financial account credentials or health records through ordinary email or messaging applications, and keep your own copies of anything important.

For sensitive material, use the secure upload inside your account, which is the most protected route the Company offers. Where a matter requires a higher standard, say so before sending anything and an appropriate channel will be agreed in advance.

3. Allocation of risk

What happens on another company's platform is not mine to answer for.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Protected Parties shall not be liable for any interception, loss, corruption, breach or unauthorised access to information occurring on, or in transit to or from, any third party platform, nor for any failure, suspension or unavailability of those platforms, nor for any change a platform makes to its terms, pricing or security posture.

This policy forms part of, and incorporates, the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy and the disclaimers in the Trust Centre, including the limitation of liability at Terms clause 29 and the dispute resolution and governing law provisions at Terms clauses 34 and 35.

1. What is used

Ordinary professional software, described plainly.

The Company uses contemporary professional software in its research and drafting, including artificial intelligence assisted tools for literature searching, summarising, translation, drafting, formatting and quality checking. This statement is published because a client is entitled to know how the work in front of them was made.

2. Human responsibility

A person reads everything before it is sent, and that person is me.

Every substantive answer, opinion, report and Deliverable is reviewed, corrected and approved by Naresh Duggal before it is issued. Professional judgement, and professional responsibility, rest with him. No output is sent to a client unread.

3. Verification

Citations and figures are checked against the source.

Regulatory citations, label language, statutory references and technical figures are checked against primary sources before they are relied on in a Deliverable. Where a point cannot be verified, the Deliverable says so.

4. Your material

Never used to train anything, and never handed to a tool that would take rights over it.

Client Material is not used to train any publicly available machine learning model, and is not submitted to any tool that would take training rights over it. Where a client requires that no artificial intelligence assisted tool be used on its material at all, it should say so in writing before the engagement begins, and the Company will confirm whether it can accept the engagement on that basis.

5. No automated decisions

No machine decides anything about you here.

The Company does not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about any individual by automated means alone. There is no automated profiling, scoring or eligibility determination on this Site, and there is no chatbot answering in the Company’s name.

6. Media

Anything generated by a tool is labelled as such.

Where an illustration, animation or audio item published on this Site was generated with an artificial intelligence tool, it is labelled as such. Recording and transcription of meetings is governed by Policy 4.

1. No guarantee of approval

The agency decides, not me.

Agencies decide independently, on their own timetable, and may raise deficiencies, request additional data, change guidance mid-review, or refuse. No representation is made that any submission will be accepted, or accepted within any period.

2. You remain the applicant

I advise. The application is yours.

Unless expressly agreed in writing and permitted by the agency, the Company acts as a technical and strategic adviser and not as your agent, authorised representative, or agent for service before any agency. Where an agency requires a named authorised agent, an in-country representative, or a legal representative, that appointment is separate, must be documented, and may require a person or entity that the Company is not.

3. Accuracy of your data

I review for consistency. I do not audit.

Regulatory submissions rest on data, certificates and statements you supply. The Company reviews them for consistency and plausibility and does not audit or independently verify them unless the engagement expressly says so. You are responsible for the truth and completeness of everything submitted in your name, and for any consequence of a false or incomplete statement to an agency.

4. Not legal advice

For penalties, enforcement and litigation, engage counsel.

Regulatory interpretation supplied by the Company is a technical and professional opinion. It is not a legal opinion and creates no attorney and client relationship or privilege. Where a matter turns on the construction of a statute, on enforcement exposure, on litigation or on penalty, engage counsel admitted in the relevant jurisdiction.

5. Currency of the advice

It speaks as at its date, and I do not monitor for changes unless you ask me to.

Regulatory positions change frequently. Advice speaks as at its date, and the Company has no obligation to monitor for changes or to update a Deliverable after delivery unless a signed engagement provides for it.

6. Confidential business information

How a trade secret is marked in a filing is agreed before anything is filed.

Where an engagement involves confidential business information, formulations or trade secrets, the handling, marking and claim of confidentiality within a submission is agreed in writing before anything is filed, since an agency may treat unmarked material as disclosable.

1. Confidentiality

Your information, your identity, and the fact of the engagement itself.

Everything a client tells the Company is treated as confidential. Client identities, engagement subject matter, documents, data, formulations, submissions, findings, and the fact of the engagement itself are not disclosed to anyone outside the Company except as the Terms permit, as this policy permits, or with the client’s consent.

Confidential information is used only for the engagement for which it was given. It is not used to advise another client, is not used in a publication, and is not used commercially. Where the Company wishes to write about an engagement it will either seek written consent, or anonymise the account so thoroughly that neither the client nor the site can reasonably be identified, and will still offer the client a right of review beforehand.

Collaborators and contractors engaged on a matter are bound by written confidentiality obligations at least as strict as these, are given only what they need, and are subject to the same conflict rules.

Confidentiality obligations survive the end of an engagement indefinitely for trade secrets, and for [five] years for other confidential information, or for any longer period a signed non-disclosure agreement provides.

2. Conflicts of interest

Competing clients are normal. Compromised judgement is not.

