Clearline

Terms of use

Clearline — beta. Last updated 29 September 2026. These are beta terms; the public-release terms will be settled with counsel first.

1. What Clearline is, and is not

  1. Clearline is a messaging channel for separated parents under family-court communication orders. It checks each message against the conditions you enter from your own orders, holds the ones that would plainly cross a line, offers alternatives built only from the other parent's own words, and keeps an append-only record.
  2. Clearline is not legal advice. It does not interpret orders. It cannot guarantee that a message is within an order, and a message it lets through can still be read otherwise by a court. If in doubt, don't send it — ask your lawyer.
  3. Clearline holds; it never certifies. Nothing in the app, in an export, or in an email says that a message is safe, compliant or approved, and you must not represent that it does.
  4. Clearline never claims that a court has approved it, and you must not say so either.

2. What you confirm about your orders

  1. A new case starts on Clearline's default orders, a standard set, so the check works from your first message. The record says so in these words: "These are Clearline's default orders, not my own. They apply until I add my own."
  2. When you add your own orders you enter their conditions from your sealed orders and confirm: "I entered these conditions from my sealed orders. Clearline does not interpret them; my lawyer can verify them later." Your own orders then take over from the default ones.
  3. You are responsible for what you enter. A wrong condition can under-hold or over-hold a message. Update your orders in Clearline as soon as an order changes; the old version stays visible.
  4. Until a lawyer verifies your orders as entered, the app says "Not yet verified by a lawyer" everywhere they are relied on.

3. The record

  1. Every message sent, held, received, imported or handed off becomes an entry in a per-case SHA-256 chain. Entries are never edited. A held draft is recorded as a hash only unless you choose otherwise.
  2. Both parents can read the record and verify the chain. Exports are always the whole thread, both sides; there is no partial export.
  3. You may remove a message you sent (a tombstone: the text is removed, the hash stays, both parents see that it was removed and why). You cannot remove the other parent's messages or any system entry. A litigation hold suspends removal.
  4. The record is yours to hand to your lawyer or a court. Whether a court accepts it is for the court; the export format, the verifier and the system description are published so that anyone can check it.

4. The other parent

  1. You must give the other parent's real contact details and only theirs. Clearline never touches the other parent's device or accounts.
  2. If the other parent does not join, messages go by email from a case address. Their replies are recorded, with a notice telling them so. They can stop the email bridge at any time by replying STOP.
  3. Safety settings are yours alone. Clearline never tells the other parent that safety mode is on.

5. Acceptable use

  1. Use Clearline only for your own case and only under orders that bind you or the other parent. Do not use it to contact anyone the orders say you may not contact.
  2. Do not attempt to bypass a hold, to forge an entry, to read another person's case, or to probe the service.
  3. Do not upload material you have no right to hold. Images you attach have their location data removed; the original is kept for the record.

6. Accounts and billing

  1. An account is one adult with a verified email address (and a verified mobile number when that factor is on). Keep your codes to yourself. Use safety mode on any device someone else can reach.
  2. Price. A subscription is A$22 a month or A$220 a year for each parent, GST included; the price is shown in Settings before you subscribe and on every receipt. The fee is waived for the protected person under the order on request. Nothing in the record is ever withheld for non-payment: the record stays readable and exportable whether or not you subscribe.
  3. Free trial. Your first subscription starts with 7 days free. Your card is taken when you subscribe and the first payment is made when the trial ends unless you cancel before then; we (through our payment provider, Stripe) email you before the trial ends. The free week is for a first subscription only.
  4. Renewal and cancellation. A subscription renews by itself, monthly or yearly, until you cancel. Cancel any time from Settings → Manage billing: it ends at the end of the period you have paid for, and nothing more is charged. We email you before a yearly renewal and when a card is about to expire or a payment fails.
  5. Refunds. If you cancel, the paid period runs to its end and is not refunded, except where the Australian Consumer Law or another law entitles you to a refund (for example if the service is not supplied), which we will always honour. Ask by email and we will reply within 10 business days.
  6. Changes to the price. We may change the price for future periods with at least 30 days' notice by email; the change applies from your next renewal after that notice, and you can cancel before it.
  7. Deleting your account. You can ask for deletion from Settings. It takes effect after 30 days (you can change your mind in that time); your own sent messages are tombstoned (the words removed, the hash kept so the record still verifies), the account and sign-in are removed, and the other parent's entries, the case and the record's chain stay, because they are the other parent's record too. A litigation hold on a case pauses deletion until the hold is lifted.

7. Availability and liability

  1. The service may change, pause or end; we will give as much notice as we can (at least 30 days by email before it ends, with a refund of any unused period you have paid for), and the export always works while the service is up.
  2. To the extent the Australian Consumer Law and other laws allow, Clearline is provided as is, and our liability for anything arising from its use is limited to re-supplying the service. Nothing here limits rights that cannot be limited by law.
  3. You remain responsible for every message you send, whatever the app said about it.

8. Privacy

The privacy policy (/privacy) is part of these terms.

9. Law

These terms are governed by the law of the Australian Capital Territory. Anything about the service is dealt with by writing to the contact address on the privacy page first.

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