Effective Date: October 19, 2020
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of the websites and other services operated by Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland (“CCCSMD,” “we,” “us” or “our”), including https://cccsmd.org/, where these Terms are posted (collectively, the “Sites”). These Terms represent a binding contract between CCCSMD and you. By accessing the Sites, you expressly agree to be bound by our Terms and Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by the Terms and Privacy Policy, you may not use the Sites.
Certain areas, features, or functionality of the Sites may be subject to different or additional terms, rules, guidelines or policies (“Additional Rules”), and we may provide such Additional Rules to you via postings, pop-up notices, links, or other means at the time that you access or use the relevant area, feature or functionality. From time to time, such Additional Rules may conflict with these Terms. In the event of such a conflict, the Additional Rules will govern.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE NOTE THE ARBITRATION PROVISION SET FORTH BELOW, WHICH, EXCEPT WHERE AND TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW, REQUIRES YOU TO ARBITRATE ANY CLAIMS YOU MAY HAVE AGAINST CCCSMD ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE, AND YOU WAIVE, THE RIGHT FOR A JUDGE OR JURY TO DECIDE YOUR CLAIMS, AND THAT YOU MAY NOT PROCEED IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED OR REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY.
Account ID and Secure Pin Number
To access certain portions of the Sites, you must be a CCCSMD client. An account ID and secure pin number will be provided. You agree to provide truthful and accurate information while accessing your account. You also agree to maintain the accuracy of any submitted data. If you provided any information that is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we reserve the right to terminate your account and suspend your use of any and all Sites.
You are responsible for preserving the confidentiality of your account pin number and will notify us of any known or suspected unauthorized use of your account. You agree that you are responsible for all acts or omissions that occur on your account while your pin number is being used.
On rare occasions, CCCSMD may need to access your account in order to inspect, investigate and solve any technical issues related to the use of the Sites. CCCSMD will obtain an explicit consent from you before we access your account and shall do so only for the time required to resolve the issue.
User Conduct
We are providing you with access to the Sites pursuant to a limited, non-exclusive, non-sub-licensable, non-transferable, revocable license. You can use the Sites for personal, non-commercial use, and subject to these Terms. This license is available to you as long as you are not barred from the Sites by applicable law and your account is not terminated by us or by you. If these Terms are not enforceable where you are located, you may not use the Sites. CCCSMD reserves all right, title, and interest not expressly granted under this license to the fullest extent possible under applicable laws.
By using the Sites, you agree to not use the Sites in any manner that:
Is designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of, any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment (including by means of software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs);
Interferes with or disrupts the Sites, services connected to the Sites, or otherwise interferes with operations or services of the Sites in any way;
Infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent or other right of any party, or defames or invades the publicity rights or the privacy of any person, living or deceased (or impersonates any such person);
Consists of any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
Causes CCCSMD to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our Internet service providers or other suppliers;
Links to materials or other content, directly or indirectly, to which you do not have a right to link;
Is false, misleading, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive or another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, as determined by CCCSMD in its sole discretion;
Copies, modifies, creates a derivative work of, reverse engineers, decompiles or otherwise attempts to extract the source code of the software underlying the Sites or any portion thereof;
Violates, or encourages anyone to violate these Terms, any ancillary terms and conditions listed on the Sites, or the privacy policy; or
Violates, or encourages to violate, any applicable local, state, national, or international law, regulation, or order.
CCCSMD shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor, evaluate, and analyze any use of and access to the Sites for any reason, including to determine compliance with these Terms.
Linking
We welcome links to Sites. You are usually free to establish a hypertext link to any of the Sites so long as the link does not create a false implication of sponsorship or endorsement of your site by any of the Sites or by CCCSMD.
No Framing
Without the prior written permission of CCCSMD, you may not frame, or make it appear that a third-party site is presenting or endorsing, any of the content of the Sites, or incorporate any intellectual property of the Sites, CCCSMD or any of its licensors into another website or other service. We reserve the right to withdraw our permission without notice.
Age Limitation
The Sites are not intended for use by persons under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not use the Sites unless you have appropriate consent.
Copyright and Trademark Ownership
The Sites and their content, features and functionality, including, without limitation, information, text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, video clips, data compilations and the design, selection and arrangement thereof (collectively, the “CCCSMD Content”), are the exclusive property of CCCSMD, our licensors or other content suppliers, and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws, and may not be used or exploited in any way without our prior written consent. You may download information from the Sites and print out a hard copy for your personal use provided that you keep intact and do not remove or alter any copyright or other notice (e.g., trademark, patent, etc.) contained in the information. Except as otherwise expressly stated herein, you may not modify, copy, distribute, display, reproduce, sell, license, or create derivative works from any information or CCCSMD Content, in whole or in part, including any text, images, audio, and video in any manner, without the prior written authorization of CCCSMD or any applicable third party suppliers. Any unauthorized use of text or images may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and applicable regulations and statutes. You agree to comply with reasonable written requests from us to help us protect our proprietary and intellectual property rights.
