Affiliate Terms
1. Who these terms are between
1.1 These terms govern the Legal Hotline affiliate programme between Platfirm AI Pty Ltd (ABN 24 679 859 744), the operator of Legal Hotline and CabRank (we, us), and the person or entity named in the affiliate application (you).
1.2 The agreement starts when you accept these terms and we approve your application in writing. You must have authority to bind the applicant and permission to operate each website you submit. Individuals must be at least 18.
1.3 Your approval notice identifies your approved website(s), the country of your readers (your service territory), your assigned hotline number and link code, your payment currency, and any expressly agreed variations. A variation overrides these terms only where it names the clause it varies.
1.4 Programme administration and notices: admin@platfirm.ai. We contact you at the email address in your application. Keep it current.
2. The offer
2.1 Joining is free. There is no minimum referral volume, no subscription and no exclusivity. You may display our materials alongside JustAnswer or any other provider, subject to your obligations to them.
2.2 We provide an approved call box (the widget), a tracked link, and a hotline number assigned to you alone. Use only the number and code allocated to you, on your approved website(s), for your approved territory.
2.3 Legal Hotline provides general legal information through an AI assistant and a separate matching and booking service. It is not a law firm. Participating lawyers independently provide the consultation and any advice. You do not acquire authority to act for us or any lawyer, to give legal advice on our behalf, to accept bookings or to collect payments.
2.4 The service operates in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. Commission is paid only for the territory named in your approval notice. A website with readers in two territories may ask for a second number.
3. Commission
3.1 We pay you 50% of Net Initial Booking Revenue for each Qualifying Booking attributed to you.
3.2 The Initial Booking Fee is the fee the customer pays us for our matching and arrangement service for their first consultation with a lawyer through the programme. Today it is A$295 in Australia (including GST), US$195 in the United States, £145 in the United Kingdom (including VAT), C$295 in Canada and NZ$295 in New Zealand. We may change the fee on 30 days' notice; your percentage does not change.
3.3 Net Initial Booking Revenue means the Initial Booking Fee actually collected, after any discount, less the GST, VAT or equivalent sales tax included in it, and less any amount refunded or reversed. We do not deduct our payment-processing fees, AI or telephone costs, lawyer-related expenses or overheads.
3.4 Your commission is a share of our own fee. No part of any lawyer's fee is shared with you, and nothing is payable on a lawyer's later work, ongoing fees, instalment interest, damages, settlements, disbursements or taxes. A customer earns commission once: on their first paid Initial Booking Fee through the programme. Instalments of that first fee count as they are collected.
3.5 Examples, with no discount and no refund: Australia A$295 ÷ 1.10 × 50% = A$134.09; United States US$195 × 50% = US$97.50; United Kingdom £145 ÷ 1.20 × 50% = £60.42. Canada and New Zealand: half of the fee after any sales tax it includes. These examples do not guarantee a payout; the customer's actual price and tax treatment govern.
3.6 Commission is calculated on the unrounded net amount and rounded to the cent in your payment currency. Prices, traffic and conversion figures are not guarantees of earnings.
4. Qualifying bookings and attribution
4.1 A Qualifying Booking is a genuine customer's first paid Initial Booking Fee that (a) comes from an eligible referral under clause 4.2, (b) concerns your approved territory, (c) is collected within 90 days after the eligible referral, and (d) is not fraudulent, duplicated or produced by prohibited promotion.
4.2 An eligible referral is either: (a) a call to your assigned hotline number; or (b) a booking made on our website by a visitor who arrived through your tracked link within the previous 90 days (our website keeps your code for that period). A call to our public hotline number, without your assigned number or code, is not a referral.
4.3 Where more than one affiliate could claim the same customer, the referral recorded first against that customer's first enquiry receives credit, and later referrals do not displace it. Only one commission is payable on the same fee.
