Terms of Service

Background

Surge Business Law PLLC is a law firm that serves businesses. Some of what we offer is legal representation, which we provide only under a signed representation agreement. Some of what we offer is not legal representation at all, such as registered agent service, downloadable documents, software tools, and educational content. These Terms govern your use of our websites and everything we offer through them. They do not, on their own, make you our client.

Effective date: November 3, 2026. Version: 1.1.

1. These Terms

These Terms are a contract between you and Surge Business Law PLLC, an Iowa professional limited liability company. In them, "we," "us," and "our" mean Surge Business Law PLLC, and "you" and "your" mean the person using our Sites and, where that person acts for a business, the business too. The "Sites" means surge.law, every subdomain of surge.law (including contract.surge.law and trademark.surge.law), our member portal, and any other site or app we operate that links to these Terms. The "Services" means everything we provide through the Sites, paid or free.

By using a Site, creating an account, or buying anything from us, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not accept them, do not use the Sites.

If you sign a representation agreement with us, that agreement governs the legal services it covers. Where it conflicts with these Terms, the representation agreement controls. These Terms continue to govern your use of the Sites and anything that agreement does not cover.

If anything on a sales page, product page, help page, or marketing material conflicts with these Terms, these Terms control, except that the published price and description of a specific offer control as to that offer.

2. Who May Use Our Services

We serve businesses. You may buy from us only for a business purpose, which includes forming, buying, running, or selling a business. Our Services are not offered for personal, family, or household purposes, and by buying you confirm that your purchase is for a business purpose.

You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract. If you act for a business, you confirm that you are authorized to bind it, and these Terms bind both you and that business. Information you give us must be accurate, and you must keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, so keep your login to yourself and tell us promptly if you think someone else has used it.

3. No Legal Advice and No Attorney-Client Relationship

The content on our Sites, including articles, guides, videos, checklists, templates, tool results, and answers from any chat or AI feature, is general information. It is not legal advice, and it is not tailored to your situation. Do not act or decline to act based on it without advice from a lawyer who knows your facts.

An attorney-client relationship with us forms only when you and we both sign a representation agreement, and then only for the matter and the scope that agreement describes. Nothing else creates one. That includes using a Site, creating an account, buying or using a Service that is not legal representation, subscribing to a membership, downloading a document, using a tool, submitting a form or a document, sending us an email or a text, calling us, booking or attending a consultation, or receiving a quote.

Our lawyers are licensed in Iowa and Texas. We do not advise on the law of other states except as the rules that govern lawyers allow.

Parts of our Sites may be considered attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in any other matter.

4. Information You Send Before We Represent You

Until we have signed a representation agreement with you, do not send us information you need kept confidential except where a Site specifically asks for it, such as a document upload for a quote or an intake form. We treat information you send us before representation as the rules that govern lawyers require for prospective clients. Those rules still allow us to decline your matter and, in some circumstances, to represent someone whose interests are adverse to yours. Sending us information does not stop us from doing either.

Before we take on any matter, we run a conflict check. If the check shows we cannot represent you, we will tell you, and we will refund anything you paid for that matter.

5. Our Right to Decline Work and Cancel Appointments

We may decline to represent anyone, or to provide any Service, at any time and for any reason not prohibited by law or by the rules that govern lawyers. We do not have to explain why. Once we represent you, our ability to withdraw is governed by your representation agreement and those rules, not by this section.

We may cancel or reschedule any appointment, including a paid consultation, for any reason. If we cancel a paid appointment and do not reschedule it at a time that works for you, we will refund what you paid for it.

6. Services You Buy Without Meeting Us

Some Services can be bought online without a consultation. Because we have not reviewed your situation when you buy, every such purchase is subject to our review after checkout. After that review, we may decline the purchase, cancel it, change the scope of what we will provide, or offer a different Service that fits your situation better. If we change the scope or offer a different Service, we will tell you before we start, and you may accept the change or cancel. If we decline or cancel, or you cancel because we changed the scope, we will refund what you paid for the work we have not done. We will not charge you for work you did not agree to.

