One of C.A.R.’s most popular and useful benefits is the ability for members to call the Legal Hot Line and speak to one of the C.A.R. Hot Line attorneys with questions relating to your real estate practice. The Legal Hot Line answers over 95,000 legal questions per year which works out to roughly 365 questions per day. Because the questions can be so varied – as you know your real estate practice can open up many questions ranging from licensing, advertising, contracts, disclosures, to estate planning and tax – and because of the volume of calls, it is often difficult to predict how long the wait times will be.
Another issue is protecting the confidentiality of the attorney client relationship. While the Hot Line service is limited to telephonic advice, it is still subject to the California State Bar rules protecting the attorney client relationship. It is because of this protection that you are asked specific questions, such as the property address and if there is another agent or broker connected with the matter or transaction you are calling about. Again, because of the importance of protecting your and other member’s confidentiality, you will be asked these questions by the Contact Center during the call intake, and then likely asked the same questions again by the Hot Line attorney to confirm the information.
No one likes being put on hold and C.A.R. recognizes how frustrating answering these questions can be when you just need to ask what you consider to be a simple legal question. To help speed up the process, C.A.R. has implemented a new Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) system which asks that you enter certain information about your question. The IVR system will prompt you to enter your member number and other information related to your question, such as the other agent’s BRE license number and the property address. If you have the requested information, you can skip the Call Center intake and be put directly in the queue for the next available Hot Line attorney. However, be prepared to be sent back to the Call Center and to the end of the line if you have not fully answered the questions or claim your question is “just a general question” when it in fact relates to a transaction or other matter involving another agent or broker.
The Hot Line is working to improve the delivery of legal advice, but we need your help as well. The attorney client relationship is a serious matter.