Missouri.FreeLegalAnswers.org

Frequently Asked Questions

Use the drop-down buttons to learn more about how Missouri.FreeLegalAnswers.org works.

This site is not a lawyer referral service. It is a forum to post specific questions regarding your legal issue. The volunteer lawyers cannot call you, provide consultation, or represent you in court. If you are in need of other legal resources or are looking for an attorney to hire, then you may want to review the legal resource list at https://missouri.freelegalanswers.org/OtherHelp.

You cannot utilize this site if you already have a lawyer representing you. Volunteer lawyers have certain ethical rules which prohibit them from communicating with parties that are already represented by an attorney.

Our volunteer lawyers can only answer questions related to civil legal issues. Legal issues that include a ticket, a potential fine, potential jail time, or other similar consequences imposed by a local, county, or statewide police department are not civil legal issues and cannot be addressed by the volunteer lawyers in this forum.

Questions can be marked as closed for multiple reasons:

  1. The lawyer who responded marked the question as closed when they finished responding;
  2. The site administrator had to close the question and posted a message stating why it was closed;
  3. You never responded to the answer or information that the lawyer provided, so the question automatically closed.

Please remember, you cannot ask more than one question per legal area, so please do not re-post the same question multiple times to the general question queue or it will be closed by the site administrator.

Each user may only ask three (3) total questions per year and each one must be on a different legal issue. See our page for other places to find help at https://missouri.freelegalanswers.org/OtherHelp and resources that might be able to assist you.

You may email the site administrator at freelegalanswers@mobar.org with questions about using the site. The site administrator will not respond to requests for legal help.

There are volunteer lawyers who respond to questions posted on the site. These volunteers select which questions they are comfortable responding to. The process for them to review and select questions may take several days or longer as it is based on their time availability and preferences.

In some cases, the question may ultimately not be selected by a volunteer to answer. To better ensure that your submitted question is answered be certain that you have asked a specific legal question about your civil matter. Understand that asking a very broad question such as, “How do I handle an upcoming hearing on my own?” or  “Can you help me?”  or “What can I do?” is much too broad for an attorney to respond to, and thus your question will most likely not be answered.

You may review your submitted question and add additional information to ensure that you have asked a specific legal question about your civil matter. Or, you may withdraw your question entirely and resubmit a question that is more specific.

No, the question that you submit must pertain to your legal issue. If a question is asked on behalf of a family member, friend, or anyone other than the person who registered through Missouri Free Legal Answers and has the legal issue, then that question will be closed.

Yes, the volunteer lawyers must reasonably determine that in responding to a question, they are not creating a conflict of interest. By providing the name of the person you have a legal dispute with, you are assisting the lawyer in making this determination. A lawyer can’t knowingly help both sides of a legal issue or a case.

For example, they can help either a renter or the renter’s landlord in a dispute, but they can’t knowingly help both sides of the same dispute. It’s possible that the lawyer’s law firm or office they work for may be helping the other side in your case and the lawyer answering your question may not know it.

If the lawyer does know that they or their firm are helping the other side of your dispute, they can’t answer your question.

Question tips for clients

Do:

When writing about your problem, don’t forget to include the specific question you’d like the lawyer to answer.

You only have 500 words. Outline the facts of your situation, and then ask a specific question that you want a lawyer to answer.

Our lawyers want to make sure they don’t know the person you’re talking about. Include the name of the person/company in the “Opposing Parties” section.

But make sure they are real deadlines – if you don’t have an upcoming deadline, just leave that box blank.

Photos and papers can show lawyers exactly what you’re asking about. You can even take a photo of a paper and upload it.

A lawyer may need you to answer more questions, so be sure to check your email.

Don’t:

Our lawyers can only help with non-criminal legal issues.

Lawyers can only communicate through the online portal.

If you just ask for a pro bono lawyer or a referral to a lawyer, we’ll have to close the question because that isn’t a legal question.

It’s hard to read a question written in all caps and our lawyers may not be able to answer you.

You’ll get an email when someone answers your question. Don’t forget to come back to see the answer.

Please keep this information confidential if at all possible.