Where an online purchase includes legal services, those legal services begin only after the conflict check clears and you sign the representation agreement presented during checkout, and that agreement then governs them. The specifics of each package, including what it includes, turnaround times, refunds, and any payment plan, are set out in that representation agreement.

7. Services That Are Not Legal Services

Some of our Services are not legal services. These include registered agent service, downloadable documents and document packs, document-generation and e-signature tools, automated pre-screens and quotes, courses, guides, and other educational content. We call these "Non-Legal Services."

When you buy or use a Non-Legal Service, we are not acting as your lawyer, and you do not get the protections that come with an attorney-client relationship, including the lawyer's duties of confidentiality and loyalty and the attorney-client privilege as they would apply to a client. Buying a Non-Legal Service does not make us your lawyer for any purpose, even if a lawyer at our firm wrote the document or built the tool. If you want legal advice about your situation, you need a representation agreement for that work.

8. Registered Agent Service

If you buy registered agent service, we act as the registered agent for the entity you name, at the address we provide, in the state we serve as agent. Our job is to accept service of process and official notices delivered to that address and to forward them to you. We will forward what we receive by Email or member portal within one business day of receipt. We do not evaluate, respond to, or calendar anything we receive, and receiving a lawsuit or notice on your behalf does not make us your lawyer for it.

You must keep your contact information current with us and keep your subscription paid. We are not responsible for any consequence of a document we could not forward because your contact information was out of date, or that you did not open or act on after we forwarded it.

Our address will appear in public records as your registered office. It is not a mailing address for your business. We may decline, return, or discard mail that is not service of process or an official government notice.

We may resign as your registered agent as the law allows, including if your subscription lapses or you breach these Terms, by giving you 14 days' notice and making any filing the law requires. When our service ends for any reason, you are responsible for appointing a new registered agent and making the required filing, and any filing fees are yours.

9. Downloads and Document Tools

When you buy or download a document, template, or document pack, or generate one with our tools, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use it for your own business. You may edit it and use it in your own transactions. You may not resell it, share it publicly, offer it to others as a template or form, or use it to build a competing product or service.

Documents are provided as is. They are general forms written for common situations, they may not fit yours, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. Our name on a document, or the fact that a lawyer at our firm wrote it, is not our endorsement of the document for your use, and it does not mean we reviewed what you did with it. If you want a lawyer to review your completed document, that is a separate legal service.

Because downloads are delivered immediately, they are not refundable once delivered, unless the offer page says otherwise.

10. Subscriptions

We offer subscriptions, including our Momentum, Registered Agent, and Copilot plans. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period, at the then-current price, and we will charge your payment method on file until you cancel.

What a subscription buys is our availability. We limit the number of subscribers we accept on each plan so that we keep time on our calendar for the subscribers we have, and a subscription reserves that capacity for you during each billing period whether or not you use it. A subscription is not a deposit or prepayment for legal work, it does not buy any particular document, deliverable, or number of hours, and we do not hold subscription fees in our trust account. Subscription fees are earned when paid, and reserved time that you do not use does not carry over and is not refunded.

Any legal work we do for you as a subscriber, including work at a subscriber rate or work the plan includes, is legal representation only under a representation agreement, and that agreement governs it.

Because capacity is limited, we may close a plan to new subscribers, keep a waiting list, or decline a new subscription. We may also change a plan's features or price for future billing periods. We will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before a price increase takes effect, and you may cancel before it does.

You may cancel a subscription at any time from your account or by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep the subscription's benefits until then. We may cancel your subscription if you breach these Terms or if we can no longer serve you. If we cancel for a reason other than your breach, we will refund the unused part of the current billing period.

Cancelling a subscription does not cancel a payment plan, and it does not end any representation agreement, which ends only as that agreement provides.

