Terms and Conditions

1. Reading and accepting these Terms

• In these Terms, capitalised words and phrases have the meanings given to them where they are followed by bolded brackets, or as set out in the Definitions table at the end of these Terms.
• You may only use the Platform for your own personal use in preparing your own DVA claim, except as expressly permitted under the Eligibility clause.
• We may change these Terms at any time in accordance with the Changes to these Terms clause, and your continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect represents your agreement to the amended Terms.

2. Eligibility

By accepting these Terms, you represent, warrant and agree that:

• you are at least 18 years of age;
• you have the legal capacity and authority to enter into a binding contract with us;
• you are authorised to use any payment method you provide when purchasing the Paid Tier; and
• you have not previously been suspended or prohibited from using the Platform.

You must not:

• upload documents or information belonging to another person without their explicit written consent; or
• use the Platform to prepare claims on behalf of another person, unless you are a licensed advocate or legal practitioner and have obtained that person’s consent.

3. Nature of the service

The Platform is a document organisation and claim preparation tool. It is designed to help you organise your evidence, identify relevant Statements of Principles (SOPs) issued by the Repatriation Medical Authority (RMA), and prepare documentation for your own DVA Initial Liability claim, including an evidence timeline, a claim readiness score (Readiness Score) and a claim preparation report (Claim Preparation Report).

The Platform is not, and does not provide:

• a legal advice service;
• a medical advice service;
• a DVA-accredited claims agent or advocate service;
• a predictor of DVA claim outcomes or an eligibility assessment service; or
• a substitute for professional legal or medical advice.

You acknowledge and agree that:

• we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the DVA or the RMA;
• the Platform does not lodge or submit claims, and you are solely responsible for lodging your own claim with the DVA;
• nothing on the Platform constitutes legal, medical or financial advice, or a representation that your claim will succeed;
• SOP matching identifies potential pathways only – it does not determine entitlement, and the DVA assesses each claim individually based on your evidence;
• DVA claim outcomes depend on many factors outside our control, including the quality and completeness of your evidence, the DVA’s assessment processes, and changes to legislation or policy;
• where the Platform provides general information about the DVA claims, review or appeal process (including any timeframes, review bodies or contact details), that information is general in nature, current only as at the date it is provided, and may not reflect the rules or time limits that apply to your specific determination - it is not legal advice. You are responsible for confirming the time limits that apply to your circumstances, and should seek assistance from an advocate or legal practitioner. We are not liable for any missed time limit or lost right of review; and
• any figures, estimates, comparisons or examples shown on the Website or the Platform (including any comparison of amounts a veteran might receive or retain) are general and illustrative only, are not based on your individual circumstances, and are not a prediction, quote or guarantee of any DVA payment, entitlement or outcome, which is determined solely by the DVA.

4. The Platform

4.1 Access to the Platform

• Subject to these Terms and the tier you have selected, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Platform for your own personal use in preparing your own DVA claim.
• We may, in our discretion, release enhancements to, and change, add or remove features of, the Platform at any time. We will give you reasonable notice of any change we consider materially adverse to you.
• We may provide general support to help resolve technical issues with the Platform, but we do not guarantee that support will be available at all times or provided within any particular timeframe.
• You may only upload documents that meet the file format, size and other specifications set out on the Platform. We may decline to process, or may remove, any document that does not meet those specifications.

4.2 Accounts

To use the Platform, you must register for an account (Account). As part of registering and using your Account, you may be required to provide personal information such as your name, email address and a secure password, or to authenticate using a third-party sign-in service such as Google.

• You warrant that all information you provide when registering and using your Account is accurate, honest, current and complete.
• You are responsible for keeping your Account login details secure and for all activity that occurs under your Account. You must not share your Account or login details with any other person.
• You must notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your Account or any other breach of security of which you become aware.