Your Intellectual Property Rights and License Grant
Some features on our Sites, either now or in the future, may allow you to post or submit communications, photos, videos, and other content on or through the Sites (“Your Content”). You own any intellectual property rights to Your Content, but you agree that we can use, reproduce, modify, adapt and publish Your Content for purposes of enabling us to offer the Sites or the features you have elected to use. You also automatically grant, or warrant that you and/or the owner of such content has expressly granted, CCCSMD a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, unlimited, transferable, sub-licensable, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, create derivative works from, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display Your Content in any media or medium, or any form, format, or forum now known or hereafter developed. You warrant that you have the legal capacity and authority to grant the foregoing license and that Your Content does not infringe any third-party rights (which includes, but is not limited to, intellectual property rights, rights of privacy or moral rights) and does not contain any defamatory or disparaging statements. You are responsible for Your Content, and acknowledge that once published, we cannot always remove it.
Links to External Sites
The Sites may contain links to other websites and resources provided by third parties. We are not responsible for the availability and contents of these external websites nor do we endorse the activities or services provided by these websites. Under no circumstances shall we be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any loss or damage caused or alleged to have been caused to a user in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services available on such external websites. Your access or use of these external websites is done entirely at your own risk.
Privacy
We respect your privacy and have taken specific steps to protect it. Your submission of personally identifiable information through the Sites is governed by our Privacy Policy at https://cccsmd.org/privacy-policy/.
Disclaimer of Warranties
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW AND SAVE FOR THE RIGHTS GRANTED TO CONSUMERS UNDER APPLICABLE LAWS, THE SITES AND THE CONTENT ON THE SITES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS.” CCCSMD MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THE SITES OR THE CONTENT OR COMMUNICATIONS ON THE SITES, OR ANY WEBSITE OR OTHER CONTENT OR SERVICE THAT MAY BE ACCESSIBLE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY THROUGH THE SITES, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. CCCSMD DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES THAT THE SITES AND ALL SOFTWARE, CONTENT AND SERVICES, INFORMATION DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE SITES ARE MERCHANTABLE, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, ACCURATE, TIMELY, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NEED, OR NON-INFRINGING. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY CCCSMD OR A REPRESENTATIVE SHALL CREATE A WARRANTY.
WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SITES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THEY ARE ERROR-FREE, RELIABLE, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OR AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICES THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SITES, INCLUDING ANY SUPPORT SERVICES, WILL BE EFFECTIVE, RELIABLE, AND ACCURATE OR MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS OR USE THE SITES (EITHER DIRECTLY OR THROUGH THIRD-PARTY NETWORKS) AT ALL TIMES OR LOCATIONS OF YOUR CHOOSING.
FURTHER, CCCSMD DOES NOT ENDORSE AND MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY OPINION, INFORMATION, ADVICE OR STATEMENT ON THE SITES. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL CCCSMD BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY YOUR RELIANCE ON INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH THE CONTENT ON THE SITES. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVALUATE THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR USEFULNESS OF ANY INFORMATION, OPINION, ADVICE OR OTHER CONTENT AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITES. PLEASE SEEK THE ADVICE OF PROFESSIONALS, AS APPROPRIATE, REGARDING THE EVALUATION OF ANY SPECIFIC INFORMATION, OPINION, ADVICE OR OTHER CONTENT ON THE SITES.
Limitation of Liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW AND SAVE FOR THE RIGHTS GRANTED TO CONSUMERS UNDER APPLICABLE LAWS, CCCSMD WILL HAVE NO OBLIGATION OR LIABILITY (WHETHER ARISING IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, PRODUCT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE) FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LIABILITIES, INCLUDING DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL (INCLUDING ANY LOSS OF DATA, REVENUE OR PROFIT OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM PERSONAL INJURY/WRONGFUL DEATH) ARISING WITH RESPECT TO YOUR USE OF THE SITES, EVEN IF CCCSMD HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO DAMAGES ARISING FROM (i) USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITES, (ii) COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES, (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS BY THIRD PARTIES, (iv) THIRD PARTY CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE SITES, OR (v) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SITES.
