Law Office Management
Aug. 2, 2009
Self-Help Law
Some website connect do-it yourself consumers with lawyers who can help.
When "do it yourself" sites such as Nolo.com, iCANdocs.org, and Legalzoom.com began offering legal forms over the past decade?some for a fee and some for free?many lawyers saw them as a threat to their livelihoods. But in recent years a new generation of DIY websites has appeared with the aim of actually generating business for California lawyers. All legal DIY sites help consumers with matters such as divorce, wills, and name changes. But the premise behind some of the newer sites is that fill-in-the-blank legal forms are good for only a handful of simple, straightforward situations. So when a person filling out divorce papers gets stuck on a question of community property, for instance, these sites can provide a link directly to a lawyer who can help. "We give people affordable, accessible information as they represent themselves," says Charley Moore, founder and CEO of RocketLawyer.com in San Francisco. "But we understand that there's a point at which people ought not represent themselves. We want to make it easy and affordable to get professional help." Launched in 2007, RocketLawyer delivers about 2,000 requests for legal help each month to lawyers who have posted their professional profiles on the site. Being listed on RocketLawyer is free, but for $89 a month lawyers can also use the site's practice-management software to do tasks such as creating and sharing legal documents, invoicing clients, and archiving documents. As of April, RocketLawyer claimed 25,000 daily visitors and 10,000 lawyers who actively use the site to market their practices. Baltimore-based DirectLaw.com, which recently landed its first two clients in California, takes a different approach to helping lawyers drum up business: For a monthly fee starting at $199, it makes its software available to lawyers to bulk up their own websites. That way clients can "buy legal documents bundled with legal advice?and they can pay for all that online with their credit card," says founder and CEO Richard Granat. In essence, DirectLaw offers a platform through which lawyers can work exclusively online with clients, at cheaper rates than they would charge for face-to-face consultations. JD Supra.com of San Francisco offers yet another approach to generating business. Like the other sites, it houses a collection of legal documents, but it puts more emphasis on helping attorneys attract attention with legal content they post, such as law review articles, filings, and state-specific forms. The idea is that the specialized content from some 2,000 contributors will help get them noticed?by potential clients, media, and even their colleagues. Any legal professional can upload legal writings to the site for free, but to add their contact info attorneys need a premium account?starting at $450 annually. (The fee includes a variety of additional services, such as performance analytics.) None of these sites offers specific statistics about revenue they generate for attorneys. For example, JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler says she is unable to track the number of clients her customers have gained by posting their legal documents on the site. But DirectLaw's Granat says that the "cost effective" aspect of working online "enables the middle class not to be priced out of legal services." Adds Grant: "We're just at the beginning of a sea change."
Usman Baporia
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