AppealComps

AppealComps Terms of Sale and Data License for Law Firms

Version 1.0, 2026-09-30. Effective on publication.

1. Parties and definitions

1.1 These Terms of Sale and Data License (the "Agreement") are between:

1.2 In this Agreement:

2. Acceptance, eligibility, and electronic records

2.1 You accept this Agreement by ticking the acceptance box at checkout and completing payment. The Agreement is formed when your payment is authorized. If you do not agree, do not order.

2.2 You confirm that: (a) you are ordering for a business or professional purpose and not as a consumer; (b) you are a lawyer or law firm, or you act for one, and the person accepting has authority to bind Buyer; (c) you are not subject to sanctions that prohibit us from dealing with you; and (d) the information you gave at checkout is correct.

2.3 The parties agree that an electronic acceptance, an electronic signature, and electronic records are valid and binding, to the extent allowed by the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. 7001 et seq.) and the Illinois Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (815 ILCS 333). We keep a record of your acceptance, including the version of this Agreement shown, the date and time, your email address, and the technical data that your browser sends. That record is evidence of your acceptance.

2.4 The version of this Agreement shown at checkout on the day of your order governs that order. A later version does not change an order already placed.

3. What the product is, and what it is not

3.1 The Data Product is an analysis of public records. It compares the Assessor's own assessed values for homes in the same assessor neighborhood. It is a research and data product for use by lawyers.

3.2 The Data Product is not:

3.3 No attorney-client relationship exists between AppealComps and Buyer, or between AppealComps and any property owner. We do not represent anyone before the Board of Review, the Property Tax Appeal Board, or any court. We do not contact property owners, on your behalf or otherwise, about the Data Product.

3.4 Buyer alone decides whether to contact any owner, whether to take any matter, and how to represent any client. Buyer must apply its own professional judgment to every parcel and must review the Evidence PDF for a parcel before relying on it in any way.

4. Products, prices, and the sales limit

4.1 We offer these products. Prices are in US dollars.

Product What it covers Fee
Probe The 100 largest gaps in one Township $99
Township One Township, up to 1,500 flagged homes $490
Township, larger One Township, more than 1,500 flagged homes $790
Any three townships Three Townships that you name at checkout $1,290
County, 12 months Every Township on sale at the time of purchase, and every Township on the day its new values are published during the 12 months after purchase $4,900

4.2 The number of flagged homes that decides between $490 and $790 is the number of homes on the List for that Township at the time of order, as shown on the product page.

4.3 Every Fee is a fixed fee for data. No Fee is a percentage of, or is linked to, any legal fee, tax saving, appeal result, or number of clients that Buyer earns or wins. We have no interest in the outcome of any appeal.

4.4 Sales limit. For each Township and tax year, we sell to at most five (5) buyers. Each order counts as one buyer for each Township it covers. A Township that has reached the limit is not on sale.

4.5 The sales limit is a limit that we apply to our own sales. It is not an exclusivity right, and it gives Buyer no right to be one of the five, to keep the others out, or to stop anyone from using the same public County Data. If we sell to more buyers than the limit by mistake, Buyer's only remedy is a refund. The refund is the Fee, or, for an order that covers several Townships, the Fee divided by the number of Townships that the order covers, for each affected Township.

5. Order, delivery, and payment

5.1 We deliver a List as a CSV file attached to an email sent to the address you gave at checkout, normally within one hour of payment. There are no download links that expire. You are responsible for giving a correct address. If the email has not arrived within a few hours, check your spam folder and write to contact@appealcomps.com, and we will send it again at no charge.

5.2 Under the County, 12 months product, we email each new List for a Township on the day Cook County publishes its new values, where we can, and otherwise as soon as we can after that. The License Period runs separately for each List.

5.3 Payment is made by card through Stripe. The Payment Processor may act as merchant of record for the payment. Where it does, it collects and remits any tax it is required to collect, and sends the receipt and invoice. The Payment Processor's terms govern the payment. This Agreement governs the Data Product.

5.4 Seller remains the licensor and provider of the Data Product and the other party to this Agreement. The Payment Processor is not a party to the license in Section 7 and gives no warranty about the Data Product.

