Current as of NOV 18 - 2022
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. ALL AGREEMENTS ARE BASED ON THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH DOCUMENT
Client Agreement
Welcome to ProfVal, LLC's website! The ProfVal, LLC Site (“Site”) Agreement (“Agreement”) is a legal agreement between you (“you”, “your”, “yourself”, “member”, or “user”) and ProfVal, LLC LLC (“ProfVal, LLC”, “we”, or “our”). We may modify this agreement at Our discretion by posting an updated version onto this Site. If at any point You no longer agree with these terms and services, You agree to stop using this Site.
1. ProfVal, LLC Accounts
In this section, We define what an account is and discuss what you must agree to before creating an account.
1.1 Registration, Site Upload, Username, and Passwords
You confirm that you have the authority to upload content and pay for services on behalf of yourself, your client(s), or the organization you represent. You confirm that we have the right to send personal documents to those people that you identify as recipients of the documents that we complete. You understand that we are sending these documents to external evaluators who will view these documents.
2. ProfVal, LLC’s Purpose and Role
The purpose of this Site is to provide a limited set of services related to providing different types of evaluations that can supplement a client's hiring process and/or can be used to evaluate academic credentials. Our activities include or may include: Expert Opinion Letters, Professional Plans, Business Plans, Work Experience Evaluations, Academic Transcript Evaluations, or other similar services. We may add or remove services at our discretion. Although we may also provide referrals to other companies or entities who are not part of ProfVal, LLC., we are not lawyers and do not offer any form legal advice or assistance. If you are referred to another company or service provider, you understand that your engagement is between you and them - ProfVal is not a party to relationships with third parties.
3. Your Use of the Site
You agree to comply with all laws, judgments, regulations, ordinances, and licenses, permits, and rules of any governmental authority that has jurisdiction over You. You will provide information that, to the best of your knowledge, is truthful.
4. ProfVal, LLC Payment Processing
ProfVal, LLC uses the services of a third party or parties to process paid transactions on this site; all payments must be completed through this payment system or systems. All payments are prepaid and processed in U.S. Dollars.
4.1 Refund policy & Warranty.
If, within 7 days, you would like us changes to your evaluation, we will happily make the changes you request at no cost and return the evaluation, which will typically occur within 5-days. It may take longer if an expert is not available or busy. We have the right to reject any change(s) if we and/or our evaluator(s) do not believe that the changes are factually correct and/or are inconsistent with our or their opinions. Changes outside of this scope may incur additional fees.
ProfVal’s maximum liability for any service will not exceed the total amount paid by an individual client for a single service. Refunds are provided at ProfVal’s discretion and only if ProfVal is unable to deliver the service(s) paid for.
5. Non-circumvention
You agree that if you became acquainted with an evaluator or other professional through your work completed through the profval.com website or through ProfVal, LLC, you will only accept payment for services paid to you via ProfVal, LLC. This non-circumvention agreement requires that for a period of 30 months of your most recent payment transaction with a client or professional, that all payments between you and the other user will occur only through ProfVal, LLC. You agree: i) not to seek, submit, request, or accept proposals on this site for Services completed outside of this Site; and ii) not to conduct follow-up work with another User for Services completed off of this Site.
This stipulation applies unless: i) You and the Client had an existing business relationship prior to your use of this site or ii) we have provided written consent for a limited opt-out from this Site, or iii) you pay a fee to ProfVal, LLC equal to the greater of $5,000 or 80% of total billings with another user over the 24 month period that the non-circumvention agreement applies.
This stipulation will be removed by written request only for services that do not compete with our Services. “Compete” refers to activities that are offered on profval.com at the time of a request. We neither encourage or discourage activities that do not compete with our services. An example of a non-competing activity would be if a company asked an accounting professor to provide auditing services. Another non-competing service would be to ask a supply chain professor to deliver a lecture about their research or area of expertise.
