After years of advising clients to read before signing, a local attorney opened his own firm’s terms and conditions and immediately requested independent legal advice.
A routine click becomes a crisis
An ordinary Tuesday took a dark turn when a local attorney clicked the ‘Terms and Conditions’ link on his own firm’s website.
He had intended to reset his password. Instead, he discovered that the firm could change its fees ‘at any time, for any reason, including reasons not yet known to the firm,’ while clients were required to give 90 business days’ notice to object.
The document also stated that all disputes would be governed by ‘the laws of the applicable jurisdiction,’ a place nobody at the firm could identify.
An urgent internal investigation
Partners were called into an emergency meeting. One insisted the wording was ‘standard.’ Another said the clause had been copied from a previous firm. A third quietly asked whether anyone knew what paragraph 18 meant.
A junior associate was instructed to trace the document’s origin. After four hours, she reported that it appeared to have been adapted in 2014 from the terms of an online photo-printing service.
The firm’s head of commercial law described this as ‘less than ideal,’ particularly because the terms also granted the website permission to crop all uploaded images.
Professional advice is sought
The attorney reportedly became most distressed by a clause confirming that users had read, understood and freely accepted every provision.
‘I would never advise a client to sign this,’ he said, shortly before clicking ‘Accept’ so he could access the billing portal.
The firm has announced a comprehensive review. In the meantime, the T&Cs remain online, because nobody can remember the administrator password.
Satire note: This is a fictional satirical article created for humour, commentary and Lawryse demo testing. It is not legal advice and does not refer to any real person, firm or event.
