The rules.
These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding legal contract between you and Settlement Truth ("Settlement Truth," "we," "us," or "our"), the operator of the website at settlementtruth.com, the Settlement Truth iOS application, the admin console, and all related application programming interfaces, data feeds, and services (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, submitting any content, or otherwise accessing or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service. PLEASE READ SECTION 22 ("DISPUTE RESOLUTION; BINDING ARBITRATION; CLASS-ACTION WAIVER") CAREFULLY — IT REQUIRES YOU TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH US BY INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND LIMITS THE REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO YOU.
1. What Settlement Truth Is
Settlement Truth is a public, user-submitted record of settlement outcomes from civilian-to-civilian motor vehicle accidents in the United States. The Service is a research, journalism, and consumer-education platform. Settlement Truth is not a law firm; we are not your lawyer; nothing on the Service creates an attorney-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship. We do not provide legal, medical, financial, tax, insurance, or any other professional advice; we do not recommend, refer, rank, rate, or endorse any attorney, law firm, medical provider, chiropractor, or other professional. The Service exists to help users understand patterns in publicly relevant data — it is not a substitute for retained counsel, professional consultation, or independent verification.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and legally capable of entering into a contract under the laws of the jurisdiction in which you reside to create an account or submit content. By using the Service you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements. Settlement Truth is intended for use within the United States; if you access the Service from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws.
3. Accounts and Account Security
To submit content or access certain features you must create an account using a valid email address and a password meeting our minimum complexity requirements. You agree to (a) provide accurate, current, and complete information; (b) maintain and promptly update that information; (c) keep your credentials confidential and not share them with any other person; (d) be solely responsible for all activity occurring under your account, whether or not you authorized it; (e) immediately notify us of any unauthorized use, suspected breach, or compromise of your account at security@settlementtruth.com. You may not create more than one personal account, transfer or sell your account, or impersonate any other person or entity. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any account at our sole discretion, including without notice, for any conduct we determine in our reasonable judgment to violate these Terms or to harm the Service or other users.
4. User Submissions and Content License
Content you submit to the Service — including but not limited to settlement details, narrative text, accident facts, financial figures, and metadata (collectively, "User Content") — remains your content. You represent and warrant that (a) you are the original source of the User Content and that it relates to your own personal experience or another experience you have the right to disclose; (b) the information is truthful to the best of your knowledge; (c) the User Content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights and does not violate any applicable law; (d) you have the right and authority to grant the licenses described below. You hereby grant Settlement Truth a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, modify (including for moderation, formatting, redaction, and translation), create derivative works of (including aggregated and anonymized datasets), publicly display, publicly perform, publish, distribute, and otherwise use and exploit the User Content in any media and through any means now known or hereafter developed, for any purpose connected with the operation, promotion, research mission, journalistic mission, public-interest mission, and improvement of the Service. The display mode you select (anonymous, first-name-only, or full-attribution) governs how individual submissions are publicly attributed; aggregate, statistical, and de-identified derivatives of your User Content may be used without attribution and may persist in those forms even after you delete an individual submission. You waive, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, any moral rights or rights of publicity in the User Content as against Settlement Truth and its sublicensees acting consistently with these Terms.
5. Moderation; Editorial Discretion
All User Content is subject to pre-publication moderation. We may, in our sole and absolute discretion and without prior notice, accept, reject, redact, edit, condition, delay, suspend, or remove any User Content, in whole or in part, for any reason or no reason, including but not limited to content that (a) contains personally identifying information about third parties; (b) names or identifies individual lawyers, doctors, chiropractors, or other private professionals; (c) contains statements we judge to be defamatory, knowingly false, harassing, threatening, hateful, or obscene; (d) presents financial figures or facts that are numerically implausible, internally inconsistent, or otherwise non-credible; (e) violates these Terms; or (f) we determine to be inconsistent with the editorial mission of the Service. Moderation decisions are final and not appealable. Settlement Truth has no obligation to publish any User Content and assumes no liability to any user for any decision to publish, decline to publish, or remove content.