The Company advises many clients across the same industries, and some of them compete. That is inherent in a specialist practice and is not itself a conflict. What matters is that no client’s confidential information is ever used for another, and that the Company declines work where its judgement could not be independent.

Before accepting an engagement the Company checks it against current and recent engagements. Where a conflict is identified the Company will decline, or will disclose the position without revealing anyone’s confidential information and proceed only with the informed written consent of everyone affected, and only where an effective separation can be maintained. Where a conflict emerges during an engagement the Company will disclose it promptly and will withdraw where it cannot be managed.

3. Independence from suppliers

Nobody pays me to recommend their product.

The Company does not accept a commission, referral fee, rebate or other payment from a product manufacturer, supplier, laboratory or service provider in connection with advice given to a client, unless that payment is disclosed to the client in writing in advance and the client agrees. Where the Company holds a financial interest in an entity relevant to an engagement, it discloses that interest before the engagement begins. The Company does not act simultaneously for two parties on opposite sides of the same negotiation, dispute, transaction or regulatory proceeding.

4. Raising a concern

Ask, and you will get an answer in writing.

Concerns about a possible conflict may be raised at any time with nareshduggal@oldmanwithacane.com and will be answered in writing.

1. Independent status

You run your own affairs, and you do not speak for me.

Collaborators are independent contractors. Nothing creates employment, partnership, agency or joint venture, and a collaborator is responsible for their own taxes, insurance, licences, registrations and professional obligations. No collaborator may hold themselves out as an employee, partner or agent of the Company, or bind the Company to anything.

2. Client relationships

The client relationship is the practice's, not the collaborator's.

All client relationships belong to the Company. A collaborator introduced to a client through the Company will not solicit or accept work directly from that client on a matter arising from the introduction for [twelve] months after the engagement ends, without the Company’s written consent. Client contact runs through the Company unless the Company directs otherwise in writing. The collaborator directory is internal and is not published.

3. Confidentiality and conflicts

The same rules that bind me bind you.

Policy 11 applies in full to collaborators. A collaborator must disclose any conflict before accepting a matter and must decline where the conflict cannot be managed.

4. Qualifications and licences

Say what is true, hold what you claim, and tell me if it changes.

A collaborator warrants that the qualifications, licences, registrations and experience they state are true and current, that they hold every licence needed for the work they accept, and that they will tell the Company at once if any of that changes or if any disciplinary or regulatory proceeding is opened against them.

5. Work product

What you make for a client engagement comes to the practice.

Unless the individual agreement says otherwise, work produced for a client engagement is a work made for hire to the extent the law allows, and otherwise is assigned to the Company on payment, so that the Company can grant the client the licence described in Terms clause 17. The collaborator retains their pre-existing methods and general knowledge.

6. Standard of work and insurance

Competent work, on time, with cover behind it.

A collaborator will perform to the standard of a competent professional in their field, will meet agreed deadlines, and will carry the professional indemnity and general liability insurance stated in their individual agreement. A collaborator indemnifies the Company against loss arising from their own breach, negligence or unlicensed activity.

7. Payment

Terms are in your individual agreement, and you do not invoice the client.

Fees, rates, milestones, expense rules, invoicing and payment terms are set out in the individual agreement. The Company pays approved invoices within [thirty] days. A collaborator does not invoice a client directly.

8. Anti-bribery, sanctions and data protection

The international rules apply to you too.

Terms clause 22 applies to collaborators in full. A collaborator handling personal information for the Company does so as a processor, on the Company’s written instructions, under Policy 12, and may not engage a sub-processor without written consent.

9. Applying

Apply through the form. Nothing is owed either way until an agreement is signed.

Applications are made through the collaborator application form on the Site. Submitting an application creates no obligation on either side, and the information supplied is handled under the Privacy Policy.

1. Unlawful purposes

I will not help anyone do harm or evade a duty.

You may not use the Services to plan, assist or conceal a breach of any law, including environmental, pesticide, worker protection, food safety, customs, export control, sanctions or anti-corruption law. You may not seek advice for the purpose of misusing a regulated material, evading a permit condition, falsifying a record, misleading a regulator or certifying body, or concealing an incident the law requires you to report.

2. Technical misuse

Leave the site and other people's accounts alone.

You may not upload malicious code, attempt unauthorised access to any account, server or system, probe or scan the Site for vulnerabilities other than through a good faith report, interfere with its operation, or circumvent any authentication, access control, rate limit or payment gate.

3. Content, data and models

No scraping, no sharing course access, no model training.

You may not scrape, crawl, index or harvest content or personal data by automated means, reproduce the question banks or course material, share course access credentials, or use any content or output to develop, train or evaluate a machine learning model or a competing service.

4. Conduct

The ordinary courtesies, made explicit.

You may not post or send material that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, discriminatory or obscene, or that infringes a third party’s intellectual property or confidence, and you may not impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation.

5. Enforcement

What happens if this policy is broken.

The Company may investigate a suspected breach, remove content, refuse a question, suspend or close an account, and retain the associated records for enforcement and legal defence. Serious matters are reported to the appropriate authority. Where an account is closed for a breach of this policy, fees for services already delivered are not refunded.