I get a lot of questions about online tools to make legal documents, especially Wills and LLC formations.
The best advice I can give you is that if you just want to fill in the blanks on a document, use an online tool. But if you want guidance on how to create a plan that will ensure you and your loved ones are cared for in the event of death or disability, it’s best to go to a lawyer.
Online tools have boiler plate templates that are unable to take into account specific situations and often have incorrect or contradictory clauses. They also often do not have proper conflict resolution information built in, which can result in messy court battles. And a computer algorithm cannot understand, and take into account, your specific wishes for yourself and your loved ones.
Essentially, the tools are not able to process the information in a personal, sophisticated fashion, like a professional can, and you end up with a document which likely does not meet your needs. It will leave out important information that may result in your loved ones not being cared for the way you intended.
I think people often forget that lawyers go to years of schooling, then do “on the job training”, as well and continuing legal education, before they ever produce something a client is going to get. It’s hard to think that “fill in the blanks” can listen and understand your goals and produce a document that achieves your objectives.
I can equate it to a English class and two different assignments. The first assignment you have your allowed to write a creative story. You have so many options open to you to write the story you want and are not confined by any prescribed bounds.
The second would be a an exercise where the storyline was already typed out for you, and you simply were able to just fill in some of the adjectives. Easier in some regard; certainly quicker. But you might not like the storyline at all, and you are stuck with that. That in a nutshell is the difference between using a lawyer and an online tool.
I’ll give you an example:
I want to leave my dog to my friend along with money to care for my dog.
The online tool might allow me to fill out the name of the person who gets my dog and an amount of money that goes to that person. So, the boiler plate Will might say “I leave my dog Frankie to my friend Bob. I also leave Bob $10,000.00 for the care of Frankie.”
But what if Frankie is no longer around when I die and I have a new dog? Well, the Will doesn’t address that and there would be an issue.
Also, what if Bob gets Frankie and the $10,000 and decides to immediately turn Frankie over to the animal shelter and keep the $10,000? The online Will can’t address that either.
A lawyer can talk through these options with you, understand that you want your friend to get any pets you own, and ensure documents are prepared so that any money you leave is only used for the purposes you intend.
This is just one example, but there are so many more issues involving family homes, second marriages (providing for the spouse and children from former marriage), and guardianship for children. These all require personal conversations to understand your goals; something an online program cannot help you with.
Often issues with incomplete or contradicting information can be so large, that the entire document is completely invalid.
Essentially, you paid for nothing. Ithink of legal work a little like some of my home renovations projects I do.
You want to choose the right tool for the job otherwise it’s impossible to get the job done, correctly.
If you grab whatever you have closest to you, to try and force the result, you often end up making a mess, that in the long run, might actually be a big headache and costly.
For important legal documents, most times, a lawyer is the right choice over trusting your fate with an online tool.