Request a Consultation

Before requesting a consultation please read through Our Services page.

What to Expect

Free consultations can be in-person, virtual, or by phone and you can indicate your preference on the form. You will meet with the attorney for 30 min to an hour, during which time you and the attorney will identify the issue you are dealing with and make a plan together that can involve the attorney advising you and/or representing you in court. Please refer to our Fee schedule to determine costs beyond the consultation. 

Eligibility

The office is funded through the Student Activity Fee Fund and client fees. Only University of Virginia students who have paid the student activity fee, or partial fee University of Virginia students in degree granting programs who have not paid the student activity fee but who pay a $10 initial consultation fee, are eligible for legal services. 

How to Schedule a Consultation

Please fill out an intake form and we will call you within 1-2 business days to schedule a consultation. Consider looking at the Our Services page to make sure the issue you are requesting a consultation for is one for which we can actually provide assistance. We may be able to refer you to a local attorney if we do not cover the issue, but we cannot guarantee that we can. 

Confidentiality

We understand how important your legal matter is to you and that you need to discuss the matter with us privately without worrying about judgment or about others knowing about your legal issue. We will not discuss your case with your parents, friends, spouses, or the University of Virginia, without your written consent. You should feel free to discuss with us all aspects of your legal matter so that we can help you to the fullest extent.

Document & Consultation Etiquette

Please remember that the first consultation, which is to determine if you have a legal issue and what your next steps should be, is free. Therefore, the attorney may have many consultations throughout a given day. If you submit many pages of documents, the attorney may not have been able to review all the pages before your consultation. Keeping that in mind, please follow the following document and consultation etiquette:

1) Submit only those documents that are directly related to your issue (e.g. a lease, traffic/criminal summons or warrant, email communication with a landlord ONLY about the specific legal dispute, etc.);

2) Submit documents as one pdf file whenever possible, with any communications like screenshotted text messages and emails placed in chronological order;

3) Do not answer the attorney’s question during the consultation by referring the attorney back to your submitted documents (e.g. “it said it in the files I sent”). It is likely that you can provide an answer much more quickly than the attorney can find the answer to the question in the documents since you are the one most familiar with your legal issue; and

4) Keep in mind that while the attorney may have read all your submitted documents, it is possible that the attorney may need to be reminded of the details that they are asking you about.

The attorney will let you know if they need to see any additional documentation during the consultation.