BookLawyer, a free legal information site for people and small businesses, recently launched its new website, BookLawyer.com. BookLawyer provides easy-to-understand explanations of thousands of legal topics, ranging from child custody to landlord-tenant issues to disputes with neighbors.
One major area of interest on the BookLawyer site are topics surrounding divorce and child custody. In America, there is a divorce every 42 seconds. As divorce becomes commonplace, more and more couples need to hire lawyers to handle the complex proceedings, but most people simply cannot afford the representation that they need.
To make matters worse, the divorce itself is often only the beginning of couples’ legal needs. The average first marriage that ends in divorce lasts about eight years, and within that time frame, many couples decide to begin a family, adding the question of child care and custody to the process of separating.
Legal issues around custody and parenting also plague many individuals outside of divorce proceedings. 50% of single mothers were never married, to begin with, but may encounter legal hurdles when it comes to their childrens’ wellbeing. Whether parents are divorced, separated, or never married, having children can lead to grueling custody battles and increase the likelihood of legal issues involving child support. However, the modern solutions from BookLawyer allow people to find legal representation in their area and receive answers to their questions from experienced lawyers online. And when people represent themselves in court—as at least one party does in almost 90% of family law matters pending in courts across the country—they can search BookLawyer’s databases of court opinions and statutes that apply in their state.
In addition to legal issues regarding marriage and child custody, more Americans face lawsuits with employers than ever before. In light of COVID-19 and the Great Resignation, there has been a steep increase in class actions for workplace problems, as shown by the law firm Seyfarth Shaw’s 2021 Workplace Class Action Litigation Report.
Employees in every sector are seeking legal action against their employers. In some industries, workers allege that COVID-19 has led to workplace safety violations. Furthermore, they are also filing more retaliation claims related to speaking up about such workplace safety violations, sparking legal questions over protections for whistleblowers.
As workers are laid off, furloughed, or facing a reduction in hours, they desperately need legal information and representation. BookLawyer allows people to post legal questions anonymously and receive expert answers from one or more lawyers.
“At BookLawyer, we’re passionate about making the law accessible to all in a meaningful way,” said the site’s founder, Neal Nagely. “Because whether you consider yourself rich or poor, or somewhere in between, some of life’s most important decisions are legal decisions.”
Recent statistics show that 96% of people seeking legal advice start their search online. Making an analogy to the widespread use of medical information sites, Nagely explained that “most people who use Healthline® or WebMD® for medical information do not expect to heal themselves or act as their own medical doctor. But people with certain symptoms or a recent diagnosis often want to be better informed about their health condition for their own peace of mind—and want to be able to ask better questions when they do see their doctor.”
“Similarly, people want to be better informed about their legal situation before talking to a lawyer—and they may need help determining what kind of lawyer they should talk to,” Nagely added. “BookLawyer helps people find this information at any time, day or night. And best of all, it is free of charge.”
Nagely spent ten years practicing law in Dallas at both small and large law firms and met many people who could not afford to pay a lawyer for answers to their legal questions—or who were uncertain about how to find the right lawyer for their legal problem. Today, 80-86% of civil (non-criminal) legal needs of middle-to-lower-income people are not met. Recent statistics show that 87% of American households with legal problems do not seek assistance. And every year, more than 7 million small businesses do not seek a lawyer when facing a significant legal event.
Nagely explained how BookLawyer’s platform creates a win-win situation for contributors by connecting legal experts to the people who need them most. “With BookLawyer, a lawyer who has some experience and is seeking greater flexibility in her work schedule can open her own law firm or legal consulting practice and market it from the comfort of her home by publishing content on the BookLawyer site and answering questions posted by potential clients.”
With BookLawyer, people can find answers to critical legal questions directly from lawyers themselves. In addition, lawyers can leverage the power of BookLawyer to protect their clients’ interests while demonstrating their knowledge to potential clients using tools such as Quick Summaries and the Ask a Lawyer feature.
