None, however, turned into paying clients. Though Brown doesn t discount the value of such services for some solo and small-firm practitioners, he became skeptical. They require potential clients to post descriptions of their legal problem on the site. The services claim to screen illegitimate queries through an intake process requiring prospective clients to wade through pages of questions. Once the questionnaires are completed, the services alert registered lawyers via e-mail.
Attorneys then try to match up with clients by providing fee quotes and other information.
When they debuted, most online legal matching services were free to lawyers. Now many, if not all, charge lawyers subscription fees ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand. East Greenwich, R.I., solo Patricia Joyce thinks not. Like Brown, she saw them as another way to gain exposure, so she registered with several. She, too, received many leads.