LegalMatch
Encyclopedia
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
established in 1999 as a free, online legal matching service to help people find prescreened local lawyers, and to help attorneys get leads matching their legal specialty. LegalMatch operates its legal matching service in all 50 United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. LegalMatch is based in San Francisco, CA and has additional offices in Austin, TX and Los Angeles, CA.
Operation
LegalMatch assists people who need to find an attorneyLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
for their legal problems, including family law
Family law
Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including:*the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;...
, criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
, real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
, bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
, personal injury
Personal injury
Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. The term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit alleging that the plaintiff's injury has been caused by the negligence of another, but also arises in defamation...
, immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, and intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
. LegalMatch charges attorneys membership fees to participate in the service and the lawyer search is free to users.
Clients answer questions online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
at the LegalMatch website to identify the type of service required, and relevant lawyers are notified. Later, the client is able to review responses from lawyers in order to decide which lawyer, if any, to contact.
LegalCenter
The LegalMatch LegalCenter is a legal resource for consumers. It includes a law library, legal tips, legal forums, legal blogs, and a newsletter. All of these sections allow people to find out more information about their legal problems.The focal point of the LegalCenter is the Law Library, which maintains over 4000 articles on a variety of legal topics. All articles are written specifically for the average person with a legal problem. In 2008, LegalMatch launched their Spanish case intake, allowing people to present their legal case in Spanish and receive responses from Spanish speaking lawyers.
FTC and State Bar Opinions On LegalMatch
There has been some controversy over whether LegalMatch is permitted to operate as an Online Attorney-Client MatchingAttorney-client matching
Attorney-Client Matching , which has sometimes been referred to as online legal matching, is a subset of legal advertising that allows participating attorneys to be matched with potential clients seeking legal representation. ACM websites allow users to submit their legal needs online by practice...
Service. To date, the State Bars of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas as well as the Rhode Island Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Panel and the Supreme Court of Ohio each have each announced favorable opinions on the use of LegalMatch within their jurisdictions.
In 2003, Utah replaced their traditional lawyer referral operation with LegalMatch’s Online Attorney-Client Matching for Utah citizens.
The FTC also favorably ruled for Online Legal Matching Services, which they found help consumers find legal representation, and have the potential to lower the costs of obtaining information about the price and quality of legal services.