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Terms of service: the rules for using this site

These terms are the agreement between you and MVA Lawyer Network when you use this website. The most important part is the first thing we will tell you: we are not a law firm, nothing here is legal advice, and using this site does not make anyone your attorney. Everything else follows from that.

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Effective August 1, 2026 Last reviewed August 1, 2026 11 min read
What we are
A publisher and referral service
We write guides about accident claims and connect readers with independent attorneys. We do not practice law.
What it costs
Nothing to you
Reading the site and requesting a case review are free. We may be paid a referral fee by the attorney.
What we promise
No outcome, ever
Nothing on this site is a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about any claim, settlement, or verdict.
If there is a problem
Your court, not arbitration
Thirty days to fix it informally first. After that, your own state's law and your own local court. No forced arbitration.

Key takeaways

  • We are not your lawyer, and we cannot become one. MVA Lawyer Network is a publisher and referral service. Reading this site, submitting the form, or exchanging messages with us creates no attorney-client relationship with us or with any attorney.
  • Nothing here predicts what your case is worth. No page, figure, calculator, or example is a promise about your claim. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
  • Deadlines are yours to protect. Using this site does not pause, extend, or preserve any legal deadline. If a statute of limitations expires while you are reading, that claim is gone. Speak to a licensed attorney promptly.
  • Talk to us before you escalate. If something goes wrong, we ask for thirty days to fix it informally. It is faster than any formal process and it is how nearly every problem actually gets solved.
Read this part twice

This is a binding agreement, and it includes limits on our liability to you. It is also general information rather than legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. If you do not agree with these terms, do not use the site. If you are facing an emergency, call 911.

01 What this service is, and is not

Quick answer

MVA Lawyer Network is not a law firm and does not practice law. We are an independent publisher and attorney referral service. We write educational guides about motor vehicle, commercial truck, and catastrophic injury claims, and we connect readers who ask with an independent attorney licensed in their state.

We put this first because it is the term people most often misunderstand, and because misunderstanding it can cost someone a claim. Everything else in this agreement rests on it.

We do not represent clients. We do not accept cases. We do not appear in court, negotiate with insurers, file documents, or give advice about what you should do. We have no authority to act for you in any legal matter, and nothing we say should be treated as an instruction about your own claim. Read more about how the site operates on our home page.

What that means in practice

If you tell us something urgent, we cannot act on it for you. We cannot preserve evidence, send a legal hold letter, respond to an insurer, or file anything before a deadline. Only an attorney you have actually retained can do those things. If your situation is time sensitive, get a licensed attorney engaged now rather than waiting on a referral.

02 Agreeing to these terms

Quick answer

By using this site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. These terms apply together with our privacy policy, and we will tell you when they change rather than swapping the text out quietly.

This agreement is between you and MVA Lawyer Network, meaning the operator of mvalawyernetwork.net, referred to here as we, us, and our. It covers this website, the guides and articles on it, and the case review form. It does not cover any attorney or law firm you go on to deal with, who will have their own engagement terms and their own professional obligations to you.

Changes. We may update these terms as the site or the law changes. When we do, we update the effective date at the top of this page. Where a change materially affects your rights, we will describe what changed rather than silently replacing the text. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms. If you do not, stop using the site.

Electronic dealings. By using the site you consent to receive communications and agreements from us electronically, and you agree that electronic records satisfy any requirement that an agreement be in writing. Federal law gives that consent legal effect.

A single dark bound volume standing among books on a shelf
The core term
We publish and we introduce. We do not represent.

03 Who may use this site

Quick answer

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter a binding agreement. The site is offered to residents of the United States. If a child was injured, a parent or legal guardian should use the form on the child's behalf.

The site is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from a child. If you are submitting a request about someone else, such as an injured family member or a person who has died, you confirm that you have the authority to do so or that you are acting as a family member seeking information, and you accept that an attorney will need to confirm who is entitled to bring the claim.

We publish for readers across all 50 states. Because motor vehicle claims are governed mainly by state law, the deadlines, fault rules, and available damages differ depending on where the crash happened, and any attorney we connect you with will be licensed in the relevant state rather than by us.

