Purpose of JusticeReferrals.org.
No lawyer or organization can take on every meritorious case that they encounter. We at Civil Justice believe that the next best thing to providing someone with legal representation is connecting them with the right lawyer who can. But traditional referrals are fraught with uncertainty if a “cold referral” is made – when the referring lawyer points the potential client to a lawyer or resource and hopes for the best. Use of a “cold referral” means that none of the information gathered from the potential client is passed on to the next potential source of representation. Instead, the potential client must retell their story, without even an explanation for why the referral was made.
A “warm referral,” where calls and e-mails are made on behalf of the potential client to lawyers to attempt to secure representation, has a much greater chance of success, but can be time consuming. Warm referrals are superior to cold referrals because the client’s story can be gathered and told by the legal professionals making the referrals. Yet most legal professionals encounter difficulties making such referrals. They may not know which lawyers or organizations are able to take on a particular type of matter. Or they may not have the time to tell a story over and over again to various lawyers, seeking the one who is a good fit. Even if a warm referral is made, it is difficult to be certain that representation resulted from the referral, and performing the follow-up to confirm representation and track the status of a matter can be difficult for organizations or lawyers dealing with dozens of potential clients in a short time.
JusticeReferrals.org is a website that facilitates warm referrals by removing those barriers, allowing a streamlined and fast way to make a targeted warm referral.
A detailed description of how JusticeReferrals.org works can be found below.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How to Sign up for Membership.
Editing Member Profile.
Posting a Matter.
Describing the Case.
Uploading Relevant Documents.
Choosing the Practice Area and Geographic Scope.
Choosing Whether the Matter Should be Eligible for Low Bono Representation.
Choosing the Expression of Interest Period.
Automatic Management vs. Manual Management.
Choosing Notifications.
Narrowing the Field of Eligible Attorneys.
Notification of Posted Cases to Eligible Attorneys and Viewing Cases.
Checking for Conflicts Before Viewing Full Details.
Expressing Interest in Representation.
The Checking Out Process.
Updating the Status of Checked Out Matters.
Confirming Representation.
Tracking Placement Data.
How to Sign up for Membership.
JusticeReferrals.org is a password protected site open only to members. There is no fee to join. Members include attorneys working for Maryland legal services organizations and pro bono and reduced fee attorneys affiliated with and approved by a legal services organization. Prospective members that are either employees of Maryland legal service providers or affiliated with such an organization can fill out an application form here. Prospective members must also fill out the membership agreement, which is available here.
Prospective members provide their contact information and affiliations. They then select the counties in which they will handle cases and their practice areas.
The next screen will generate a list of ways to limit the types of cases JusticeReferrals.org will send to you for possible representation. If you want to see all cases in the practice area, simply leave the boxes blank and proceed to the next page. But these options allow lawyers who may have income guidelines for representation, restrictions on representing non-citizens, and other limiting factors to limit the cases that are sent to them. As explained below, when a potential matter is posted to JusticeReferals.org, the website gathers information such as household income and number of residents, legal status and the like, and JusticeReferrals.org will automatically filter out cases based on the preferences you select.
The first three options reflect three different possible income limitations; the Maryland Legal Services Corporation guidelines of 50% of the Maryland median income, a higher 70% threshold that some legal service providers use under certain circumstances, and Legal Aid’s general 125% of Federal Poverty threshold. Multiple limiting factors based on citizenship, age, homeownership and veteran status can be chosen, which is also the reason for the somewhat cumbersome phrasing. Remember, just leave all of the boxes unchecked to see the greatest number of potential matters; checking any box narrows the cases you will be shown.
Once your membership application is submitted, you must wait for approval through Civil Justice before your account will become active. Civil Justice will contact you by e-mail and ask you to send a completed membership agreement, which, if you haven’t already reviewed, is available here.
Editing Member Profile.
You can edit your profile at any time once your membership is approved. To update contact information, make sure you are logged into the website and then click on “My Account” under the Member Area tab in the upper right had corner. To change geographic area, practice areas or practice area specific limitations, click on “My Case Preferences” when logged in.
Posting a Matter.