11. Payment Plans

A payment plan is a way to pay over time for a Service you have already received. It is not a subscription. We offer a payment plan only for work we have completed or for which the fee has been earned, and by choosing a payment plan you owe the full price of that Service. The plan changes only when the price is due, not how much you owe.

You cannot cancel a payment plan. Closing your account, cancelling a subscription, ending a representation, or deciding you no longer want the result of the work does not cancel or reduce what you owe under it.

You authorize us to charge your payment method on file on each due date until the balance is paid. If a payment fails and is not made up within seven days after we notify you, we may declare the entire remaining balance due at once, pause any other Services we provide to you until your account is current, and pursue collection. We do not charge interest on payment plans unless the plan's published terms say otherwise.

You may pay off a payment plan early at any time without penalty.

12. Prices, Payment, and Member Pricing

Prices are stated on the Sites in US dollars and do not include any applicable taxes or government filing fees unless the offer page says they do. Member pricing applies only when you are signed in to an active membership account at checkout and only to offers marked as eligible. We cannot apply member pricing after a purchase is complete.

We use third-party payment processors, and your payment information is handled by them under their own terms. By giving us a payment method, you confirm that you are authorized to use it and you authorize us to charge it for your purchases, renewals, and payment plan installments.

If you dispute a charge with your card issuer instead of contacting us first, we may suspend your account and Services while the dispute is pending. Please contact us first, and we will try to resolve it.

Refunds are as stated in these Terms, on the offer page, or in your representation agreement. Where the rules that govern lawyers require us to refund a fee we have not earned, we will refund it, and nothing in these Terms limits that obligation.

13. AI Technology

We use artificial intelligence tools on our Sites and in our work, including in chat features, in automated pre-screens and quotes, and to help our team draft and review documents. Results produced by an AI tool, including any automated assessment of a document you upload, are not legal advice, may contain errors, and are not reviewed by a lawyer unless they are part of legal services we provide under a representation agreement. Any legal work we deliver to a client is reviewed by a lawyer before it goes out.

When you submit information or a document to an AI feature, it is processed by the AI provider we use to deliver that feature. We use providers whose terms do not allow them to use your submissions to train their models. Do not use our AI features to submit information about anyone other than your business unless you have the right to share it.

14. Cookies, Analytics, and Advertising Measurement

Our Sites use cookies and similar technologies to operate, to remember your preferences, to understand how the Sites are used, and to measure how well our advertising works, including tools provided by advertising and analytics companies. Our Privacy Policy describes what we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using the Sites, you agree to that use as the Privacy Policy describes it.

15. Communications

You agree that we may communicate with you electronically, including by email, through your account, and through the Sites, and that electronic notices and agreements satisfy any requirement that they be in writing. If you give us your mobile number and agree to receive text messages, we may text you about your account, appointments, and Services. Message and data rates may apply, and you can opt out at any time by replying STOP. A communication from us is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship unless it is made under a representation agreement.

16. What You Send Us

You keep ownership of documents and information you upload or submit to us. You give us permission to store, copy, process, and use them as needed to provide the Services you request, to run our conflict checks, to operate and secure the Sites, and to comply with the law and the rules that govern lawyers. You confirm that you have the right to send us what you send and that doing so does not violate anyone else's rights or any agreement you are bound by, including a confidentiality agreement.

17. Things You Must Not Do

You must not use the Sites to break the law or violate anyone's rights; upload malicious code or interfere with the Sites' operation or security; access accounts, systems, or data you are not authorized to access; scrape, harvest, or copy the Sites or their content by automated means, including for training an AI model; resell or redistribute our Services or content; or impersonate anyone or misrepresent your authority to act for a business.

18. Our Content

The Sites and their content, including text, documents, templates, software, designs, and our names and logos, belong to us or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Except for the license in section 9 and your ordinary personal viewing of the Sites, you may not copy, adapt, distribute, or publicly display our content without our written permission. You may share a link to a public page of our Sites.

