WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.690 –> 00:00:08.189
The Our Shawn: Hey guys, it’s our Sean McBride with you again. Welcome, today we’re going to be looking at legal zoom versus a lawyer.
2
00:00:08.519 –> 00:00:15.570
The Our Shawn: And which is better for you. And so this is a common question that comes up. In fact, I have as a practicing attorney.
3
00:00:16.170 –> 00:00:24.780
The Our Shawn: People come to my office and they say, well, your charge this much legal zoom charges this much and I will tell you, you know, the Attorney
4
00:00:25.410 –> 00:00:29.520
The Our Shawn: At least in my case is is almost always more expensive than legal zoom
5
00:00:30.000 –> 00:00:41.190
The Our Shawn: And they say, why should we pay more. What’s the difference in your services. So today what immigration attorneys law show YouTube channel. I want to answer that question for you. So we’re going to jump into it.
6
00:00:41.850 –> 00:00:52.080
The Our Shawn: should be, it should be informative for you. So I want to start by sharing my screen here, and we’re just going to go right to the source. We’re going to go. We’re going to take a turn.
7
00:00:52.800 –> 00:01:05.460
The Our Shawn: We’re a tune over to legal zoom.com and see what’s going on over there and we’re take a look through a few things to see what the differences are. So let me share the screen for you here. Legal zoom teed up here on the other screen.
8
00:01:06.660 –> 00:01:17.670
The Our Shawn: And boom, here we are. So we’re on legal zoom calm very clean website. Obviously, I mean, these people have done a great job building some of this stuff out.
9
00:01:18.180 –> 00:01:23.970
The Our Shawn: And they, you know, obviously have spent a lot of time on advertising getting the name out there, run great commercials.
10
00:01:24.750 –> 00:01:29.970
The Our Shawn: I’m scrolling down to the bottom here because I was looking through their website earlier and
11
00:01:30.480 –> 00:01:39.210
The Our Shawn: I knew this, I knew that this was here somewhere. And I had to search and search and search for it and I don’t imagine the average consumer does this
12
00:01:39.750 –> 00:01:55.020
The Our Shawn: But if you scroll all the way all the way all the way to the bottom you’ll see this here and it’s copyright legal zoom. We expect that right there are copyright their website. But then if you go here. There’s in grey text. It’s barely a different color than
13
00:01:56.130 –> 00:02:08.370
The Our Shawn: The rest of the site, we get we get this this paragraph and says disclaimers communications, we, you and legal zoom are not protected by our privacy policies.
14
00:02:09.450 –> 00:02:17.790
The Our Shawn: But may not be attorney client privilege or work product, right. So that’s the first thing you’re getting no confidentiality here, right, anything you put out legal Zoom is just there.
15
00:02:18.120 –> 00:02:22.350
The Our Shawn: May or may not be a big deal in your situation, but definitely when you have an attorney.
16
00:02:22.710 –> 00:02:29.730
The Our Shawn: That set things up properly. You’re going to get some attorney client privilege. When you’re discussing legal matters and getting legal advice from the attorney so
17
00:02:30.480 –> 00:02:37.260
The Our Shawn: That’s a big piece here and they provide access to attorneys. Right. So you have to remember, if you look at this pricing here.
18
00:02:37.740 –> 00:02:46.530
The Our Shawn: They legal zoom may pass you through to an attorney so legal Zoom is going to take whatever the relationship is with the attorney. I don’t know exactly how that works.
19
00:02:47.190 –> 00:02:55.350
The Our Shawn: Or they may provide self help services at your discretion, right, they’re not a law firm and they’re not a substitute for an attorney or a law firm.
20
00:02:55.770 –> 00:03:10.110
The Our Shawn: They can’t provide you advice explanation opinion or recommendation about the possible legal remedies rights defenses options selection of forms or strategies. This is big here, folks. And so when I’ve worked with legal zoom over the years.
21
00:03:11.190 –> 00:03:19.770
The Our Shawn: That, that part is the part that has been a big deal is the legal rights and remedies.
