Law-Firm Participation Terms

1. Agreement and authority

The organisation agrees to these terms when an authorised person accepts them, submits a professional application, activates a membership or continues to use a professional account after being given notice of them.

A person acting for an organisation confirms that they have authority to bind it and give instructions for it. The organisation is responsible for activity through its authorised accounts. Each account user must also comply with these terms and their own professional obligations.

2. Application and approval

An application does not make an organisation approved, verified or eligible for matching. MatterPath may ask for information reasonably needed to review the organisation, its identity, regulator details, practitioners, service coverage and commercial profile.

MatterPath may approve, request changes to or reject an application. Payment is available only after approval. Approval is permission to participate on the platform, not an endorsement, accreditation or guarantee of the organisation or any practitioner.

3. Professional status

The organisation must be entitled to provide every legal or professional service that it offers through MatterPath. It must maintain every registration, practising entitlement, licence, insurance and other approval required by the laws and professional rules that apply to it.

Practitioner profiles must identify real people and contain current regulator and registration information. At least one suitable regulated practitioner must be verified before a practice can be approved for matching. The organisation must promptly update MatterPath if a professional status, restriction or entitlement changes.

4. Practice profile and service coverage

The organisation must keep its legal name, ABN, contact details, practice areas, practitioners, consultation modes, languages, availability and standard one-hour consultation rate accurate and current.

A service state or territory may be selected only where the organisation is willing, competent and lawfully able to accept relevant matters. Service coverage is separate from the location of an office. MatterPath may review a change before using it for future matching.

5. Matching and ranking

MatterPath compares consumer requirements with verified practice information using rules-based matching. A consumer may receive up to three recommendations. MatterPath does not promise that an organisation will be recommended or receive any introduction.

An active membership is required for an approved organisation to remain eligible for new matching. Payment, membership and accepted-introduction fees do not improve a recommendation or its rank. There is no bidding or pay-to-rank placement.

6. Consumer information and privacy boundaries

A recommendation may first provide a privacy-minimised preview. The organisation may use that preview only to assess suitability, availability and whether it can proceed. It must not try to identify or contact the consumer from a preview or combine it with other information to identify the consumer.

For an eligible standard-introduction matter, MatterPath releases the consumer's identity, contact details and full authorised information only after the consumer has expressly authorised the introduction, the organisation has accepted it and the accepted-introduction payment has succeeded. For a personal injury, compensation or other non-billable matter, MatterPath releases that information after the consumer has selected the organisation and given separate express consent. Firm acceptance and a claimant-linked payment are not conditions of that disclosure, although MatterPath may confirm that the organisation remains eligible to receive it. The organisation must then use that information only for the authorised introduction, conflict checks, communications and legal services, and must protect it in accordance with applicable privacy and professional obligations.

7. Accepting introductions

For an eligible standard-introduction matter, accepting an introduction confirms that the organisation wants the introduction and authorises the displayed accepted-introduction fee. Each standard introduction requires a separate acceptance. For a personal injury, compensation or other non-billable matter, firm acceptance is not required for disclosure: the consumer's selection and separate express consent control the disclosure, and no claimant-linked fee is authorised or incurred. An acceptance does not require the consumer or the organisation to enter a retainer.

MatterPath does not promise that an introduction will become a client, produce paid work or lead to a particular result. The organisation remains responsible for deciding whether to accept instructions and for communicating its own services, costs and engagement terms.

8. Conflicts, engagement and professional duties

The organisation is responsible for every conflict check, client-identification step, costs disclosure, engagement decision and professional obligation that applies before it accepts instructions. MatterPath's checks and consumer-facing notices do not replace those duties.

Where a professional rule requires disclosure of a financial benefit paid for an introduction, the organisation must give the consumer the required disclosure before accepting instructions. This includes any required written disclosure that MatterPath introduced the consumer and that the organisation pays MatterPath an accepted-introduction fee. The organisation must not describe that fee as affecting suitability or rank and must not pass it to the consumer as a disbursement unless the law and applicable professional rules clearly permit that treatment.

9. Restricted matters and referral safeguards

MatterPath does not charge, and the organisation must not pay or agree to pay, an accepted-introduction fee in connection with a Prohibited Referral Matter.

A Prohibited Referral Matter includes any actual or potential claim for damages, compensation or recovery arising from personal injury, illness, disease, abuse or death, together with any category MatterPath designates as prohibited or requiring compliance review. Prohibited means prohibited from claimant-linked charging, not prohibited from using MatterPath. Consumers may view restricted public profiles, receive non-paid suggestions, choose a firm and expressly authorise disclosure. MatterPath prevents the organisation from accepting or accessing that consumer through a paid-introduction workflow.

The organisation must comply with every applicable legal-profession, claim-farming, referral-fee, privacy, advertising, solicitation and professional-conduct requirement. It must not use MatterPath to solicit, induce, coach or pressure a person to make a claim, or offer, give or receive an unlawful fee, commission, benefit or other consideration for a referral.

10. Membership

Only an approved organisation can buy a membership. An active paid membership is required for matching and professional participation features.

