Online legal documents - good or bad?

I get a lot of calls to my office about legal documents. Most times the calls are about Last Will and Testaments, Living Wills, Powers of Attorney, Buy-Sell Agreements and such. The prospective client always asks the costs for drafting such a document and then after I respond the inevitable question arises. Why can’t I just go online and use one of those documents? So and So website sells a Last Will and Testament for $19.95. My response? Go ahead, be my guest, just don’t complain when you find that the document has errors or is invalid in your state.

I have found that many of the legal documents online are general, vague representations of what a truly finished legal document should be. What you need to understand is that each state has different laws and different requirements for a document to be legally binding. In Pennsylvania, for example, a Will typically requires two witnesses to be valid (there are exceptions to this rule, but that is for another article). In Florida, under certain circumstances, three witnesses are required for a Will to be valid. You might not know that if you didn’t consult with a Florida Attorney regarding those requirements. The problem that I have found with various online documents is that they try to apply to all states at once, in a general fashion, and fail to consider the individual requirements of each specific state.

This is not to say that all online legal documents are invalid. To the contrary, some of them are very well written and serve to protect your interests fully. The question is, how do you know if the document is well written and valid? The answer: You don’t. You are not an Attorney and you haven’t gone to law school, that was the reason that you called the law office to begin with. You also likely had the same doubts that I am expressing about online legal documents or you never would have called an attorney in the first place.

Think about your underlying need for a legal document. Perhaps you were considering having a Last Will and Testament drafted. Why do you want one? Likely, it is to ensure that your estate is settled properly and that your assets are distributed to the heirs of your choosing. That’s a pretty important reason. Should you trust something that you found online at a discount and hope that it is valid? I’ll let your common sense answer that question and hold back my own answer for another time.

Perhaps you are considering adding a new salesman to your sales force. Your company has sensitive and valuable information and clientele, so you ask the prospective employee to sign a Covenant Not to Compete. You can find a form for that online with a few clicks of the mouse. The question is whether you want to trust such an important undertaking to what you find at a random online website. If you do, be my guest. If you want to ensure that the document is drafted to meet the requirements of your state and will wholly protect your interests, contact your local attorney. If you are concerned with his/her prices, simply get out the phone book and call another one.