If in immediate danger, call 000. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 Lifeline 13 11 14 Steady Chapter is not legal advice.
Legal

Terms of Service.

The agreement between you and Steady Chapter when you use the platform. Plain English where we can manage it, legal substance where we have to.

Last updated: 2 May 2026 Governing law: New South Wales Steady Chapter Pty Ltd
Working draft. These terms are a plain-English starting point and have not yet been reviewed by an Australian commercial lawyer. We will update them before the platform takes its first non-founder user. If you spot an issue, write to legal@steadychapter.com.

01Your agreement

By creating an account or using Steady Chapter, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the platform. If you are using the platform on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind that organisation to these terms.

02About Steady Chapter

Steady Chapter is a software platform built and operated by Steady Chapter Pty Ltd (ABN to be issued), an Australian company headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales.

The platform helps self-represented and partially-represented parties in Australian family-law matters keep their case organised, read inbound correspondence, draft replies with AI assistance, book independent solicitors and therapists, and access crisis lines.

03Eligibility

To use Steady Chapter you must be:

  • At least eighteen years old.
  • Capable of entering a legally binding agreement under Australian law.
  • Currently in Australia, or your matter is governed by Australian family law.
  • Using the platform for a real personal matter, not on behalf of someone else without their informed consent.

Lawyers and therapists who join the platform as practitioners agree to a separate practitioner agreement that sits alongside these terms.

04Your account

You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for any activity on your account. Tell us immediately if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

You must give us accurate information at sign-up and keep it up to date.

You may have one account at a time. If you create multiple accounts to evade a suspension or to obtain duplicate trial credits, we may close all of them.

05What the service is and isn't

What it is

  • A private workspace for organising your family-law matter.
  • An AI companion that reads inbound correspondence and helps you draft replies.
  • A booking layer for independent Australian-admitted solicitors and registered mental-health practitioners.
  • A surface for the major Australian crisis support lines.

What it isn't

  • Not a law firm. Steady Chapter does not practice law. Nothing produced by the AI companion is legal advice.
  • Not a clinical or crisis service. The calm-support AI companion is for company and reflection, not therapy. If you are in crisis, call 000 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
  • Not a guarantee of outcome. Family-law outcomes depend on facts, judges, the other side, and timing. We make no promises about the result of your matter.
  • Not your sender. The platform never sends correspondence on your behalf. You always send from your own email account, with your own hand.

06The AI companion

The AI companion is built on the Anthropic Claude family of models. It produces information, plain-English summaries and draft text, grounded in your matter and a corpus of Australian family-law materials. It is not a lawyer.

You agree that:

  • AI output may be wrong, incomplete, or out of date. Always read it with your own judgement before acting on it.
  • You will not rely on AI output as a substitute for advice from an Australian-admitted legal practitioner where the matter is consequential.
  • You will tell us if you spot a serious error, so we can investigate.

We send every AI request with a zero-retention configuration. The AI provider does not use your matter content to train its models. See the Privacy Policy for the full data flow.

07The lawyer marketplace

Lawyers listed on Steady Chapter are independent Australian-admitted solicitors. Each listing shows the practitioner's name, principal practising state, years of experience, and a fixed price for a single thirty or sixty-minute video consultation.

When you book a session:

  • The professional engagement is directly between you and the lawyer. Steady Chapter is the booking and brief-preparation layer; we are not your lawyer and we are not a party to the engagement.
  • Before the call, the AI prepares a one-page brief of your matter. You review and approve the brief before it leaves your account. The lawyer's access to the brief expires twenty-four hours after the call.
  • The session is a fixed-price single session. There is no retainer and no costs agreement. If your matter needs ongoing legal work, you and the lawyer arrange that separately, off the platform.
  • Australian legal professional rules around fee-sharing, advertising and referral fees apply. We do not pay or receive referral fees in any way that conflicts with those rules.
  • The lawyer is responsible for their own professional indemnity insurance and trust accounting (if any). We are not liable for the legal advice they give you.

08The calm-support marketplace

Therapists, counsellors and accredited social workers listed on Steady Chapter are independent practitioners registered with AHPRA, AASW or PACFA. Bookings work the same way as the lawyer marketplace: single session, fixed price, no ongoing obligation, written summary delivered to your matter after the session.

Steady Chapter is not a clinical service. The clinical relationship is directly between you and the practitioner.