6. Insurance Companies; Public Entities
Insurance companies and other publicly regulated corporate entities are subjects of public concern within the meaning of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and analogous state-law protections. The Service publishes user-submitted statements and aggregate analyses regarding the conduct of such entities as a matter of journalism and consumer protection. We do not publish identifying information about individual employees, agents, or representatives of insurance companies. Aggregate statistics are derived solely from user-submitted data; sample sizes are disclosed and we do not surface rankings below the threshold described in our editorial methodology.
7. Journalist Contact Relay
If you enable "journalist contact" in your account settings, Settlement Truth may relay messages from third-party journalists, researchers, or other inquirers to the email address on file with your account. Your email address is not shared with the inquirer; messages are sent from a Settlement Truth address with the inquirer's reply address shown so you may choose, at your sole discretion, to respond to them directly. You may disable journalist contact at any time. Settlement Truth does not vet, endorse, or guarantee the identity, credentials, or motives of any inquirer; you are solely responsible for any communication or relationship you choose to enter into following a relayed message.
8. Acceptable Use; Prohibited Conduct
You agree that you will NOT, directly or indirectly: (a) submit false, fabricated, manufactured, or AI-generated content as if it were a real personal experience; (b) submit content relating to an accident or settlement that is not your own without the express written consent of the actual subject; (c) impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation; (d) scrape, crawl, mass-download, harvest, index, mirror, or systematically copy any portion of the Service except as expressly permitted by our robots.txt or written authorization; (e) reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of any component of the Service; (f) use the Service to solicit clients, advertise legal or medical services, market any product, generate leads, or engage in any commercial activity; (g) attempt to identify, contact, or de-anonymize an individual submitter beyond information they have voluntarily made public; (h) use any bot, automated agent, machine-learning system, or third-party tool to interact with the Service in a manner that materially burdens our infrastructure; (i) introduce malware, viruses, worms, trojans, or any malicious code; (j) attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account, system, network, data, or non-public area of the Service; (k) interfere with or circumvent any security, authentication, rate-limiting, or moderation feature; (l) use the Service to violate any law, regulation, or third-party right; (m) use the Service in any manner inconsistent with its public-interest editorial mission. Violations may result in immediate suspension, civil action, criminal referral, or any combination thereof.
9. Intellectual Property
Except for User Content, all materials made available through the Service — including but not limited to the website design, source code, application binaries, databases, schemas, statistical methodologies, aggregated datasets, the Settlement Truth name, logo, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, editorial copy, and the selection, arrangement, and presentation of all of the foregoing — are the exclusive property of Settlement Truth or its licensors and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use. No other rights are granted by implication, estoppel, or otherwise. Bona-fide journalistic and academic use of small portions of published content with attribution is permitted as fair use; for bulk data access, machine-readable feeds, or republication of substantial excerpts, contact press@settlementtruth.com.
10. DMCA / Copyright Complaints
If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to dmca@settlementtruth.com. The notice must include: (a) a physical or electronic signature of the rights-holder or authorized agent; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material with sufficient detail for us to locate it; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized and that the information in the notice is accurate. Counter-notices may be submitted to the same address. We will respond in accordance with the DMCA. Misuse of the DMCA process may result in liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).
11. Section 230 / Interactive Computer Service
Settlement Truth operates as an "interactive computer service" within the meaning of 47 U.S.C. § 230(f)(2). Under § 230(c)(1), no provider of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. User Content is provided by users; Settlement Truth is not the speaker of that content for purposes of any cause of action implicating § 230 immunity. Nothing in these Terms is intended to waive any protection or immunity available to Settlement Truth under § 230 or any analogous federal or state statute.
12. Defamation; Responsibility for User Content
You are solely and exclusively responsible for the accuracy, legality, and consequences of any User Content you submit. If a third party brings a claim against Settlement Truth based on User Content you submitted, you agree that we may, at our sole option, cooperate with that third party (including disclosing your identity in response to a valid legal process), require you to defend the claim at your own expense, or both. Submitting User Content you know to be false or that you cannot reasonably document if challenged is a material breach of these Terms.
