Frequently Asked Questions from Volunteer Attorneys

Watch an instruction video for attorneys

Who is the administrator?

The Michigan state administrator is Robert Mathis, Pro Bono Service & Justice Initiatives Counsel at the State Bar of Michigan. Contact Robert by email at freelegalanswers@mail.michbar.org or by phone at 517-346-6396 with questions about using the site.

How does MI Free Legal Answers work?

MI Free Legal Answers is based on the walk-in clinic or dial-a-lawyer model where visitors request brief advice and counsel about a specific civil legal issue from a volunteer lawyer. Lawyers provide information and basic legal advice without any expectation of long-term representation. MI Free Legal Answers does not allow lawyers to provide advice in criminal matters.

Eligible, income-qualified visitors (see Eligibility below) sign the Use Agreement, create an account, and post a legal question. Visitors select a category (such as “housing” or “debt”) that best describes their question, and provide relevant facts about their legal issue, including photos or documents. The lawyer may ask for additional information before responding to the visitor’s request. Only a visitor’s name and county will be shared with the lawyer, but no personal information about the lawyer will be shared. If a question is not answered within 30 days, the website administrator will tell the visitor their question was not answered, and provide a list of other resources where the visitor can seek help.

Volunteer lawyers must create an account, provide their contact information and P-number, sign the Use Agreement for Lawyers, and watch a short (less than 10 minute) training video. Before the lawyer’s account is activated, the state administrator (State Bar of Michigan Staff) will verify the lawyer is a licensed member in good standing with the State Bar of Michigan. Once approved by the state administrator, the lawyer will receive an e-mail notification that the account is fully activated, and the lawyer can begin answering visitor questions.

Lawyers can log in at any time, from any location, to review the list of visitor questions, filter by legal topic area, and select the one(s) they want to answer. A lawyer will have the opportunity to read the full question before deciding to take it from the list and provide an answer. Once a lawyer takes a question from the list, the lawyer has 3 days to provide a response. Lawyers will be allowed to ask follow-up questions, or request additional information as needed to be sure the visitor’s question is answered. The lawyer’s identity is not revealed to the visitor.

Once a lawyer answers a question, the visitor can either accept the answer or send a follow up question to the lawyer. The lawyer should allow time for the visitor to send a follow-up question, before closing the question. The conversation can continue as long as necessary to fully answer the visitor’s question. Once the lawyer feels the question is fully answered, they may “close” the question and end the conversation. Once a conversation is closed, it cannot be reopened.

Visitors may only ask 3 questions per year, so please do not close a question until it is fully answered. Please also remember that the visitor may need help beyond your legal advice, so whenever appropriate, refer the visitor to self-help resources that can help them fully address their legal problem.

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

Who is eligible to use Mi.freelegalanswers.org?

Eligibility is limited to the following:

People with household income less than 200% of the federal poverty level
People with less than $5,000 in liquid assets (including checking and savings account balances, as well as the value of any stocks or bonds)
People who are not currently incarcerated
Only 3 questions per year, and only one question per legal topic

What kinds of lawyers should participate?

All Michigan-licensed 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 constraints, 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 I cannot answer a visitor’s question?

You may be unable to answer a visitor’s question for a number of reasons. There might be a conflict of interest, or the visitor fails to respond to your questions, or the question falls outside your area of expertise. If you cannot answer a question, place the question back into the queue so that another volunteer lawyer may answer it. If you take a question and do not respond within 3 days, the question will automatically return to open questions queue. However, questions unanswered within 30 days will be closed by the site administrator, so please do not hold on to questions that you cannot answer.

What type of relationship exists between me and the visitors of MI Free Legal Answers?

When a visitor submits a question and a lawyer provides an answer, a lawyer/client relationship is formed between that visitor and lawyer. This lawyer/client relationship is limited to providing an answer to the legal question within the MI Free Legal Answers website, and will not involve any continuing representation.

The lawyer will provide short-term, limited legal services to the visitor without expectation by either the lawyer or the visitor that the lawyer will provide continuing representation in the matter. Both the eligible visitors and lawyers consent to the limited nature of this relationship when they accept the terms of the use agreement and create an account. Eligible visitors and lawyers who do not accept the terms of the use agreement will not be allowed access to the site.

How do lawyers check for conflicts of interest?

Due to the pro bono, limited-scope representation provided through the MI Free Legal Answers website, the conflict of interest exception provided for in MRPC 6.6 applies. A lawyer may not answer a question if they know that doing so will create a conflict of interest.

What about professional liability insurance coverage?

Malpractice insurance coverage is provided at no cost to the lawyer by the American Bar Association, limited to liability for those claims made against you in relation to the legal guidance you provided on MI Free Legal Answers. If you receive notice of a claim, you must provide the ABA national 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.

How does MI Free Legal Answers ensure confidentiality?

This site is designed to ensure visitor privacy. The web program is administered via the internet through a secure platform that limits access, and only the lawyer, visitor, and website administration have access to the conversation between a visitor and a lawyer. Information available to the website administrator and the lawyer responding to a visitor request shall remain confidential, subject to the limitations of the Privacy/Confidentiality Policy included in the User and lawyer use agreement. However, visitor requests for information and the response of the lawyers participating in MI Free Legal Answers may be maintained in a database for review by site administration, to assess 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.

Aggregate information is collected on the pages visitors access or visit on this website.

The information collected is used to improve the content MI Free Legal Answers 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, you will receive a notification email. To get started, go to mi.freelegalanswers.org and select “Sign In” at the top right side of your screen. After you enter your username (which is your email address) and password, you will be directed to a page that lists all the questions that have been posted for lawyers to answer.

You will notice that the questions are coded by flags. These flags lets you know how long each question has been in the queue. Questions with red-outline flags are those that have been in the queue for more than 10 days and questions with filled-in red flags are questions that have been in the queue for at least 25 days and will soon be closed. Questions that are not answered within 30 days will be closed and the visitor will be notified.

There are four ways to view questions in the queue:

You can view a list of all the questions in the queue; this is the default view.
You can view a list of questions that have been in the queue for 25 days or longer by clicking on the “Importance” option under the "Sort" button.
You can view questions by legal categories by clicking on the “Filter” button.
You can easily view any question you have taken to answer by clicking "Home" on the menu and looking at questions in your personal queue.

The visitor is asked to use the Subject line to tell you, in their own words, what the question is about (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 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 decide you do not want to answer a question you have selected, click the "I want to return this question" to send it back to the 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 visitor and provide an answer or ask follow up questions. The visitor will not know your identity unless you choose to provide it. If you ask the visitor a question, you will receive an email when the visitor 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 your different email address. Click the save icon to save your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

How do I keep track of hours?

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 administrator by freelegalanswers@mail.michbar.org or calling 517-346-6396.

What Training is required?

To be eligible for the site, volunteer lawyers must watch a short (less than 10 minutes) training video, or participate in an on-site or virtual training.

What supervision or assistance is offered?

The Michigan site administrator will periodically review answers for training and quality assurance purposes. The first three questions answered by lawyers new to the program will be reviewed by the state administrator. If a lawyer needs assistance, they can reach the state administrator by e-mailing freelegalanswers@mail.michbar.org or calling 517-346-6396.