Free Online Legal Documents and Forms

Should you use online legal document services? Yes and no. How is that for a straight forward answer? Fortunately and unfortunately, the Internet has made getting legal forms easier and much more cost effective (many times this means free).

The up-side to this is that more people can create much-needed documents that they could otherwise not complete due to financial burdens. For instance, everyone should have a Will, but not everyone can afford an attorney to draft one. So, accessing a standard Will form on the Internet and inputting your own information is a great alternative to no will whatsoever.

Or is it?

Unfortunately, what many people do not realize is that the laws governing these legal documents differ state by state. For instance, to keep with the Will example, estate and probate laws vary across the states, and your estate documents should account for this. As a result, most of the sites that offer these online legal forms do so with an attached noticed disclaiming any validity of the document.

Is it worth the risk? Many people would say, “yes,” fully believing that something is better than nothing. Perhaps in some cases this would be true. Having your wishes written down, in any format, is better than no explicit desires or intentions at all.

However, I would not suggest becoming complacent with these documents. While they may give you an outline, and some sort of idea as to what you will want and need to include in a professionally prepared document, you should still consult an attorney in your state before filing any of them.

If money is a great concern, gather all the information necessary to complete the online legal form, and organize it in a clear and concise manner. Perhaps make an Excel spreadsheet or organize all the documentation necessary into a notebook. (Or hire me to do it.) Then, give that information to your attorney.

You hire an attorney on an hourly basis, so doing some of the busy work for him will save you money. You may not need, in a legality sense, an attorney to prepare the documents, but having one check over them before they are filed will save you money and a whole lot of hassle in the long run if those documents are ever needed.