Terms & Conditions
AUTHENTIFIER
TERMS OF USE
Contents
Part A: Disclaimer
This website (Website) is operated by Brain Guru Co Pty Ltd (ABN 81 650 234 978) (Provider, we, our or us). It is available at: www.authentifier.com.au and may be available through other addresses or channels.
This Disclaimer applies to all Users who access, use or read the content published by the Provider on this Website and to any communications made by the Provider to such Users (Communications), whether by way of information contained on the Website, newsletters, articles, other materials forwarded through electronic mail or any other forms of public or private communications.
In accessing the Communications, you expressly acknowledge and agree that:
(a) the Communications are offered on an “as is” basis to Users only and the Provider does not in any way guarantee the accuracy, quality or completeness of the Communications thereof;
(b) you are not required to read the Communications. If you do read such Communications and/or choose to receive such Communications, you do so at your own risk;
(c) the Provider does not in any way guarantee that the suggestions contained in any Communications apply to your own personal or business circumstances, or in any other way produce results, whether anticipated or otherwise, in respect of your circumstances. Many factors exist which may influence the outcome of any action or step taken by you or any other person acting for you or on your behalf;
(d) accordingly, the Provider shall not be in any way liable for the use of such Communications and the use or reliance on the content of any Communications, including but not limited to liability arising as a consequence or result of:
(i) any errors or omissions in the Communications;
(iii) any loss or damage of any kind incurred through the use or reliance of the content of such Communications.
In accessing and viewing any Communications of the Provider, you expressly acknowledge and agree that:
(a) all statements and opinions expressed in such Communications are supplied for information purposes only. Under no circumstances are the Communications intended for any business, commercial or income related purposes or activities;
(b) additionally, no Communications shall create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms and you are not entitled to rely and/or act on such Communications and/or use them as a basis for any cause of action in law or otherwise.
The Provider expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to:
(a) any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose in respect of your access and use of the Communications and/or your receipt of Communications; and
(b) any warranty in respect of any reliance place on or results procured from the content of the Communications of the Provider.
This Disclaimer serves as an addition to, and is incorporated by reference into, the General Terms and Conditions of the Website. Unless specified otherwise in this document, all capitalised terms have their definitions within the General Terms and Conditions.
Part B: Website Terms & Conditions
ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS
1.1 These General Terms and Conditions apply to the following categories of users:
(a) any persons viewing or otherwise accessing the Website;
(b) any persons purchasing services through or in connection with the Website; or
(c) any persons supplying in any other way personal information (including name and email address) to Privacy Legal or its related body corporates and/or its successors and assigns (being the “Provider”) through or in connection with the Website.
1.2 All such categories of users collectively referred to as “Users”, “you” or “your”.
1.3 By becoming a User, you hereby acknowledge and agree to be bound by these Terms. This version represents the most current version of these Terms.
WEBSITE ACCESS AND USE
2.1 The Website is offered, supplied and provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis, and the Provider assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any User communications or personalised settings.
2.2 The Website may include software embodied therein now or in the future (Software) as well as security components that permit digital materials to be protected, and that your access of the Website is subject to Software usage rules set by the Provider and/or its licensors. The Provider makes no warranty that any errors in the Software will be corrected.
2.3 You are responsible for obtaining access to the Website and that access may involve third party fees (such as Internet service provider or airtime charges). You are responsible for those fees and in addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Website.
2.4 You may not:
(a) forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content or data transmitted through the Website;
(b) disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to “scroll” faster than other Users are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other Users’ ability to engage in real time exchanges;
(c) interfere with or disrupt the Website or servers or networks connected to the Website or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected thereof;
(d) take any action that places an unusually large load on the infrastructure of the Website, or bandwidth connecting to the Website, or take any action that includes the use of any data accumulation, tool, robot or spider to compile, disseminate, extract, process, monitor or copy any web pages;
(e) intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law; and
(f) attempt to override or circumvent any of the usage rules embedded into the Software or those provided herein.
2.5 Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the Website is done at your own discretion and risk. You will solely be responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of the same.
WEBSITE CONTENT
3.1 All information displayed on the Website, including descriptions and prices of products, services, programs, packages and any other services (collectively, “Services“) offered for sale or supply by the Provider, and any other information and materials communicated to you from time to time, such as, help topics and FAQs (collectively “Content”), are provided for guidance only, and no advice relating to purpose and suitability of Services or any other form of advice is understood to be given to you by the Provider.
