Legal Professional FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions from Legal Professionals
To serve on our LRS roster, you must be a practicing member in good standing with either the Law Society of BC or the Society of Notaries Public of BC, or a legal service provider otherwise licensed to practice law in some way. It’s your responsibility to inform us if ever your practicing status lapses.
No, we don’t charge legal professionals any fees to be on our roster. We rely on you to provide free consultations to LRS users instead.
Our LRS Coordinators and Qase self-booking platform assess an LRS user’s particular legal needs, and then match their needs with preferences and settings listed in legal professional profiles, most notably their listed areas of practice and geographic location. As a second order of assignment, we distribute referrals on a rotational basis.
You’re only required to provide an initial consultation of 15 to 30 minutes for no charge. You may choose to provide some free legal advice during the consultation, though it’s not required. After the consultation, you may agree to charge the client based on the circumstances. This is not a pro bono program.
Yes, you can choose to receive client referrals from our LRS Coordinators or client online self-referrals or both. You’ll likely receive a higher number of referrals from our online self-booking system than from our LRS Coordinators, and an even higher number if you choose both.
You can adjust the frequency of client referrals in your legal professional profile; you can sign up for unlimited referrals, or limit the frequency to one or two per month or per week.
The more practice areas you list for service, and the larger your geographic community, the more referrals you’re likely to receive.
If you’re unable to provide a consultation to a referred client, you can simply decline the referral. There’s no obligation to accept every referral. If, however, you decline many more referrals than you accept, we reserve the right to limit the number of referrals we continue to send to you.
If the client chooses not to retain your services, there’s no further obligation on your part. The free consultation is mostly intended for both parties to assess whether they wish to work together on a paid solicitor-client basis.
Legal professionals on our roster aren’t required to provide any follow-up reports or updates on referred clients unless requested.
Further questions? Email us at lrs@accessprobono.ca