04 The case review form

Quick answer

Submitting the form is a request for a review, not a retainer. It does not hire anyone, does not guarantee that an attorney will take your case, and does not stop any deadline from running. It is free and carries no obligation.

When you submit the form, we review whether your situation fits the kind of claim the attorneys in our network handle and, where it does, provide your submission to an independent attorney licensed in the relevant state so they can evaluate it and contact you. What happens next is between you and that attorney.

  • No attorney is obliged to take your case

    An attorney may decline for any lawful reason, including conflicts, capacity, jurisdiction, or their own assessment of the claim. A decline is not a judgment that your claim has no value.

  • Nothing is hired until you sign

    You are represented only when you and an attorney sign a written engagement or fee agreement. Until then, no one is acting for you, including us.

  • Your submission is not confidential in the legal sense

    We keep it private and we do not publish it, but because we are not your attorney, what you send us is not protected by attorney-client privilege. Send enough detail to be understood, not your file.

  • The clock keeps running

    Submitting the form does not pause, extend, toll, or preserve any statute of limitations or notice deadline. Those deadlines run whether or not anyone has responded to you.

05 No attorney-client relationship

Quick answer

Nothing you do on this site creates an attorney-client relationship with MVA Lawyer Network, because we are not attorneys. An attorney-client relationship with a law firm begins only when you and that firm agree in writing, and not before.

Reading a guide does not create it. Submitting the form does not create it. Receiving a call from an attorney we connected you with does not create it. Discussing your crash with that attorney before signing does not create it, although the attorney may owe you separate duties of confidentiality in a prospective client consultation under the rules of their state.

This matters for a practical reason beyond formality. Until a firm has agreed to represent you, no one is watching your deadlines, no one is preserving evidence on your behalf, and no one is responsible for your claim. If you believe you have been retained but have never signed anything, contact the firm and confirm it in writing.

Professional conduct
Why the referral itself is regulated
ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rules 7.1 to 7.3

A lawyer may not make a false or misleading communication about their services, and may pay the usual charges of a qualified lawyer referral service, subject to the rules of the state where they are licensed. We build to those rules rather than around them. Attorneys in our network are responsible for their own compliance with their state's advertising and solicitation rules.

06 No guaranteed outcome, and your deadlines

Quick answer

Nothing on this site is a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about any claim. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Case examples, verdict figures, and ranges are illustrations of what has happened to other people, not forecasts about you.

We publish real verdicts and settlements with citations because they show how the law works in practice. They are not benchmarks for your claim. Value depends on the severity and permanence of the injury, the insurance actually available, the evidence that survives, the law of the state involved, and how the case is handled. Two claims that look similar in a summary can be worlds apart in reality.

Deadlines are not paused by anything on this site

Every state sets a deadline to file, commonly two to four years for injury claims, and claims against a government entity often require formal notice within months. Using this site, submitting the form, or waiting for a call does not stop any of those clocks. If a deadline passes, the claim is generally lost no matter how strong it was. Treat time as the scarce resource it is.

07 Our content, and what you may do with it

Quick answer

The writing, design, and organisation of this site are owned by us or licensed to us. You may read it, print it, and share links to it freely. You may not copy it wholesale, republish it, or use it to train or populate a competing service.

You may

  • Read, print, and save pages for your own personal use
  • Share a link to any page, anywhere, without asking us
  • Quote a short passage with attribution and a link back
  • Cite our pages in your own research or reporting
  • Show a page to your attorney, your family, or your insurer

You may not

  • Republish substantial parts of a page on another site
  • Present our writing as your own or strip attribution
  • Scrape or bulk copy the site by automated means
  • Use our content to build a competing referral service
  • Use our name or logo in a way implying we endorse you

The legal citations we quote are public law and belong to nobody. The statutes, regulations, and court opinions we link to are free for anyone to read and reuse, and we link to public databases precisely so you can. What is protected is our own original writing and the way we assembled it.

