Internal Standards Document

1. Purpose and Scope

1.1 This document establishes the operative standards governing all engagements conducted by Ethically Sourced Vengeance, LLC (hereinafter "the Company"). It applies to all staff, contractors, auditors, and third-party review partners involved in any stage of the engagement lifecycle.

1.2 The Company was founded on the premise that vengeance, as a human activity, is neither inherently unethical nor inherently ethical. Its ethical status is determined by how it is conducted: whether it is proportionate, targeted, documented, and free from harm to uninvolved parties.

1.3 These standards exist to operationalize that premise. They are not aspirational. They are binding. Staff who cannot comply with these standards are not suited to this work.

1.4 Revision 4 supersedes all prior versions. Key changes from Revision 3 are noted in Appendix A (not published externally).

2. Definitions

Client

The individual or entity initiating an engagement. The Client is not always right. The Client is always heard.

Subject

The individual against whom the engagement is directed. The Subject has not consented to this process. This is addressed through proportionality and precision, not through their participation.

Bystander

Any individual not directly party to the originating grievance who could be affected by an engagement. Bystanders are a protected category. The definition is applied broadly by default.

Proportionality Score

A numerical assessment (scale of 1–10) produced by the Proportionality Review Board reflecting the severity of the originating grievance. The Client's desired engagement may not exceed this score.

Engagement

A contracted act of vengeance, from intake through Closure Certification.

Declination

The Company's refusal to proceed with an engagement. Declination is not a judgment of the Client's grievance. It is a judgment of the feasibility of addressing it within our standards.

3. Intake and Grievance Assessment

3.1 All engagements begin with an Initial Consultation of 45–90 minutes. This consultation is complimentary and carries no obligation for either party.

3.2 The intake interviewer's role is not to validate or invalidate the Client's grievance. It is to understand the situation with sufficient precision to enable accurate assessment by the Proportionality Review Board.

3.3 Intake interviewers shall not express personal opinions about the Subject, the grievance, or the likely Proportionality Score during the consultation. Post-consultation documentation shall reflect observed facts, not judgments.

3.4 Following the Initial Consultation, the intake file is transferred to the Proportionality Review Board within 48 hours. The Board has 3–5 business days to produce a written assessment and Proportionality Score.

3.5 The written assessment is delivered to the Client before any engagement agreement is executed. The Client may accept the assessment, request a single clarification session, or withdraw. There is no appeal of the Proportionality Score. There is no exception to this.

4. Proportionality Review Board — Composition and Procedure

4.1 The Proportionality Review Board (PRB) consists of three permanent members and one rotating member drawn from the Company's certified auditor pool. Rotating membership cycles quarterly.

4.2 PRB members may not have any personal relationship with the Client or Subject. Any potential conflict must be disclosed and the member recused.

4.3 Grievances are evaluated across four dimensions, each scored 1–10:

• Severity: The degree of harm — material, reputational, emotional, or relational — caused by the originating act.
• Intent: The assessed degree to which the originating act was deliberate rather than negligent or circumstantial. Intent can increase or decrease the score relative to Severity.
• Duration: Whether the harm was a single event or part of a sustained pattern. Sustained patterns receive higher scores on this dimension.
• Third-Party Impact: Whether the originating act affected parties beyond the Client. Acts with broad third-party impact receive higher scores on this dimension.

4.4 The Proportionality Score is the weighted average of the four dimensions, with Severity and Intent carrying 35% weight each, and Duration and Third-Party Impact carrying 15% each.

4.5 No engagement may be designed to produce an impact exceeding the Proportionality Score. The engagement designer is responsible for compliance. The PRB conducts a final design review before execution authorization.

5. Bystander Impact Assessment

5.1 No engagement proceeds without a completed Bystander Impact Assessment (BIA). The BIA is conducted by a designated BIA analyst, separate from the engagement designer, to ensure independence.

