Terms of Use

1. What these terms are

1.1 These terms are the rules for using Teras. By signing in to Teras, or by using any part of it, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use Teras.

1.2 Teras is a private system. Only people the firm has invited may use it. There is no public sign-up.

1.3 Teras is a tool the firm uses to run and share its legal work. It is not a law firm, a legal adviser or a legal service by itself. Any legal work is done by the firm under a separate retainer or letter of engagement with the Client. If anything in these terms conflicts with that engagement, the engagement governs the legal work, and these terms govern the use of the app.

1.4 The firm may change these terms. When it does, the new version is shown in Teras with its effective date. Continuing to use Teras after that date means you accept the new version.

2. Who uses Teras, and what each person may do

Teras is deny-first. You can see or do only what the firm has allowed for your role and your Matter. Where the app and these terms disagree, the app's actual access controls apply.

2.1 The firm

The firm's team runs Teras. The team decides which Matters you can see, which views and documents are shared with you, which Actions and document requests are sent to you, and when progress updates are published. The firm may change any of this at any time. Everything you see has been deliberately shared with you by the firm; nothing reaches you by default.

2.2 Clients

A Client is a person or company the firm acts for, invited to the Client portal by the firm.

A Client may:

• see their own Matters, and only the views the firm has chosen to share;
• see progress updates, Actions and tasks addressed to them, and documents shared with them;
• upload documents against a request from the firm;
• ask questions on their Matter and read the firm's answers;
• read notices and their past notices, and edit their own profile.

A Client cannot see other Clients, other Matters, the firm's internal notes or work, the other side's details, or anything the firm has not deliberately shared.

2.3 Agents

An Agent is a person outside the firm, such as a property agent, who refers clients to the firm. An Agent may or may not belong to an agency.

An Agent may:

• send a Referral saying what the referred client needs, and attach documents;
• follow each Referral through its steps (Sent, Review, Quotation ready, Work in progress, or Not accepted);
• see the limited views of a Matter opened from their Referral that the firm has chosen to share;
• respond to Actions addressed to them and upload requested documents;
• read notices and edit their own profile.

An Agent cannot see the firm's internal work, the Client's private details beyond what the firm shares, the other side's details, or Matters that did not come from their own Referrals.

Referring a client does not make the Agent a client of the firm, and does not make the Agent the firm's partner, employee or representative. Any referral fee or commission is governed by a separate written arrangement and by the rules that apply to the firm, not by these terms. The firm is free to accept or decline any Referral.

2.4 Agency Managers

An Agency Manager is a person at an agency who oversees that agency's Agents. An Agency Manager sees the limited Matter views the firm has chosen to share with the agency, and their own profile. They cannot see more than their Agents can, and they cannot act on a Matter.

2.5 Access can change

The firm decides who has access and may add, limit, suspend or remove access at any time, with or without notice. Removing access ends your ability to sign in once no Matter still gives you access. Access given for one Matter does not extend to any other.

3. Your account and signing in

3.1 You sign in with the email address the firm invited. You receive a one-time code by email each time you sign in.

3.2 You are responsible for the mailbox tied to your account and for anything done while signed in as you. Keep your device and mailbox secure. A sign-in code is for you alone; never share or forward it.

3.3 Tell the firm at once if you think someone else has used your account or your mailbox has been compromised.

3.4 Do not sign in as, or try to see the information of, anyone else. Do not attempt to bypass access controls, probe the system, or use automated tools against Teras.

4. What you may and may not do

You may use Teras only for the legal Matter or Referral it was given to you for. You must not:

• upload or send anything unlawful, defamatory, infringing, malicious or that you have no right to share;
• upload personal information about another person unless you are entitled to and it is needed for the Matter;
• copy, scrape, export or disclose information from Teras beyond what you need for your own Matter or Referral;
• interfere with Teras, its data, its connected services or other users;
• reverse engineer, decompile or copy any part of Teras;
• use Teras to compete with the firm or to solicit the firm's Clients or staff.

5. Documents, records and what Teras keeps

5.1 The firm's official file is the record. Teras shows document information and holds uploads temporarily. The firm's authoritative legal file is kept in its own document management system. If Teras and the firm's official file disagree, the official file is the record.

5.2 Files you upload are placed in private storage and may be moved into the firm's official file for the Matter. Files an Agent sends with a Referral that does not go ahead are removed from Teras after a holding period, which is currently 90 days after every quotation on that Referral was declined. The record that they existed stays.

5.3 Teras keeps history. Matter events, access changes, uploads, responses and decisions are recorded and are not deleted. You should expect your actions in Teras to be logged and attributable to you.

5.4 Archiving is not deletion. An archived Client or Matter is hidden, not erased, and may be restored by the firm.

5.5 Information shown in Teras about progress, steps and documents is a working view maintained by the firm's team. It may lag behind events or contain errors. Always rely on the firm's written advice and the engagement documents for anything that matters legally.

6. Not legal advice; no guarantees about timing

6.1 Nothing displayed in Teras, including step descriptions, progress updates, checklists, the description of what may happen next, or an answer in the Questions feature, is legal advice unless it comes from a lawyer of the firm acting under your engagement and is clearly given as advice.

