Tuesday, May 27, 2008

For Those Wanting Forms: Legal Zoom Review

Many visiting here look for forms and that is not really the purpose of this blog. Instead, read What is LegalZoom? from eLawering Blog. I think the review does a good job of balancing the pros and cons of a service like LegalZoom.

The review makes a point of something I have noticed about these online sites:

The company claims that: "With LegalZoom's lawyer-free service, you can save up to 85% off the rates an attorney would charge for the same procedure. " This comparison misrepresents the contribution that an attorney makes when serving a client. It suggests that the LegalZoom service is equivalent to the services of an attorney, when it clearly isn't. The representation suggests that a consumer will receive the same result that they would get if they went to an attorney, which is clearly not the case. Moreover, there are many attorneys who charge fees which compare favorably with LegalZoom's fee structure, so the fees that lawyers charge for comparable transactions which are published on the LegalZoom web site are true of some law firms, but not all solo and small firms.
Cheap is cheap, and you need to keep that mind. A little research into what a local attorney will charge for forms and services would do you better than relying on a commercial with nationwide reach.