09Cooling-off & sending

By default, every reply you draft on Steady Chapter is held for twelve hours before it can be copied. The cooling-off is a deliberate calmness mechanic; it can be lowered or removed for a specific draft if there is a genuine externally-imposed deadline.

You always copy the final text and send from your own email account. Steady Chapter does not have access to your inbox and does not send anything on your behalf.

10Crisis & safety

The platform surfaces Australian crisis lines (000, 1800RESPECT, Lifeline, Beyond Blue) prominently when relevant. If the platform detects acute crisis signals in your input or in inbound correspondence, it will pause drafting and surface those resources before continuing.

Steady Chapter is not a substitute for emergency services. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 000.

11Acceptable use

You agree not to use Steady Chapter to:

  • Upload material you do not have a right to use.
  • Harass, defame, or threaten any person, including the other party in your matter.
  • Submit fabricated documents to the platform with the intent to mislead a court, a lawyer, or the other side.
  • Reverse-engineer, scrape, or extract the platform's underlying systems or models.
  • Resell or rebrand Steady Chapter as your own service.
  • Circumvent rate limits, security controls, or access controls.

12Your content

You retain all rights to the content you upload or create on Steady Chapter (your matter, documents, drafts, edits). We do not claim ownership of your content.

You grant Steady Chapter a limited, non-exclusive licence to host, display, transmit, encrypt and process your content solely for the purpose of operating the service for you. This licence ends when you delete the content or close your account.

We never use your matter content to train AI models, sell to third parties, or display in any product feature outside your own workspace.

13Our intellectual property

Steady Chapter, the wordmark, the page-corner mark, the platform's design system, code, AI prompts and structured workflows are owned by Steady Chapter Pty Ltd. You may not copy, modify or redistribute them without written permission.

Open-source components used by the platform are licensed under their original licences and are not part of this clause.

14Pricing & payment

The matter workspace and AI companion are free during early access. We will give existing users at least thirty days' notice before charging for any feature that is currently free.

Lawyer and therapist sessions are charged at the fixed price shown at booking. The price includes any platform fee. The platform fee is disclosed before you confirm a booking.

All prices are in Australian dollars and inclusive of GST. Payment is processed by an external payment processor (Stripe or equivalent). We never store your full card number.

15Cancellations & refunds

  • You can cancel a booked session up to twenty-four hours before the start time for a full refund. Cancellations within twenty-four hours are at the practitioner's discretion.
  • If a practitioner cancels or fails to attend, you receive a full refund automatically.
  • If the platform fails in a way that prevents the session from happening, you receive a full refund and we will offer a replacement booking at no cost.

Nothing in this section limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

16Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • The platform is provided "as is". We make no warranties beyond those that cannot be excluded under Australian law (including the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law).
  • Steady Chapter is not liable for the legal or clinical advice given to you by independent practitioners booked through the platform; that liability sits with the practitioner.
  • Steady Chapter is not liable for any loss or damage that arises from AI output you acted on without independent legal review.
  • Where our liability cannot be excluded but can be limited, our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising from your use of the platform is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) one hundred Australian dollars.
  • We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses (including loss of profits, loss of opportunity, and emotional distress) except to the extent those exclusions are not permitted by law.

17Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Steady Chapter against any claim, loss or cost arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the platform, or your infringement of a third party's rights through your use of the platform. This indemnity does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our negligence or wilful misconduct.

18Termination

You can close your account from settings at any time. Closure deletes your live data immediately and your backups within thirty-five days, subject to Section 09 (booking records) of the Privacy Policy.

We can suspend or close your account if you breach these terms in a material way, if we are required to by law, or if continued operation puts the platform or other users at risk. Where it is reasonable, we will give you notice and a chance to fix the issue first.

19Changes to these terms

If we change these terms in a way that materially affects you, we will email you and post a banner on the platform at least thirty days before the change takes effect. Your continued use after that period is acceptance of the new terms. If you do not agree, close your account before the change takes effect; we will refund any fees for services not yet delivered.

20Governing law & disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. The courts of New South Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from these terms or your use of the platform.

Before filing a claim, you agree to write to us first at legal@steadychapter.com with the details of the dispute and to give us thirty days to resolve it informally.

21Contact

For questions about these terms, write to legal@steadychapter.com. For privacy questions, write to privacy@steadychapter.com.

Postal address: Steady Chapter Pty Ltd, [registered address to be added], Sydney NSW.