About Legal Advice Basics
Legal Advice Basics exists for the moment legal trouble stops being abstract: court papers on the table, a collector on the phone, a deposit that never came back. We publish plain-English explanations of everyday U.S. legal procedures so you can understand what is happening — and find qualified help — before deadlines pass.
What we are, and what we are not
This is an educational website. It is not a law firm, its writers are not acting as your attorney, and nothing here is legal advice about your specific situation. Our job is to explain the landscape honestly — including telling you clearly when a situation calls for a licensed attorney, and pointing you tofree and low-cost options in every state.
How our guides are made
- Every legal claim is checked against official sources — courts, government agencies, and bar associations — and each guide lists its sources at the end.
- Deadlines and rules that vary by state are labeled as state-specific. We do not pretend one answer fits fifty states.
- Guides show the date they were last updated, and we review them when laws change.
- See our editorial policy for the full standards, and our contact page to report an error — corrections are published, not buried.
Who writes this site
Guides are researched and written by the Legal Advice Basics editorial team. We cite our sources on every guide precisely so you never have to take our word for anything.
What we cover
Our guides and reference tables focus on the civil-law situations ordinary people meet most often: civil procedure (court papers, summonses, answers, hearings),civil litigation from the self-represented person's perspective,consumer law (debt collection, credit reports, scams),employment law (wages, overtime, discrimination deadlines), and landlord-tenant law — supported by careful legal research against primary sources and plain-English legal writing. We do not cover criminal defense, immigration, family law, or estate planning beyond pointing you to qualified help.