Frequently Asked Questions For Volunteer Attorneys
Attorney Use Agreement
Note: This ABA Free Legal Answers website is intended for federal legal issues—specifically, at this time, immigration and veterans issues. If you are registering to answer questions related to federal veteran issues, you must be accredited with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) and follow VA accreditation requirements and standards.
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 (for state-specific questions), or, by an entity or entities that serve(s) as an administrator for the federal site. The purpose of the website is to increase access to advice and information about non-criminal legal matters for those who cannot afford it. There is no fee for the use of the system or for the advice and information provided by the attorney.
Who Can Use ABA Free Legal Answers?
Eligibility for use of ABA Free Legal Answers is limited to the following:
- The user must be an adult;
- The user must have met financial eligibility guidelines;
- The user may not be serving a criminal sentence; and
- The user may not request assistance with criminal law matters.
- The user must currently be living in the United States.
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 is confidential. Answers not associated with the client’s name will be collected for data sharing. Attorneys will only see information associated with their client's legal issue.
Users must provide their name and state 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 attorney answer the question. Users will be able to go back to their posted question to add information. You 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.
To answer questions on the federal site, you must be licensed and in good standing in a U.S. jurisdiction, and must be authorized to give pro bono legal advice. As specified above, if you intend to answer veterans’ questions, you must be accredited with the VA. Attorneys eligible under that criteria will be authorized to use the system and to respond to user's requests. You will only answer questions you choose to answer. If no attorney responds to a request after 30+ days, the request will be removed and an administrator will notify the user. If an attorney responds to a user's question, the user will see the written response through the website.
Users will not know the name of the attorney who answers their questions unless the attorney chooses to provide it, a client has made a specific request for the name of the attorney who replied to their question in connection to a potential claim or it is required by a court of law. Attorneys will not be anonymous to their clients in jurisdictions that have requested that attorney names be visible. You must answer according to the law of the state in which you are licensed and caution the client if that state's law might not apply. Where federal laws and regulations apply, you must answer according to and in accordance with the applicable federal laws and regulations.
You will not take any action to help the user except to respond through the website to the request for advice and information that is posted on the website.
You agree that all information you provide is true and correct. You agree to provide legal representation through the Website on a pro bono basis.
Google Translate
If you choose to use the Google Translate feature, please be aware that the ABA does not perform the translation of the website into Spanish and does not have an opinion on the accuracy of the translation.
Attorney/Client Relationship
There is no attorney/client relationship between the user (i.e., the client) and the administrators (the ABA, national administrator, state administrator and administering state entities, or federal administrators) of this website. In the event a client submits a question and receives an answer from an attorney, there will be an attorney/client relationship formed between that client and the attorney 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 through the website to the legal question and will not involve any continuing representation of the client beyond the act of providing such an answer. You will provide short-term, limited legal services to a client without expectation by either you or the client that you will provide continuing representation in the matter. Should the client have a concern about the lawyer's assistance, he/she will be permitted to contact the site administrator. This attorney-client relationship ends after you have completed providing the short-term limited legal services to a client through the Website.
A lawyer volunteering to participate in the FLA program should review both the Rules of Professional Conduct and Rules of Disciplinary Enforcement of the jurisdiction in which the lawyer is licensed and the jurisdiction in which the inquirer is sited and the ethics rules of any agency with jurisdiction over the question presented.
Conflicts
Under the ethics rules adopted in most jurisdictions, many of which include a rule patterned after ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 6.5, because of the pro bono publico nature of the limited scope representation provided through ABA Free Legal Answers, the general rules for attorneys as to conflicts of interest may not apply to your participation in ABA Free Legal Answers. Instead, in many jurisdictions, the only conflicts of interest that would preclude you from answering a question for an eligible user of ABA Free Legal Answers are conflicts of interest that you actually know of at the time that you receive or answer a client's question. Because the opposing party for most questions relating to immigration and veterans’ issues will be the federal government, such conflicts are less likely. Nevertheless, the possibility exists, and the clients agree that they understand that an attorney who answers a question, or another attorney with whom they practice in a firm, may actually be representing other parties with an interest in the question. The names of the client and anyone adverse to the client concerning the subject matter of the question will be provided to you so that you can make sure not to answer the question if you know that you would have a conflict of interest. If based on the information the client provides, whether client name or any details of the question, you actually know of a conflict of interest precluding you from answering, the question will be referred to another volunteer attorney. Depending on the jurisdiction in which you are licensed, you may be required to perform a conflicts check.
Privacy Policy/Confidentiality Statement
ABA Free Legal Answers is designed to provide client privacy. Information posted on the website shall remain confidential, subject to the limitations of this Privacy Policy/Confidentiality Statement, and unless you must reveal the information to prevent bodily harm, to prevent the client from committing a crime, to establish a defense in a controversy with the client or as otherwise ordered to by a court. You agree not to use communications on the Website for discovery purposes. However, client legal questions and the response of the attorneys participating in ABA Free Legal Answers may be maintained for review in order to measure the effectiveness of the project and other legitimate business reasons. ABA and the entities administering the website may periodically review the responses of the attorneys participating in ABA Free Legal Answers. Steps will be taken to maintain the security of this database and the website and it will only be utilized by the entities administering the federal site, the ABA and those entities working with it to manage and improve the site, but an absolute guarantee of security is not possible when using the internet and internet based systems. Information collected on this website may be destroyed after three years.
Aggregate information is collected on what pages are accessed or visited by individuals accessing the Website. The information collected is used to improve the content of the website 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. Information may be disclosed for legitimate business reasons. This information may also be studied by researchers who work with us to improve access to justice. Any personal information that could identify you will be removed before files are shared with these researchers or results are made public.
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 the entity administering the Website or the ABA. The ABA does not provide malpractice insurance for your services beyond the legal guidance you provide on the ABA Free Legal Answers website. You may contact your federal 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 administrator or the ABA know if you do decide to continue pro bono representation of your client. The attorney agrees not to solicit clients for commercial purposes.
Communications Outside of the Website
If you decide to communicate outside of the ABA Free Legal Answers website and provide pro bono representation or services, the attorney/client relationship formed on-line is ended. A new attorney/client relationship is started when you communicate outside or provide pro bono services outside of ABA Free Legal Answers. The ABA and the entity administering the federal website are not liable for any legal services provided outside of the website.
Attorneys Professional Liability Policy
Malpractice insurance is provided by the ABA for the legal guidance that you provide through the ABA Free Legal Answers website. Malpractice insurance coverage is limited to liability for only those claims that are made against you in relation to the legal guidance you provided on ABA Free Legal Answers. If you receive notice of a claim, you must provide the federal administrator written notice of the claim, with full details including the date received, the claimant’s name and address (if known), the dates of the communications on ABA Free Legal Answers, and the alleged wrongful act as soon as practicable, but in no event later than thirty (30) days after the claim is first made.
Your participation and conduct on this site are consistent with the rules of professional conduct of your jurisdiction and any applicable civility codes. You understand that all clients must be treated with dignity, respect, and consideration.
You have adhered to any and all additional requirements set by the administrator for registration with this site.
You agree to waive any and all claims against the ABA, the firm which created the program, administrating entities and federal administrators and officers, from any and all claims, losses and liability relating to use of the Website.
ABA Federal