Justice Connect Answers Client User Agreement
Updated 31 May 2024
What you need to know to use Justice Connect Answers
Justice Connect Answers (JCA) is a free online legal advice service run by Justice Connect which provides users (you) with answers to simple legal questions on a limited range of topics.
This your obligations as a user of JCA and JCA’s obligations to you. It also explains when and how you can access help through JCA.
This agreement applies to all services received on JCA on or after 31 May 2024. For any service received before this date, please refer to the
Who can use Justice Connect Answers?
You can use JCA if all of these are true for you:
- Income: your gross personal income is $100,000 per year (plus $7,500 per dependent) or less
- Unrepresented: you don’t already have a lawyer to help you with your legal problem
- Age: you are aged 18 years or older
- Area of law: you have a non-urgent legal question that is related to an area of law that our lawyers can help with
Whether JCA can help you also depends on some additional factors:
- Conflicts of interest: a conflict of interest arises where Justice Connect has access to information which would prevent us from acting in the best interest of you or other clients.
- Capacity: as a free service, we rely on volunteer lawyers. This means in order for your question to be answered there must be a volunteer available with the relevant expertise.
- Other reasons: sometimes our ethical and professional obligations may mean we cannot help.
Our lawyers can answer questions related to the following areas of law:
- Housing and homelessness (advising tenants, not landlords)
- Financial issues
- Work and employment (advising employees, not employers)
- Personal rights and safety
- Reviewing Government decisions
- Fines and Infringements
- Other - Contracts
You can use JCA to ask three different legal questions per year. Each time you use the service you must meet the rules outlined above.
When we can't help?
We can’t help you if your question relates to any of the following areas of law:
- Criminal law
- Family law
- Intervention orders
- Internal disputes of organisations
- Commercial matters
- Migration law
- Guardianship
- Wills
JCA Lawyers do not provide urgent or ongoing advice or representation in court. If you need a lawyer to assist you with an ongoing or complicated legal problem, you can apply for help via Justice Connect’s website, here: Get help – Justice Connect - Apply for free legal help
If you don't meet any of the above criteria, or if Justice Connect Answers is unable to assist you, you can read about other places to find help on our website, here: Other Places to Find Help.
Justice Connect do not need to provide a reason if we are unable to assist you.
Important timeframes
- Responding to a lawyer’s request: If a JCA Lawyer requests more information from you or asks you to upload a document relevant to your legal question, you will have 10 days to respond with the additional information. If you do not provide a response after 10 days, your question will be closed.
- Questions active for 30 days: Not all questions asked on JCA will be answered. Your question will stay active for 30 days. If no lawyer has answered your question after 30 days, your question will close automatically. If no one is available to help answer your question, we will get in touch with you.
Important note on meeting your legal deadlines
JCA is not suitable for urgent legal questions. A JCA Lawyer may not respond to you in time to allow you to meet a deadline. If you have a deadline to meet, we recommend you continue to look for another lawyer to assist you while you wait for a response to your question.
Justice Connect is not liable if you miss a deadline or important legal date.
About the Justice Connect Answers lawyers
JCA Lawyers are employed by legal practices other than Justice Connect and volunteer their time to work with Justice Connect.
JCA lawyers will not:
- email you an answer or contact you outside of the JCA platform
- make calls for you
- file papers for you
- go to meetings for you
- go to court for you
- sign documents for you
- send emails for you
- do any other work beyond providing an answer to your question
- share their full name with you.
Ending our Service
When the JCA Lawyer is finished answering your question, they are no longer your lawyer.
We may notify you in writing that we are ending our service with you if:
- a conflict of interest arises
- we become aware that information provided is false or misleading
- we are unable to get in contact with you
- your matter involves assistance beyond what we have agreed to provide
- you do not communicate with Justice Connect staff or volunteer lawyers in a polite and appropriate manner
You may end our service by notifying us orally or in writing.
Lawyers’ professional rules and you - Conflicts of interest, disclosure, consent and information barriers
If we assist you, we will not accept a subsequent application for assistance in a related matter if this would be against your interests, unless we obtain your prior informed consent.
At Justice Connect we have an “information barrier” in place to separate this service from questions asked as part of Justice Connect Answers on or before 30 May 2024. By using our services, you agree that:
- Justice Connect can use arrangements to prevent the flow of information between our services, to help us assist as many people as possible, while also protecting your confidential information. These arrangements are called information barriers.
- Justice Connect and JCA Lawyers can sometimes give advice to different people who have the same or related legal problem.
- You acknowledge that Justice Connect and JCA Lawyers’ duty of disclosure does not extend to any confidential information held within a Justice Connect information barrier.
- Justice Connect and JCA Lawyers are not obliged to tell you if they hold confidential information that they have received from helping other people who have been assisted within an information barrier and will not give you this confidential information.
- Justice Connect and JCA Lawyers’ will not give your confidential information to another user or client without your consent.
We keep what you say confidential
We will maintain privacy and confidentiality unless we are required by law to disclose something.
We keep records of:
- What kind of legal problem you had
- The details of the parties involved in your legal problem
- What the lawyer told you
- Which state you live in
- Where you went on our website
- Information used to determine eligibility for the service
- All other information you give us
We keep your information because we are required by law to keep it. Justice Connect is legally required to retain your information and records of your service for 7 years from the date your question is answered, after which time it may be destroyed without further notice to you. We will never sell your information.
By proceeding you acknowledge that sometimes we may use your information for the purposes of gathering statistics to improve how Justice Connect operates to meet its purpose. We may also prepare, share and/or publish a de-identified summary of your matter for use in:
- advocating for law and policy reform
- advocating for changes to practices to help individuals to access justice
- analysing and evaluating our service
- publications
We will only share your information if a judge orders us to do so or where we are required to respond to a complaint about the service you receive. Third party contractors, such as IT contractors, may see your information. They are required to keep all your information private. Lawyers that are registered to use JCA can see your question while it is waiting to be answered and they will not disclose this information.
In some cases, we will be approached with applications from two parties in a related matter, even if they are acting against each other or their interests are not aligned. In that case, we will maintain confidentiality and will not disclose any information we obtain from either party to the other.
Compliments, feedback, or complaints
Your feedback and experience of using JCA is important to us. If you have any concerns about the service, please contact us immediately at answers@justiceconnect.org.au.
You can make a complaint in writing to answers@justiceconnect.org.au.
Please include the date you asked your question, the subject of your legal question, and a summary of your feedback or complaint.
If you cannot make a complaint in writing, please call us on 1800 727 550 and ask to speak to the Justice Connect Answers complaints officer.
You can read our full complaints and appeals policy here: Our Complaints and Appeals Policy – Justice Connect.
By using this website:
- You acknowledge that you have read this statement and understand and agree to the above rules
- You agree to tell the truth and give all the information you know about your legal problem
- You agree to post only three separate legal questions per year
- You have read and accept our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer
- You authorise Justice Connect to use your information for the purposes of gathering statistics and preparing, sharing and/or publishing a de-identified summary of your matter for Justice Connect to use in advocacy works, publications, or to analyse or evaluate our service. You understand that you can withdraw this authorisation at any time by contacting Justice Connect at answers@justiceconnect.org.au.