Membership fees are fixed fees for access to MatterPath technology, accounts and platform functionality. They are not payment for a particular Prohibited Referral Matter, are not calculated by reference to damages or legal fees and do not guarantee any introduction, client, type or value of work, or revenue.

Participating law firms may pay fixed MatterPath membership or advertising fees. For personal injury and compensation matters, MatterPath does not charge a law firm per claimant or accepted introduction, by claim value, by legal fees or by outcome. Consumers choose which firm may receive their identifying information.

Personal injury and compensation membership

Personal Injury Advertising Membership is A$299 per month from signup. No founding discount or accepted-introduction fee applies.

Membership does not purchase access to a particular claimant and does not guarantee any minimum number of enquiries, introductions, clients or revenue.

The fixed monthly payment covers public directory/profile presence, advertising visibility, platform and account tools, and consumer-directed contact and disclosure functionality.

Founding 10

The first 10 qualifying non-personal-injury organisations approved by MatterPath are eligible for the Founding 10 offer. Personal Injury Advertising Membership accounts are ineligible. One payment of AUD $99 covers the first 12 months. After the first 12 months, the membership automatically continues at AUD $99 per month until cancelled.

Standard membership

Approved organisations that do not receive a Founding 10 place pay AUD $99 per month until cancelled. The offer shown in the organisation's account before checkout is the offer assigned to that organisation.

11. Accepted-introduction fees

Accepted-introduction fees apply only to eligible standard-introduction matters for eligible non-personal-injury organisations. They do not apply to personal injury or compensation matters, or to any other matter classified as prohibited, requiring compliance review or otherwise non-billable. Where the fee applies, it is the higher of AUD $40 or 10% of the verified standard one-hour consultation rate. A free initial consultation or a fixed fee for particular work does not reduce the calculation to zero. The verified standard one-hour rate is the commercial rate used for this calculation.

For personal injury and compensation matters, consumers may view restricted public profiles, receive non-paid suggestions, select a firm themselves, expressly authorise disclosure to that selected firm, and contact it directly. No firm acceptance or claimant-linked payment is required before consumer-authorised disclosure.

MatterPath calculates and records the fee when the recommendation is created. That fee is the amount displayed for acceptance. A later rate change applies only to future recommendations and does not change a fee already recorded. The fee is not a percentage of the consumer's matter, legal costs, damages, settlement or outcome.

12. Stripe payments and cancellation

All fees described in these terms are in Australian dollars and are the total amounts charged, inclusive of GST where GST applies. Stripe checkout and invoices show the applicable payment and tax treatment.

Payments are processed by Stripe. When the organisation buys a membership, its payment method is saved by Stripe for recurring membership payments. For an eligible standard organisation, it may also be used for separately accepted introduction fees. No such fee applies to a Personal Injury Advertising Membership account. MatterPath does not store your full card details.

The organisation authorises a particular accepted-introduction fee only when an authorised user accepts that introduction. If Stripe requires further authentication, the organisation must complete it before full consumer information is released for an eligible standard-introduction matter. If a payment fails or remains incomplete, membership may not activate or continue and a payment-gated standard introduction is not released. Personal injury, compensation and other non-billable matters do not use a claimant-linked payment as a condition of consumer-authorised disclosure.

The organisation may manage or cancel its membership through the billing controls made available in its account. Cancellation stops future renewal at the end of the current paid period. Nothing in these terms limits a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

13. Account use and platform integrity

The organisation must keep account access secure, give access only to authorised people and promptly remove access that is no longer required. It must not provide false information, misuse consumer information, evade a platform safeguard, interfere with matching or use MatterPath to send unlawful, misleading, harassing or unsolicited communications.

14. Suspension and termination

MatterPath may restrict matching, withhold an introduction, suspend an account or end participation where reasonably necessary to protect a consumer, comply with law or a professional rule, address a payment failure, investigate inaccurate information or suspected misuse, or respond to a material breach of these terms.

Where appropriate, MatterPath will explain the issue and give the organisation a reasonable opportunity to respond. Ending participation does not remove confidentiality, privacy, payment or professional obligations that arose before it ended.

15. Statutory rights and fair terms

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies a guarantee, right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Australian Consumer Law. These terms are intended to operate fairly for small-business participants as well as other organisations.

The liability provisions in the Terms applying to everyone also apply to professional participation. They do not make MatterPath responsible for an independent professional decision, legal deadline, engagement, service or outcome.

16. Changes, acceptance and records

The current version and effective date appear on this page. MatterPath may update these terms for a legal, professional, security, operational or service change and will give reasonable notice before a material change takes effect. A change does not alter an accepted-introduction fee already recorded for a recommendation.

MatterPath may record the organisation, account user, terms version, acceptance time and related account or payment context when these terms are accepted. Continued participation after a notified change takes effect, or a fresh acceptance where requested, confirms the organisation's agreement to the updated terms.

17. Contact and governing law

Contact info@matterpath.com.au about a participation, payment or account issue. These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia, subject to any law that requires otherwise.