Copyright
If you believe we have infringed your work
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. section 512

Tell us and we will act. Send a notice through our contact page identifying the copyrighted work, the material you say infringes it and where it sits on our site, your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act. We remove or disable material that is properly the subject of a valid notice, and we will tell you what we did.

A densely filled bookcase seen straight on, spines in tight ranks
Limits, plainly stated
What we owe you, and what we cannot promise.

08 What you send us, and what you promise

Quick answer

What you send stays yours. You give us permission to use it for the purpose you sent it for, which is evaluating your request and passing it to an attorney. You confirm that it is truthful and that you are entitled to send it.

By submitting information you represent that it is accurate to the best of your knowledge, that you are the person concerned or are authorised to act for them, and that you are not sending anything that belongs to someone else without their permission. Inaccurate information wastes your time more than ours, because an attorney's assessment is only as good as the facts they are given.

We do not claim ownership of what you send. We do not publish it, post it, or display it. The limited permission you give us exists only so we can do the thing you asked for, and it ends when we no longer need it for that purpose or for a legal obligation, as described in our privacy policy.

One request. Do not send us documents. Medical records, police reports, insurance letters, and settlement paperwork should go to the attorney who takes your case, through their own intake, not to us.

09 Things you may not do

Quick answer

Do not submit false claims, impersonate someone, scrape the site, attempt to break it, or use it for any unlawful purpose. We may refuse service or block access for any of these, and we may report unlawful conduct.

Specifically, you agree not to submit a request in someone else's name without authority, provide deliberately false information about a crash or injury, use the site to harass anyone, upload malicious code, attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the site or its systems, use automated tools to scrape or bulk download content, interfere with the operation of the site or the form, use the site to send unsolicited commercial messages, or use it in violation of any applicable law or of the rules of professional conduct governing attorney advertising and solicitation.

Fraudulent submissions are the one we take most seriously, because they take an attorney's time away from a person who is genuinely hurt.

10 Attorneys, links, and what we do not control

Quick answer

Attorneys we connect you with are independent. They are not our employees, partners, or agents. We do not supervise their legal work, and we are not responsible for their advice, their conduct, or the outcome of your case.

We apply a vetting process before an attorney joins the network, and we describe that process openly. Vetting is not supervision and it is not a warranty. A licensed attorney is accountable to their state bar, to their client, and to the courts, and those are the mechanisms that govern their work. If you have a complaint about an attorney, raise it with them and, if it is serious, with the state bar that licenses them. Tell us as well, because it affects whether they stay in the network.

Links and third-party content. We link to statutes, court opinions, government data, and news coverage so you can verify what we write. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement. The same applies to the third-party form provider that delivers our case review form.

Federal statute
Responsibility for content published by others
47 U.S.C. section 230

Federal law provides that a provider of an interactive computer service is not treated as the publisher or speaker of information provided by another information content provider. Where content on or reachable from this site originates with someone else, including an attorney, a linked source, or a service provider, that party is responsible for it. Our own editorial content remains our responsibility, and we stand behind it.

11 Disclaimers and limitation of liability

Quick answer

The site is provided as is. We work hard to keep it accurate and we correct errors publicly, but we do not warrant that it is error free, complete, or current for your situation, and our liability to you is limited to the extent the law allows.

Disclaimer. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the site and everything on it are provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, secure, or free of errors, or that any particular attorney will contact you, accept your case, or achieve any result.

Limitation. To the fullest extent permitted by law, MVA Lawyer Network and its officers, employees, and contractors will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost opportunity, or loss of a legal claim, arising from your use of the site. Our total liability for any claim relating to the site is limited to the greater of one hundred United States dollars or the total amount you have actually paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose. For virtually every reader that figure is one hundred dollars, because the site is free and we do not charge you anything to read it or to request a case review.

Where these limits do not apply. Some states do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages, so parts of the above may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing limits your rights against any attorney who represents you, which are governed by your agreement with that attorney and by the rules of their state bar.

Indemnity. You agree to indemnify us against claims arising from your misuse of the site, your breach of these terms, or your submission of false or unauthorised information.