4.4 Our call and payment records are the starting evidence, not conclusive against reliable contrary evidence. We review reasonable evidence of a missed attribution without requiring any confidential legal information. Attribution can be affected by device changes, browser settings and blocking software; we do not promise attribution of every visit.
4.5 Tell us about a missing or incorrect attribution promptly, preferably within 60 days after the relevant statement. A later claim is not automatically lost while the records remain available. We explain any rejection and give you a reasonable opportunity to respond.
5. Validation, statements and payment
5.1 A commission becomes payable once the fee has been collected and held for 30 days without refund or reversal, unless a genuine payment or fraud dispute is unresolved. Completion of the consultation is not an additional condition, although a refund changes the net revenue.
5.2 We issue a statement on or about the 5th of each month showing, for the previous month, your calls, bookings, amounts collected, tax excluded, refunds, net revenue, commission, adjustments, the amount payable now and any amount carried forward. We do not disclose customers' legal problems, call recordings or unnecessary identifying details.
5.3 We pay validated commission by bank transfer by the last business day of the month after the statement, provided you have given us accurate payment details and any invoice or tax document the law requires. The minimum payment is A$50 or its equivalent; smaller amounts carry forward and are paid when the total reaches it or when the agreement ends. If a required document is missing we tell you what is needed and pay within 15 business days after receiving it.
5.4 Commission is exclusive of GST or equivalent tax on your supply to us. Where legally payable, we add that tax against a valid tax invoice or an agreed self-billing arrangement. Each party handles its own taxes. We may withhold amounts the law requires and will give you the details. We do not assume that an overseas affiliate must charge Australian GST.
5.5 Payment is in the currency stated in your approval. Where conversion is required, the statement shows the rate and date. We bear our sending bank's fees; your bank may charge receiving fees. No programme administration fee is deducted.
5.6 A later refund or chargeback reverses only the commission on the affected fee. We show the adjustment on the next statement and offset it against future commission. If your account closes or future commission is insufficient, you repay the evidenced overpayment within 30 days after notice, subject to any genuine dispute. No penalty applies.
5.7 We may hold only the amounts reasonably affected by a suspected breach, fraud or payment dispute, tell you the reason unless the law prevents it, review promptly and pay unaffected sums on time.
6. Promotion and disclosure
6.1 Tell your readers, somewhere on your website that they can find, that the call is answered by an AI assistant, not a lawyer, and that your website may receive a commission if a reader books a paid consultation. A short line in your website's footer is enough; it does not have to appear beside every mention of the number. The approved call box carries the same words, so where you use the call box nothing more is needed. Use an equivalent clear disclosure in any local language.
6.2 Explain accurately which part of the service is free and which is paid, that the initial assistant is AI, and the territory. Do not present the assistant as a lawyer, imply that a lawyer is on the first call, promise outcomes, or describe a paid booking as free.
6.3 Use the approved materials without changing their meaning, attribution or disclosures. Resizing that keeps them legible and working is fine. Ask in writing before substantive changes, translated claims, paid advertising using our brand, incentives or sub-affiliate arrangements.
6.4 Do not use spam, unlawful solicitation, purchased or harvested contact lists, cookie stuffing, forced redirects, hidden widgets, fabricated enquiries, misleading comparisons, impersonation, malware, or interference with another affiliate's tracking. Do not use our names in domain names or accounts that suggest you are us. Do not disparage other providers or claim their endorsement.
6.5 Do not generate self-referrals, collusive bookings or incentives designed to manufacture commission. Disclose a potential conflict and seek written approval before claiming commission on a related-party booking.
6.6 Comply with applicable advertising, consumer-protection, privacy, cookie and electronic-marketing law. Each party is responsible for its own activities. Lawyers' own professional obligations remain theirs; your disclosure does not replace them. Nothing in these terms requires an unlawful act.
7. Privacy and security
7.1 Give your visitors appropriate notice of the call box and the link tracking, and obtain consent where the law requires it before non-essential tracking starts. We supply accurate information about our components for your notices. Do not circumvent a consent refusal.