Once your membership is approved, you are able to post potential matters onto JusticeReferrals.org. Please keep in mind that the greater detail that can be provided when posting a case, including gathering and uploading relevant documents, the more likely that representation will result from the effort. Furthermore, posting to the website should be limited to those cases where there appears to be merit.
The potential client must provide informed consent before the details of their matter are posted on JusticeReferrals.org. It is highly recommended, although not required, for a posting member to have any client whose matter is being posted on JusticeReferrals.org to sign an authorization/consent form (available here). If you are unable to obtain written consent, you must secure verbal informed consent after covering the subject matters addressed in the authorization/consent form.
To post a case, log into the website and navigate to “Post a Case” under the Member Area tab in the upper right hand corner
Fill out the basic biographical information regarding the client. Take care to list any opposing parties you know of; this is important for eligible members to perform conflicts checks before viewing the full information being posted. The demographic information, including household income, is important for determining the eligibility of the potential client for various free legal services programs in Maryland, so that is critical to include.
Describing the Case.
Perhaps the most critical field for posting any matter to JusticeReferrals.org, the “Description of Why Representation Needed” field is the opportunity for the posting member to tell the story of the potential client’s legal need.
Care should be given to avoiding unnecessary detail, but instead focus on telling as much of the story as is needed to show other members why the case is meritorious and how they can make a positive impact for the client by providing representation. There is no limit on the length of the explanation, but normally a few paragraphs is sufficient to capture the needed detail. Posting members should also consider making reference to important documents in this summary, which, as explained below, can be uploaded as part of the process of posting a case.
Uploading Relevant Documents.
A posting member can, and should, upload relevant documents regarding the potential representation. Simply drag the file and drop it into the box provided, or hit “Select Files” and navigate to the file on your computer.
In many situations, a brief review of the relevant documents can be critical to determining whether representation is possible, and we’ve found that the more relevant documents that can be included, the greater the chance that a member will express interest in providing representation.
Choosing the Practice Area and Geographic Scope.
Posting members will be asked to choose the county and subject matter of the proposed representation.
Once the practice area is chosen, additional questions relating to that practice area will appear. Filling out this additional information will potentially help secure representation.
Choosing Whether the Matter Should be Eligible for Low Bono Representation.
As explained later, when an eligible member of JusticeReferrals.org expresses interest in providing representation, they indicate the fee basis of their contemplated representation – contingency fee, pro bono or low bono (reduced fee). When posting a matter to JusticeReferrals.org, a posting member can indicate to eligible members whether they should express interest if the contemplated representation would be on a “low bono” basis by filling out this field.
Choosing the Expression of Interest Period.
The posting member can choose how long to leave the matter open for eligible members of JusticeReferrals.org to view and choose whether to express interest through the website in providing representation.
For many matters, two days is sufficient, and will keep things moving along while allowing members to view a matter when they can find the time over the next few days. However, the posting member can choose to go up to 12 days if they are finding that members are taking longer to review postings. In choosing, please remember that eligible members who do not view the matter within this period will not be able to express interest in providing representation through the website after the period expires.
Automatic Management vs. Manual Management.
The posting member can choose between “Automatic Management” and “Manual Management” of the case by JusticeReferrals.org.
“Automatic Management” can be chosen if the posting member does not want to communicate with the potential client further about referrals made through JusticeReferrals.org. If “Automatic Management” is chosen, JusticeReferrals.org will automatically choose among the members that express interest in providing representation which will have the matter “checked out,” allowing those members to directly contact the potential client and pursue potential representation. Please note that if “Automatic Management” is chosen, JusticeReferrals.org will e-mail the client directly regarding which members have the matter checked out, so the posting member must provide a valid e-mail address for the potential client in order to use “Automatic Management.” This option should not be chosen if the potential client does not have an e-mail address.
“Manual Management” allows the posting member more control and involvement in the process. After the expression of interest period expires, the posting member will be able to review which members expressed interest and choose which members should have the matter checked out to pursue representation with the potential client.
Choosing Notifications.
