legaltoplain.com produces these guidelines for U.S. and foreign law enforcement, civil litigants, and regulators who wish to obtain information about legaltoplain.com users.
Who to contact
- Email: lawenforcement@legaltoplain.com
- Mailing address: [LEGAL ENTITY NAME, PHYSICAL MAILING ADDRESS]
Direct email contact is preferred. Mailed correspondence may be received later.
What we ask for
Civil litigation requests (subpoenas, court orders)
We typically require:
- Valid civil subpoena, court order, or written consent of the user whose data is sought.
- Service on us via email to the address above, or by mail.
- Sufficient identifiers to locate the relevant data: the user's email address (preferred), a
result_token, a Stripe payment intent ID, or a date range of activity.
Criminal law enforcement requests
We typically require, depending on the type of data sought:
- Basic subscriber information (name on the account, email, account creation date, last login): a valid subpoena or court order, or for U.S. law enforcement an Electronic Communications Privacy Act § 2703(c)(2) compliant subpoena.
- Stored communications content (the contents of an uploaded document, Q&A messages): a search warrant issued under the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, or equivalent state warrant.
- Real-time location/usage data: pen-register/ trap-and-trace orders or Title III intercept orders. Note: we do not store real-time location data; only IP address at the time of upload.
Foreign requests
We respond to foreign government requests when they are presented through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), letter rogatory, or similar process recognized by the United States. Foreign requests sent directly are evaluated on a case-by-case basis but are unlikely to be honored.
Emergency requests
In a life-threatening emergency, law enforcement may submit an emergency disclosure request without legal process. The request should include:
- The name of the requesting law enforcement agency and contact information for the requesting officer.
- A description of the imminent threat to life or serious bodily injury.
- The specific data needed and how it will help mitigate the threat.
Such requests should be sent to lawenforcement@legaltoplain.com with "EMERGENCY" in the subject line. We may release information voluntarily under 18 U.S.C. § 2702(b)(8) when, in our good-faith judgment, an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury requires disclosure.
What we have
The data potentially available includes:
- Account information: email address, account creation date, magic-link sign-in history.
- Document metadata: filename, upload date, page count, doc type classifier output, payment status.
- Document content: only available within the retention window (24 hours by default; up to 30 days for opted-saved documents).
- Result data: summary, clauses, red-flag analysis, Q&A history.
- Payment records: through Stripe; we have customer ID, payment intent ID, amount, date, refund history.
- Access log: who viewed the result page, when, from what IP address. Retained for one year.
- IP addresses: at the time of upload, payment, and result-page access.
What we don't have
- Credit card numbers (Stripe handles these).
- Telephone numbers (we don't collect them).
- Real-time location (we don't track location beyond IP).
- Full text of expired documents (deleted on retention schedule).
Notice to users
Unless we are prohibited by law (e.g., a non-disclosure order accompanies the request), we will give the affected user notice that their information has been requested by law enforcement, providing them an opportunity to challenge the request before we respond. We follow this practice for all requests except those falling under specific statutory non-disclosure provisions.
Preservation requests
On receipt of a valid preservation request from law enforcement under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), we will preserve the existing record (a snapshot of relevant data at the time of receipt) for 90 days, extendable for an additional 90 days on renewed request, even if the data would otherwise be deleted under our standard retention schedule.
Cost reimbursement
We reserve the right to seek reimbursement for costs of complying with non-routine requests under applicable law (such as 18 U.S.C. § 2706 for U.S. law enforcement requests).
Transparency
We may publish aggregate statistics about the volume and type of legal requests we receive, with sufficient anonymization to protect users. This is not a current commitment; we may begin doing so in the future.
Contact
lawenforcement@legaltoplain.com