Terms of Service

1. Acceptance and Scope

You agree to these Terms when you affirmatively accept them through a checkout, account-creation, profile-management, nomination or submission interface, or another interface that clearly states that the action constitutes agreement to these Terms. Public browsing alone is not intended to serve as the sole basis for imposing arbitration or other material contractual obligations.

If you use the Services on behalf of an organization, firm, company, practice, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms. "You" includes that entity where applicable.

You must use the Services only in compliance with applicable law and these Terms.

2. Expert Honors and the Recognition Brands

Expert Honors is the parent recognition network operated by Silent Rich LLC. Nomination, consideration, evaluation, selection, and publication of a complimentary recognition listing are independent of purchase. A recognition listing consists of the recipient’s name and, where applicable, firm or organization name, city, and state. Badge licenses, editorial profiles, physical awards, announcement inclusion, and other deliverables are sold separately and are not part of a complimentary listing. Individual recognition brands may use shared technology, accounts, checkout, fulfillment, profile-management, badge-delivery, support, benefits, or administrative infrastructure operated through Expert Honors.

A specific recognition brand may publish additional terms, selection criteria, disclosures, award-use rules, or professional compliance requirements. When you interact with a specific recognition brand, those brand-specific terms also apply to the applicable brand activity. If a brand-specific provision conflicts with these Terms on a matter unique to that brand, the more specific brand provision controls for that matter.

A transaction processed through ExpertHonors.com may relate to a specific recognition brand. The order summary, receipt, and applicable brand materials identify the product or service purchased and any supplemental brand-specific terms.

3. Editorial Recognition and Commercial Independence

Expert Honors operates or supports editorial recognition programs. Nomination, consideration, evaluation, selection, recognition status, and any basic recognition expressly designated as complimentary are independent of purchase. No purchase or payment is required to be nominated, considered, evaluated, selected, or to retain recognition status.

Expert Honors and its recognition brands may separately offer optional paid products and services, including enhanced profiles, physical awards, premium creative assets, publicity or distribution services, sponsorships, advertising, benefits, and enhanced placement. Purchasing or declining an optional product or service does not cause a person or organization to be selected and does not improve, preserve, activate, or validate selection.

Where enhanced, sponsored, or paid placement is displayed, it may be labeled as "Sponsored," "Enhanced Profile," "Featured Placement," or a substantially similar designation. Commercial placement is separate from editorial selection.

4. Meaning of Recognition Terminology

Terms such as "Honoree," "Selected," "Recognized," "Award Winner," or a named program designation describe the result of the applicable editorial recognition program. A title containing words such as "Top," "Leading," or similar comparative language does not, by itself, represent a mathematical percentile, exhaustive market ranking, or determination that every potentially eligible professional or organization was evaluated unless the applicable published methodology expressly states otherwise.

Recognition is not a professional certification, accreditation, licensure determination, governmental approval, regulatory approval, referral, guarantee of competency, or guarantee of results unless a specific program expressly states otherwise and has a lawful, documented basis for doing so.

5. Public Profiles and Public-Source Information

Expert Honors or a recognition brand may create, maintain, or supplement professional and organizational profiles using publicly available information, regulator databases, licensing records, company or firm websites, professional biographies, news sources, public records, reputable third-party data, nominations, and materials submitted by authorized persons.

Public information may be incomplete, delayed, outdated, or inaccurate. Unless expressly stated, publication of a profile does not mean that the profile subject submitted, approved, sponsored, endorsed, or paid for the profile. The Company does not guarantee that a public-source profile is complete or continuously current.

Profile subjects may request correction of specific factual information through the Company’s correction process. The Company may require reasonable identity verification and documentation supporting a requested correction. The Company may correct, annotate, update, suspend, or remove content based on its editorial judgment, applicable law, reliable new information, mistaken identity, fraud, material falsification, or other legitimate reasons. The Company does not promise removal of an accurate editorial record solely because a subject prefers not to be listed, but will consider removal requests where required by law or otherwise appropriate.

