LegalMatch

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Legal Match.com Logo
Legal Match.com Logo

LegalMatch is a private U.S. corporation established in 1999 as a free, online legal matching service to help individuals and small businesses find prescreened local lawyers & attorneys build their legal practice. LegalMatch has satellite sales offices in Los Angeles, CA & Austin, TX. LegalMatch has approximately 80 employees and operates in all 50 United States. LegalMatch pioneered the Online Legal Matching Industry.


Contents

[edit] How LegalMatch works

People come to LegalMatch because they need help finding an attorney for their legal problems. LegalMatch addresses all areas of law, including family law, criminal law, real estate, bankruptcy, personal injury, immigration, and intellectual property. Annual membership fees for attorneys run from $2,400 to $100,000, depending on the type of law they practice and their location. Users looking for a lawyer pay and they're under no obligation to hire an attorney. People interested in finding a lawyer follow three steps:

  1. Clients present their case: People begin by confidentially answering questions online at the LegalMatch website. The case intake questions are designed by attorneys to guide the user through the process, just as a lawyer would during an initial consultation.
  2. The client's case is then matched with lawyers: Immediately after the case is presented, an instant e-mail notification is sent to all lawyers in the specific practice area and geographic location. Lawyers review the case information but are not shown the client's identity. Lawyers decide which cases interest them and send a response to the client.
  3. Clients pick the right lawyer based on the responses: All lawyers who respond include a personal message to the client detailing their relevant legal experience, fee structure, and how they can help. The client can review each lawyer's profile for his or her specific legal experience, practice areas, ratings, fees, and educational and professional affiliations. Then the client contacts as many or as few lawyers as they feel will best help their case.

[edit] LegalMatch LegalCenter

The LegalMatch LegalCenter is a legal resource for consumers. It includes a law library, legal tips, legal forums, legal blogs, and a newsletter. All of these sections allow people to find out more information about their legal problems.

The focal point of the LegalCenter is the Law Library, which maintains over 3000 articles on a variety of legal topics. All articles are written specifically for the average person with a legal problem.

[edit] LegalMatch vs Casepost

For quite some time, LegalMatch has been in litigation with a competing company named CasePost. In 2004, Dmitri Shubov, the founder and then CEO of LegalMatch, plead guilty to illegally accessing the voicemail system of Casepost and was subsequently fined $5000, sentenced to two years probation. LegalMatch and CasePost then settled their fight and issued a joint press release to that effect. As he was indicted, Shubov resigned as CEO in May of 2004. Donny Randal (Randy) Wells was appointed as the interim CEO of LegalMatch. In June of 2005 Wells was fired from LegalMatch and was replaced by Laurie Ziffrin. On August 1, 2005, Wells joined CasePost as their new CEO.

LegalMatch sued Casepost in January 2006 alleging they recruited LegalMatch's employees and stole trade secrets.

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