Sanctions Guarantee

Version 1.0 · Effective [EFFECTIVE_DATE].

What this is: a limited, capped, contractual warranty. If a citation we marked VERIFIED gets you sanctioned as fabricated, we pay $10,000. Full terms below. Not an insurance product; not a substitute for professional-liability (E&O) coverage; not legal advice.

0. Nature of this instrument

This Sanctions Guarantee is a limited, capped, contractual warranty offered by Digital Empire Holdings LLC (“Company,” “we,” “us”) as part of a paid Citation Safe subscription or paid one-off purchase. It is not an insurance product, is not underwritten by a licensed insurance carrier, and is not subject to state insurance regulation. It is not a substitute for professional-liability (E&O) coverage. It is not legal advice, and nothing in it creates an attorney-client relationship between the customer and the Company. Customers should carry independent E&O coverage sized to their practice, and should consult independent counsel before relying on this Guarantee in any professional-conduct decision.

1. Eligible customers

You (“Customer”) are eligible to submit a Claim under this Guarantee if, at the time of the citation check that gives rise to the Claim, you held one of the following:

• An active, paid Solo, Professional, or Suite All-Access subscription to Citation Safe (Legal); or
• A paid One-off document verification purchase covering the specific brief that gives rise to the Claim.

Users on the Free tier are not eligible, regardless of any subsequent upgrade. Users on the Deterministic-only tier are not eligible. Eligibility is determined at the moment of the citation check, not at the moment of the sanction order or the moment the Claim is submitted.

2. Trigger event

A Claim is triggered only when all of the following are true:

1. Customer performed a paid citation check through the Service on a specific document (“the Brief”) on or after the Effective Date.
2. For every citation in the Brief that later becomes the subject of a court sanction order for citation fabrication, Citation Safe returned a verdict of VERIFIED on both Layer 1 (existence) and Layer 2 (quote-match) at the time of that check. The Company’s server-side verification log for the specific verification report ID is the sole and conclusive evidence of these verdicts.
3. Customer or Customer’s firm filed the Brief with a court of the United States (federal or state) in the identical substantive form checked by Citation Safe. Non-material edits (typographical corrections, formatting, non-citation prose) do not defeat identity.
4. A court entered a final, written, non-provisional order sanctioning Customer or Customer’s firm for citation fabrication (whether captioned Rule 11, § 1927, inherent-authority, state-court analog, or other) with respect to one or more of the citations described in item 2.
5. Customer submits a written Claim within the timeline in Section 6 with the documentation required by Section 7.

3. Scope of coverage

This Guarantee covers only:

• Citations for which Citation Safe returned a Layer 1 verdict of VERIFIED and a Layer 2 verdict of VERIFIED at the time of the qualifying check.
• Sanctions imposed by a court of the United States (federal or state) or by a U.S. federal administrative tribunal that adopts the sanctioning standards of Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, 28 U.S.C. § 1927, or the court’s inherent authority as its analog.

This Guarantee does NOT cover:

• Citations that Citation Safe returned as UNCONFIRMED, NOT FOUND, RETRACTED, or SOURCE UNAVAILABLE at the time of the check — in each of those cases the Customer was affirmatively told that the Company had not verified the citation.
• Layer 3 (proposition support) verdicts. Layer 3 is not part of this Guarantee. A citation may be VERIFIED at Layers 1 and 2 and still fail to support the proposition for which it is cited; a sanction based solely on such a Layer-3 mismatch is not a fabrication sanction and is expressly outside this Guarantee.
• Sanctions imposed for reasons other than citation fabrication, including frivolous filing, other Rule 11(b) violations unrelated to citation authenticity, discovery misconduct, contempt, incivility, or ex-parte-communication violations.
• Citations altered by the Customer or by any AI or non-Company tool after the Citation Safe check and before filing.
• Sanctions in jurisdictions outside the United States (initial rollout scope).
• Sanctions issued before the Effective Date, sanctions in matters filed before the qualifying Citation Safe check, and sanctions in matters where the qualifying check was performed after the Brief was filed.
• Amounts other than the Coverage Amount in Section 4 — no consequential, incidental, special, punitive, or exemplary damages; no reimbursement of attorney’s fees, appeal costs, disciplinary-proceeding costs, or reputational-remediation costs.

4. Coverage amount, aggregate cap, per-account frequency

• Coverage Amount per qualifying Claim: ten thousand United States dollars ($10,000 USD).
• Aggregate cap: the Company’s total payout obligations under this Guarantee across all Customers in any single calendar year shall not exceed one hundred thousand United States dollars ($100,000 USD) (“the Annual Cap”). Claims approved after the Annual Cap is exhausted are queued and paid pro-rata from the following calendar year’s Annual Cap, in the order received.
• Per-account frequency: no more than one (1) Claim may be paid to any one Customer account, or to any one attorney or law-firm ultimate-beneficial-owner group, in any rolling twelve (12)-month period ending on the date the Claim is submitted.
• Multiple citations in the same Brief that were sanctioned in the same court order together constitute one (1) Claim, not multiple Claims.

5. Exclusive remedy; no consequential damages

The Coverage Amount in Section 4 is the sole and exclusive remedy available to any Customer under this Guarantee. The Company shall have no liability under this Guarantee for consequential, incidental, special, punitive, exemplary, or indirect damages, including without limitation lost profits, lost clients, lost licensure, disciplinary-authority proceedings, appellate costs, or reputational harm, whether arising in contract, tort, statute, or otherwise, even if the Company was advised of the possibility of such damages.

