Upsolve Internal Policy on Not Providing Legal Advice for Employees

Introduction

The purpose of this internal policy document is to make clear the limits of the service that our organization provides to people who use our software product. Upsolve is a self-service document assembly tool that allows people to file for bankruptcy on their own when they have a simple Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. We are not a law firm and we can never provide legal advice to people who use our software platform. Providing legal advice when you are not an attorney barred in the state of the person that you’re assisting is an offense that is against the law, and if it is discovered that you violate this law, you can be terminated with cause from Upsolve. 

Limitations of Upsolve Software 

The Upsolve software is not for everyone. It is only for people with simple Chapter 7 cases who cannot afford lawyers. We believe lawyers are an excellent investment for people who can afford them, and it has always been the official policy of Upsolve that people should hire lawyers to help them in their bankruptcy case if they can afford them. 96% of Upsolve users state that they would not be able to afford filing for bankruptcy if Upsolve did not exist.

Our software is not designed to serve all people who need to file for bankruptcy. We have focused on building a software tool that as many poor people as reasonably possible are able to use for free. People can use links on Upsolve to find local legal aid options or local NACBA attorneys that meet their needs.

Providing Customer Support  

When users ask us questions while using our product, we cannot provide them with any legal advice. Under no circumstances, when it comes to legal questions that include matters of the law, do we ever tell users what they should do given their specific situation.

Petition Review Process

The review process has two aims. Under no circumstances do we provide legal advice during the petition review. 

The first aim of the petition review process is Quality Assurance with our software. During the petition generation process, our software product is prone to issues like any software product. For example, the size of the text in a particular field for a petition that a user generates may be too small to be legible. It is the job of the person who conducts the review to increase the size of the text to be legible. We do this for the benefit of the Bankruptcy Courts and Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees. 

The second aim of the petition review is to ensure that the petitions users generate on their own are complete and consistent. During the process of filing for bankruptcy, users provide information about what they earn, spend, own, and owe. Users also upload their tax returns and pay stubs. 

Sometimes, the information that a user submits in our questionnaire is incomplete. For example, they accidentally do not include information about income they received last year, even though they uploaded tax returns that outline a certain amount of income. In this case, the reviewer can reach out to the user to ask for further information about last year’s income, to make sure that their petition is complete. Other common examples include users misstating their monthly income as half of what it actually is because they simply copy their pay stubs and users uploading the wrong document as their credit counseling certificate. Due to this review, Upsolve users, bankruptcy trustees, and bankruptcy courts are able to avoid many of the problems and delays common among pro se debtors who do not use Upsolve. 

Conclusion

Under no circumstances should anyone at Upsolve come close to providing personalized legal advice, telling an Upsolve user what they should do during their bankruptcy case on substantive legal matters. This is a rule that we take extremely seriously, as we’re able to provide our self-service web application, customer support, and review only as long as we do not provide legal advice.