Request a Consultation

Request a Consultation

Before requesting a consultation please read through Our Services page. Please do not fill out the form to request notary services, which are only offered during SLS walk-in hours during the school year.

If you are trying to break your lease, you must read our information on lease breaking before filling out the consultation request. The information included is comprehensive and few students fall into one of the categories for legal lease breaking. 

As a reminder, we cannot assist with entrepreneurial matters. 

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. 

Eligibility

The office is funded through the Student Activity Fee Fund. Only University of Virginia students who have paid the student activity fee are eligible for legal services (including undergraduate, graduate and professional students). Students in the School for Continuing and Professional Studies do not pay the student activities fee in full and must pay a $50 fee to access our services. 

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.

Intake Form 

Please Note

SLS cannot represent or advise on the following: 
1) Issues against another student, the University of Virginia, or the state of Virginia (criminal matters do not fall within the above listed conflicts);
2) UVA policies or procedures;
3) UJC, Honor Council, or Dean of Students inquiries;
4) Matters outside of the state of Virginia.