3.2 The Provider does not in any way guarantee the accuracy, integrity, completeness or quality of the information contained in any Service description on the Website and no person may rely on such description in the purchase of a Service. You are advised to confirm the accuracy and completeness of the Service description with directly with the Provider.
3.3 Under no circumstances will the Provider be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available through or in connection with the Website. You are not entitled to rely and/or act upon such Content and/or use them as a basis for any cause of action in law or otherwise;
3.4 The Content may be subject to change without notice and does not take into account your objectives, personal or commercial situation and/or personal or health needs.
3.5 To the fullest extent of the law, the Provider expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or correspondence to particular descriptions in respect of any Content displayed on the Website. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from the Provider or through or from the Website shall create any warranty not expressly stated in this Disclaimer.
3.6 You are not required to click on any Services or description of Services displayed on the Website, or purchase any Service offered for sale by the Provider.
PURCHASING OUR SERVICES
4.1 Authentifier Price Guarantee applies if the Provider cannot complete processing Your Apostille / Authenticated or Attested document. In the event the guarantee applies, the Provider will refund You our processing fee.
4.2 Timings for DFAT Legalisation and Embassy Attestation are indicative only. Timings depend on these organisations’ ability to process Your documents on time.
4.3 Our processing fee prices do not include DFAT or Embassy / Consulate fees. If You are located overseas, courier (DHL) charges for forwarding Your completed documents to You apply. If You are in Australia, Express Post service may be provided without cost, subject to any changes which may be made at the Provider’s discretion.
4.4 For the purposes of our Services, “Business days” mean:
(a) Authentifier business hours being Mondays to Saturdays, 8am to 6pm, with after hours appointments available by contacting us. Timings may be subject to change at the Provider’s discretion.
(b) DFAT or Embassy / Consulate business hours are as determined by the organisation concerned.
4.5 All fee comparisons made on the Website are for illustrative purposes, based on the Recommended Fees set out in the Public Notary Act 1997 as at 1 Jan 2024 and a survey of competitors as at 1 Jan 2024, as may be updated from time to time by the Provider.
4.6 Cancellations – if You decide to cancel Your order with Us, we will refund You all fees paid to Us provided that We have not commenced work for You. If We have, we will still need to charge You the processing fee for such work. We are also entitled to impose an administrative fee for such cancellation.
PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS
5.1 Payments made through the Website are made using secure data protection processes. While the Provider shall use its best efforts to protect all personal and financial information given by you to the Provider when placing your order or making an online payment, the Provider is unable to guarantee the security of any such information submitted or provided through or in connection with the Website. Accordingly, you acknowledge and agree that:
(a) any submission or provision of information (including provision of credit card information) is made at your own risk and that the Provider disclaims any and all liability for, or arising in connection with, any interception, ‘hacking’ or other unauthorised access of such information through the Website by any unauthorised third parties; and
(b) you are responsible for ensuring that the transaction, credit card information and all other details you provide in relation to your payments made through the Website are correct. The Provider disclaims any and all liability for, or arising in connection with, any incorrect transactions, errors or otherwise caused by factors outside of its control.
5.2 Subject to the other provisions of this clause herein, if for any reason the Provider is held to be liable to you in relation to the online payment process, the extent of the Provider’s total liability shall be limited to the total amount paid by you to which the online payment process is associated with.
PROHIBITION ON REPRODUCTIONS AND COPIES ETC
6.1 You must not copy, modify, translate, publicise, reproduce, exploit, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display or sell any of, or any portion of, any or all Content on the Website or create any derivative works thereof without the prior consent of the Provider.
6.2 You must not use any of the Content in connection with any commercial endeavours whether in whole or in part.
6.3 You are entitled to only retrieve and display Content on a computer screen, print individual pages on paper, photocopy and store such pages in electronic form on disc (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) solely for your personal use.
6.4 You must not alter the text, graphics, images, audiovisual or any other materials contained on the Website or embodied in any Content.
6.5 Any unauthorised reproduction, publication, further distribution or public exhibition of the Website or all Content contained therein in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
6.6 Without express and written prior permission of the Provider, you must not to display or use in any manner the Provider’s proprietary trademarks, including the Provider’s name, logo, other names and logos of the Provider as may be created, produced or used from time to time, for any purpose whatsoever.
