FreeLegalAid was founded in 1997 when Dana Robinson was a law student with access to the law school's Unix account. He was wasting away from boredom checking student ID's at the computer lab when he found a little book about how to program in HTML and Java Script. He used a public folder on his Unix email account and started putting up web pages. He stumbled on the not-so-smart idea of creating a website focused on giving free legal information to the public. The idea was not-so-smart because at the time, not a single lawyer would offer an article or free information to help a consumer over the Internet.
Dana spent years slowly developing a new approach to the site, crawling for useful and helpful sites and then he hired some writers to just write up useful info. By 2005, the site was cooking along and in 2009, the site was relaunched on a bespoke Drupal build, thanks to now-attorney-then-law-student Travis.
The latest evolution of FreeLegalAid.com includes encouraging attorneys to write articles and submit useful links and info for our users to get the free legal help that they need, while allowing professionals to self-promote and showcase their knoweldge. It wasn't popular in 1997, but this new model is taking off quickly. Get ready for our "answers" section, a legal dictionary, attorney-profiles, and more participation by attorneys and paralegals.
Today, FreeLegalAid is one of the top ranking sites for searches in the free legal space. We have dozens of new data points each week, and about one new article per day. We provide hot legal news, how-to articles, links to legal resources, and locations for government and non-profit offices. We also host thousands of legal forms, most of which were developed by Dana in his own law practice. Dana's advice about legal forms: don't use them for a legal transaction! Use them to understand the how's and why's of a transaction and then hire an attorney to do them for you. Its cheaper than you think. The legal forms are a great way for business people to understand what it means to license a copyright, or for a layman to understand what a divorce settlement might look like. But, these aren't intended to substitute for a professional. Use our site to become more knowledgeable and face the legal issues before you, but then hire an attorney when the time is right.