6. Accounts and Customer Portal

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of account credentials and for activity conducted through your account. You must provide accurate account information and promptly update material changes. You may not impersonate another person, falsely claim authority over a profile or organization, or access another user’s account without authorization.

The Company may require identity, employment, organizational, or authorization verification before permitting a user to claim, edit, or administer a professional or organizational profile. Verification of account authority does not constitute verification of every fact displayed in the profile.

7. Nominations and Submissions

You may submit nominations or other information only if you are authorized to provide the submitted material. Submission does not guarantee consideration, selection, publication, a response, or any particular outcome.

Do not submit confidential client, patient, customer, investor, employee, or third-party information unless you are legally authorized to disclose it and the applicable form expressly permits it. Do not submit trade secrets, privileged material, material nonpublic information, nonpublic offering documents, account credentials, payment-card data outside an approved payment form, protected health information, or other sensitive information that the Company has not expressly agreed to receive.

The Company may edit submissions for formatting, style, length, clarity, accuracy, consistency, and publication standards, and may decline or remove submitted material in its editorial discretion.

8. User Content and License

You retain ownership of content you own and submit to the Services. By submitting text, biographies, photographs, logos, articles, nominations, testimonials, credentials, case or transaction information, performance information, or other materials ("User Content"), you grant the Company a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, format, resize, edit for layout or style, distribute, display, and otherwise use the User Content as reasonably necessary to operate, publish, promote, and administer the applicable Services and recognition program.

You represent and warrant that you have the right to submit the User Content; that material factual statements are accurate to your knowledge; that publication will not infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, contractual, or other third-party rights; and that professional, performance, testimonial, outcome, and advertising claims comply with applicable law and professional rules.

The Company may remove or decline User Content that it reasonably believes is unlawful, inaccurate, misleading, infringing, unauthorized, unsafe, or inconsistent with its editorial or publication standards.

9. Purchases and Order-Specific Terms

Products and services are described on the applicable order page. Prices, taxes, delivery terms, publication periods, service periods, renewal terms, cancellation rules, and included deliverables shown at checkout form part of the applicable transaction.

An annual recognition cycle is not automatically a recurring paid subscription. A charge recurs only when the checkout expressly identifies a recurring product or service and the purchaser separately authorizes recurring charges as required by applicable law.

The Company may correct obvious pricing, description, or configuration errors before fulfillment. If a material order error cannot reasonably be corrected, the Company may cancel the affected item and refund amounts paid for that item.

10. Personalized Physical Awards

Plaques, trophies, and other personalized physical products may become non-cancellable after production begins, except for Company error, defect, nondelivery, rights that cannot lawfully be waived, or another exception stated in the applicable order terms.

You are responsible for reviewing personalization details that you submit or approve. If the Company provides a proof, approval of the proof may make customer-supplied spelling, title, category, or other personalization errors the customer’s responsibility. The Company remains responsible for correcting its own manufacturing or production errors in accordance with the applicable order policy.

Shipping dates are estimates unless expressly stated otherwise. If shipment cannot occur within the time represented or required by applicable law, the Company will provide any legally required delay, cancellation, or refund options. Report damaged or materially defective items within the period stated in the order policy so the Company can evaluate replacement or other appropriate relief.

11. Digital Assets, Profiles, and Publication Services

Digital badges, graphics, downloadable files, profile enhancements, and similar deliverables are licensed or provided for the scope stated in the applicable order or award-use rules. Purchasing a premium creative file or enhanced profile does not transfer ownership of the Company’s trademarks or recognition marks.

Profile publication, search-engine indexing, search ranking, traffic, leads, inquiries, business results, or continued availability on third-party platforms are not guaranteed. Where a paid profile or enhancement has a stated service period, the order page should identify that period and what occurs when it ends.

12. Publicity and Press Distribution

If the Company offers writing, submission, press-release distribution, syndication, or publicity services, the specific deliverable will be identified at purchase. A paid distribution service is not a guarantee of independent editorial coverage. Third-party publishers, platforms, search engines, and syndication networks may edit, reject, relabel, de-index, syndicate, discontinue, or remove content under their own policies.