12 Resolving a dispute, and governing law

Quick answer

Tell us first. We ask for thirty days to resolve a dispute informally before either of us escalates. It is faster and cheaper than anything else, and it is how nearly every problem actually gets fixed.

This is not a formality we expect to be ignored. Most complaints we receive are about something specific and fixable, and a direct conversation resolves them in days.

1

Write to us and be specific

Use the contact page linked below. Say what happened, when, which page or which connection it concerns, and what outcome you are looking for.

2

We acknowledge it

We confirm receipt and tell you who is looking at it. If we need more detail to understand the issue, we ask once rather than sending you round a loop.

3

We investigate and respond within thirty days

We check what actually happened, including our own records, and give you a written answer. If we got something wrong, we say so plainly rather than defending it.

4

We fix what can be fixed

That may mean correcting a page, deleting your information, removing an attorney from the network, or changing a process so it does not happen to the next person.

5

If it is still unresolved, either side may escalate

Only after the thirty days, and only for what remains genuinely in dispute. Complaints about an attorney's legal work belong with that attorney's state bar, which has powers we do not.

Governing law and forum
Your state's law, your local court, and no forced arbitration
A deliberate choice, explained rather than buried

These terms are governed by the law of the state where you live, without regard to its conflict of laws rules, and any dispute that survives the thirty day process above may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in that state. We are not asking you to accept a distant state's law or to travel somewhere inconvenient in order to be heard.

We do not require arbitration, and we do not ask you to give up a class action. A great many consumer websites do both. We have chosen not to, for two reasons. You pay us nothing, so the realistic scope of any dispute with us is small. And a site that publishes an editorial standards page has no business quietly signing its readers out of court. Either of us may also bring a qualifying claim in small claims court, which is usually the fastest route for a small dispute.

Have a dispute, a correction, or a takedown notice? Start here.

Go to the contact page

Odds and ends. If any part of these terms is held unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Our failure to enforce a term is not a waiver of it. These terms, together with our privacy policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the site. You may not transfer your rights under them; we may transfer ours if the business is sold, subject to these terms.

Sources and authorities

The statutes and rules referred to in these terms are listed below, each linked to a free public database, so you can check any statement on this page against the original text.

Federal statutes

  • Protection of original works of authorship, 17 U.S.C. section 102. Cornell Legal Information Institute.
  • Limitations on liability relating to material online, including notice and takedown, 17 U.S.C. section 512. Cornell LII.
  • Protection for private blocking and screening of offensive material, 47 U.S.C. section 230. Cornell LII.
  • Validity of arbitration agreements, Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. section 2. Cornell LII.
  • Electronic records and signatures in commerce, 15 U.S.C. section 7001. Cornell LII.
  • Unfair or deceptive acts or practices, Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. section 45. Cornell LII.

Professional conduct and consumer protection

  • Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Rules 7.1 to 7.3 on communications about legal services, advertising, and referral arrangements. American Bar Association.
  • Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465. eCFR.
  • Copyright registration and the directory of designated agents for takedown notices. United States Copyright Office.

The four standards in short

These terms are held to the same standards as every other page on the site.

01

Primary sources only

Legal claims cite the statute, regulation, or decided case itself, never another firm's summary of it, and the link opens the original text.

02

Reviewed and dated

A named editor signs off on every page, the review date is printed on it, and the page is re-checked when the law changes.

03

Editorial, not legal advice

This is general information to help you make decisions, not advice about your specific case, and it creates no attorney-client relationship.

04

Honest about how we operate

We are an independent referral service, not a law firm, and we may be paid if you hire a lawyer through us. That is disclosed, and it buys no coverage.

Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor
Michael Mangione Verified editor
Legal Research Editor · Founder, The Mangione Group, Inc.

These terms are maintained by Michael Mangione, who has spent more than twelve years working alongside contingency based law firms across the United States, building intake departments and studying how claims are screened and pursued. He wrote this page in plain language, and put the not a law firm term first, because that is the clause readers most often misunderstand and the one that costs them most when they do. Michael is not a practicing attorney and does not give legal advice.

