Legal Consultation Marketplace: From the Unified Attorney Registry to Monobank Payments

Attorney verification via the Unified Attorney Registry (ERAU) in 2 seconds. 3-step onboarding. Consultation request with documents from the vault. Real-time chat between client and attorney. Escrow payment via Monobank. 10% platform commission. Full cycle — from "I need a lawyer" to a paid consultation.

Legal Consultation Marketplace: From the Unified Attorney Registry to Monobank Payments

How we built a complete legal consultation ordering cycle — from attorney verification to escrow payments.

The Problem: Finding a Lawyer Is Harder Than It Seems

A client needs a lawyer. What do they do? Google it. Ask friends. Visit law firm websites. There is no single place to find verified attorneys, compare specializations, read reviews, and immediately book a consultation.

From the attorney's side, it's painful too: they need a website, SEO, manual request handling, scheduling, invoicing. Instead of legal work — administration.

Architecture: 6 Components

| Component | What It Does | |———–|————-| | ERAU Integration | Verification via the Unified Attorney Registry (ERAU) | | Onboarding | 3-step profile creation modal | | Attorney Search | Filters by specialization, region, price | | Consultation Request | 4-step flow with documents | | Real-time Chat | SSE-based messaging | | Escrow Payment | Monobank with hold until completion |

Step 1: Verification via ERAU

ERAU (Unified Attorney Registry of Ukraine) is the official registry of licensed attorneys. Our integration works as follows:

1. The attorney enters their last name
2. A request goes to erau.unba.org.ua/search
3. The result is cached: Redis (24 hours) → PostgreSQL (indefinitely)
4. On external API failure — fallback to PostgreSQL cache

What we get: last name, first name, patronymic, certificate number, issue date, regional bar association. This is sufficient for verification — the attorney is confirmed to be in the National Bar Association registry.

Caching is critical. The ERAU API is unstable and slow (15-second timeout). After the first lookup — response in milliseconds from cache.

Step 2: 3-Step Onboarding

Step 1 — Welcome. What a platform profile provides, how verification works.

Step 2 — ERAU Search. The attorney searches for themselves by last name, selects from the list. Data is pulled automatically: certificate number, date, regional bar association.

Step 3 — Profile completion. Specializations (up to 5), court types, region, languages, rates (consultation, hourly rate, representation), bio.

The profile is saved in the attorney_profiles table linked to users and organizations.

Pricing Tier with 30% Markup

For attorneys — a dedicated pricing plan:

| | Basic | Attorney | |—|—|—| | Price | 9/mo | 49/mo | | MCP tools markup | 0% | 30% | | Limits | ₴415/₴4150 | ₴2075/₴20750 | | Support | 48 hours | 12 hours | | Trial | 7 days | 14 days |

The 30% markup covers additional costs for deep legal analysis that attorneys use for client cases.

Step 3: Attorney Search

Clients see a catalog with filters:

• Specialization — civil, criminal, commercial, family...
• Region and city — with remote work option
• Court type — first instance, appellate, cassation
• Price range — min/max per consultation
• Rating — minimum score
• Free first consultation — yes/no
• Languages — Ukrainian, English, etc.

Sorting: by rating, price, experience, number of consultations.

Attorney card: photo, name, specializations (tags), rating (stars + review count), consultation price, "Book Consultation" button.

Step 4: Consultation Request

4-step modal:

Details — type (consultation / representation / document analysis), title, description, urgency (low / normal / high / urgent).

Documents — DocumentPicker allows selecting documents from the vault. The attorney sees them after accepting the request.

Confirmation — review everything before submitting.

Payment — mock Monobank (currently a 2-second delay → success).

Consultation Statuses

pending → accepted → paid → in_progress → completed
           ↘ declined    ↘ cancelled      ↘ disputed

The attorney sees pending requests with an "unseen" badge. They can accept (with optional price adjustment) or decline (with a reason).

Step 5: Real-time Chat

After payment, a chat opens between the client and attorney. Implementation:

• MessageBus — EventEmitter with subscription to msg:{consultationId}
• SSE stream — GET /api/consultations/:id/messages/stream
• Heartbeat every 30 seconds
• Automatic read receipts
• Unread counter

Message types: text, system (status changes), file.

Step 6: Escrow Payment

The payment model protects both parties:

1. Client pays → funds are held
2. Attorney conducts the consultation
3. Consultation completed → funds released to the attorney
4. If cancelled → refunded to the client

Split:

• 90% — to the attorney
• 10% — platform commission

Matter Access

When a consultation is paid, the attorney automatically receives the consultant role on the client's matter — read-only access to documents. After completion — access is revoked.

This works through the existing matter segregation system: the attorney only sees documents from the matter the consultation was ordered for.

Reviews

After completion, the client can leave a review:

• Overall rating (1-5 stars)
• Breakdown: communication, knowledge, professionalism, value
• Updates average_rating and rating_count in the attorney's profile

Full cycle — from "I need a lawyer" to a paid consultation with a review. No calls, no emails, no manual coordination.