19. Other Companies' Services

The Sites link to and rely on services provided by other companies, such as payment processors, scheduling, e-signature, and video-meeting tools, government filing systems, and AI providers. We do not control those services, and your use of them may be subject to their own terms. We are not responsible for their content, availability, or practices.

20. Disclaimers

The Sites and the Non-Legal Services are provided as is and as available. We do not promise that the Sites will be uninterrupted, error free, or secure, that content on them is complete or current, or that any tool, download, or AI result will meet your needs or produce any particular result. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

This section does not apply to legal services we provide under a representation agreement and does not change any duty we owe a client under the rules that govern lawyers.

21. Limit on Our Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for lost profits, lost business, loss of data, or any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of the Sites or the Non-Legal Services, whether the claim is in contract, in tort, or on any other basis, and whether or not we were told the loss was possible. Our total liability for all claims arising out of the Sites and the Non-Legal Services is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for the Non-Legal Service that gave rise to the claim in the twelve months before the claim arose, or $100.

This section does not apply to legal services we provide under a representation agreement, and nothing in these Terms limits or attempts to limit our liability to a client for legal malpractice or any other liability that the rules that govern lawyers do not allow us to limit. It also does not limit liability for our own gross negligence or willful misconduct, or anything else the law does not allow us to limit.

22. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Surge Business Law PLLC and its owners, lawyers, employees, and contractors against any third-party claim, and the losses, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from it, to the extent it arises out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Sites or a Non-Legal Service, content you sent us that you did not have the right to send, or your violation of law or anyone's rights. This section does not apply to claims arising out of legal services we provide to you under a representation agreement.

23. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or close your account, or stop providing any Non-Legal Service, if you breach these Terms, fail to pay, or use the Sites in a way that creates risk for us or others. Where we end a paid Non-Legal Service for a reason other than your breach, we will refund the unused part of what you paid for it. Ending your account does not end a representation agreement, which ends only as that agreement provides, and it does not cancel a payment plan.

Sections 3, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, and 20 through 26 survive the end of these Terms and the closing of your account.

24. Disputes With Us

If you have a dispute with us, contact us first at [email protected], and we will try to resolve it. Neither of us may start a lawsuit until thirty days after the other has received written notice of the dispute, except to prevent irreparable harm or to collect money owed.

Iowa law governs these Terms and any dispute between you and us about the Sites or the Services, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in Polk County, Iowa, and waive any objection to venue there. Either of us may instead bring a qualifying claim in small claims court.

In any action to collect money owed under these Terms, the prevailing party may recover its reasonable attorneys' fees, costs, and interest. In any other dispute, each of us pays its own attorneys' fees and costs.

Disputes about legal services, including fee disputes, are governed by your representation agreement where it addresses them.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may change these Terms. When we do, we will post the updated version with a new effective date and version number. A change applies from its effective date. For an active subscription, a material change takes effect at your next renewal after we email you about it, and you may cancel before then. A change does not alter a payment plan already in place or the price of a purchase already completed. We keep a record of which version you accepted and when.

26. General

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, the published terms of any offer you accept, and any representation agreement you sign, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Sites and the Services, and they replace anything said or written before.

If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, that part is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce something straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later. You may not transfer your account or your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a successor to our practice, subject to the rules that govern lawyers.

Neither of us is responsible for a failure or delay caused by something outside our reasonable control, including a natural event, a utility, network, or hosting failure, a payment processor outage, a government filing system outage, or a government order.

We will send notices to the email address on your account. You should send notices to [email protected] or by mail to Surge Business Law PLLC, 5335 Merle Hay Rd, Suite 7, Johnston, IA 50131. Nothing in these Terms makes either of us the other's agent, partner, or joint venturer, and nothing in them gives any third party a right to enforce them, except that section 22 covers the people it names.