subject: Standardizing Access To Justice By Connecting Lawyers To Clients [print this page] The Internet is fast becoming a norm for men and women from all corners of the globe for forging friendships or even permanent relationships.
Will they be able to produce the most appropriate lawyer for a specific case? Among many advocates, online legal matching services hold good financial prospects.
The difference between these new services and traditional services is that the former requires a more thought out process of determining matches.
Clients are provided online forms to fill out accurately so that their specific needs can be determined. To determine if the requests are worth handling, the contending lawyers then study the information provided them.
Many lawyers join legal matching outfits for certain fees because of the prospects of building their clientele. Matching businesses claim that they are not covered by federal and state ethics regulations because the clients are screened by the participating lawyers themselves and not by the companies.
Matching service should not be construed as referral service. They have no hand in choosing the lawyer for the client or vice versa. Every qualified lawyer who is registered with them is entitled be given copies of requests for legal services submitted to the company.
Do these services benefit both clients and lawyers? It may work in either way. While the fees may be somewhat heavy for some, the benefits are enough to compensate for them. Not all lawyers agree.
Not all requests are potential cases and so time used to meet with clients who don't need legal assistance is time lost for lawyers. High profile cases are not easy to handle, but enlisted lawyers who believe they can do it may call the client directly. With such arrangement, lawyers are given the opportunity to make a logical assessment of requests.
Thanks to the Internet, legal referral companies and matching services are just a click away. Side by side with the services, a parallel growth in the number of law practitioners who want to register is apparent.
What numbers can lawyers look to in terms of referrals and matches? The more people and development there are in an area, the more referrals there will be. Are cases matched to the proper lawyers? The companies have no clear way of knowing.
There are no definite records because the main task of the companies is to provide leads and not keep a close watch on what happens with the matches. While more progressive areas have bigger turnouts than less progressive ones, the companies must ensure that lawyers have a continuous supply of clients just the same.
There are different ways by which matching companies process their referral services. Blind matching is a practice employed by several companies wherein lawyers are unknown to clients as are clients to lawyers during the initial stages of screening to avoid biases.
After receiving the duly accomplished online requests from prospective clients, the company's staff sees to it that qualified lawyers are each given copies of the requests. The participating lawyers in turn evaluate the information and advise the company if they want the job.
It is now time for the clients to choose the lawyer they are looking for based on the information on the prospective lawyers sent to them by the service.
To entice lawyers, some companies propose some sort of commitment for annual fees of as low as $2,500 to as high as $25,000. This special deal gives lawyers enough time to recover whatever they paid for their initial fee from the clients assigned by the company before they can be bothered with their next billing.
Still other companies do it differently. Clients are given the chance to look at the list of prospective lawyers. They can be more honest about the information they provide because they can opt to be anonymous. Clients are then reassured that any information they give will be treated in strict confidentiality.
