ST. LOUIS – More legal questions are arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Missouri Bar Association says it can help.
The MBA's free web-based portal that allows Missourians to ask legal questions is typically for lower-income families. But because of the health crisis it has expanded to include households of modest means.
To find out if one qualifies, a few questions can be answered on their website.
For Missourians whose financial situations have changed, whether it's due to layoffs or furloughs, the MBA suggests you enter your current income when answering questions instead of last-year's so it reflects what you're facing right now.
The program itself has been around for three years. Only recently it surpassed more than 4,000 legal questions answered on the platform by volunteer lawyers.
"We are starting to see an increase in the number of questions asked on a weekly basis," Farrah Fite, media relations director for the Missouri Bar Association, told the St. Louis Record.
A lot of the questions asked through the portal directly relate to the pandemic, Fite said.
"Whether it be may be family custody matters, how is custody impacted with school no longer being in session," Fite said, "those types of questions where ... situations or timings have changed for families. Or renters or landlords seeking advice on how to handle these temporary changes."
Even before the pandemic, family law was the most prominent topic asked about on the portal and it continues to be the top issue. Currently, the platform has enough volunteer lawyers to answer questions. Fite said they've actually seen an increase of about a dozen volunteers a week since late-March.
The American Bar Association partners with different states to carry out this free service. It's now in most states, but Fite said Missouri continues to have one of the highest response rates.
"More than 85% of questions that are asked on the platform are answered within 30 days," she said, "typically, most much sooner than that."