6. Release and Limitation of Liability
This section describes Your agreement with ProfVal, LLC and Your understanding and agreement that ProfVal, LLC will not be held liable for Your use of this Site and the Services used on it. If ProfVal, LLC is liable, the maximum amount that ProfVal, LLC will be liable for is less than or equal to the fees that we charged to you associated with a single disputed service. An example of a service would be a single Expert Opinion Letter. Our maximum liability to a law firm or a client will not exceed the cost of the this service for one client, never to exceed $1,000.
You agree not to not hold ProfVal, any expert you interact with through ProfVal, or an independent contractor who completes a service for you liable for any losses or damages incurred related to or resulting from an Expert Opinion Letter or any other type of service you purchase from ProfVal.
Your agreement to not hold ProfVal, its owners, or independent contractors who provide services through the ProfVal platform liable for any losses or damages incurred applies to all services offered on ProfVal.com. You also agree not to hold us liable for any losses related to the following: (i) delays or Site downtime; (ii) Your ability or inability to use or access the site; (iii) viruses obtained on the site; (iv) glitches, bugs, errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or other errors of any kind that are on the Site; (v) damage to your hardware or software; (vi) content provided by third parties and/or other Users; (vii) delayed payments or Our refusal to accept payment from You; (viii) Our willful or unintended termination of Your Site access, (viiii) or delays in completing a service.
Each individual completing a payment is agreeing to the following parameters:
a. ProfVal offers limited service guarantees but ProfVal cannot and does not guarantee USCIS approval. If, within 7 days, you would like to request one round of changes to your evaluation, ProfVal will happily forward the changes you request at no cost and return the evaluation within 5-days. ProfVal or the expert(s), do however, have the right to reject any change(s) for any reason if ProfVal and/or evaluator(s) do not believe that the changes are factually correct and/or are inconsistent with our or their opinions. Experts are contractors on behalf of ProfVal, but are not employees of ProfVal; their opinions are subjective and their independent opinions are based on their own experiences, the material provided to them by the client, and other resources that they may use. Changes that modify the scope of an evaluation or result from incorrect information submitted to ProfVal may result in additional fees.
b. ProfVal offers Expert Opinion Letters (EOLs), Business Plans, Professional Plans, and other services, but does not offer legal advice. You agree to carefully examine all documents for accuracy and errors. You take full responsibility for all errors that may adversely affect your or your client's case. You confirm that you are an immigration attorney or, if you are an individual or a company, that a licensed immigration attorney or case manager will review all aspects of your application, including any EOL(s) provided to you by ProfVal.
c. All evaluators agree to a non-circumvention agreement, which means that you agree not to circumvent ProfVal for any type of Expert Opinion letter. This means that you agree that you, the company you work for, or your affiliates will not ask experts that you meet on ProfVal.com to complete EOLs for you or for someone else unless the EOLs are completed through the ProfVal platform. If you seek to collaborate with an expert after purchase, you must receive ProfVal's written consent to do so.
d. You agree not to not hold ProfVal OR any expert or independent contractor you interact with through ProfVal liable for any losses or damages incurred related to or resulting from an Expert Opinion Letter or any other type of service you purchase on or through ProfVal.
e) ProfVal’s maximum liability for any service will not exceed the total amount paid by an individual client for a single evaluation. Refunds are provided at ProfVal’s discretion and only if ProfVal is unable to deliver the service(s) paid for. If a dispute is brought to court or arbitration over this contract, client will be responsible for their and ProfVal's attorney fees.
f) This form should only be used after ProfVal has agreed to work with you or your attorney or law firm. If you make a payment prior to that, we may not accept you as a client. If we do not accept you as a client, we will issue a refund, but fees will be charged. At minimum, you will be charged a processing fee equal to 3% of the purchase price.
g) ProfVal offers services for the purposes of helping our clients. You understand that the documents that we use are based on research and are the intellectual property of ProfVal. These documents can be shared with your Immigration Attorney and the USCIS. You understand that these documents are the intellectual property of ProfVal and agree not to share these documents publicly
7. Indemnification
You will hold harmless, indemnify, and defend ProfVal, LLC, its owners, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents or independent contractors from and against all claims, demands, or legal proceedings (including expenses and reasonable attorney's fees incurred in connection with the defense of any such matter) (each a "Claim") that are brought against You arising out of Your use of this Site. This includes any act or inquiry related to: (i) any activity that You engage in that violates the terms of this site, infringes on the rights of others, or is illegal; (ii) any Services that You complete that infringe upon the rights of a third party; (iii) a dispute between You and another User on this Site; and/or (iv) actual or alleged breaches of Your obligations, warranties, or services completed on this Site.
