Originally Posted 10/21/06
Legal Zoom will:
1. File a Provisional Patent Application for $199.00;
2. File a Trademark for $159.00; and
3. Form an LLC for $359.
So why would we love them?
Because those who used Legal Zoom for any one of these items will eventually find their way to us or some other attorney to fix the mess they got into using LegalZoom. Peter and I figure we have earned well over $10,000 fixing problems resulting from the use of Legal Zoom; where we would only have made about 4-5,000 if the respective parties had come to us in the first place to have the associated paperwork properly prepared and filed! Also, you should know that there were several people for whom we could not fix the mistakes including a person who had lost is right to file for a patent based on a misunderstanding concerning what protections Legal Zoom’s provisional patent filing really provided him.
Notice I didn’t say that LegalZoom messed up: they don’t! All LegalZoom does is file documents based on the information you give them. They do not offer ANY LEGAL ADVICE! In fact, the people that work on your filings are not attorneys and they cannot by law give legal advice. If you don’t believe me, check out Legal Zoom’s own Disclaimer at http://www.legalzoom.com/universal/disclaimer.html, which states:
“LegalZoom is not a law firm, and the employees of LegalZoom are not acting as your attorney. LegalZoom does not practice law and does not give legal advice. … Instead, you are representing yourself in any legal matter you undertake through LegalZoom’s legal document service. … At no time do we review your answers for legal sufficiency, draw legal conclusions, provide legal advice or apply the law to the facts of your particular situation. This website is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.”
Incidentally, the last sentence is in fact theirs, and yes, they did emphasize it in BOLD. The interesting thing is they claim to save you over $1500 in filing a Provisional Patent Application over using an attorney YET in their disclaimer they admit they are no substitute for an attorney. Are Legal Zoom’s representations misleading? In my opinion, you betcha!
I wonder why one would even use Legal Zoom. If you don’t want to pay an attorney, why would you throw away money on a document preparation service that does no more than fill out a form and check for spelling errors? Afterall, you could just as easily go to your State’s secretary of state’s web site and file your own incorporation or LLC formation papers without much difficulty and avoid paying LEGALZOOM anything at all. The same goes for filing a Trademark or a Provisional Patent Application at www.uspto.gov.
The fact is MOST people that use Legal Zoom don’t read the disclaimer and actually believe that Legal Zoom is looking out for them much in the same way an attorney would. Some may even believe the Robert Shapiro is their attorney.
In truth, the reason you use an attorney is not to merely fill out forms BUT to use our knowledge to prepare documents in a manner that is of maximum benefit to you. You hire an attorney because we know stuff that you do not: stuff learned through years of schooling and experience. We do not charge hundreds of dollars an hour because we want to stick it to our clients: we charge hundreds of dollars an hour because that is what other clients and other consumers of legal services have determined our advice and services to be worth.
In the long run, as several former clients of LegalZoom have found out, we may actually be less expensive than the alternative.
While Legal Zoom may be good for our pocket book, they may not be good for yours. While we may have reason to love them, you have a reason to hate them. So given the foregoing statements, why are so many people using Legal Zoom and why am I writing an article telling them why they shouldn’t?
Let me just end this post saying that we welcome all former Legal Zoom customers and we are more than happy to help you fix any mistakes made as a result of using LegalZoom.
Good Day,
