Getting started with upLegal

Overview

This guide will walk you through the essential steps to start using upLegal, whether you’re a client seeking legal services or a lawyer looking to expand your practice.

I'm a client

Find and book verified lawyers

I'm a lawyer

Join the platform and get clients

For clients

Get legal help in 4 simple steps.

Create your account

Navigate to upLegal and click the login/signup button in the header.

Basic signup
Email verification

Search for lawyers

Use our powerful search to find the right lawyer:

Search methods

By specialty

Browse 19+ legal specialties including:
- Derecho de Familia (family law)
- Derecho Laboral (labor law)
- Derecho Civil (civil law)
- Derecho Penal (criminal law)
- Derecho Inmobiliario (real estate law)

By location

Filter by city or region across Chile
Find lawyers in your area or available for remote consultations

By price and rating

Set your budget with price range filters
Filter by minimum rating (1-5 stars)
View hourly rates in CLP

Lawyer profiles include

Verification badge

PJUD-verified lawyers display a “Verificado PJUD” badge

Experience

Years of practice and case history

Reviews

Client ratings and detailed feedback

Specialties

All practice areas and expertise

Click on a lawyer’s card to view their full profile with bio, education, and client testimonials.

Book a consultation

Once you’ve found the right lawyer:

Select consultation details

Choose consultation method
- 📹 Videollamada (video call) - default option
- 📞 Llamada (phone call)
Pick your date
- View available dates up to 30 days ahead
- Sundays and Chilean holidays are automatically excluded
- Dates are color-coded based on availability
Select time slot
- Available hours: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM (weekdays)
- Saturday hours: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
- Time slots integrate with lawyer’s Google Calendar
- Unavailable slots are grayed out
Choose duration
- 30 minutes - half the hourly rate
- 60 minutes - standard hourly rate
- 90 minutes - 1.5x hourly rate
- 120 minutes - 2x hourly rate

Pricing breakdown

Lawyer fee:         $XX,XXX CLP
Service fee (10%):  +$X,XXX CLP
────────────────────────────
Total to pay:       $XX,XXX CLP

The 10% service fee covers platform maintenance, payment processing, and customer support.

Complete booking

After selecting all details:

Review the booking summary
Click “Continuar al pago”
You’ll be redirected to MercadoPago checkout

Complete payment and attend consultation

Payment process

MercadoPago supports:

Credit/debit cards
Bank transfers
Other local payment methods

After successful payment:

✅ Instant booking confirmation email sent to you
✅ Lawyer receives notification of new booking
✅ Appointment appears in your dashboard
✅ Calendar invite sent (if video call selected)

Before the consultation

Video call
Phone call

Check your email for the Google Meet link
Test your camera and microphone
Prepare any documents or questions
Join 2-3 minutes early

After the consultation

Access your dashboard at /dashboard
Navigate to “Consultations” tab
Leave a review and rating
Download consultation summary (if provided)

Reviews help other clients make informed decisions and help lawyers improve their services.

For lawyers

Start receiving clients through upLegal.

Create lawyer account

Go to upLegal signup
Click login/signup button
Select “Soy Abogado - Ofrezco servicios legales”

RUT verification process

RUT verification is mandatory for all lawyers. Your profile will not be visible to clients until verified.

Enter your RUT in format XX.XXX.XXX-X
Enter your full legal name (must match PJUD records)
Click “Verificar RUT”
System validates your RUT with Poder Judicial de Chile
Upon success, you’ll see: ✅ “Verificado como abogado en el registro del Poder Judicial”

The RUT verification uses the official PJUD API to confirm you’re a registered lawyer in Chile.

After RUT verification:

// Example signup data structure
{
  rut: "12.345.678-9",
  firstName: "Juan",
  lastName: "Pérez",
  email: "[email protected]",
  password: "SecurePass123!",
  role: "lawyer",
  pjudVerified: true
}

Provide valid email address
Create strong password
Confirm password
Click “Crear cuenta”
Verify email address from inbox

Complete your profile

After verification, you’ll be redirected to Profile Setup (/dashboard/profile/setup).

Profile completion checklist

Your profile completion is tracked as a percentage:

Basic information (30%)

Professional photo (avatar)
Bio (200-500 words recommended)
Years of experience
Law firm name (optional)
Professional title

Specialties (20%)

Select your practice areas:

Primary specialty (required)
Additional specialties (up to 5)
Certifications in each area

Location & contact (15%)

City/region
Office address (optional)
Professional email
Phone number
Website (optional)

Pricing (15%)

Set hourly rate in CLP
Define consultation types offered
Specify payment terms

Research competitor rates in your specialty to price competitively.

Education & credentials (20%)

Law school and graduation year
Additional degrees or certifications
Professional memberships
Notable cases or achievements

Profile visibility

Profile Completion: 0-30%   → Not visible to clients ❌
Profile Completion: 30-70%  → Limited visibility ⚠️
Profile Completion: 70-90%  → Good visibility ✓
Profile Completion: 90-100% → Maximum visibility ✓✓

Set your availability

Navigate to /lawyer/profile and configure your schedule.