To allow the posting member to keep as involved as the posting member would like, the posting member can elect whether to receive automatic notifications when other members express interest in taking on the matter, when a matter is checked out, and when a member confirms representation.
If you want to limit the number of e-mail notifications from JusticeReferrals.org regarding the case, simply uncheck the boxes.
Narrowing the Field of Eligible Attorneys.
For the last step in posting a case, JusticeReferrals.org automatically generates a list of eligible members based on the criteria in the matter that is being posted, such as subject matter, county, income level and the like. The posting member can review the list and unselect any attorneys who, for any reason, the posting member does not wish to include in the list of eligible members who will be able to view the matter and express interest in representation.
Notification of Posted Cases to Eligible Attorneys and Viewing Cases.
Each eligible member of JusticeReferrals.org is automatically and immediately sent an e-mail notification when the matter is posted.
The member can access the case by either clicking the hyperlink in the e-mail notification when logged into their account, or navigating to “Browse Eligible Cases” under the membership tab when logged in.
Checking for Conflicts Before Viewing Full Details.
When clicking on a matter, an eligible member does not gain access to all of the details of the case until clicking “No Conflict of Interest.”
Initially, the eligible member can only view the details necessary to run a conflicts check – the name of the potential client, the potential client’s address, the opposing parties, the county of the matter and the practice area.
Once the eligible member clicks the “No Conflict of Interest” box, the full details of the matter can be viewed, and any uploaded documents can be accessed by clicking on them.
Expressing Interest in Representation.
After reviewing the details of a matter, if a member is not able or interested in pursuing representation, the member can simply navigate away from the matter on the website. It will no longer appear under “Browse Eligible Available Cases” once the expression of interest period expires.
If the member wishes to pursue potential representation, the member selects the fee basis that the member thinks they will be able to provide to the potential client and then clicks “I’m Interested In This Case.”
The Checking Out Process.
For those members who click “I’m Interested In This Case,” once the expression of interest period expires, the matter is checked out to up to three interested members, either automatically by the website (in “Automatic Management” cases), or manually by the posting member (in “Manual Management” cases). In “Manual Management” cases, the posting member will receive an e-mail every two days prompting the posting member to choose among the members who expressed interest in representation until they do so. Members may not contact the potential client until they have been notified through JusticeReferrals.org that they have the matter “checked out” and may pursue representation. Under Manual Management, the posting member can click the link in the e-mail or go to “My Posted Cases” under Member Area when logged in and select the case, then check the matter out to up to three members who expressed interest by checking the box next to their name and then selecting “Check Case Out.”
Members receive e-mail notification when a case has been checked out to them:
At this point, the member(s) with the case checked out can contact the potential client to explore potential representation.
Updating the Status of Checked Out Matters.
JusticeReferals.org will automatically send e-mail reminders to the members with the matter checked out every two days until the member confirms that they will provide representation, declines representation, or indicates that the member has scheduled an appointment with the client, in which case the e-mail notifications will resume after the appointment.
Members with matters checked out can update the status of the matter by clicking the link in the reminder e-mails when logged into JusticeReferrals.org, or navigating to Member Area – “My Interest or Checked-Out Cases” when logged into the website.
They can then select the relevant matter from the list of cases, and then update the status by either entering a consultation date or confirming or declining representation.
Confirming Representation.
If a member confirms representation, JusticeReferrals.org has completed its task. If all members with a case checked out decline representation and there are more members who expressed interest, JusticeReferrals.org will automatically check the matter out to up to three additional members who expressed interest (under the “Automatic Management” option) or prompt the posting member to check the matter out to up to thee additional members who expressed interest (under the “Manual Management” option). If every member that expressed interest declines representation, JusticeReferrals.org will inform the posting member or the potential client that it was unable to place the matter.
Tracking Placement Data.
Besides giving a potential client a great shot at representation, a large incentive for legal service providers to use JusticeReferrals.org is that the website can provide reports on the number of attempted and successful placements through JusticeReferrals.org for each of the legal service organizations. Those figures can show funders the great results from the hard work the legal service provider puts into gathering the documents and telling the story of the cases that are placed on JusticeReferrals.org.