Australian legal chat room serves 1,000 clients in just four months

A free online legal advice platform launched in South Australia has taken off, providing legal advice to more than 1,000 users since October last year.

Legal Chat is the first venture of its kind in Australia, offering real-time consultations with lawyers to members of the public via a chat room-style online platform. Since the initiative was launched by the Legal Services Commission of South Australia last year, Legal Chat lawyers have provided advice to more than 600 member of the public on civil matters such as fencing disputes, tenancy disagreements and wills and estates. A further 200 users have received advice on family law matters while another 200 have sought advice on matters relating to criminal law, predominantly traffic offenses. Rural access The Legal Chat platform was launched as an initiative to combat the lower-access to legal services in Australia's rural areas. Previously, limited access to physical consultations with lawyers in country towns left the Legal Services Commission's phone advice line overwhelmed by calls, with 80,000 callers registered in 2015 alone. According to Commission director Gabrielle Canny, 79 per cent of Legal Chat users say that they prefer to seek legal advice online than on the phone, in many cases due to the extra privacy afforded in workplaces and public spaces. Source: The Australasian Lawyer