8. Agreement and Termination
We may terminate this Agreement, terminate Your Account and/or Profile, and limit or terminate Your access to this Site at anytime for any reason and without notice. If You are a Client, we will return any unused funds to You and will send any Services Paid for to You less any fees that we may charge or any amounts that you owe or may owe to us.
The amount that You owe to Us will be estimated based on potential charge backs, fees that We incur attempting to submit payment to You, refunds, adjustments, or any other costs that may be incurred to Us associated with Your account. If You violate a law or the terms of service, You may forfeit Your remaining balance.
9. Disputes and Applicable Law
You understand and agree that any dispute not completed through an internal ProfVal, LLC dispute resolution process that relates in any way to ProfVal, LLC, this Agreement, Payments completed through ProfVal, LLC, or in any way involving Us will be resolved in binding arbitration in the State of New York and not in court. Any and all disputes related to this Agreement will thus be resolved and governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, federal law, and New York State laws.
This means that all matters will be determined by an arbitrator and not by a court, judge, or jury. If any part of this Arbitration Agreement is not enforceable, the remainder of this Arbitration Agreement will be enforceable.
To begin an arbitration proceeding, You must send a letter describing your claim and requesting arbitration to us by email. The arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its rules, including the AAA's Supplementary Procedures for Consumer-Related Disputes. The AAA's rules are available at www.adr.org or by calling 1-800-778-7879. Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA's rules.
This agreement limits Your ability to enter into a collective or class actions. Specifically, You and ProfVal, LLC agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action or basis. You will not engage in or threaten in any way a class action or collective action against Us. ProfVal, LLC may seek enforcement of this Arbitration Agreement under the Class Action Waiver of the Federal Arbitration Act and have any claims against Us dismissed. If for any reason a claim proceeds in court rather than in arbitration, we waive all rights to a jury trial. We also both agree that you or we may bring suit in court to enjoin infringement or other misuse of intellectual property rights.
We may seek injunctive or other relief in any state, federal, or national court of competent jurisdiction for any actual or alleged infringement of Our intellectual property or proprietary rights.
10. General Provision
- Entire Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding and agreement between the You and ProfVal, LLC with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement. No agreements, understandings, restrictions, representations, or warranties exist between or among ProfVal, LLC and You other than those in this Agreement or referred to or provided for in this Agreement. No modification or amendment of any provision of this Agreement will be binding on Us unless it is in writing, agreed upon, and signed by an owner of ProfVal, LLC that is duly authorized to modify this agreement. Any attempt to change this agreement by You or another User is null unless it is agreed upon in writing by an owner of ProfVal, LLC that is duly authorized to modify this agreement.
- Governing Law. This Agreement and the rights and obligations of the parties under it are governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the State of New York (without regard to principles of conflicts of law).
- Severability. If any term or provision of this Agreement is held to be void or unenforceable, that term or provision will be severed from this Agreement, the balance of the Agreement will survive, and the balance of this Agreement will be reasonably construed to carry out the intent of the parties as evidenced by the terms of this Agreement.
- Prevailing location and language. This site is controlled and operated in the United States. We make no warranties of its availability, functionality, or representations of the Site outside of the United States. The language of the site and User Agreement is English. If this site is translated into another language, the terms are based on the original English content.
- Consent to Electronic Records. In connection with this Agreement and use of the Site, You may receive records, communications, contracts, or other communications from Us or third-parties. You provide consent to Us and Our affiliates to send this information to Uou using electronic communication such as email.
- Notices: Any changes to this agreement will be posted on this Site and/or will be sent to You by email. Updates to the Site and emails are deemed written notice for any purpose for which a written notice would be required.