SMS Consent & Messaging Terms

This page documents how SmartLegal AI, Inc. (“SmartLegal AI”) collects opt-in consent for SMS / text messages and the messaging program rules that apply to those messages. The program is a Customer Care use case: messages are operational communications related to a user's legal-intake inquiry, and are not marketing or promotional broadcasts.

In compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the CTIA Messaging Principles & Best Practices, and applicable state laws, we obtain explicit, affirmative opt-in from a user before any SMS is sent to their mobile number. This page describes the opt-in user experience, the disclosure language users agree to, the categories of messages they may receive, and how they can opt out.

SmartLegal AI is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider. Our AI-powered legal-intake chatbot is embedded on the websites of partner law firms (“Direct Law Firm Clients”) and lead-generation platforms (“Lead Generation Partners”). When a user completes intake through the chatbot, SmartLegal AI delivers customer-care SMS to that user on behalf of the partner that owns the relationship.

SmartLegal AI is the registered sender of record with our messaging carrier and is responsible for ensuring that every recipient has explicitly opted in through the chatbot before any SMS is sent. The opt-in user experience, disclosure language, and message-program rules described on this page are uniform across all partner deployments of the SmartLegal AI chatbot.

Opt-in is collected within the SmartLegal AI chatbot at the moment a user provides their mobile number during intake. The chatbot presents an unchecked consent checkbox alongside the phone-number field. The user must affirmatively check the box, with full awareness of the disclosure language, before submitting their number. No SMS is sent to a number that has not been affirmatively opted in.

Below is a representative mock-up of the exact UI a user sees inside the SmartLegal AI chatbot at the phone-collection step:

The checkbox is unchecked by default. Submission is blocked unless the user affirmatively checks the box. SmartLegal AI retains a timestamped record of each opt-in, including the URL where consent was collected, for compliance verification.

The exact disclosure presented to users at the moment of opt-in is:

Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions links are presented adjacent to the checkbox so users can review them before opting in.

Representative messages users receive after opting in:

In addition to the web-form opt-in described above, a small number of users opt in over the phone during inbound calls to a partner law firm. When this occurs, the agent reads the following script verbatim and the user's verbal “yes” is recorded:

The script makes clear that the user will receive SMS messages containing appointment reminders and service updates, that standard messaging and data rates from their carrier may apply, and that they may opt out at any time.

Sample audio recording of a phone-channel opt-in:

After verbal consent is captured, the user receives the same opt-in confirmation SMS shown in the Sample Messages section above.

Phone-channel consent recordings are securely stored and available for verification upon request. The web-form / chatbot flow remains the primary opt-in channel for the SmartLegal AI messaging program.

Users may opt out of SMS at any time at no cost.

• Opt out: Reply STOP to any message. Other accepted opt-out keywords include STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, and QUIT. After opt-out, the user receives a single confirmation message and no further SMS.
• Help: Reply HELP to any message to receive program contact information, or email hello@smartlegal.ai.
• Re-subscribe: A user who has opted out may opt in again by repeating the web-form opt-in flow.

STOP and HELP keyword handling is processed automatically by our messaging carrier and complies with the CTIA Messaging Principles & Best Practices.

Mobile numbers and consent records are used solely to deliver the customer-care SMS that the user opted in to receive, and to process opt-out requests, in connection with the user's legal-intake inquiry.

All other handling of personal information, including the categories of partners with whom intake data is shared for legal-services purposes, is described in our Privacy Policy.