PURCHASER ACCOUNT
7.1 When you place an order to purchase our Services, you may be required to create an account (Account). Accordingly, you will be given an account designation upon completing the Order process.
7.2 You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the Account and the password, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the same.
7.3 You agree to:
(a) immediately notify the Provider of any unauthorised use of your Account or password or any other breach of security; and
(b) ensure that you exit from your Account at the end of each session.
7.4 The Provider cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this clause.
PURCHASER DATA INPUT
8.1 You are solely and entirely responsible to ensure the accuracy and completeness of all information and data that you submit or otherwise make available to the Provider, including the details entered in by you when you place your order to purchase our Services.
8.2 In submitting information and data, you expressly acknowledge and agree that you shall not submit or otherwise make available through or in connection with the Website:
(a) any information, data or material that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
(b) any information, data or material that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under non-disclosure agreements);
(c) any information, data or material that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
(d) any information, data or material comprising unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas that are designated for such purpose;
(e) any information, data or material containing software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; or
(f) any information, data or material purporting to impersonate any other person or entity, including, but not limited to, any other User, the Provider’s official, employee, consultant, guide, host or any other representative, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
8.3 You also expressly acknowledge and agree that:
(a) the Provider shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, change or remove any information, data or material submitted by you or otherwise made available by you through or in connection with the Website;
(b) the Provider may access, preserve, and disclose all information, data or material supplied by you if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
(i) comply with legal process;
(ii) enforce these Terms;
(iii) respond to your requests for customer service; and
(iv) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of the Website, other Users and/or the public.
8.4 You understand that the technical processing and transmission of information, data and material submitted or otherwise made available by you to the Provider may involve:
(a) transmissions over various networks; and
(b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
GENERAL PRACTICES REGARDING USE AND STORAGE
9.1 You expressly acknowledge and agree that:
(a) the Provider may establish general practices and limits concerning use of the Website, including without limitation the maximum number of days and months that data submitted by you will be retained by the Website, the maximum amount of information that may be submitted by you and the maximum number of times and the maximum duration for which you may access any Content on the Website in a given period of time;
(b) the Provider has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any information or communication given by you, or obtained or procured from or through the use of the Website; and
(c) the Provider reserves the right to modify these general practices and limits from time to time.
COMMUNICATIONS POLICY
10.1 The Provider will not respond unless required to do so by law to any communications sent to the Provider which contains threatening, abusive, malicious, pornographic, obscene, defamatory or otherwise illegal or inappropriate material. The Provider reserves the right to take such action as the Provider in its sole discretion deems fit in respect of such material.
10.2 All communications received will be taken to be submitted, where appropriate, for publication, free of charge. If you wish to negotiate a fee for the publication of your exclusive material you should email us at support@privacylegal.com.au and state your name, address and, if applicable, a contact telephone number, in your communications. Your communications should clearly state that the material has been submitted for the purposes of negotiating a fee for the publication of that material. It must not be sent to any other email address or to a User or to any other third party.
10.3 The Provider will not disclose any personal information under any circumstances of any staff, employee, contractor or worker of the Provider and/or the Provider’s associates. Where appropriate the Provider will respond to your communications as soon as reasonably practical but the Provider does not and cannot guarantee a response to you.
10.4 If your communications is made by way of email, it will generally be stored for 12 months after which time they will automatically be deleted. Any emails sent to the incorrect destination will be liable to be deleted immediately.
MODIFICATIONS TO THE WEBSITE AND CONTENT
11.1 The Provider reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Website or any part thereof and the display of any Content or any part thereof through or in connection with the Website with or without notice to you.
11.2 You agree that the Provider shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Website or Content.
MODIFICATIONS TO THESE TERMS
12.1 The Provider reserves the further right to make any amendments to these Terms at any time in its sole and absolute discretion, with or without notice to you. The most current version of these Terms as posted on this page shall supersede all previous versions.
12.2 It is your responsibility to check regularly to determine whether a new version of these Terms has been uploaded. If you do not agree to any revisions pursuant to the upload of a new version of these Terms, then you must immediately stop using the Website. Your continued use of the Website and purchase of Services after such modifications or amendments shall constitute an acceptance of your agreement to be bound by these Terms, as amended.
