Title 45—Public Welfare--Volume 1
PART 1638—RESTRICTION ON SOLICITATION
§ 1638.1   Purpose.
This part is designed to ensure that recipients and their employees do not solicit clients.
§ 1638.2   Definitions.
(a) Communicate or communication means to share information. Permissible forms of communication include, but are not limited to, sending information via mailings, text message, email, or other methods of voice or electronic communication.
(b) In-person means a face-to-face encounter, including virtual clinics or other encounters via videoconference.
(c) Unsolicited advice means advice to obtain counsel or take legal action given by a recipient or its employee to an individual who did not seek the advice and with whom the recipient does not have an attorney-client relationship.
§ 1638.3   Prohibition.
(a) Recipients and their employees shall not represent a client as a result of in-person unsolicited advice.
(b) Recipients and their employees shall not refer to other recipients individuals to whom they have given in-person unsolicited advice.
§ 1638.4   Permissible activities.
A recipient may:
(a) Communicate about legal rights and responsibilities or the recipient's services and intake procedures or provide the same information through community legal education activities. Recipients may engage in various activities including, but not limited to, outreach, public service announcements, maintaining an ongoing presence in a courthouse to provide advice, disseminating community legal education publications, and giving presentations to groups that request them.
(b) Communicate to parties in civil cases to notify them that a case has been filed against them; to inform them of upcoming court dates; to inform them that counsel may be available to represent them; and to provide information about intake.
(c) Represent an otherwise eligible individual requesting legal assistance from the recipient as a result of a communication or information provided as described in paragraph (a) of this section, provided that the request has not resulted from in-person unsolicited advice.
(d) Represent or refer clients pursuant to a statutory or private ombudsman program that provides investigatory and referral services and/or legal assistance on behalf of persons who are unable to seek assistance on their own, including institutionalized individuals or individuals living with a physical or mental disability.
(e) Represent an individual with whom the recipient initiated contact over the phone or via an electronic platform so long as the communication provides only generic information that is not tailored to the individual or the specific facts of the individual's legal issues.
§ 1638.5   Recipient policies.
Each recipient shall adopt written policies to implement the requirements of this part.