Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
In almost every situation, the “non-legal, legal” services that are offered online are generic and vague. Also, these online forms can hurt your business and financial objectives because they don’t take your specific needs into consideration.
Online legal services of this kind are almost always a bad idea and could end up costing you money in the long run. A bit more money invested upfront with a local lawyer will often save you exponential amounts of money in the long run.
The Internet is full of “legal” forms or low-cost document preparation services that are advertised as replacements for “expensive” visits to your local attorney. There are serious risks with using these services instead of hiring a local attorney.
Many of these advertisements are made on radio, often within radio programs to which I myself listen. The legitimacy of the program within which the advertisements are run often lends inappropriate credibility to those online “not a lawyer but legal assistance” services and legal form companies.
Read Lee’s full article on online legal documents in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Can I just prepare legal documents online?
Source: LimaOhio.com, Legal-Ease: Can I just prepare legal documents online? by Lee R. Schroeder, July 12, 2014