5. AI processing and document extraction

• The Platform uses a third-party artificial intelligence provider, currently Anthropic and its Claude models (AI Provider), to extract information from the documents you upload. By uploading documents, you expressly consent to this processing.
• As described in our Privacy Policy, this processing occurs outside Australia (in the United States) and is subject to a zero data-retention arrangement, meaning your documents are not retained by the AI Provider after they have been processed.
• The Platform uses AI to extract information from your documents and to suggest conditions and matching Statements of Principles. This is an automated aid to help you organise your claim. It is not a diagnosis, and it may contain errors, omissions or inaccuracies.
• You must review all AI-extracted information and any suggested condition for accuracy against your own medical records and, where appropriate, your treating practitioners, before relying on it or including it in a DVA claim. We do not diagnose any condition, and any condition the Platform identifies or suggests is a starting point for you to verify, not a clinical finding.
• We make no warranty that AI extraction will be accurate, complete or suitable for your purposes, and you are solely responsible for verifying the accuracy of any information extracted from your documents.

6. SOP matching and claim readiness

• SOP matching is an automated process that identifies Statements of Principles that may be relevant to a claimed condition. A match does not mean that:
  1. you are entitled to DVA compensation;
  2. your claim will be accepted;
  3. the matched SOP factors apply to your specific circumstances; or
  4. you have sufficient evidence to support a claim.
• The Readiness Score reflects the completeness of the evidence you have uploaded. It is not a prediction of the DVA’s decision.
• Statements of Principles are issued by the RMA and may be amended or replaced. We make reasonable efforts to maintain an up-to-date database but do not warrant that SOP information is current at the time of your use. You should verify SOP information independently at www.rma.gov.au before lodging any claim.

7. Your responsibilities and obligations

You are solely responsible for:

• the accuracy and completeness of all information and documents you upload;
• reviewing and verifying any information the Platform extracts or generates before relying on it;
• your decision whether or not to lodge a DVA claim;
• how you use the information provided by the Platform;
• seeking independent legal or medical advice before making decisions about your claim; and
• the outcome of any DVA claim you lodge.

You must not, and must not attempt to:

• use the Platform for any unlawful or fraudulent purpose, or in any way that breaches these Terms or any applicable Laws;
• upload any material that is inappropriate, offensive or illegal, or that you are not authorised to upload, or that infringes any third party’s rights;
• copy, reproduce, adapt, modify, translate or create derivative works from any part of the Platform;
• decompile, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, condition-matching logic or underlying databases of the Platform;
• access or use the Platform to build or train a competing product or service, or to extract, scrape or copy our condition-matching logic or our Statements of Principles database;
• make any automated use of the Platform, or circumvent or attempt to circumvent any security or technological protection measure; or
• do anything that may damage, disable or impair the Platform, or interfere with any other person’s use of it, or that may harm our reputation.

If you become aware of any misuse of your Account, any security breach, or any error in the Platform, you must notify us promptly using the contact details on our Website.

8. Data hosting

We store User Data you upload to the Platform using third-party hosting services selected by us, subject to the following:

• (hosting location) Your User Data is stored in Australia, except that documents you upload are processed by our AI Provider outside Australia, as described in the AI Processing and Document Extraction clause and our Privacy Policy;
• (service quality) while we use reasonable efforts to select appropriate providers, we do not guarantee that hosting services will be free from errors or defects, or that User Data will be accessible or available at all times;
• (security) we use reasonable efforts to store User Data securely and apply additional safeguards to sensitive information. However, to the maximum extent permitted by law, we do not accept responsibility or liability for any unauthorised access to, or loss, damage or alteration of, User Data, including due to hacking, malware, ransomware or other interference; and
• (backups) in the event User Data is lost due to a system failure, we cannot guarantee that a backup will be available, or that any backup will be free from errors or defects.

9. Fees and payment

9.1 Tiers and fees

The Platform is available on a free tier (Free Tier) and a paid tier (Paid Tier), which is available for a one-off fee. The current inclusions, limits and features of each tier are set out on our Website and may be updated by us from time to time.

9.2 Payment

• All payments are processed securely through our third-party payment processor, currently Stripe. We do not collect or store your full payment card details.
• Your use of the payment processor is subject to its terms and privacy policy, as described in the Third Party Terms clause.
• We reserve the right to charge a surcharge to recover the reasonable cost to us of accepting payment by credit, debit or charge card, in accordance with applicable law.

