Full disclaimer

This is not legal advice

ReclaimConsent publishes document information and plain-English explanations for educational and research purposes. It is not a law firm, gives no legal advice, and using it creates no lawyer–client relationship. Whether a clause binds you, whether a waiver holds up, and what to do about either are questions that turn on your facts and your state’s law.

We do not rule on enforceability

A clause appearing in a document does not mean it is valid. Courts routinely decline to enforce provisions that are printed in contracts everywhere — waivers of liability for gross negligence, terms purporting to bind a minor, arbitration clauses that fail a state’s procedural requirements. The index describes what a document says. It never says whether that language would survive a challenge, and no explanation should be read as implying that it would or would not.

What an attention score measures

The score on a document reflects the presence and breadth of clauses a reader may want to read carefully — how much of the document asks something of them, in effect. It is not a rating of the business, a safety measure, or a judgement about fairness. A high score on a summer-camp packet usually means the document covers medical consent, photography, and pick-up authority, which is exactly what such a document should cover. Compare scores between similar documents, not across different kinds of business.

The plain-English readings can be wrong

They are produced by software, and by less of it than you might assume: a keyword pass decides which of six clause types a document contains, and each type has one fixed sentence describing what such a provision generally does. No model reads these documents. That means a reading can attach to the wrong paragraph, miss a definition set out elsewhere, or describe a clause type in general terms that do not fit this particular document. It is why every point quotes the paragraph it came from and sits one click from the original wording, and why the original is reproduced rather than paraphrased. Where the two differ, the document controls.

Records may be out of date

Each record shows when it was captured and when it was last checked. A business can change its terms the day after a capture. Most of these documents state no effective date at all, so the dates on a record are capture dates: when we read the page, not when the business adopted the wording. That makes a record evidence of what was published on a given day, and not proof of what you personally signed — for that, compare the version history against the date you signed, and ask the business for the copy they hold. How we verify sources explains what each status covers.

Not affiliated with the businesses indexed

Company names and marks belong to their owners and are used to identify the documents those companies publish. Appearing in the index is not endorsement, partnership, or a claim about the business behind the document.

Document wording belongs to whoever wrote it

The same goes for the documents themselves — the part of a record that somebody else actually wrote. Copyright in a waiver or a membership agreement stays with the business that drafted it; quotations here are excerpts published as reporting and commentary on terms the public is asked to agree to, attributed and linked to the source they were captured from. Whole documents are reproduced only where they are public filings. The plain-English explanations around the quotations are ours and are separately licensed — the terms of use set out both halves of that, and the route for a rights-holder who wants a record removed.

If you need advice

Your state bar association runs a lawyer referral service, and many areas have legal aid organisations that handle consumer contract questions at no cost. Bring the document itself — the version you signed, if you have it. That is the thing a lawyer needs, and it is the reason this site keeps the original wording in front of you.