13. No Legal, Medical, Financial, or Insurance Advice
The Service publishes information for educational and journalistic purposes only. Nothing on the Service constitutes legal advice, medical advice, financial advice, insurance advice, tax advice, or any other professional advice. Statutory summaries, aggregate statistics, classifier results, and "Before You Sign" content are general information; they are not tailored to your specific facts, may not reflect the most recent change in law, and may contain errors. You must consult a licensed attorney in your state and any other appropriate professionals before making any decision regarding a real claim, settlement, lawsuit, or financial matter. Reliance on any information published by the Service is solely at your own risk.
14. Statutory Data; Best-Effort Research
Statutory values shown on state detail pages — including minimum bodily-injury liability limits, fault-system classifications, comparative-negligence rules, and statutes of limitation — are best-effort summaries researched against state codes, state insurance department publications, and the Cornell Legal Information Institute. They are not attorney-reviewed. State law is amended frequently and Settlement Truth may not capture every change in real time. Each state detail page displays a "last verified" date; the absence of a verified date or the presence of stale information is not a representation that any value remains current. Always confirm with a licensed attorney in the applicable state before relying on any statutory value.
15. Aggregate Statistics; Methodology Caveat
Aggregate statistics published by the Service (e.g., median net recovery by state, median settlement days by insurer, treatment-month buckets) are computed from user-submitted data. We disclose sample sizes alongside every aggregate and do not surface rankings below our minimum-sample threshold. Submitted figures are self-reported and not independently audited. Aggregates may be subject to selection bias, recall bias, reporting bias, and the limitations of self-report. They should not be treated as actuarial findings, expert testimony, or admissible evidence without independent expert validation.
16. Third-Party Services
The Service relies on third-party providers including, without limitation, cloud hosting infrastructure, transactional email delivery (Resend), and the Apple Push Notification Service. Use of those providers is subject to their respective terms and privacy policies, which we do not control. The Service may also include in-app links to third-party websites; we do not endorse or assume any responsibility for any third-party content, terms, or practices. Your interactions with any third party are solely between you and that third party.
17. Push Notifications
If you grant push-notification permission in the iOS application, Settlement Truth may send you transactional push notifications regarding the moderation status of your own submissions and other account-related events. You can disable push notifications at any time in iOS Settings or by signing out. We do not use push notifications for marketing or promotional purposes.
18. Beta Features
We may from time to time make experimental, beta, or pre-release features available on the Service. Beta features are provided "as is," may contain bugs or errors, may be modified or discontinued at any time without notice, and may not work as expected. Your use of any beta feature is voluntary and at your sole risk.
19. Disclaimer of Warranties
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT, MATERIALS, AND INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH IT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. SETTLEMENT TRUTH AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, LICENSORS, AND SUPPLIERS (TOGETHER, THE "SETTLEMENT TRUTH PARTIES") EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR FREE OF ERRORS, VIRUSES, OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY MADE IN THESE TERMS.
20. Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE SETTLEMENT TRUTH PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, LOST GOODWILL, LOST DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR PERSONAL INJURY, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE) THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF THE SETTLEMENT TRUTH PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY, THE TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF THE SETTLEMENT TRUTH PARTIES TO YOU FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS PAID BY YOU TO SETTLEMENT TRUTH IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES; IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS THE LIMITATIONS ABOVE APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. THE PARTIES ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THESE LIMITATIONS ARE A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF THE BARGAIN AND THAT WITHOUT THEM SETTLEMENT TRUTH WOULD NOT PROVIDE THE SERVICE.
21. Indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Settlement Truth Parties from and against any and all claims, demands, suits, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and litigation costs) arising out of or relating to (a) your access to or use of the Service; (b) any User Content you submit; (c) your breach or alleged breach of these Terms or any representation, warranty, or covenant herein; (d) your violation of any law or third-party right; or (e) any dispute between you and a third party. We reserve the right, at your expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense.