Availability configuration

The availability system uses a weekly grid:Hours: 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM (configurable per day) Days: Monday - Sunday

Web interface
Data structure

Click on time slots to toggle availability
Green = available, Gray = unavailable
Set different schedules for each day
Saturday hours typically end at 2:00 PM
Sundays are disabled by default

Example weekly schedule:

Monday:    9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday:   9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday:  9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday:    9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday:  9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Sunday:    Closed

Availability is stored as JSON:

{
  "Lunes": [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false],
  "Martes": [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false],
  "Miércoles": [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false],
  "Jueves": [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false],
  "Viernes": [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false],
  "Sábado": [true, true, true, true, true, false, false, false, false, false],
  "Domingo": [false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false]
}

Each boolean represents an hour slot starting from 9:00 AM.

Google Calendar integration

upLegal integrates with Google Calendar to prevent double bookings.

When a client books:

System checks your availability grid
Validates against existing bookings in database
Cross-references with Google Calendar busy times
Only shows truly available slots to clients

Connect your Google Calendar in Settings to enable automatic calendar blocking.

Start receiving bookings

Once your profile is complete and availability is set:

Dashboard overview

Access your lawyer dashboard at /lawyer/dashboard:

Appointments

View upcoming consultations, past appointments, and client details

Earnings

Track your revenue, payment history, and analytics

Profile

Update your information, specialties, and rates

Services

Manage your service offerings and consultation types

When you receive a booking

Email notification with client details and appointment time
Dashboard alert in the appointments section
Calendar event automatically created
Client information accessible in appointment details

Before the consultation

Preparation
Video call setup
Phone call

Review client’s consultation type and notes
Prepare relevant documents or resources
Test video call link (Google Meet)
Have billing information ready

upLegal automatically generates Google Meet links:

// Google Meet link format
meeting_link: "https://meet.google.com/xxx-xxxx-xxx"

Link is sent to both you and the client
Accessible from appointment details
Valid for the scheduled time + 30 minutes

After the consultation

Mark appointment as completed in dashboard
Add consultation notes (private)
Upload any documents or summaries for client
Earnings are automatically calculated and displayed

Payment structure

Client pays (100%):       $110,000 CLP
  ├─ Platform fee (10%):  -$10,000 CLP
  └─ Your earnings (90%):  $100,000 CLP

Payments are processed through MercadoPago and transferred to your account based on your payout schedule.

Common workflows

Client: Booking a consultation

Lawyer: Receiving a client

Best practices

For clients

Complete your profile with accurate contact information
Read lawyer reviews and compare multiple profiles
Prepare questions before your consultation
Test video call tech 10 minutes before appointment
Leave honest reviews to help the community

For lawyers

Maintain 100% profile completion for maximum visibility
Update availability weekly to reflect your schedule
Respond to booking notifications within 24 hours
Provide detailed consultation summaries to clients
Keep your rates competitive within your specialty

Troubleshooting

Can't verify email

Check spam/junk folder
Click “Reenviar correo de confirmación”
Wait 5 minutes and check again
Contact support if issue persists

RUT verification fails (lawyers)

Common issues:

Name doesn’t match PJUD records exactly
RUT format incorrect (use XX.XXX.XXX-X)
Not registered with PJUD
Connection timeout - try again

Your name must match your official PJUD registration exactly, including accents and capitalization.

No available time slots

This happens when:

Lawyer hasn’t set availability for selected date
All slots are booked
You’re trying to book same-day (minimum 15 min advance required)
Selected day is Sunday or Chilean holiday

Try selecting a different date or lawyer.

Payment declined

If MercadoPago declines payment:

Verify card details are correct
Ensure sufficient funds
Try alternative payment method
Contact your bank if issue persists
The booking slot will be released automatically

Next steps

Browse lawyers

Start searching for legal services

Platform overview

Learn more about upLegal features

Development

Technical documentation

Overview

For Clients

For Lawyers

Features

​Overview

I'm a client

I'm a lawyer

​For clients

​Search methods

​Lawyer profiles include

Verification badge

Experience

Reviews

Specialties

​Select consultation details

​Pricing breakdown

​Complete booking

​Payment process

​Before the consultation

​After the consultation

​For lawyers

​Create lawyer account

​RUT verification process

​Complete signup

​Profile completion checklist

​Profile visibility

​Availability configuration

​Google Calendar integration

​Dashboard overview

Appointments

Earnings

Profile

Services

​When you receive a booking

​Before the consultation

​After the consultation

​Payment structure

​Common workflows

​Client: Booking a consultation

​Lawyer: Receiving a client

​Best practices

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Browse lawyers

Platform overview

Development

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

For clients

Search methods

Lawyer profiles include

Select consultation details

Pricing breakdown

Complete booking

Payment process

Before the consultation

After the consultation

For lawyers

Create lawyer account

RUT verification process

Complete signup

Profile completion checklist

Profile visibility

Availability configuration

Google Calendar integration

Dashboard overview

When you receive a booking

Before the consultation

After the consultation

Payment structure

Common workflows

Client: Booking a consultation

Lawyer: Receiving a client

Best practices

Troubleshooting

Next steps