5.5 The Fee excludes taxes that the Payment Processor adds at checkout. You are responsible for any tax on your own income or on your own use of the Data Product.

6. Evidence PDFs

6.1 The delivery email contains a private link. Through that link, Buyer may ask us to build Evidence PDFs for homes on a List that Buyer has bought. We build them on request, at no extra charge, during the License Period of that List.

6.2 Fair use: a request may name at most 200 PINs, and Buyer may make at most 10 requests per day.

6.3 The private link is meant for Buyer's Authorized Users only. Buyer must keep it confidential. We may switch off a link at the end of the License Period, or if Buyer breaches Section 7.4.

7. Limited license

7.1 Grant. Subject to this Agreement and payment of the Fee, we grant Buyer a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license, for the License Period, to use the Data Product for the Permitted Purpose through its Authorized Users.

7.2 Permitted Purpose. The "Permitted Purpose" is Buyer's own internal use to: (a) decide whether to offer property tax assessment appeal services for the listed parcels; (b) communicate with owners by lawful means; and (c) prepare and prosecute assessment appeals for owners who have engaged Buyer, in each case in compliance with Section 9. The license is for the buying firm only.

7.3 End of the License Period. At the end of a License Period, Buyer must stop using the List concerned and delete it from its systems, except for data about a parcel whose owner has engaged Buyer, which Buyer may keep in that client's file as its professional duties require.

7.4 Restrictions. Buyer must not, and must not allow anyone else to:

7.5 No exclusivity. The license is non-exclusive. We may sell the same or a similar List to other law firms, including firms that compete with Buyer, within the sales limit in Section 4.4. We give no promise that any owner has not been, or will not be, contacted by others.

7.6 Ownership. As between the parties, we own the compilation, selection, arrangement, method, software, formatting, and Evidence PDFs in the Data Product. We claim no ownership of the underlying County Data, which is a public record published by Cook County. Nothing in this Agreement limits any right Buyer already has to obtain County Data from Cook County directly.

7.7 Reservation. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. A breach of Section 7.4 ends the license at once.

8. Data sources, accuracy, and verification

8.1 The Data Product is built from County Data and other public records. It is provided as is, as of the Extraction Date. Public records change. Assessed values, characteristics, exemptions, and appeal outcomes may change after the Extraction Date, and the Assessor or the Board of Review may correct or replace records.

8.2 Buyer must verify each parcel against the current Cook County record before it (a) states any fact about a parcel or a saving to an owner, or (b) files any complaint or appeal. Buyer is responsible for that verification.

8.3 The fields "implied assessed value", "gap in assessed value", "gap percent", and "estimated annual tax saving at a 7% rate" are calculations from stated inputs. They are illustrations. They are not a prediction or a promise of any reduction, saving, or result.

8.4 AppealComps is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for Cook County, the Assessor, or the Board of Review.

9. Buyer's compliance duties

9.1 Buyer is solely responsible for its own compliance with every law, rule, and professional duty that applies to how Buyer uses the Data Product, contacts owners, advertises, accepts clients, and files appeals. This includes, as applicable:

9.2 Owner data. The List contains no owner names, no mailing addresses, and no other contact data for owners. If Buyer obtains owner data, for example from the county's own address table by PIN, Buyer does so on its own account. Buyer is solely responsible for how it obtains, checks, stores, and uses that data, and for its accuracy and its lawful use. We do not supply, check, or vouch for it.

9.3 Buyer acknowledges that: (a) AppealComps is not a lawyer, a lawyer referral service, or an intermediary connecting service; (b) AppealComps does not solicit any owner for Buyer; (c) the Fee is a fixed price for data and is not payment for a recommendation, a referral, or a client; and (d) no part of Buyer's legal fees is or will be paid, promised, or shared with AppealComps.

9.4 Buyer must not tell any owner or any third party that AppealComps recommended Buyer, chose the owner for Buyer, or has approved Buyer's fees, services, or communications.