6.2 Future steps shown in Teras are potential, not guaranteed. A conditional stage may never happen.

6.3 Any target, deadline or date shown in Teras is an internal working target. It is not a promise, an estimated completion date, or a term of your engagement.

6.4 Quotation and fee information shown in Teras is a summary. The quotation document the firm issues governs.

6.5 Where Teras shows a reference as pending, that is deliberate: the firm never shows a made-up reference number. Do not rely on any reference until the firm confirms it.

7. Personal data and privacy

7.1 The firm processes personal data in Teras as a data user under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Malaysia) and in line with the firm's Privacy Notice, which is available from the firm on request. Teras processes names, contact details, identity numbers, addresses, Matter information, uploaded documents and usage logs.

7.2 Identity numbers and phone numbers are protected within Teras and are shown in full only to people at the firm who need them.

7.3 Teras sends email notices to your sign-in address. Questions and answers between a Client and the firm are not sent in the email itself; the email asks you to sign in to read them.

7.4 The firm uses reputable third-party service providers to host and run Teras and to send email. Data may be processed outside Malaysia by these providers under their own security and confidentiality terms.

7.5 If you are an Agent and you give the firm information about a referred client, you confirm that you are allowed to do so and that the client knows the firm will contact them.

8. Confidentiality

Everything you see in Teras about a Matter, a Client, the firm's processes or another user is confidential. You may use it only for the purpose it was shared with you and must not disclose it to anyone else without the firm's written consent, except where the law requires. This duty continues after your access ends. Nothing here reduces the firm's own duty of confidentiality to its Clients.

9. Intellectual property

Teras, its design, wording, service definitions, workflows, checklists and software belong to Messrs Akmal Saufi & Co or its licensors. You get a limited, revocable, non-transferable permission to use Teras for your authorised purpose, and nothing more. Documents you upload remain yours or your principal's, and you give the firm permission to store, copy and use them for the Matter.

10. Availability and changes

10.1 Teras is provided "as is" and "as available". The firm does not promise that Teras will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure from every threat, or available at any particular time.

10.2 The firm may change, suspend or withdraw any feature or the whole app at any time, including for maintenance, security or legal reasons, with or without notice.

10.3 If Teras is unavailable, the firm's legal work for you continues through its ordinary channels, and the firm's obligations under your engagement are unaffected.

11. Waiver of liability for use of the system

11.1 Teras is offered as a convenience, free of charge, and you use it entirely at your own risk.

11.2 To the fullest extent permitted by Malaysian law, the firm, its partners, lawyers, staff, contractors and service providers have no liability to you whatsoever arising from or connected with Teras or your use of, or inability to use, it, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise. This waiver covers, without limit:

• any direct, indirect, consequential, special or punitive loss;
• loss of profit, business, revenue, opportunity, goodwill or anticipated savings;
• loss, corruption, delay or inaccuracy of any data, document or information in Teras;
• unavailability, interruption, error, defect or security incident affecting Teras or any connected service;
• anything caused by your device, your mailbox, your internet connection, your own acts or omissions, or anyone using your account;
• reliance on any progress update, step, date, target, forward description, checklist, summary or answer shown in Teras;
• the acts or omissions of any Agent, Agency, Client or other user of Teras.

11.3 By using Teras you waive, release and agree not to bring any claim against the firm or the persons named in 11.2 in connection with the use of the system.

11.4 What this waiver does not touch. Teras is a working tool, not the firm's legal service. This section does not exclude or limit:

• the firm's professional duties and liability to a Client for its legal work under the Legal Profession Act 1976 and the Client's engagement, which are governed by that engagement and the law;
• liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud;
• any other liability that Malaysian law does not allow to be excluded, including rights of a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act 1999 that cannot be contracted out of.

Where the law does not permit a full exclusion, the firm's liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows.

12. Your responsibility to the firm

If you misuse Teras, breach these terms, or upload material you had no right to upload, you will compensate the firm for the loss, claims and reasonable costs that result, including claims by third parties.

13. Ending access

13.1 The firm may suspend or end your access at any time, including without notice if it reasonably believes you have broken these terms, the law, or put the system or another user at risk.

13.2 You may stop using Teras at any time and ask the firm to remove your access.

13.3 When access ends, your duties of confidentiality, the waiver of liability, and the firm's rights to keep its records continue.

14. Other terms

14.1 Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of Malaysia. The courts of Malaysia have exclusive jurisdiction, and you agree to their jurisdiction.

14.2 Language. Teras is available in English and Bahasa Malaysia. If these terms are translated and the versions differ, the English version applies.

14.3 Whole agreement for the app. These terms, together with the Privacy Notice, are the whole agreement between you and the firm about the use of Teras. They do not replace any Client engagement or referral arrangement.

14.4 Severance. If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest still applies.

14.5 No waiver by the firm. The firm not enforcing a term at one time does not stop it enforcing that term later.

14.6 Notices. The firm may give you notice through Teras, by email to your sign-in address, or by post to the address on file. You may contact the firm through your usual ASCOLAW contact or the contact details published at ascolaw.co.