ABA Free Legal Answers is a website operated by the American Bar Association (ABA) and by an entity or entities in the state where the client lives. The purpose of the website is to increase access to advice and information about non-criminal legal matters to those who cannot afford it. There is no fee for the use of the system or for the advice and information provided by the lawyer.
Who Can Use ABA Free Legal Answers
Eligibility for use of ABA Free Legal Answers is limited to the following:
- The user must have household income less than 250% of the federal poverty level (with exceptions for certain states as requested by that state);
- The user may not have liquid assets exceeding $5,000 in value (this includes your checking and savings account balances, as well as the value of any stocks or bonds);
- The user may not be incarcerated;
- The user may not request assistance with criminal law matters.
Before users are allowed to request legal advice, they will be asked questions to establish eligibility.
Users agree to answer those questions truthfully.
The information that users provide to these questions are confidential. Answers not associated with the client’s name will be collected for data sharing. Attorneys will only see information associated with client's legal issue.
Users must provide their name and county in order to ask for advice.
If a user is not eligible to use the system, the user will be denied access to it and provided with some alternate resources for help.
What Happens When Clients Use ABA Free Legal Answers
After eligibility is established, the user will create a secured account.
The user will post a request for legal advice/information and provide facts that will help the lawyer answer the question. Users will be able to go back to their posted question to add information. The lawyer may ask for additional information before responding to the user's request. The user will have a choice to respond to that request or not.
Lawyers must be licensed in the state for which they have registered with ABA Free Legal Answers and must be authorized to give pro bono advice/information. Attorneys eligible under that criteria will be authorized to use the system and to respond to user's requests. Lawyers will only answer questions they choose to answer. If no lawyer responds to a request after 30+ days, the request will be removed and an administrator will notify the user. If a lawyer responds to a user's request, the user will see the written response through the website.
Users will not know the name of the lawyer who answers their questions unless the user makes a separate specific request for the lawyer's name to the national administrator. The lawyer must answer according to the law of the state in which he/she is licensed and caution the client if that state's law might not apply.
The lawyer will not take any action to help the user except to respond to the request for advice and information that is posted on the website.
Lawyer/Client Relationship
There is no lawyer/client relationship between the client and the administrator of this website (ABA). In the event a client submits a question and receives an answer from a lawyer, there will be a lawyer/client relationship formed between that client and the lawyer who responds. That relationship, however, will be limited in scope and duration as described in this agreement. The representation will be limited to providing an answer to the legal question and will not involve any continuing representation of the client beyond the act of providing such an answer. The lawyer will provide short-term, limited legal services to a client (the eligible user of this site) without expectation by either the lawyer or the client (the eligible user of this site) that the lawyer will provide continuing representation in the matter. By accepting the terms of this use agreement, you consent to the limited nature of this relationship both as to scope and duration.
Conflicts
Under ABA Model Rule 6.5, because of the pro bono publico nature of the limited scope representation provided through ABA Free Legal Answers, the general rules for lawyers as to conflicts of interest may or may not apply to lawyers' participation in ABA Free Legal Answers. Instead, the only conflicts of interest that would preclude a lawyer from answering a question for an eligible user of ABA Free Legal Answers are conflicts of interest that the lawyer actually knows of at the time that they receive or answer a client's question. This means that the possibility exists, and the clients agree that they understand, that a lawyer who answers a question, or another lawyer with whom they practice in a firm, may actually be representing other parties with an interest in the question. The client name will be provided to the lawyer so that the lawyer can make sure not to answer the question if the lawyer knows that he would have a conflict of interest. Clients are also requested to list opposing parties (if any) if known. If based on the information the client provides, whether client name or any details of the question, the lawyer actually knows of a conflict of interest precluding him from answering, the lawyer select that question to answer.
Privacy Policy/Confidentiality Statement
ABA Free Legal Answers is designed to insure client privacy. Information available to ABA and the lawyer responding to a client request shall remain confidential, subject to the limitations of this Privacy/Confidentiality Policy. However, client requests for information and the response of the lawyers participating in ABA Legal Answers may be maintained in a database for review in order to measure the effectiveness of the project. Steps will be taken to maintain the security of this database and it will only be utilized by the ABA, but an absolute guarantee of security is not possible when using the internet and internet based systems.
For each visitor to the site the web server automatically recognizes only the consumer domain name. This is the information that is collected for statistical purposes.
Aggregate information is collected on what pages consumers access or visit on this website.
The information collected is used to improve the content of the Web page and is not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes. Information may be disclosed when legally required at the request of government authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our website and applicable laws or to protect against misuses or unauthorized use of our website.
With respect to cookies: Two non-personal temporary cookies are sent. These are eliminated when you log out of the site.
With respect to Ad Servers: There is no partnership or special relationship with any ad server company.
Accepting Pro Bono Cases
If a lawyer chooses to communicate with a client outside of the ABA Free Legal Answers website for the purposes of taking the client's case on a pro bono basis, lawyers are asked to contact their state and/or national administrator. The ABA does not provide malpractice insurance for your services beyond the legal guidance you provide on the ABA Free Legal Answers website. The lawyer may contact his/her state administrator to find out whether malpractice insurance is available to cover additional pro bono representation of the client and any applicable reporting requirements. We would like to keep track of the number of pro bono cases that are generated from the website so please let your state and/or national administrator know if you do decide to continue pro bono representation of your client.
If a lawyer decides to communicate outside of the ABA Free Legal Answers website and provide pro bono services the lawyer/client relationship formed on-line is ended. A new lawyer/client relationship is started when the lawyer communicates outside or provides pro bono services outside of ABA Free Legal Answers. The ABA is not liable for any communication services provided outside of the website.
This Use Agreement for Lawyers is subject to amendment or modification at any time. Any such amendment or modification will be accompanied by written notification to all registered lawyers of this site.
Agreement
By clicking the "I Agree" button you agree:
- I have read the Use Agreement and I understand the terms of the Use Agreement.
- The information that I will provide is true and correct.
- If I do not agree to the Terms of Use, I will not be able to use the system.
New York