9.5 If an owner tells Buyer that the owner does not want to be contacted, Buyer must stop contacting that owner at once.

9.6 Security. Buyer must keep the Data Product in a secure system, limit access to Authorized Users, and notify us without undue delay if it learns of any unauthorized access to, or disclosure of, the Data Product.

9.7 Buyer must give us any information we reasonably request to confirm compliance with Section 7 and this Section 9, within ten (10) business days of the request.

10. Warranty and disclaimer

10.1 We warrant only that: (a) we will deliver a List for each Township covered by your order, built with the Comparison Method; and (b) on the Extraction Date, the PIN, assessed value, building square feet, and year built for each listed parcel matched the County Data as we extracted it.

10.2 EXCEPT AS STATED IN SECTION 10.1, THE DATA PRODUCT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", FROM PUBLIC SOURCES. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

10.3 WE DO NOT WARRANT, PROMISE, OR GUARANTEE THAT ANY APPEAL WILL SUCCEED, THAT ANY ASSESSMENT WILL BE REDUCED, THAT ANY OWNER WILL RESPOND TO OR ENGAGE BUYER, THAT ANY NUMBER OF CLIENTS OR ANY AMOUNT OF REVENUE WILL RESULT, OR THAT THE DATA PRODUCT IS FREE OF ERROR.

11. Refund policy

11.1 Seven-day refund. If a List is Materially Wrong, Buyer may claim a full refund of the Fee for that List by giving notice under Section 11.3 within seven (7) days after its Delivery Date.

11.2 A List is "Materially Wrong" if: (a) more than five (5) percent of its rows show a PIN, assessed value, building square feet, or year built that differs from the County Data as it stood on the Extraction Date; (b) it covers a different Township from the one ordered; or (c) it is undeliverable, meaning the file cannot be opened or was never delivered, and we do not fix that within two (2) business days of your notice.

11.3 How to claim. Send notice to contact@appealcomps.com with your order email and, for a claim under Section 11.2(a), the rows that differ (up to ten examples are enough to start), each with the County Data record that shows the difference. Within five (5) business days we will either refund the Fee or, if you agree, deliver a corrected List. If you do not accept the corrected List, or the corrected List is still Materially Wrong, we will refund the Fee.

11.4 County, 12 months. For each List delivered under this product, the seven-day period runs from the Delivery Date of that List. If a List under this product is Materially Wrong and we do not correct it within five (5) business days of your notice, we refund a share of the Fee in proportion to the part of the twelve months that has not yet run.

11.5 Conditions. A refund is available only if Buyer stops using the List concerned, deletes every copy of it, and confirms in writing that it has done so. We issue the refund to the original payment method through the Payment Processor.

11.6 No refund is due for: a change in the County Data after the Extraction Date; a low number of owners who engage Buyer; the outcome of any appeal; a change of mind; or a claim made after the seven-day period.

11.7 No refund, and no part of any Fee, depends on the outcome of any appeal or on any result that Buyer achieves for a client.

11.8 The Payment Processor may, in its own procedures, refund a transaction, including at a cardholder's request. A refund by the Payment Processor by any route has the effect of a refund under this Section: the license for the List concerned ends and Section 11.5 applies.

11.9 This Section and Section 4.5 state Buyer's only remedy for a defect in the Data Product, other than a claim for breach of the warranty in Section 10.1 within the limits of Section 12.

12. Limitation of liability

12.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO BUYER AND ANYONE CLAIMING THROUGH BUYER, FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE DATA PRODUCT, UNDER ANY THEORY (CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STATUTE, OR OTHERWISE), WILL NOT EXCEED THE FEE THAT BUYER PAID FOR THE ORDER THAT GAVE RISE TO THE CLAIM.

12.2 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST FEES, LOST CLIENTS, LOST OPPORTUNITY, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE. THIS INCLUDES ANY LOSS, PENALTY, SANCTION, DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDING, OR STATUTORY DAMAGES THAT ARISE FROM BUYER'S SOLICITATIONS, ADVERTISING, OR FILINGS, OR FROM AN ERROR, OMISSION, OR CHANGE IN THE COUNTY DATA.

12.3 Sections 12.1 and 12.2 do not limit liability that cannot be limited by law, such as liability for fraud or willful misconduct.