The Company does not guarantee third-party publication, search indexing, search ranking, traffic, leads, permanence, or media coverage. You are responsible for the factual accuracy and legality of claims you authorize for publication and for compliance with professional advertising rules applicable to you.

13. Recurring Services

All products and services currently offered through the Services are one-time purchases. An annual recognition cycle is not a recurring paid subscription, and acceptance of these Terms does not authorize any recurring charge.

Where a product or service is expressly sold on a recurring basis, the Company will disclose the recurring amount or pricing method, billing frequency, renewal term, and cancellation method before purchase and will obtain any separate recurring-charge authorization required by applicable law.

For online enrollment, the Company will provide an online cancellation method unless a different method is specifically permitted by applicable law. The Company may send renewal reminders, annual notices, price-change notices, and cancellation confirmations as required by law or Company policy. Cancellation affects future recurring charges as stated in the applicable plan terms; it does not retroactively revoke an otherwise valid editorial recognition.

14. Third-Party Benefits and Partners

Expert Honors or a recognition brand may make third-party offers, benefits, discounts, experiences, or services available to eligible users or honorees. Eligibility, inventory, geographic availability, scheduling, provider terms, pricing, and continuation may change. Unless expressly stated otherwise, the third-party provider is responsible for fulfillment and performance of its own product or service.

Inclusion of a provider does not constitute professional, regulatory, investment, legal, medical, or other endorsement. Provider-specific terms, waivers, eligibility requirements, or releases may apply, particularly to travel, events, or physical experiences.

15. Recognition Marks and Brand-Specific Badges

Expert Honors and the recognition brands own or control their names, logos, badges, award designs, and related trademarks and creative assets. A recognized recipient may truthfully state, in writing, in speech, or in any other medium, that it received a recognition, whether or not it has purchased anything. Reproducing or displaying a badge, insignia, award artwork, or other branded recognition asset is separate from that statement and requires a license, which is granted only as part of an applicable paid recognition package. Any such right is governed by the applicable brand’s Award Usage Guidelines or other license terms.

Unless a brand-specific rule states otherwise, a recipient may not alter the recipient, year, category, substantive wording, source attribution, or identifying elements of a recognition mark; transfer or sublicense the mark; imply governmental or regulatory approval; or combine the mark with false or misleading claims.

A refund, cancellation, or chargeback relating solely to an optional plaque, profile service, or other commercial purchase does not by itself erase an editorial recognition that was validly granted. Recognition and any associated license may be suspended or revoked for substantive editorial reasons, fraud, material falsification, mistaken identity, ineligibility, unlawful or materially misleading use, or other grounds stated in the applicable brand rules.

16. Professional and Regulatory Responsibility

Users and recognition recipients are responsible for determining whether and how recognition, profiles, badges, testimonials, case results, performance information, transaction information, or other content may be advertised in their jurisdiction or industry.

Expert Honors does not provide legal, medical, investment, accounting, real-estate, compliance, or other professional advice through the parent website. Brand-specific professional and regulatory disclaimers apply when a user interacts with a particular recognition program.

17. Sponsorships, Advertising, and Enhanced Placement

The Company may sell advertising, sponsorships, enhanced profiles, enhanced placement, featured placement, or other promotional services. These commercial relationships are separate from editorial recognition decisions. Paid or enhanced placement should be identified where displayed when the relationship could otherwise be unclear.

Advertisers and sponsors are responsible for the legality, accuracy, and substantiation of claims they provide. The Company may reject or remove advertising or sponsorship content in its discretion.

18. Communications

By creating an account, making a purchase, submitting a nomination or profile, or otherwise initiating a relationship with the Company, you may receive transactional or service communications reasonably necessary to administer that relationship, including receipts, account notices, order status, profile corrections, recognition status, security notices, and legally required communications.

Marketing email is subject to applicable law and opt-out requirements. Acceptance of these Terms alone does not constitute consent to receive marketing text messages, artificial or prerecorded voice calls, or other communications for which separate consent is required by law. Where such consent is sought, it must be obtained separately at the point of collection.

19. Intellectual Property and Acceptable Use

Except for User Content and third-party materials, the Services and their original text, design, selection, arrangement, software, databases, graphics, trademarks, and other content are owned by or licensed to the Company and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.

