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I am looking for legal advice related to business. Are there any websites, groups, phonelines, etc within the US that provide free or very low cost legal reference advice?

I personally do most of my legal research, but often advice from legal subject matter experts is a huge time saver. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to be retaining formal legal advice.

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@downvoter: While I value your opinion, not commenting provides no way for me to address your concerns. Given that business of all types including startups face real legal challenges, and getting free low cost advice (as this site proves) is a great resource in many cases, it's clear why you gave the question a downvote - since in my opinion it's on topic, shows thought, and is likely of value to the startup community in general. Please comment if you reading this, or if someone else reading this sees an issue please comment. – blunders Jan 2 '12 at 3:24
@All: If you're reading this and don't see an issue, please upvote the question to remove the downvote. Thanks!! – blunders Jan 2 '12 at 3:25
If you want legal advice - go see an attorney. Trying to get cheap or free legal advice is just a bad idea. – TimJ♦ Jan 3 '12 at 19:36
@Tim: I disagree, in the end every business is responible for itself, and while professional advice is of value - it's often way over rated; case in point, on a legal matter two years ago, I knew more about the topic in a specialized legal domain than the average professional in that niche of law practice. I was very successful in dealing with the matter, and never hired a professional. More inporantly, the average consumer of legal services would have failed in engaging the matter in my opinion. I personally believe that paid legal advice is way over rated over the average consumer. – blunders Jan 3 '12 at 19:49
You are probably right in your cases. But I still think it is dangerous for most people to assume they can get good free or cheap legal advice. – TimJ♦ Jan 3 '12 at 20:34

1 Answer

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I have never used this website personally but Avvo.com might be what you are looking for:

http://www.avvo.com/

I have also used a local lawyer who gives a hour free consultation via the local SCORE office. You might be able to do the same. I plan on using this lawyer later on as well to make his time worth it.

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+1 @David: Awesome, thanks! In thinking about it, think I might even try finding legal experts in the topic I'm focused on, contact them being clear I'm looking for free advice, and clearly state the question I'm looking to find an answer for. SCORE seems like a great idea, and I'll take a look at Avvo.com. Again, thanks! – blunders Jan 2 '12 at 3:47
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Avvo.com is awesome. I use it all the time for legal advice. I've even started using it for medical questions, although I think they have more lawyers than doctors participating on the site. – user15389 Jan 3 '12 at 18:09
+1 @Lucy: Thanks for sharing your experience with Avvo.com, that's a huge help. Cheers! – blunders Jan 4 '12 at 6:32

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