In addition, when using the Sites, information will be transmitted over a medium which is beyond the control and jurisdiction of CCCSMD, its partners, advertisers, and sponsors or any other third party mentioned on the Sites. Accordingly, CCCSMD assumes no liability for or relating to the delay, failure, interruption, or corruption of any data or other information transmitted in connection with use of the Sites.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Indemnification
You agree to defend (at CCCSMD’s option), indemnify, and hold CCCSMD harmless from and against any and all liabilities, claims, damages, costs, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees and costs, arising from or relating in any way to Your Content, your access or use of the Sites and/or any conduct in connection with the Sites, your misuse of the Sites or any breach by you of these Terms. We reserve the right, at our expense, to assume exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you and, in any case, you agree to cooperate with us if and as requested by us in the defense and settlement of such matter.
Dispute Resolution and Agreement to Arbitrate
Except where and to the extent prohibited by law, by using the Sites, you and CCCSMD agree that, if there is any controversy, claim, action, or dispute arising out of or relating in any way to the Terms, which includes any question regarding your use of the Sites or the existence, validity, interpretation, breach, or enforcement of these Terms or any part of them, except for disputes that qualify for small claims court or those related to CCCSMD’s intellectual property (“Dispute”), both parties shall first try in good faith to settle such Dispute by providing written notice to the other party describing the facts and circumstances of the Dispute and allowing the receiving party thirty (30) days in which to respond to or settle the Dispute. Notice shall be sent to:
• Us, at 6315 Hillside Court, Suite B, Columbia MD 21046 , or
• You, at the address we have on file for you.
Both you and CCCSMD agree that this dispute resolution procedure is a condition precedent that must be satisfied before initiating any litigation or filing any claim against the other party. IF ANY DISPUTE CANNOT BE RESOLVED BY THE ABOVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEDURE, YOU AGREE THAT THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION FOR SUCH DISPUTE WILL BE DECIDED BY BINDING ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE, AND YOU WAIVE, THE RIGHT FOR A JUDGE OR JURY TO DECIDE YOUR CLAIMS, AND THAT YOU MAY NOT PROCEED IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED OR REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY. Other rights that you and we would otherwise have in court will not be available or will be more limited in arbitration, including discovery and appeal rights. All such disputes shall be exclusively submitted to JAMS (www.jamsadr.com) for binding arbitration under its rules then in effect, before one arbitrator to be mutually agreed upon by both parties.
The arbitrator, and not any federal, state, or local court or agency, shall have exclusive authority to resolve any dispute arising under or relating to the interpretation, applicability, enforceability, or formation of these Terms, including any claim that all or any part of these Terms are void or voidable.
Choice of Law and Choice of Forum
These Terms have been made in and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of Maryland, without giving effect to any conflict of law principles. Any disputes or claims not subject to the arbitration provision discussed above shall be resolved by a court located in Maryland and you agree and submit to the exercise of personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim or action.
Modification and Termination
We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we do so, we will update the “Effective Date” above. You will be notified of any material changes to these Terms via a posting on the Sites and via email at the email address we have on file for you.
We shall have the right to immediately terminate any rights or benefits granted under these Terms with respect to any user which we, in our sole discretion, consider to be unacceptable, or in the event of any breach by you of these Terms. More generally, we may change, restrict access to, suspend or discontinue the Sites, or any portion of the Sites, at any time and at our sole discretion.
Miscellaneous
A. No waiver. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to a subsequent or similar breach or breaches. If CCCSMD does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in these Terms (or which CCCSMD has the benefit of under any applicable law or regulation), such action or inaction shall not be taken to be a formal waiver of CCCSMD’s rights, and all such rights or remedies shall still be available to CCCSMD.
B. Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, under any applicable law, such provision is to be read down, limited or severed for the purposes of that law, if possible, to the minimum extent necessary so as to be valid or enforceable. If such provision continues to be held invalid or unenforceable, the invalidity or unenforceability of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms, which shall remain in full force and effect.
C. Entire Agreement. These Terms and any Additional Rules set forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to your use of the Sites and supersedes all prior agreements or communications.
D. Assignment. You may not assign, transfer, or sub-license any or all of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our express prior written consent. We may assign, transfer, or sub-license any or all of our rights or obligations under these Terms without restriction.
E. Headings. The headings in these Terms are for convenience only and are not intended to affect or influence the interpretation of the Terms.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments or concerns about these Terms, please contact us at:
CCCSMD
6315 Hillside Court, Suite B,
Columbia MD 21046
1-800-642-2227
info@cccsmd.org