You may not use the Services to violate law; infringe rights; impersonate another person; submit malicious code; interfere with security or availability; attempt unauthorized access; harvest credentials; manipulate recognition status; create fraudulent accounts; or use the Services in a way that materially harms the Company, another user, or a recognition program.

20. Automated Access, Scraping, and AI Use

Except as expressly permitted in writing, you may not use automated means to scrape, harvest, bulk extract, replicate, systematically download, or reconstruct the Services or their proprietary directory or database; circumvent rate limits or authentication; create accounts automatically; access nonpublic functionality through an unauthorized API; commercially redistribute protected site content; or use protected site content to train or improve an AI or machine-learning model.

These contractual restrictions do not convert every prohibited automated act into a federal crime or create statutory damages where the law does not provide them. The Company may also use technical measures, rate limits, access controls, crawler directives, and other lawful measures to protect the Services.

21. Copyright Complaints and DMCA Process

If you believe material available through the Services infringes your copyright, send a notice containing the information required by applicable law to the copyright contact below. A notice should identify the copyrighted work, identify the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it, provide your contact information, state your good-faith belief that the use is not authorized, state under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act for the copyright owner, and include a physical or electronic signature.

The Company may remove or disable access to material in response to a valid notice and may notify the affected user. A user may submit a legally sufficient counter-notice where appropriate. The Company may terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. Knowingly making material misrepresentations in a copyright notice or counter-notice may create legal liability.

Copyright contact: Hello@ExpertHonors.com, or Silent Rich LLC d/b/a Expert Honors, 605 W 9th St Ste 1100, Austin, TX 78701.

22. Third-Party Services and Links

The Services may contain links to or integrations with payment processors, analytics providers, hosting providers, communications providers, recognition partners, benefit providers, publishers, social networks, and other third parties. Third-party services are governed by their own terms and policies. The Company is not responsible for a third party’s independent acts, omissions, content, availability, security, or performance except to the extent liability cannot lawfully be disclaimed.

23. Privacy

The Expert Honors Privacy Policy describes the Company’s handling of personal information. The Privacy Policy and these Terms govern different subjects, and neither automatically overrides the other in all circumstances. Where a specific consent is legally required for a particular data practice, the Company will obtain that consent separately as appropriate.

24. Disclaimer of Warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." THE COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS; THAT PUBLIC-SOURCE OR THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION WILL ALWAYS BE COMPLETE OR CURRENT; OR THAT USE OF A PROFILE, BADGE, ADVERTISEMENT, BENEFIT, PUBLICATION, OR OTHER SERVICE WILL PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR PROFESSIONAL, COMMERCIAL, SEARCH, MEDIA, INVESTMENT, LEGAL, MEDICAL, REAL-ESTATE, OR OTHER RESULT.

Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

25. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE COMPANY WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE COMPANY’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO A CLAIM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID THE COMPANY FOR THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, OR (B) $100 IF THE CLAIM ARISES FROM A FREE-USER RELATIONSHIP.

These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited and do not purport to eliminate liability for fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence where such a limitation would be unenforceable. The limitations also do not eliminate non-waivable statutory rights.

26. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Company and its affiliates, officers, employees, and agents from third-party claims, damages, liabilities, judgments, costs, and reasonable legal fees arising from (a) User Content you submitted or directed the Company to publish; (b) your infringement or violation of a third party’s rights; (c) your unlawful or materially misleading professional advertising; (d) your misuse of a recognition badge or Company mark; (e) your violation of law; or (f) your material breach of these Terms.

This provision does not require you to indemnify the Company for the Company’s own independent wrongdoing to the extent such indemnification is prohibited by law. The Company may control the defense of a covered third-party claim, and you will reasonably cooperate in the defense.

27. Informal Dispute Resolution

Before either party initiates arbitration concerning a dispute covered by the Arbitration section, the parties will make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute informally. The initiating party should send a written notice describing the dispute and requested relief to the legal-notice contact listed below. If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days after receipt of the notice, either party may proceed with arbitration or another remedy permitted by these Terms.