22. Dispute Resolution; Binding Arbitration; Class-Action Waiver
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS. (a) Informal resolution. Before filing any claim, you agree to attempt to resolve the dispute informally by contacting legal@settlementtruth.com and giving us thirty (30) days to respond. (b) Binding arbitration. If informal resolution fails, any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service — except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief seeking to protect intellectual property rights or for small-claims matters within the jurisdictional limit of a small-claims court — shall be settled by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration shall be conducted in English, on an individual basis, by a single arbitrator, in Salt Lake County, Utah, or by remote/video at the consumer's election. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. (c) Class-action waiver. YOU AND SETTLEMENT TRUTH AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims, may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding, and may award only individual relief. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable, the entire arbitration agreement (except this waiver) shall be null and void as to that claim. (d) Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to legal@settlementtruth.com within thirty (30) days of first creating an account, stating your name, email, and intent to opt out; otherwise, you are bound by this Section. (e) Governing law and venue. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. To the extent any claim is not subject to arbitration, you and Settlement Truth submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Summit County, Utah, and waive any objection based on inconvenient forum. (f) Time limit. Any claim must be filed within one (1) year after the cause of action arises, or it is permanently barred.
23. Termination
You may terminate your account at any time by using the in-app deletion mechanism or by emailing privacy@settlementtruth.com. We may suspend or terminate your account or your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Upon termination: (a) the licenses granted to you cease; (b) the licenses granted by you in User Content survive to the extent reasonably necessary to maintain the public record and aggregate dataset, except that we will delete personally identifying information consistent with our Privacy Policy; (c) Sections 4 (License), 8 (Acceptable Use), 9 (IP), 12 (Defamation), 19 (Warranties), 20 (Liability), 21 (Indemnification), 22 (Disputes), and any other provision that by its nature should survive, will survive.
24. Changes to These Terms
We may modify these Terms at any time. If a change is material, we will provide reasonable notice — for account holders, by email and an in-app banner; for visitors, by updating the "Last updated" date and posting a notice on the Service. Your continued access or use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to a modification, your sole remedy is to stop using the Service and terminate your account.
25. Apple-Specific Terms (iOS App)
The following applies to your use of the Settlement Truth iOS application obtained from the Apple App Store: (a) These Terms are concluded between you and Settlement Truth only; Apple Inc. is not a party. (b) Settlement Truth, not Apple, is solely responsible for the iOS application and its content. (c) The license granted to you for the iOS application is limited to a non-transferable license to use the application on Apple-branded products that you own or control as permitted by the App Store Terms of Service. (d) Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance or support services with respect to the application. (e) In the event of any failure of the application to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price (if any). To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the application. (f) Settlement Truth, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any user or third-party claims relating to the application or its possession or use, including product-liability claims, claims that the application fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer-protection or similar legislation. (g) In the event of any third-party claim that the application or your possession and use of it infringes that party's intellectual property rights, Settlement Truth, not Apple, will be solely responsible for investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge. (h) You represent and warrant that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. (i) Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms with respect to your use of the iOS application and may enforce these Terms against you.
26. Children
The Service is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen in any country. If we learn we have collected information from a child under thirteen, we will delete it promptly. Parents or guardians who believe a child has provided information should contact privacy@settlementtruth.com. Account creation requires that you be at least eighteen (18).
27. Force Majeure
Settlement Truth will not be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including without limitation acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil disorder, labor disputes, government action, pandemic or epidemic, internet or telecommunications outages, cybersecurity incidents, or third-party-service failures.
28. Assignment
You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights or obligations under them, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent; any attempted assignment in violation of this Section is void. We may assign or transfer these Terms freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.
29. Severability; Waiver; Entire Agreement
If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, the remainder of the Terms will remain in full force and effect, and the unenforceable provision will be deemed modified to the extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving the parties' original intent. No waiver of any provision of these Terms will be deemed a further or continuing waiver. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other policies referenced herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and Settlement Truth regarding the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings.
30. Notices and Contact
Notices to Settlement Truth must be sent to legal@settlementtruth.com. Notices to you may be sent to the email address on file with your account or by in-app banner. General questions: contact@settlementtruth.com. Privacy and data-rights requests: privacy@settlementtruth.com. Press: press@settlementtruth.com. Security: security@settlementtruth.com. Copyright (DMCA): dmca@settlementtruth.com.