7.2 Send visitors to our service rather than collecting their legal information yourself. Do not put names, legal problems, documents or other sensitive information in links or codes. These terms authorise no sharing of enquiry forms, recordings or customer lists; any such arrangement needs a separate written agreement.
7.3 Each party secures the personal information it handles, limits access and retention to what is reasonably needed, complies with applicable law, and cooperates promptly on an incident affecting shared data. Report such an incident to the other party without undue delay.
7.4 Our customer privacy notices are at legal-hotline.com/privacy-policy. They cover the customer service and do not replace notices about your own processing.
8. Materials and service
8.1 We grant you a non-exclusive, revocable licence, for the term of the agreement, to display our approved materials on your approved website(s) solely to promote the programme. Each party keeps its own intellectual property. We may name your approved website in private programme records; we will not announce your participation publicly without your consent.
8.2 We take reasonable care to operate the service and to investigate reported tracking problems. Availability, customer demand, lawyer acceptance and uninterrupted tracking are not guaranteed. We tell you about material known interruptions affecting your placement where reasonably practicable. Customers remain free to choose their lawyer and lawyers keep their independent professional judgment.
8.3 Non-public account, commercial and security information must be protected and used only for this agreement. This does not prevent required affiliate disclosures, professional advice, regulatory reporting or legally required disclosure.
9. Changes, suspension and ending the agreement
9.1 Either party may end the agreement on 14 days' written notice. A material breach may justify termination after written notice and 10 business days to remedy it, if it can be remedied. Serious fraud, unlawful conduct or an immediate security risk may justify immediate suspension of the affected activity.
9.2 We give at least 30 days' written notice of material changes to these terms or to future commission rates. Changes apply to the future and do not reduce commission on referrals already made. You may reject a change by ending the agreement before it takes effect, without penalty. Urgent legal or security changes may take effect sooner, with reasons, as much notice as practicable, and no wider than the need.
9.3 When the agreement ends, stop new promotion and remove our call box, links and branding within five business days. Referrals already made keep their attribution and their 90-day windows; we continue statements, validation and payment for them. Ending the agreement does not erase accrued payment rights or legitimate refund adjustments.
10. Responsibility and disputes
10.1 Each party is responsible for reasonably foreseeable loss caused by its breach or negligence, reduced for the other party's contribution. Each must take reasonable steps to mitigate loss. There is no automatic indemnity for every third-party claim.
10.2 Subject to clause 10.3, each party's total liability under the agreement in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of A$5,000 and the commission paid or payable for that period. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, but commission owed and the reasonable cost of correcting a payment error are not excluded.
10.3 The limit and exclusion do not apply to payment debts, fraud, wilful misconduct, breach of the confidentiality or privacy clauses, or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Nothing excludes rights or remedies that cannot be excluded by law, including under the Australian Consumer Law.
10.4 Send a written dispute notice describing the issue and the outcome you want. Representatives must try in good faith to resolve it within 20 business days. Either party may then propose mediation or use an available court or tribunal. Urgent relief, mandatory rights and payment of undisputed amounts are not delayed.
10.5 The law of New South Wales, Australia governs, subject to mandatory laws that apply to you. The parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales; this does not remove a right to use another competent forum that mandatory law gives you.
10.6 The parties are independent contractors. Neither may assign the agreement without consent, not to be unreasonably withheld, except as part of a genuine business transfer that preserves the other party's rights and is notified in advance. An unenforceable provision is severed only to the necessary extent. A waiver must be express. These terms and your approval notice are the whole programme agreement; mandatory rights are preserved.
Acceptance record
We keep: applicant legal name; authorised representative; approved website(s); contact and business address; country; email; payment currency and details; approved territory; assigned number and code; accepted terms version; acceptance time; approval date. The acceptance box on the application is never pre-ticked, and you may print or save this page as your copy of the terms.