9.3 Refunds

• Refunds are available within 7 days of your purchase, provided you have not yet used the AI document analysis feature on any document, or generated a Claim Preparation Report.
• Once the AI document analysis feature has been used or a Claim Preparation Report has been generated, your payment is non-refundable, except as required by law.
• To request a refund within the eligible period, contact us at support@veteranscompass.com.au.
• Nothing in this clause limits or excludes any right or remedy you may have under the Australian Consumer Law (see the Liability clause).

10. Intellectual property and data

10.1 Our intellectual property

• We own, or are licensed to use, all Intellectual Property Rights in the Platform, including its content, software, design, text, graphics, and in particular our proprietary condition-matching logic and algorithms and our compiled database of Statements of Principles and related data (together, Platform IP). We reserve all rights in the Platform IP not expressly granted to you under these Terms.
• The ‘Veterans Compass’ name, logo and compass mark are unregistered trade marks of ours. You must not use our branding without our prior written permission.
• You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from any Platform IP without our prior written consent, except as permitted by law.

10.2 Your data

• You retain ownership of the documents and information you upload to the Platform (User Data).
• You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use, store, copy and process your User Data solely for the purpose of providing the Platform to you, including having it processed by our AI Provider as described in these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
• We do not use your User Data, including any health or service information, to train artificial intelligence models, or for any purpose other than providing the Platform to you, except as required by law.
• You warrant that you are authorised to provide the User Data and that our use of it in accordance with these Terms will not infringe any third party’s rights, and you indemnify us against any claim arising from a breach of this warranty.

11. Confidentiality

• Except as contemplated by these Terms, a party must not, and must not permit any of its Personnel to, use or disclose to any person any Confidential Information disclosed to it by the other party without the disclosing party’s prior written consent. Our Platform IP is our Confidential Information.
• Each party must promptly notify the other if it becomes aware of any actual or suspected unauthorised access to, or disclosure or use of, Confidential Information, and must reasonably assist the other party in connection with any related investigation.

12. Privacy

• We collect and handle your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, available at veteranscompass.com.au/privacy, which forms part of these Terms. As the Platform involves sensitive health and service information, we encourage you to read it carefully.
• By using the Platform, you consent to our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in the Privacy Policy, and to your uploaded documents being processed by our AI Provider for extraction purposes as described in the Privacy Policy and the AI processing consent prompt.

13. Liability

13.1 Warranties and disclaimers

• To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform is provided ‘as is’ and ‘as available’, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. In particular, we do not warrant that:
  1. the Platform, any SOP information or any AI-extracted information will be accurate, complete or current;
  2. use of the Platform will result in a successful DVA claim; or
  3. the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, all express or implied representations and warranties not expressly stated in these Terms are excluded.

13.2 Australian Consumer Law

• Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred on you by the Australian Consumer Law in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (ACL) that cannot lawfully be excluded (Non-excludable Rights).
• Our services come with consumer guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. If we fail to meet a consumer guarantee, you may be entitled to a remedy such as a refund or compensation, and nothing in these Terms limits those rights.

13.3 Limitation of liability

• To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to your Non-excludable Rights, we and our Personnel will not be liable to you for any:
  1. loss of DVA compensation, entitlements or benefits;
  2. rejected or unsuccessful DVA claim;
  3. reliance on SOP matching results, the Readiness Score, a Claim Preparation Report or any AI-extracted information;
  4. errors or inaccuracies in AI document extraction or in SOP information;
  5. loss of data; or
  6. indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss or damage, or loss of opportunity, profit or revenue.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, where our liability cannot otherwise be excluded, our liability for a failure to comply with a consumer guarantee (other than a guarantee that cannot be limited) is limited, at our option, to resupplying the relevant services or paying the cost of having them resupplied.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to your Non-excludable Rights, our total aggregate liability to you in connection with these Terms or the Platform will not exceed the total Fees you have paid to us (being a maximum of $49).

14. Indemnity

You indemnify us and our Personnel against any claims, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) that we reasonable incur in connection with a claim by a third party arising out of or in connection with:

• your breach of these Terms or any applicable Laws;
• documents or information you upload, including any claim that they infringe a third party's rights or were uploaded without authority; or
• your use of the Platform to prepare or lodge a claim on behalf of another person,

except to the extent that the relevant claim, damage, loss, cost or expense is caused by our breach of these Terms, our negligence or our wilful misconduct.