OFF SITE LINKS
13.1 The Website may contain links to other sites or resources, which you may access at your sole discretion. The Provider has no control over these sites and resources and is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, services or other materials on or available from such sites or resources.
13.2 In addition, the Provider shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.
Part C: General Terms of Business
Our General Terms of Business, together with the Quote & Tax Invoice made available to you through our Website or by email or any other communication channel, sets out the terms of our offer to provide legal services to you and constitutes our costs agreement and disclosure pursuant to the Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW).
1 Billing Arrangements
Our usual policy is to issue a tax invoice on a monthly basis but we may issue tax invoices on a more frequent basis depending on the nature of the work. All tax invoices are due and payable 7 days from the date of the tax invoice. You consent to us sending our tax invoices to you electronically at your usual email address or mobile phone number as specified by you.
2 Acceptance of Offer
You agree to engage us by:
a) placing an Order through our Website or accepting our Engagement Letter:
b) continuing to instruct us. Upon acceptance you agree to pay for our services on these terms.
3 Interest Charges
Interest at the maximum rate prescribed in Rule 75 of the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules 2015 (“Uniform General Rules”) (being the Cash Rate Target set by the Reserve Bank of Australia plus 2%) will be charged on any amounts unpaid after the expiry of 30 days after a tax invoice is given to you. Our tax invoices will specify the interest rate to be charged.
4 Recovery of Costs
The Legal Profession Uniform Law (NSW) (“the Uniform Law”) provides that we cannot take action for recovery of legal costs until 30 days after a tax invoice (which complies with the Uniform Law) has been given to you.
5 Your Rights
It is your right to:
(a) negotiate a costs agreement with us;
(b) negotiate the method of billing (e.g. task based or time based);
(c) request and receive an itemised bill within 30 days after a lump sum bill or partially itemised bill is payable;
(d) seek the assistance of the designated local regulatory authority (the NSW Commissioner) in the event of a dispute about legal costs;
(e) be notified as soon as is reasonably practicable of any significant change to any matter affecting costs;
(f) accept or reject any offer we make for an interstate costs law to apply to your matter; and
(g) notify us that you require an interstate costs law to apply to your matter.
If you request an itemised bill and the total amount of the legal costs specified in it exceeds the amount previously specified in the lump sum bill for the same matter, the additional costs may be recovered by us only if:
(i) when the lump sum bill is given, we inform you in writing that the total amount of the legal costs specified in any itemised bill may be higher than the amount specified in the lump sum bill, and
(ii) the costs are determined to be payable after a costs assessment or after a binding determination under section 292 of the Uniform Law.
Nothing in these terms affects your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.
6 Your Rights in relation to a Dispute concerning Costs
If you have a dispute in relation to any aspect of our legal costs you have the following avenues of redress:
(a) in the first instance we encourage you to discuss your concerns with us so that any issue can be identified and we can have the opportunity of resolving the matter promptly and without it adversely impacting on our business relationship;
(b) you may apply to the Manager, Costs Assessment located at the Supreme Court of NSW for an assessment of our costs. This application must be made within 12 months after the bill was provided or request for payment made or after the costs were paid.
7 Payment Methods
It is our policy that, when acting for new clients, we do one or more of the following:
(a) approve credit;
(b) ask the client to pay monies into our trust account;
(c) ask the client for their credit card details.
Unless otherwise agreed with you, we may determine not to incur fees or expenses in excess of the amount that we hold in trust on your behalf or for which credit is approved.
9 Retention of Your Documents
On completion of your work, or following termination (by either party) of our services, we will retain your documents for 7 years. Your agreement to these terms constitutes your authority for us to destroy the file after those 7 years. The authority does not relate to any documents which are deposited in safe custody which will, subject to agreement, be retained on your behalf indefinitely. We are entitled to retain your documents while there is money owing to us for our costs.
You will be liable for the cost of storing and retrieving documents in storage and our professional fees in connection with this.
10 Termination by Us
We may cease to act for you or refuse to perform further work, including:
(a) while any of our tax invoices remain unpaid;
(b) if you do not within 7 days comply with any request to pay an amount in respect of disbursements or future costs;
(c) if you fail to provide us with clear and timely instructions to enable us to advance your matter, for example, compromising our ability to comply with regulatory requirements, orders or practice notes;
(d) if you refuse to accept our advice;
(e) if you indicate to us or we form the view that you have lost confidence in us;
(f) if there are any ethical grounds which we consider require us to cease acting for you, for example a conflict of interest;
(g) for any other reason outside our control which has the effect of compromising our ability to perform the work required within the required timeframe; or
(h) if in our sole discretion we consider it is no longer appropriate to act for you; or
(i) for just cause.