6. Claim window

A Claim must be submitted in writing to support@citationsafe.com no later than sixty (60) calendar days after the date the sanctioning court’s final written order is entered on the docket. Claims submitted later than 60 days after that date are forever barred, absent a written extension granted in the Company’s sole discretion for extraordinary cause. Time is of the essence.

7. Required documentation

A Claim is not deemed complete until the Customer has submitted all of the following in writing:

1. The Citation Safe verification report ID (the /v/<id> URL) for the check that returned VERIFIED on the sanctioned citations.
2. The docket number and full case caption of the matter in which the sanction was entered.
3. The court order or opinion PDF containing the sanction, exactly as entered on the docket.
4. A sworn statement (declaration under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746) from the Claiming Attorney affirming (a) the Claiming Attorney was the attorney of record on the Brief, (b) 100% of the sanctioned citations were checked through Citation Safe on the specific verification report ID identified in item 1, and (c) the Brief filed with the court was substantively identical to the Brief checked.
5. If different from the Claiming Attorney: written authorization from the Customer of record for Company to communicate with the Claiming Attorney about the Claim.

The Company has thirty (30) calendar days from receipt of a complete Claim to notify the Customer of approval, denial, or a request for further information. Any request for further information tolls the 30-day period until the Customer’s response is received.

8. Verification and audit

The Company reserves the right, before paying any Claim, to inspect the Company’s own server-side verification logs for the identified verification report ID and to verify the identity of the Claiming Attorney via publicly available bar-membership records. If the Company’s records do not corroborate the sworn statement in Section 7(4), the Claim is denied. Denials are appealable in writing to the Company one time; the Company’s second-look decision is final except through the arbitration in Section 12.

9. Payment

Approved Claims are paid within thirty (30) calendar days of approval by ACH transfer to the U.S. bank account of the Customer (or, at Customer’s written election, the Claiming Attorney’s IOLTA account, subject to applicable rules of professional conduct). Federal-1099 reporting on Claim payments is the Customer’s responsibility.

10. Non-assignment

Claims under this Guarantee are personal to the Customer of record and to the Claiming Attorney identified in Section 7(4). Claims are not assignable to any third party (including any successor firm, insurer, subrogee, or purchaser of accounts receivable) without the Company’s prior written consent, which may be withheld in the Company’s sole discretion.

11. Modifications; grandfathering

The Company may modify these terms at any time by publishing an updated version at /sanctions-guarantee with a new Effective Date. Modifications apply prospectively to citation checks performed on or after the new Effective Date. Customers on a paid subscription in force on the day before the modification’s Effective Date are grandfathered under the prior terms for ninety (90) calendar days following the modification’s Effective Date, or until the Customer’s paid subscription lapses, whichever is earlier. Current Effective Date: [EFFECTIVE_DATE].

12. Governing law; dispute resolution

This Guarantee shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Wyoming, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising under or related to this Guarantee shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration administered by JAMS pursuant to its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules and Procedures. The arbitration shall be seated in Sheridan, Wyoming, and shall be conducted by a single arbitrator. The prevailing party is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Neither party may participate in any class, collective, or representative arbitration or proceeding. Effective Date: [EFFECTIVE_DATE]. This section is subject to and shall be interpreted consistently with the arbitration provisions of the Citation Safe Terms of Service.

13. Relationship to other Company warranties

This Guarantee is in addition to, and does not replace, the Auto-Refund Guarantee described at /refund (Section 1) and the Fabrication Warranty described at /refund (Section 5). A single fact pattern may qualify for more than one of these instruments; recoveries do not stack — the Customer receives the greatest applicable payout, not the sum. Recoveries under this Guarantee count toward the aggregate caps set forth in the Fabrication Warranty terms if and to the extent those terms so provide.

14. Severability; entire agreement

If any provision of this Guarantee is held invalid or unenforceable, the remainder shall remain in full force and effect and shall be construed to give the maximum lawful effect to the parties’ original intent. This Guarantee, together with the Terms of Service, the Refund Policy, and the Privacy Policy, is the entire agreement between the parties with respect to its subject matter and supersedes all prior communications, whether oral or written.

Frequently asked questions

Is this insurance? No. It is a limited, capped, contractual warranty offered by Digital Empire Holdings LLC. It is not underwritten by an insurance carrier, does not require state insurance-licensure, and is not regulated as insurance.

Does this replace my E&O coverage? No. Every practicing attorney should carry E&O coverage sized to their practice. This Guarantee is complementary, not substitutionary.

What if the sanction was for something other than fabrication? Not covered. See Section 3 — the trigger is specifically a court sanction for citation fabrication (the cited authority does not exist).

Why is Layer 3 excluded? Layer 3 asks whether the cited authority supports your proposition — a judgment question that turns on your legal argument, not on whether the case exists. Sanctions for Layer-3 mismatches are effectively “you cited a real case that doesn’t say what you claimed,” which is a legal-argument dispute, not a fabrication problem. Layers 1 and 2 are the deterministic layers; the guarantee lives where the engine is deterministic.

How do I file a claim? Email support@citationsafe.com with the five items listed in Section 7 within 60 days of the sanction order.

Contact: support@citationsafe.com. Digital Empire Holdings LLC, 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA. EIN 42-3897663.