Frequently Asked Questions from Volunteer Attorneys

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Who administers the AZ Free Legal Answers site?

AZ Free Legal Answers is administered by the Arizona Bar Foundation. Contact Arizona's site administrator at Chris.Groninger@azflse.org with questions about AZ Free Legal Answers or how to use the site.

How does AZ Free Legal Answers work?

AZ Free Legal Answers is modeled on walk-in clinics or dial-a-lawyer programs where clients request brief advice and counsel about a specific civil legal issue from a volunteer lawyer. Volunteer attorneys provide information and general legal advice by answering legal questions, without any expectation of long-term representation.

Users who meet eligibility (see Eligibility below) sign the use agreement, create a password, post a request for legal advice or information, and provide facts about their case that will help the lawyer answer the question. Users will be asked to select a category (such as “housing” or “debt”) that best describes the subject of their question. Using the Free Legal Answers platform, the lawyer may ask for additional information before responding to the user’s request, but the user will have a choice to respond to that request or not. Users' name and county, but no other identifying information, will be shared with the volunteer lawyer unless the user includes it in their question narrative. Users are informed that there is no guarantee that a question will be answered. If a question is not answered within 30 days, the user will receive an email from the website administrator instructing them to seek assistance elsewhere. The user will also be provided with a list of additional resources.

Lawyers who would like to participate must create a password, provide contact information and their Arizona Bar number, sign the lawyer use agreement, and request approval from the website administrator. Before the lawyer’s account is activated, the website administrator checks to ensure the lawyer is licensed in Arizona and is in good standing with the State Bar of Arizona. Once a lawyer has been approved by the website administrator, the lawyer receives an email notification and can begin answering user questions.

Lawyers may log in at any time to review a list of user questions and select the one(s) they want to answer. Lawyers will use the categories provided by the user (such as “housing” or “debt”) to help determine which questions they would like to answer. A lawyer will have the opportunity to read the full question before deciding to take it from the list and answer it. Once a lawyer takes a question from the list, the lawyer has 3 days to provide, at minimum, one answer to the question. Lawyers will be allowed to ask follow up questions if they need additional information in order to answer the user’s question. The lawyer’s identity is not revealed to the user unless the lawyer decides to do so. Once a lawyer answers a question, the user will be sent an email to alert them they have a response waiting.

Lawyers will be able to view a log of questions they have answered.

Who is eligible to use AZ Free Legal Answers?

Eligibility for use of AZ Free Legal Answers is limited to the following:

• The user must have household income less than 250% of the federal poverty level;
• The user may not have liquid assets exceeding $10,000 in value (this includes 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.
• The user must be 18 years of age or older.

Users must provide their name, county, and zip code in order to request advice.

Users agree to post no more than 5 legal questions per year. They can follow-up with an attorney on each question as many times as the attorney and user choose to do so.

Will I earn CLE credit?

Lawyers may earn CLE credit for time spent researching and answering questions. Lawyers keep up with their time and report it in the AZ Free Legal Answers system before logging out of each session (in tenths of an hour). Lawyers may earn up to 1 hour of CLE credit for every five hours of pro bono provided, with an annual limit of 5 hours. See Rule 45, Ariz. R. Sup. Ct. for more information.

What kinds of lawyers should participate?

All lawyers are welcome! While there are certain types of legal questions that regularly come up at legal clinics, we need lawyers with different areas of expertise and practice to volunteer. We hope the website will appeal to lawyers who want to give back but have been unable to participate in traditional pro bono work due to family obligations, schedule or geographic location. We also hope to engage lawyers who already provide pro bono and are willing to give more of their time to those who need it.

What happens if a lawyer cannot answer a user’s question?

A lawyer might be unable to answer a user’s question for a number of reasons. Some examples might be a conflict of interest, user’s failure to respond to lawyer requests for additional information, or the question is determined to fall outside the lawyer’s area of expertise. If a lawyer determines that they cannot answer a question, the lawyer may place the question back into the queue so that another volunteer lawyer may try to assist the user. If a lawyer takes a question and doesn't respond within 3 days, the question will automatically return to open questions queue.

What type of relationship exists between the user and lawyer?

When a user submits a question and receives an answer from a lawyer, there will be a lawyer/client relationship formed between that user and the lawyer who responds. That relationship, however, will be limited in scope and duration as described in the use agreements for both users and lawyers. 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. Both the eligible users and lawyers must consent to the limited nature of this relationship both as to scope and duration as indicated when they accept the terms of the use agreement. Eligible users and lawyers who do not accept the terms of the use agreement will not be allowed access to the site. Attorneys who wish to extend their attorney client relationship outside of the system may do so by negotiation a separate agreement independent of this program.