12.4 The parties agree that the Fee reflects this allocation of risk and that the limits in this Section are an essential basis of the bargain.

12.5 Any claim against us must be brought within one (1) year after the claim arises, or it is barred, to the extent the law allows this shorter period.

13. Indemnification by Buyer

13.1 Buyer will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Seller (and Seller's agents, service providers, and successors) from and against all third-party claims, demands, investigations, proceedings, losses, damages, penalties, fines, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, that arise out of or relate to: (a) Buyer's use of the Data Product, including any solicitation, advertisement, letter, email, telephone call, or other communication to any owner; (b) Buyer's breach of Section 7 or 9; (c) Buyer's violation of any law, rule of professional conduct, or rule of the Board of Review; or (d) any dispute between Buyer and any owner, client, or former client.

13.2 Seller will give Buyer prompt notice of a claim (a delay relieves Buyer only to the extent it is harmed). Buyer may control the defense with counsel reasonably acceptable to Seller, but Buyer may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault by Seller, imposes any duty on Seller, or does not fully release Seller, without Seller's written consent. Seller may take part in the defense at its own cost.

14. Term and termination

14.1 This Agreement starts on acceptance and continues until the end of the last License Period under the order, unless ended earlier under this Section.

14.2 We may end this Agreement and the license at once by notice if Buyer breaches Section 7 or 9, or if we reasonably believe Buyer is using the Data Product unlawfully. On any end of the license, Buyer must stop using the Data Product and delete it as Section 7.3 requires, and no Fee is refunded, except as Section 11 provides.

14.3 Sections 1, 3, 7.4 to 7.7, 8, 9, 10, 11.6, 11.7, 12, 13, 14.3, 15, and 16 survive the end of this Agreement.

15. Governing law and disputes

15.1 This Agreement, and any dispute arising out of it or the Data Product, is governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

15.2 Notice and talks first. Before starting a court case, a party must send the other a written notice that describes the dispute and gives the sender's proposed solution, and the parties must talk in good faith for thirty (30) days. This does not stop a party from seeking urgent injunctive relief.

15.3 Venue. Subject to Section 15.2, each party submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state courts sitting in Cook County, Illinois, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and waives any objection to venue there. Seller may, in addition, seek an injunction or other urgent relief for a breach of Section 7 or 9 in any court that has jurisdiction over Buyer or the Data Product.

15.4 Service. Each party agrees that a court document may be served on it by email to its notice address in Section 16, with a copy by courier to its postal address, in addition to any method the law allows.

15.5 EACH PARTY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IN ANY ACTION ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT, TO THE EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS.

15.6 Each party bears its own legal costs, except as Section 13 provides.

16. Notices and general terms

16.1 Notices by email. Notices under this Agreement may be given by email. Notice to Seller: contact@appealcomps.com. Notice to Buyer: the email address given at checkout, or a later address that Buyer gives Seller by notice. A notice by email is received one (1) business day after sending, unless the sender receives a delivery-failure message. Buyer must keep its notice address current.

16.2 Entire agreement. This Agreement, with the order details shown at checkout, is the whole agreement about the Data Product. It replaces all earlier statements, emails, and marketing about it. Buyer's own purchase-order terms do not apply.

16.3 Changes. We may change this Agreement for future orders by posting a new version. A change to an existing order needs a signed or emailed agreement from both parties.

16.4 Assignment. Buyer may not assign or transfer this Agreement without our written consent. We may assign it to a successor to the AppealComps business. Any prohibited assignment is void.

16.5 Severability and waiver. If a provision is held unenforceable, it is enforced to the extent allowed and the rest of the Agreement stays in force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it.

16.6 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including an outage or change at Cook County, a data source, a hosting, email, or payment provider, or a communications network. This does not excuse a payment already due.

16.7 No third-party rights. No property owner, client, the Payment Processor, Cook County, or any other person has any right to enforce this Agreement.

16.8 Relationship. The parties are independent contractors. Nothing creates a partnership, agency, joint venture, employment, or fee-sharing relationship between them.

16.9 Language. This Agreement is in English. If it is translated, the English version prevails.