The Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz, the Legal Services Act of 2007, decides who may give legal advice outside court in Germany. Its stated purpose is to protect people who seek legal help vor unqualifizierten Rechtsdienstleistungen, from unqualified legal services. A legal service is any work in someone else’s concrete matter that requires a legal examination of the individual case.
Offering it independently is not allowed unless a law permits it. A neighbor may help with a letter to the landlord for free. An association that gives free legal advice to strangers needs a lawyer or a similarly qualified person behind it. A business needs a specific permission under the act.
In 2021 the Federal Court of Justice drew the limit of this rule. The Hamburg bar association had sued the publisher of Smartlaw, an online generator that builds contracts from a user’s answers. The court dismissed the suit. The offer was abstract and not aimed at a concrete individual case, so it was not a legal service.