A few of my blog posts have discussed the pitfalls of relying on universal legal forms like those provided through Legal Zoom.
the ABA Journal has posted what seems to be a legal victory for Legal Zoom – the South Carolina Supreme Court has declared that Legal Zoom’s document service is not the
“unauthorized practice of law” – for those of you non-lawyers reading this, in most states, you need to be licensed to practice law.
See the article here
I thought the following was particularly noteworthy:
of 20 practice areas encompassed by LegalZoom’s document service, for 19 of them the same basic services “are available online to South Carolina citizens (and the public at large) via other self-help portals at websites maintained by various South Carolina governmental agencies.”
It is not the provision of these forms that I find problematic, so much as the reliance of using these forms without legal advice. This is where the general population who use these forms can get into trouble.
Purpose Driven General Counsel 