Online Legal Forms - 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.

About the author:
Greg Artim is an Attorney located in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
For answers to more of your legal questions, please visit his
website at www.gregartim.com