We will give you reasonable written notice of termination of our services. You will be required to pay our costs incurred up to the date of termination.
11 Termination by You
You may terminate our services by written notice at any time. However, if you do so you will be required to pay our costs incurred up to the date of termination (including if the matter is litigious, any cancellation fees or other fees such as hearing allocation fees for which we remain responsible).
12 Lien
Without affecting any lien to which we are otherwise entitled at law over funds, papers and other property of yours:
(a) we shall be entitled to retain by way of lien any funds, property or papers of yours, which are from time to time in our possession or control, until all costs, disbursements, interest and other moneys due to the firm have been paid; and
(b) our lien will continue notwithstanding that we cease to act for you.
13 Privacy
We will collect personal information from you in the course of providing our legal services. We may also obtain personal information from third party searches, other investigations and, sometimes, from adverse parties.
We are required to collect the full name and address of our clients by Rule 93 of the Uniform General Rules. Accurate name and address information must also be collected in order to comply with the trust account record keeping requirements of Rule 47 of the Uniform General Rules and to comply with our duty to the courts.
Your personal information will only be used for the purposes for which it is collected or in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). For example, we may use your personal information to provide advice and recommendations that take into account your personal circumstances.
If you do not provide us with the full name and address information required by law we cannot act for you. If you do not provide us with the other personal information that we request our advice may be wrong for you or misleading.
Depending on the nature of your matter the types of bodies to whom we may disclose your personal information include the courts, the other party or parties to litigation, experts and barristers, the Office of State Revenue, PEXA Limited, the Land and Property Information Division of the Department of Lands, the Registrar General and third parties involved in the completion or processing of a transaction.
We do not disclose your information overseas unless your instructions involve dealing with parties located overseas. If your matter involves parties overseas we may disclose select personal information to overseas recipients associated with that matter in order to carry out your instructions.
We manage and protect your personal information in accordance with our privacy policy [which can be found on our firm website or a copy of which we shall provide at your request]. Our privacy policy contains information about how you can access and correct the personal information we hold about you and how you can raise any concerns about our personal information handling practices. For more information, please contact us in writing.
14 Sending Material Electronically
We are able to send and receive documents electronically. However, as such transmission is not secure it may be copied, recorded, read or interfered with by third parties while in transit. If you ask us to transmit any document electronically, you release us from any claim you may have as a result of any unauthorised copying, recording, reading or interference with that document, for any delay or non-delivery of any document and for any damage caused to your system or any files.
15 GST
Where applicable, GST is payable on our professional fees and expenses and will be clearly shown on our tax invoices. By accepting these terms you agree to pay us an amount equivalent to the GST imposed on these charges.
16 Governing Law
The law of New South Wales governs these terms and legal costs in relation to any matter upon which we are instructed to act.
Part D: Specific Instructions after Purchase
On making a purchase from Authentifier through the Website, or directly from us, or by means of any other channel, you must follow the instructions below to ensure that we are able to process your order immediately.
1. All original documents must be sent to us in one of two ways:
- If you are in Australia, send by Express Post to:
- Ray Latimer (Mob 0419 310 959)
Authentifier
PO Box 787
Milsons Point
NSW 1565
- Ray Latimer (Mob 0419 310 959)
- If you are overseas, send by courier to:
- Ray Latimer (Mob: 0419 310 959)
Authentifier
Ground Floor
465 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood
NSW 2067
- Ray Latimer (Mob: 0419 310 959)
- You must email your tracking reference number to support@authentifier.com.au as soon as you have arranged the postage or courier of your documents to us.
2. If your documents are Australian educational documents and they are on the My eQuals platform, you must share the documents with us using the My eQuals share function. Please refer to the FAQ “How do I share my credentials” on the My eQuals FAQ page.
Last update: May 2024
Need to know more?
Check out our FAQ and How It Works pages for more information on Document Attestation, DFAT Legalisation (Apostille & Authentication) and Document Notarisation, and on Authentifier’s processes.
If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, feel free to reach out, we’re happy to help. You can contact Authentifier using the form below or via phone or email.