This is a pre-filing resolution period, not a requirement that a claimant provide notice within a shortened period after a claim arises, and it does not shorten any limitations period established by applicable law.

28. Arbitration for Affirmative-Assent Relationships; Class Waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS LEGAL RIGHTS.

Except for the exclusions below, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or an affirmative-assent relationship with the Company will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under the Federal Arbitration Act. The applicable AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules will govern a consumer dispute and the applicable AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules will govern a genuinely commercial dispute, in each case subject to mandatory law. Where AAA’s Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules apply, those rules will govern.

A consumer may bring an eligible individual claim in small-claims court instead of arbitration. Either party may seek temporary or preliminary court relief where reasonably necessary to prevent imminent infringement or misuse of intellectual property, unauthorized access, security compromise, or materially misleading use of Company marks, without waiving arbitration of other covered claims.

Arbitration may occur by video, telephone, documents, or in person as permitted by the applicable AAA rules and law. Consumer hearing location and fee allocation will follow applicable AAA rules and mandatory law. The Company does not promise to pay fees beyond what the applicable rules or law require.

The arbitrator may award any individual relief available under applicable law. Except where prohibited by law, disputes must proceed only on an individual basis and not as a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. Neither party may serve as a representative member in a purported class or representative proceeding.

The arbitrator will decide disputes concerning the interpretation, applicability, or enforceability of this arbitration provision, except that a court will decide whether an arbitration agreement was formed and any issue that applicable law requires a court to decide. If the individual-action waiver is finally determined unenforceable as to a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy will proceed in court after arbitration of arbitrable issues to the extent permitted by law.

29. Court Proceedings, Jury Waiver, and Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising from an agreement to them are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the arbitration provision.

Any court proceeding permitted under these Terms and arising from an enforceable agreement to these Terms will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Travis County, Texas, unless mandatory law requires a different forum. Each party consents to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts. IF A DISPUTE PROCEEDS IN COURT RATHER THAN ARBITRATION, EACH PARTY WAIVES A JURY TRIAL TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

Nothing in these Terms waives or limits any right, defense, immunity, fee entitlement, sanction remedy, or procedural protection available to either party under applicable law, including any applicable law protecting lawful speech or petitioning activity. These Terms do not create automatic treble damages, automatic fee shifting, or other statutory remedies that applicable law does not provide.

30. Changes to These Terms

The Company may update these Terms from time to time. The revised version will identify its effective date. For material changes affecting an existing contractual relationship, including material changes to arbitration, recurring billing, liability allocation, ownership or licensing, the Company will provide direct notice and obtain renewed assent where appropriate rather than relying solely on continued use of the public website.

Changes do not retroactively alter completed transactions unless the parties lawfully agree otherwise.

31. Suspension and Termination

The Company may suspend or terminate access to an account or Service for material breach, fraud, unlawful conduct, security risk, misuse of Company marks, unauthorized access, nonpayment for a paid service, or other legitimate operational reasons. Termination of a paid service and revocation of editorial recognition are separate actions. Nonpayment for an optional product does not by itself revoke a valid editorial recognition unless the unpaid service is itself the subject of the transaction and the applicable order terms state otherwise.

32. Miscellaneous

If any provision of these Terms is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect to the extent permitted by law, and the unenforceable provision will be enforced to the maximum lawful extent or severed as appropriate.

A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without the Company’s consent, except where applicable law provides otherwise. The Company may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, reorganization, sale of assets, or transfer of the relevant business.

These Terms, the applicable order terms, any brand-specific terms, and policies expressly incorporated into them constitute the agreement governing the applicable Service. Headings are for convenience only.

33. Legal Notices and Contact

General support and customer-service requests: Hello@ExpertHonors.com, or through the Site’s Contact page.

Legal notices under the Informal Dispute Resolution and Arbitration sections must be sent to Hello@ExpertHonors.com and to Silent Rich LLC d/b/a Expert Honors, 605 W 9th St Ste 1100, Austin, TX 78701.

The Company may update legal contact information prospectively by updating this page and any required public registrations.