There is no attorney/client relationship between the client and the programs affiliated with this system.

How do lawyers check for conflicts of interest?

Under Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct, ERs  1.2(c) and 6.5,  and because of the pro bono publico nature of the limited scope representation provided through AZ Free Legal Answers; the only conflicts of interest that would preclude a lawyer from answering a question for an eligible user of AZ Free Legal Answers are conflicts of interest that the lawyer actually knows of at the time that they view 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 user’s name will be provided to the lawyer so that the lawyer can make sure not to answer the question if the lawyer knows that they would have a conflict of interest. However, it is a best practice and is recommended that attorneys complete a conflicts check before answering questions.

What about professional liability insurance coverage?

Volunteer lawyers who provide brief advice and counsel via the website will be covered by professional liability insurance maintained by American Bar Association.

Is there a confidentiality issue with client information/lawyer advice being housed on the internet?

This site is designed to insure client privacy. Since the web program is administered through a platform that limits access based on a screening, confidentiality will be maintained since only the website administrator has access to content between a client and a lawyer. Information available to the website administrator and the lawyer responding to a client request shall remain confidential, subject to the limitations of the Privacy/Confidentiality Policy. However, client requests for information and the response of the lawyers participating in AZ Free 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 administrator, but an absolute guarantee of security is not possible when using the internet and internet based systems.

For each visitor to the Webpage 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 the 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.

Navigating the Website and Selecting Questions to Answer

When your account has been approved by the state site administrator, you will receive a notification email. To get started, go to az.freelegalanswers.org and select “Sign In” at the top right side of the screen. Enter your username (email address) and password to access all questions submitted by users seeking answers from lawyers.

Questions submitted through Free Legal Answers are coded by flags. These flags indicate how long each question has been in the queue. Questions with red-outline flags are those that have been posted for more than 10 days. Questions with filled-in red flags have been in the queue for at least 25 days and will be withdrawn if no lawyer is able to answer them. Questions that are not answered within 30 days will be withdrawn with notice sent to the user. 

There are three ways to view questions in the queue:

1. All questions in the queue - this is the default view
2. Questions in the queue for 25 days or longer - click on the “Importance” option under the "Sort" button
3. Questions by legal category - click on the “Filter” button 
4. Questions you have taken to answer - click "Home" on the menu bar to view questions in your personal queue.

The client is asked to use the Subject line to tell you, in their own words, what the question is about (for example, eviction, divorce, bankruptcy, etc.). The Category and Subject functions are tools to help lawyers quickly decide which questions they would like to review and answer.

Selecting Questions You Want to Answer

You can read the first few lines of each posted question by clicking the "Preview" button. If you decide you want to see more details of the question, click the subject to be taken to the question detail page. When you have found a question you’d like to answer, click the “I want to answer this question” button on the bottom of the question detail page. If you eventually decide you do not want to take a question you can click the "I want to return this question" to send it back to the full queue. You can also decide if you want to answer a question immediately by clicking "Answer Now" or answer the question later by clicking "Answer Later." Please respond within 3 days of taking a question. If you fail to respond within 3 days, the question will be moved back into the queue.

Once you have taken the question, you will be able to reply to the client and provide an answer or ask follow up questions. The client will not know your identity unless you choose to provide it. If you ask the client a question, you will receive an email when the client responds and a prompt to log back into the website to respond.

How Do I Subscribe to a Category?

If your area of practice is specialized and you only want to answer certain types of questions, you can subscribe to a category and receive an email notification each time a question in that particular category is posted.

To subscribe to a category (for example, immigration), click on the “Manage Subscriptions” tab at the top of the screen. Scroll down to the category you are interested in and click on the red circle. When the red circle changes to a check mark, you have successfully subscribed to that category. You may also choose where you want to get subscription emails. To change it from your username email, click on your email address next to the green check and enter a different email address. Click the save icon to save your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Entering Hours for CLE Credit

Each time you attempt to log out of the website, you will be prompted to enter the time you have spent researching and answering questions. You may log your time in tenth of an hour increments. You may view your hours at any time by clicking on “Log My Hours” from the menu.

How do I contact the administrator with a question?

If you have a question or run into a technical problem with the site, you may contact the AZ site administrator at Chris.Groninger@azflse.org.