Legal Aid and Pro Bono Services: Can Free Advice Be Worth More Than You Paid for It?

There is an old saying that free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it. But is that true of legal advice? As with many legal questions, the answer may be, “Well, it depends.”

Legal advice and legal services provided by lawyers are expensive and many people and small businesses often lack affordable access to these resources. And in-office consultations with lawyers are often inconvenient, time-consuming, and sometimes expensive. 

These are some of the reasons why 80-86% of the civil (non-criminal) legal needs of lower-to-middle income people are not met and why 87% of American households with legal problems do not seek assistance. In addition, every year more than 7 million small businesses do not seek a lawyer when facing a significant legal event.

These statistics are sobering because some of life’s most important decisions are legal and most legal problems can be prevented or minimized with the right legal information and lawyer. 

Legal Aid and Pro Bono Services

One way to get cost-effective legal advice is through legal aid and pro bono services. Legal aid services are often provided at no cost or reduced cost by attorneys who work for nonprofit entities, and the attorneys are paid a modest salary by the nonprofit entity.

And pro bono legal services are services that are provided to a person or entity without any requirement or expectation of payment to the attorney for the services. These volunteer legal services are provided by lawyers—often through state bar associations and law school clinics—and are usually available only to persons who are unable to pay for the services and qualify as indigent based on their income.

BookLawyer to the Rescue

But if you don’t have access to legal aid services or don’t qualify for free (pro bono) legal services you may still be able to find answers to your legal questions and get some information directly from a lawyer. 

For example, BookLawyer includes detailed explanations of nearly 1,700 legal topics that you can browse by clicking on the Find the Law tab near the top of the site. And because most law is state-specific, BookLawyer provides state-specific short articles (Quick Summaries) written by lawyers. 

To learn more about your state’s laws, browse your state’s statutes on the BookLawyer site. If you still have a question, post it anonymously from the comfort of your home in our Ask a Lawyer forum and one or more lawyers may respond with an answer.

And if you need to find a lawyer in your state, city, or town who understands your legal issue, use the Find a Lawyer tool on the BookLawyer site.

So if you have a legal question or problem, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Someone, somewhere, has faced a similar legal problem and BookLawyer was there to help. At BookLawyer, we’re working hard to help you make some of life’s most important decisions.