Terms and conditions

Last updated: September 2026

1. Who you are contracting with

Through the Courts ("the service") is provided by Wendy Joy Cerutti, an individual trading in South Africa ("we", "us"). By using the service you enter into an agreement with us on these terms.

2. Acceptance

By accessing or continuing to use the service you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please stop using the service. You confirm that you are of legal age, or have permission from a parent or guardian, and that any information you give us is accurate and kept up to date.

3. What the service is — and is not

The service is a plain-language guide to the South African criminal and civil court processes, together with optional private tools for tracking stages and dates. It provides general information only. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney–client relationship, and cannot replace a prosecutor, an attorney or Legal Aid South Africa who know the facts of your case. Always confirm anything important with the court or the organisation concerned.

4. Your account

Some features require an account. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in details confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

5. Licence and restrictions

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service for your own personal or internal purposes, within the plan you have selected. You may not resell or redistribute the service, reverse engineer it, or work around any technical limits.

6. Acceptable use

You must not misuse the service. In particular you must not:

• use it for any unlawful purpose, or to harass, intimidate or identify a complainant or witness;
• commit fraud, or send spam through or about the service;
• infringe anyone's intellectual property or privacy rights;
• interfere with the security of the service, including malware, probing, or scraping.

7. Our intellectual property

We retain ownership of the service and all intellectual property in it, including its software, written content, design and branding. Nothing in these terms transfers that ownership to you.

8. Your content

Notes, dates and tracker entries you create stay in your own browser. Where you do send us content, you grant us a limited licence to host and process it solely in order to provide the service.

9. Service level

We work to keep the service available, but we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, and we may change or withdraw features.

10. Payment, subscriptions and refunds

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns.

Payment, billing frequency, taxes, renewals, cancellation and refund mechanics are governed by Paddle's Buyer Terms. Subscriptions renew automatically at the interval shown at checkout until cancelled. See our refund policy and our pricing page.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access for material breach of these terms, non-payment, security or fraud risk, or repeated or serious policy violations. You may stop using the service at any time. When access ends, anything stored in your own browser remains yours; account records are handled as described in our privacy notice.

12. Warranties and liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. We are not liable for indirect, consequential or special loss, including loss of profits, data or goodwill. Our total liability is capped at the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing excludes liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, where the law does not allow it to be excluded.

13. Indemnity

You indemnify us against claims arising from your content, your unlawful use of the service, or your breach of these terms.

14. General

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, and the South African courts have jurisdiction. You may not assign your rights without our consent; we may assign ours as part of a merger or transfer of the business. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control. If we change these terms we will update the date at the top of this page.