5.2 The BIA maps all individuals who could be affected by the proposed engagement, categorizing them as: (a) Subject, (b) direct associates of the Subject who are party to the grievance, or (c) bystanders.

5.3 Category (c) individuals — bystanders — are protected. The engagement must be redesigned until no bystander is materially affected. If this cannot be achieved, the engagement is declined.

5.4 Protected bystander categories include but are not limited to: the Subject's minor children, uninvolved family members, colleagues who had no role in the originating grievance, and any individual whose connection to the Subject is purely incidental.

5.5 The BIA analyst has unilateral authority to block an engagement pending redesign. This authority is not subject to override by Client pressure or commercial considerations.

6. Product Standards by Offering

7. Third-Party Audit Requirements

7.1 All Standard-tier and above engagements are subject to third-party audit. Auditors are drawn from the Company's certified auditor pool and may not be involved in the engagement design.

7.2 Auditors verify: proportionality compliance at design stage, BIA completeness, execution accuracy, and documentation integrity.

7.3 Audit reports are retained for seven years. They are available to Clients upon written request. They are not available to Subjects or third parties.

7.4 Any auditor finding of non-compliance triggers an immediate hold on the engagement. The hold is not lifted until the non-compliance is remediated and a second auditor confirms resolution.

8. Environmental Compliance

8.1 All engagements are carbon neutral. The Environmental Compliance team calculates the carbon footprint of each engagement and procures verified offsets prior to delivery.

8.2 The Redirect is the Company's only carbon-negative product, owing to its emphasis on inward focus and the elimination of travel, documentation printing, and operational overhead associated with other offerings.

8.3 Environmental compliance reports are available upon request. The Company does not claim certifications it has not earned. Current status: carbon neutral, verified annually. B-Corp certification: pending (application submitted Q1 2026).

9. Declination Standards

9.1 The Company will decline any engagement that: causes or risks physical harm to any party; violates any applicable law; cannot be completed without affecting bystanders; involves a response exceeding the Proportionality Score; or is based on a grievance that the PRB assesses as unfounded.

9.2 Declination is communicated in writing within 5 business days of the PRB assessment. The letter states that the engagement cannot be completed within our standards. It does not assess blame.

9.3 Declined Clients are offered The Redirect. Approximately 23% of declined Clients have accepted this offer. We consider this a meaningful outcome.

9.4 Commercial pressure — including large contract values, repeat Client status, or referral relationships — does not factor into declination decisions. We have declined lucrative engagements. We will continue to do so.

10. Documentation and Recordkeeping

10.1 All engagement documentation is retained for a minimum of seven years from the date of Closure Certification.

10.2 Client-identifying information is stored separately from engagement design documentation. Access to combined records requires dual authorization.

10.3 No engagement record is destroyed before the retention period expires, regardless of Client request. The record is the Company's, not the Client's. This is disclosed at intake.

11. Closure Certification

11.1 Every engagement concludes with a Closure Certification signed by the Client. The Certification confirms that the engagement is complete, the matter is closed, and the Client will not seek to escalate or re-engage on the same grievance.

11.2 The Closure Certification is not a legal document. It is an ethical one. It is binding in the sense that the Company will not accept a subsequent engagement from the same Client targeting the same Subject for the same underlying grievance.

11.3 Clients who decline to sign the Closure Certification may not receive delivery. No exceptions.

12. Amendments and Review Cycle

12.1 This document is reviewed annually by the Standards Committee. Amendments require approval by a majority of permanent PRB members.

12.2 Amendments that reduce client protections or weaken proportionality requirements require unanimous PRB approval.

12.3 The current revision history is maintained internally. Revision 4 represents the fourth annual update since the Company's founding. The standards have become more stringent with each revision. We consider this directionally correct.

"We take our standards more seriously than we take your grievance. This is why the standards work."

— Internal Standards Document, Ethically Sourced Vengeance, Rev. 4