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Common questions, answered

General information about these terms. None of it is legal advice, and none of it creates an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own situation, talk to a licensed attorney.

Are you a law firm?

No. MVA Lawyer Network is an independent publisher and attorney referral service. We do not practice law, represent clients, accept cases, appear in court, or give legal advice. Any attorney you are connected with is independent and is solely responsible for their own advice and representation.

Does submitting the form mean I have hired a lawyer?

No. Submitting the form is a request for a review, not a retainer. You are represented only once you and a law firm sign a written engagement or fee agreement. Until that happens, nobody is acting for you, nobody is watching your deadlines, and nobody is preserving evidence on your behalf.

Does using this site pause my filing deadline?

No, and this is the most costly misunderstanding we see. Reading the site, submitting the form, and waiting for a call do not stop, pause, or extend any statute of limitations or notice deadline. Those deadlines are set by state law and keep running regardless. If a deadline passes, the claim is generally lost however strong it was.

Is what I tell you confidential or privileged?

We keep it private and we do not publish it, but it is not privileged, because privilege attaches to communications with your own attorney and we are not your attorney. Send enough detail for an attorney to understand the claim, and send documents to the firm that takes your case rather than to us.

What if no attorney takes my case?

An attorney may decline for any lawful reason, including a conflict, capacity, jurisdiction, or their own view of the claim. A decline is not a ruling that your claim is worthless, and you remain free to consult any other attorney. Because deadlines keep running, do not treat a decline as a reason to stop looking.

What does it cost to use the site?

Nothing. Reading the site and requesting a case review are free and carry no obligation. We may be paid a referral fee if you go on to hire an attorney we connected you with, which we disclose on every page. Attorneys in this field typically work on contingency, meaning no attorney fee if there is no recovery, and your fee agreement is between you and that firm.

Are you responsible if an attorney mishandles my case?

No. Attorneys we connect you with are independent and are not our employees, partners, or agents. We vet before admitting a firm to the network, but vetting is not supervision and it is not a warranty. A licensed attorney is accountable to their client, the courts, and their state bar. Raise a serious complaint with that bar, and tell us too, because it affects whether they stay in the network.

Can I quote or republish your guides?

You can read, print, save, and link to any page freely, and quote a short passage with attribution and a link back. You may not republish substantial parts of a page elsewhere, strip attribution, scrape the site by automated means, or use our content to build a competing referral service. The statutes and opinions we cite are public law and belong to nobody.

How do I report a copyright problem?

Send a notice through the contact page identifying the copyrighted work, the material you say infringes it and where it is on our site, your contact details, a good faith statement that the use is not authorised, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and that you are authorised to act. We remove or disable material properly covered by a valid notice and tell you what we did.

Do you guarantee any result?

Never. Nothing on this site is a guarantee, warranty, or prediction about any claim, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Verdicts and settlements we publish are cited illustrations of what happened to other people. Value turns on the injury, the insurance actually available, the evidence that survives, the law of the state involved, and how the case is handled.

What happens if I disagree with something you did?

Tell us through the contact page and be specific about what happened and what outcome you want. We acknowledge it, investigate, and give you a written answer within thirty days. If we got something wrong we say so and fix it, which may mean correcting a page, deleting your information, or removing a firm from the network. Only after those thirty days would either side escalate.

Can I use the site if I am under 18?

No. You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding agreement. The site is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information. Where a child has been injured, a parent or legal guardian should use the form on the child's behalf, and an attorney will confirm who is entitled to bring the claim.

Will you tell me if these terms change?

Yes. The effective date at the top of this page is updated whenever the terms change, and where a change materially affects your rights we describe what changed rather than replacing the text quietly. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Which state's law governs these terms?

The law of the state where you live, and any dispute that survives the thirty day informal process may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction there. We deliberately did not choose a distant home state, we do not require arbitration, and we do not ask you to waive a class action. Small claims court remains available to either side. Your rights against any attorney who represents you are separate and are governed by your agreement with that firm and by their state bar.

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