The Virginia REALTORS^® Legal Hotline launched on February 15, 1995, granting authorized callers the ability to speak to an attorney that could provide them with general legal information. Since that time, the Legal Hotline has evolved from calling a telephone number to emailing your question to using an online submission form, to being open to ALL REALTORS^® in Virginia. Through all these changes, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to helping our members practice legally and ethically by providing FREE legal information.

The on-staff attorneys respond to all submissions within 4 business hours, but often even faster with an average response time of under 90 minutes. We can’t give you specific legal advice, but we can walk you through all of the information you need to make informed decisions and help identify potential risks you may face.

If you’ve never used the hotline, consider it the next time you’re not sure on something or just want confirmation. Nearly half of the questions we get are from someone who just wants that extra confirmation that they are correct (many even start with “I’m pretty sure the answer is…” or “I think I know, but wanted to check”). Sometimes you just need another person to talk an issue through with, or make sure you’re not missing anything, and we’ve got your back.

While we sometimes use the questions we get on the hotline as examples when teaching, we never share details about who asked us, and only the attorneys on staff have access to the questions. The principal or supervising broker is copied on the question, because our philosophy has always been that if you think you need to talk to a lawyer, the person legally responsible for your behavior probably needs to know what’s going on. If you don’t want your broker to know, it’s probably not a question we can help you with.

In the last 25 years, we’ve helped thousands of agents and brokers with tens of thousands of questions. We look forward to helping even more of you in the years to come!