15. Regulatory compliance

• We are aware of the Veterans’ Entitlements, Treatment and Support (Simplification and Harmonisation) Act 2025 (Cth) (VETS Act) and the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (Cth) framework under which new claims are determined.
• SOP matching results reference the applicable Statement of Principles for each condition. You should confirm with the DVA or your advocate which legislative framework applies to your service dates and claim type.
• We do not provide advice on which legislative framework applies to your specific circumstances.

16. Third party terms

• To provide the Platform, we rely on third-party services, including our AI Provider (currently Anthropic) and our payment processor (currently Stripe). Your use of the Platform may be subject to those third parties’ terms and privacy policies (Third Party Terms).
• Provided we have made any applicable Third Party Terms reasonably available to you, you agree to those Third Party Terms, and, to the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from the acts or omissions of those third parties, including any error in processing your payment.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. By making a payment, you agree to Stripe's terms of service and privacy policy, available at www.stripe.com/legal and www.stripe.com/privacy.

17. Term and termination

• These Terms apply from when you first access or use the Platform and continue for as long as you have an Account or use the Platform.
• We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform at any time if you breach these Terms.
• You may stop using the Platform and delete your Account at any time. On deletion of your Account, your personal information and uploaded documents will be permanently deleted within 30 days, except where we are required by law to retain them.

On termination of these Terms:

• you will no longer have access to the Platform, your Account or your User Data, and we will have no obligation to retain any User Data (and you release us from any loss or damage arising from us not retaining it);
• any Fees already paid are non-refundable to the maximum extent permitted by law, except as required under your Non-excludable Rights or the Refunds clause; and
• any clause that by its nature is intended to survive termination (including those relating to intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and confidentiality) survives.

18. Changes to these Terms

• We may update these Terms at any time. If a change is material, we will give you reasonable notice by email or by a notice on the Platform before it takes effect.
• A change applies only to your use of the Platform after it takes effect. It does not affect a Claim Preparation Report you have already purchased or generated, or the terms that applied to a completed purchase.
• Your continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to a change, you must stop using the Platform.

19. Dispute resolution

• A party claiming that a dispute has arisen under or in connection with these Terms must not commence court proceedings arising from the dispute, other than a claim for urgent interlocutory relief, unless that party has first complied with this clause.
• A party requiring resolution of a dispute must give the other party written notice containing reasonable details of the dispute. Each party must then use its best efforts to resolve the dispute in good faith. If the dispute is not resolved within 14 days (or another period agreed in writing) after the date of the notice, either party may take legal proceedings to resolve the dispute.

20. Force majeure

We will not be liable for any delay or failure to perform our obligations under these Terms if the delay or failure arises out of a Force Majeure Event. If a Force Majeure Event occurs, we will use reasonable endeavours to notify you of the event and its likely effect on our performance, and our affected obligations will be suspended for the duration of the Force Majeure Event to the extent affected.

21. Notices

• A notice or other communication under these Terms must be in writing and in English, and delivered by email. You may contact us at support@veteranscompass.com.au (and for privacy matters, privacy@veteranscompass.com.au). We will send notices to the email address associated with your Account.
• Unless the sender knows or reasonably ought to suspect that an email was not delivered, notice is taken to be given 24 hours after the email is sent (or, if that time falls on a weekend or public holiday in New South Wales, on the next Business Day), or when replied to by the recipient, whichever is earlier.

22. General

22.1 Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. Each party irrevocably submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and courts of appeal from them.

22.2 Other

• (Waiver) No party may rely on the words or conduct of another party as a waiver of any right unless the waiver is in writing and signed by the party granting it.
• (Severance) Any term of these Terms that is wholly or partially void or unenforceable is severed to the extent that it is void or unenforceable, without affecting the remainder of these Terms.
• (Assignment) You cannot assign or transfer any of your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign or novate our rights and obligations on notice to you.
• (Entire agreement) These Terms embody the entire agreement between the parties and supersede any prior negotiation, arrangement, understanding or agreement in relation to their subject matter.
• (Interpretation) In these Terms: the singular includes the plural and vice versa; a reference to $ or ‘dollar’ is to Australian currency; headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation; the word ‘includes’ is not a word of limitation; and no provision will be interpreted adversely to a party merely because that party prepared it.

23. Definitions