Help-Seeker User Agreement

Updated 7 March 2023

What you need to know to use Justice Connect Answers

Justice Connect Answers is an online legal clinic run by Justice Connect. 

You can use this online legal clinic if all of these are true for you:

• Your gross personal income is below $75,000 per year (plus $7,500 per dependent)
• You don't already have a lawyer to help you with your legal problem
• You are aged 18 years or older
• You have a non-urgent legal question that is related to an area of law that our lawyers can answer

Areas of law that our lawyers can answer questions in are:

• 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)

We can't help you if your request 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

When completing the self-assessment for use of this service we rely on you to tell the truth. If you don't meet this criteria, please visit our other places to find help page to find out about other Justice Connect services that may be of assistance to you. 

You can use Justice Connect to ask 3 different legal questions per year. Each time you use the clinic you must meet the rules outlined above. 

What we offer

Justice Connect Answers is an online legal clinic to provide help-seekers (you) with once off advice on a limited range of topics. 

Justice Connect Answers lawyers do not provide urgent or ongoing advice or representation in court. 

If you need a lawyer to assist you with an ongoing legal problem, you can apply to us here.

Important timeframes

If a Justice Connect lawyer requests more information from you, you will have 10 days to provide the information. If you do not provide a response, your question will be closed after 10 days. 

Not all questions posted to the clinic are answered. Your question will stay active for 30 days. If no one has responded to you after 30 days, your question will be closed automatically. 

If no one is available to help answer your question, we will get in touch with you. 

Meeting a legal deadline you may have

A Justice Connect Answers lawyer may not respond to you in time to allow you to meet a deadline. We recommend you continue to look for another lawyer to assist you while you wait for a response to your question if you have a deadline to meet. 

Justice Connect is not liable if you miss a deadline or an important legal date. 

About the Justice Connect Answers lawyers

Justice Connect Answers lawyers are employed by legal practices other than Justice Connect and volunteer their time to work with Justice Connect on the clinic:

Justice Connect Answers lawyers will not:

• email you an answer
• make calls or file papers for you
• go to meetings for you
• go to court for you
• write letters or sign documents for you
• do any other work for you outside this clinic
• share their full name with you (it is a requirement that Justice Connect Answers lawyers remain anonymous). 

When the Justice Connect Answer lawyer is finished answering your question, they are no longer your lawyer. 

Lawyers' professional rules and you

Lawyers can't knowingly help both sides of a legal issue or a case. For example, they can't help both a renter and the renter's landlord in the same dispute. 

The law firm that the Justice Connect Answers lawyer works for may help the other side in your case and the lawyer answering your question may not know it. If the Justice Connect Answers lawyer does know that they are helping the other side of your dispute, they will not answer your question. 

What this means for you - disclosure, consent and waiver for information barriers

At Justice Connect we use "information barriers" to separate this clinic from other clinics offered by us. We do this to stop the exchange of confidential information and prevent conflicts of interest from occurring internally at Justice Connect. 

Justice Connect Answers Lawyers may be part of a firm or office where another lawyer in their workplace is helping the other side that you are in a legal dispute with. 

Before you use our clinic, it is important that you know that if you, or someone that you have a legal dispute with, has used our service before (an earlier matter), our duty of disclosure does not extend to that confidential information we hold from the earlier matter. If you proceed, we will take this as your consent to use the clinic on this basis. 

You agree that you:

• waive any entitlement you might have to confidential information Justice Connect or the lawyer's firm may hold from acting for another party. 
• the possession of your confidential information does not prevent Justice Connect or the lawyer's firm from acting for the other party. 
• consent to the use of information barriers to protect yours' and others' private information. 
• acknowledge that the Justice Connect Answers lawyer's firm cannot be prevented from acting on matters that conflict with your instructions. 

If you do not agree to the above, please do not use the clinic. 

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
• 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. Sometimes we may be able to use your de-identified information to help make our website better. We will never sell your information. 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 the clinic can see your question while it is waiting to be answered and they will not disclose this information. 

By proceeding you acknowledge that your de-identified information may be used by us and/or legal researchers to advocate for law reform to improve access to justice. 

Compliments, Feedback or Complaints

Your feedback and experience using the clinic is important to us. If you have any concerns about the service, please contact us immediately. Please include the date you asked your question, the subject of your legal question and a summary of your feedback or complaint. We will get back to you as soon as we can. 

By using this website:

• you acknowledge that you have read this statement and understood 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.