Court documentation
Participant Compliance & Termination Policy
This policy governs every court-ordered enrolment in the ROOTS Method Court Compliance Programme. It is published in full so a prosecutor, probation officer or defense attorney can read it before a referral rather than requesting it afterwards.
1. What this program is — and is not
- RootCalm delivers structured anger management education under the clinical oversight of a registered clinical psychologist.
- It is psychoeducational. It is not psychotherapy, not a psychological or forensic evaluation, and not a substitute for a court-ordered clinical assessment or a domestic violence intervention program where one is specifically required.
- No court, state authority or national body has pre-approved this program across jurisdictions. Acceptance is always the decision of the presiding court or supervising officer.
2. Enrolment requirements
- Every participant accepts the participant agreement and program terms before the first module unlocks.
- Identity must be verified before enrolment completes: a government-issued photo ID authenticity check plus a liveness-verified selfie matched to that document.
- Participants under a court order are asked to record the referring court, case reference and any required contact hours so the correct tier is assigned.
3. What counts as completion
- All modules in the assigned tier completed in sequence — modules cannot be skipped or reordered.
- The minimum recorded time on task met for each module. Rapid click-through does not mark a module complete.
- Every knowledge check passed. Quizzes are graded on our servers; scores cannot be edited by the participant.
- The written reflections and required worksheets submitted.
- The post-program DAR-5 self-report measure completed after identity re-verification. CAMS-II is the clinical director's professional certification, not a participant assessment.
- A certificate is issued only when all of the above are satisfied. There is no certificate for partial completion.
- The twice-monthly facilitator-led group Q&A is optional. Attendance is facilitator-marked and retained on the internal compliance file, but it does not count toward required hours, is not itemised on court reports and is not a completion requirement.
4. Non-compliance
- Missed deadline: the participant receives written reminders and the referring attorney sees the lapse in the attorney portal (where consent has been given).
- Inactivity of 30 days or more on a court-ordered enrolment: the enrolment is flagged as at risk and the referring attorney or supervising officer is notified on request.
- Failed or refused identity re-verification: progress is suspended until identity is re-established. Time accrued during the suspension does not count.
- Suspected proxy completion — evidence that someone other than the enrolled participant did the work: the enrolment is terminated, any certificate already issued is revoked, and the revocation is shown at the public certificate verification URL.
- Falsified case, court or identity information: enrolment terminated without refund.
5. Termination, revocation and withdrawal
- Termination decisions are made by the clinical director or a designated administrator, recorded with the reason and date, and retained for audit.
- A revoked certificate fails public verification immediately. Anyone checking the QR code or verification URL sees that it is no longer valid.
- A participant may withdraw at any time. On request we issue a partial-progress statement showing modules completed and hours recorded, clearly marked NOT A COMPLETION.
- Where a participant was referred by an attorney or is under supervision, termination and revocation are disclosed to that party — we do not conceal non-compliance from a referring court.
6. Disputes and appeals
- A participant may dispute a termination or revocation in writing within 14 days.
- Disputes are reviewed by the clinical director, who was not the administrator of the original decision where that is practicable, and answered in writing within 10 business days.
- Where a decision is reversed, progress and any certificate are reinstated and the verification record is corrected.
7. Consent, release and confidentiality
- Program records are released to a court, prosecutor, attorney or supervising officer only under the participant's signed release, or where disclosure is required by law.
- The participant may withdraw a release at any time; we then notify the receiving party that reporting has stopped, without disclosing further content.
- Personal information is processed under POPIA with GDPR-aligned access and deletion rights. Certificate verification records are retained after deletion so that issued certificates remain checkable.
- Standard limits to confidentiality apply, including an imminent risk of serious harm to the participant or an identifiable other person.
8. Acceptance and refunds
- Acceptance is decided solely by the court, prosecutor, probation officer or other ordering authority. RootCalm is not court-approved and claims no approval.
- A free programme description letter is generated immediately after a short online form at root-calm.com/court-program/pre-approval, before payment, for the participant or attorney to lodge with the court or supervising officer.
- A participant under 18 may use an eligible programme only with a parent or legal guardian's involvement and consent. The referring authority and RootCalm must confirm that the programme is suitable before enrolment.
- Enrolment and card payment are self-serve at root-calm.com/court-program and access starts immediately. Attorneys and probation officers register their own portal account instantly at root-calm.com/portal and receive an access code; the participant enters that code under Share my progress to grant read-only access, and can revoke it at any time.
- Before any module is started, RootCalm may consider a discretionary refund request. This is not an automatic guarantee and does not limit mandatory consumer rights.
- Limited court-refusal exception: a full programme-fee refund applies if the relevant authority refuses the programme for its content within 7 days of enrolment, on written proof of the refusal emailed to support@root-calm.com. It does not apply after acceptance or an order approving the programme, to participant misconduct or non-compliance, or to dissatisfaction with results.
- Refunds are not available where a participant is terminated for proxy completion or falsified information.
Questions about this policy, or a specific court's requirements: support@root-calm.com