Software package

Legal advice portal package

Question submission with triage, an adviser pool with specialism matching, private threads, a guidance library with review dates, member credits and consultation escalation, ready to configure around your advice categories.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Advice charities, trade union and professional-body legal helplines, legal networks that pool advisers, and subscription advice services, typically with a coordinator or two and anywhere from a handful to a few dozen advisers. It suits a coordinator who triages all morning, advisers who answer from a queue on their own device, a moderator who prepares answers for the public archive, and askers who want to see their own history in one place.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to law firms taking paid instructions, where an answered question becomes a matter with time and billing, and to services that want automated answers without a human adviser. It is also not a general helpdesk tool; its queue, matching and archive assume legal advice categories.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

At half past eight the coordinator opens the triage queue.

Fourteen questions arrived overnight.
Each carries the category the asker chose and an urgency the rules assigned from their answers; a housing question that mentions a court date next week sits at the top.
The coordinator confirms or corrects the category on each and the matching step offers the advisers with that specialism who are under their workload limit.
The urgent question goes to a housing adviser with two open threads; a consumer question goes to a volunteer who logs in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The housing adviser opens the thread on her tablet, sees the asker's answers and the attached notice, and checks the guidance library, where the possession-procedure document shows its jurisdiction and a review date three weeks ago, so she flags it for the editor.

She answers, the asker replies with one more question, and the thread closes when the asker marks it resolved.
The asker's plan deducts one credit at release.
A fortnight later the moderator redacts the thread and publishes it to the archive.
At month end the coordinator's report shows questions per category, waiting time at each stage and open threads per adviser.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow a question from submission to archive: triage and matching, threads and attachments, the guidance library, access and credits, consultation escalation and reporting. Each module lists what it does; the comparison table shows which variant includes it.

Forms and requests

Question submission with triagePeople submit a question with a category and an urgency, so urgent matters are seen first.

Workflow and tasks

Adviser pool with specialism matchingQuestions go to advisers whose specialism fits, within workload limits you set for each adviser.

Messaging and notifications

Private question threadsEach question is a private conversation between asker and adviser, with control over attachments.

Content and editorial

Guidance library with review datesGuidance articles carry their jurisdiction and a review date, so readers know when each was last checked.
Public anonymised archivePublish answered questions in an archive after moderation and redaction of anything identifying.

Reporting and insights

Waiting-time trackingMeasure how long questions wait at each stage, per adviser and per category, to see where the queue builds up.

Memberships

Credit or subscription accessAskers use credits or a subscription to submit questions, so access follows what they have paid for.

Bookings and diary

Escalation to a consultation bookingMove a question on to a booked consultation with the adviser it was matched to.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Platform admin
- Define categories, urgency rules and workload limits
- Manage adviser accounts, specialisms and availability days
- Configure plans, credits and subscription access
- Run reports on volume, waiting time and adviser load
Coordinator
- Triage the queue and confirm or correct categories
- Assign questions to matched advisers or reassign them
- See waiting time at each stage and chase stalled threads
- Escalate a question to a consultation booking
Moderator
- Redact resolved threads and publish them to the anonymised archive
- Withdraw archive items on request
- Maintain the guidance library and its review dates
Adviser
- Work their own queue within their workload limit
- Answer in private threads with permitted attachments
- Search the guidance library and flag documents past review
- Mark a question as needing a consultation
Asker
- Submit a question with category and supporting documents
- Reply in their private thread and mark it resolved
- See their question history, credits and plan
- Book a consultation when one is offered

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of the legal advice triage queue showing urgency order, categories, matched advisers with workload counts and waiting-time indicators.

The coordinator's triage queue: overnight questions ordered by urgency, the category each asker chose, the matched advisers under their workload limit for each, and a waiting-time indicator per stage.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Question submission with category and urgency triage
Adviser pool with specialism matching and workload limits
Private question threads with attachment control
Guidance library with jurisdiction and review-date metadata
Waiting-time tracking per stage, adviser and category
Credit or subscription access for askers

Common add-ons

Public anonymised archive with moderation and redaction
Escalation to a consultation booking with the matched adviser

Needs custom work

Tiered adviser pools with overflow and review-before-release
Membership database or single sign-on integration
Funder reporting in a prescribed format

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage for you; the choice is made in the proposal and can be changed later. The organisation owns the code and its data. Questions, threads, guidance documents and reports can be exported in standard formats, and the package does not tie you to a provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of notifications and attachment storage, backups, and a monthly window for small changes such as new categories, urgency rule adjustments or additional advisers. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold either as a one-off setup with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines, or as a subscription that bundles hosting and maintenance. The setup figure depends on the number of advisers and categories, the access model, the add-ons selected and the hosting choice. Your proposal lists each line separately.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Question submission with category and urgency triage
Adviser pool with specialism matching and workload limits
Private question threads with attachment control
Guidance library with jurisdiction and review-date metadata

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How are questions matched to advisers?

Each adviser has specialisms and a workload limit. When a question is triaged, the coordinator sees the advisers whose specialism matches the category and who are below their limit, with their availability days. Assignment is a coordinator decision, not automatic, unless the admin turns on auto-assignment for a category.

Can askers attach documents?

Yes, within the file types and sizes the admin allows per category. Attachments are visible only inside the private thread and are deleted with the thread at the end of the retention period.

How does the anonymised archive protect askers?

Nothing reaches the archive without a moderator redacting names, places and identifying details and publishing it deliberately. Askers can be given an opt-out at submission, and any archive item can be withdrawn on request.

What does the guidance library add beyond a shared folder?

Each document carries its jurisdiction and a review date. Advisers searching the library see a warning on anything past review, and the moderator gets a list of documents due for review so out-of-date guidance is not quietly reused.

Can we run staff and volunteer tiers with review before release?

Tiered pools and review-before-release are custom work scoped through the legal advice portal development service. The base package runs one pool with workload limits and lets a coordinator hold any answer manually.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge on this page shows the real state: the package is currently a custom build assembled from our forms, messaging and memberships modules for each service, and the example on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live advice portal.

Get a quote for Legal advice portal package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.