Legal hotline calls now answered by PAR staff attorneys

PAR’s legal hotline officially moves in-house today as part of PAR’s strategic plan implementation. The legal hotline, which was previously handled by outside legal counsel, will now be answered by four in-house staff attorneys, Hank Lerner, Desiree Brougher, Brian Carter and Kacy Clouser, who are located in PAR’s headquarters. The phone number and hours remain the same at this time.

Legal services are consistently identified as one of PAR’s most valued member benefits. We’re happy to be able to continue these services and look at ways to refine and expand them to maintain and add value to our members.

Moving the legal hotline internally was the result of a year of research, looking at different options for providing legal hotline services to PAR’s 34,000 members. A review of other state Realtor® associations showed that more than half offer an in-house legal hotline service, including Maryland, New York, Ohio and Virginia.

Data shows that the top legal hotline categories for PAR members are forms, seller disclosure, inspection and licensing issues, all of which PAR’s legal staff is extremely familiar with. PAR’s staff attorneys will be solely focused on real estate issues and the Realtor® organization so they will become even more knowledgeable about the issues. With the in-house hotline, PAR will be able to analyze calls to determine trends, to allow us to provide better service to members. The attorneys will write more articles for the Just Listed blog, provide new and updated resources better reflect current members’ needs, and should be frequent presenters to local associations.