22
00:03:20.640 –> 00:03:30.420
The Our Shawn: Defenses option selections of warms and strategies and and more than a few times I’ve had situations where that’s become an issue right a client comes to me and
23
00:03:30.990 –> 00:03:39.480
The Our Shawn: A lot. I’ve had several clients, now that have used legal zoom or stuff they found on the internet and then come to me after the fact and
24
00:03:39.870 –> 00:03:47.190
The Our Shawn: What I find largely as are often as problems and selecting the forums. I had a client come to me with a corporate deal
25
00:03:47.460 –> 00:03:55.650
The Our Shawn: Multiple owners. So they were calling it a partnership and I do the same. So if you’ve used other videos here on the McBride attorneys law show I talked about the fact
26
00:03:56.130 –> 00:04:06.300
The Our Shawn: That you know a lot of people in colloquial language, even attorneys, use the term partnership to to refer to multiple owner businesses with more than one owner, so
27
00:04:06.930 –> 00:04:16.350
The Our Shawn: That’s a discussion of the ownership structure and how many people own the business and there’s the legal structure. And so the two flow together, but they’re not the same, right. So,
28
00:04:16.680 –> 00:04:26.250
The Our Shawn: A partnership for economic purposes multiple people owning a business together may or may not be a partnership for
29
00:04:27.060 –> 00:04:35.490
The Our Shawn: Illegal purposes. Right. So it might be a corporation might be an LLC might be something else. Right. So we have to separate those two because they’re distinct
30
00:04:36.090 –> 00:04:49.800
The Our Shawn: And a lot of times we find people don’t understand those fine nuances. I had a client come to me a fairly sophisticated client working on a deal. And it was a corporate deal. And at the end, they came back and they said
31
00:04:51.120 –> 00:04:52.470
The Our Shawn: You know, um,
32
00:04:54.180 –> 00:05:02.610
The Our Shawn: Here’s the document. We’ve been working on all this time and it was a partnership agreement, which was completely the wrong form the corporate documents they bought the wrong form.
33
00:05:03.090 –> 00:05:14.520
The Our Shawn: Off of the website. And recently I had a client come to me with a legal zoom contract. And if there’s enough interest, let me know. Here McBride attorneys last show comment on this video.
34
00:05:15.120 –> 00:05:23.610
The Our Shawn: And let me know if you’re interested in looking through a form document on legal zoom and I may look at the LLC route but I client comes in with an LLC agreement.
35
00:05:24.030 –> 00:05:30.300
The Our Shawn: And it was completely missing the key provisions that that client needed for their situation so
36
00:05:30.990 –> 00:05:40.020
The Our Shawn: It’s just something to be aware of. Right. So legal Zoom is going to give you documents you can buy a lot of documents and let’s pop back over to legal zoom calm here.
37
00:05:40.530 –> 00:05:51.330
The Our Shawn: I mean their database is impressive, right, they have you know a lot of stuff. People come to me for and then I do as part of my practice right so they’re
38
00:05:52.200 –> 00:06:08.490
The Our Shawn: They’re coming. And they’re people are calling and you know they need an LLC agreement they need a corporation, they need to do DPA and doing business as right which these are all things that come up as part of my legal practice. Right. So here they are right on legal zoom
39
00:06:09.840 –> 00:06:23.460
The Our Shawn: But for instance I had another client come in. It was running a nonprofit in Texas and that nonprofit. They had bought a legal zoom form. And when we got into it. They filled it out incorrectly which which happens a lot, right. So,
40
00:06:25.350 –> 00:06:36.690
The Our Shawn: You know, we can we can we can look at their documents and, I mean, there they are and what’s one thing. It’s interesting. I found about legal Zoom is you can actually look at their documents online.
41
00:06:37.710 –> 00:06:55.110
The Our Shawn: And they’re fairly good for generic documents, at least the ones I’ve seen right they they look like legal documents are formatted by legal documents. They’ve obviously probably have more years go over their legal document. So, push, push, push, all in the right direction, but
42
00:06:56.160 –> 00:07:04.200
The Our Shawn: They’re not. They’re not sophisticated. They’re not tailored and that’s the big difference between legal zoom and a lawyer. So if I had to tailor it down to one thing
43
00:07:04.800 –> 00:07:13.770
The Our Shawn: Lawyer is hired to be your advocate and our ethics rules basically require that we do what’s best for you with with very limited exceptions.
44
00:07:14.520 –> 00:07:23.790
The Our Shawn: Maybe, maybe in a case of a crime or a fraud or some other cases. But generally, we have to absolutely do what’s best for our clients and so
45
00:07:24.630 –> 00:07:32.550
The Our Shawn: We’re they’re doing what’s right for you. And we’re looking out for your interests and we’re making sure you get the right forum or making sure the form gets filled outing.
46
00:07:33.120 –> 00:07:40.200
The Our Shawn: gets filled out correctly and that we we make sure we look ahead to issues in your business. And that’s where I’ve seen
47
00:07:40.590 –> 00:07:48.750
The Our Shawn: The real issue with legal Zoom is if people go there. You grab one of these nice looking forms, it will look a lot like something that attorney did
48
00:07:49.260 –> 00:07:57.870
The Our Shawn: The problem is, it may be missing a clause or two. And I will tell you in the course of my legal practice over the years many, many people have come to me.
49
00:07:58.920 –> 00:08:11.940
The Our Shawn: And looked at a form and when they’ve gotten into a sticky situation, usually a lawsuit or threatened lawsuit and we go grab those forums and we’re digging through them and that’s when everybody’s reading every sentence.
50
00:08:13.110 –> 00:08:27.000
The Our Shawn: Usually sometimes for the first time, because people aren’t careful in the formation. That’s another lesson. Why you need to be careful in the beginning, versus later. So people started digging through these forums and then they find that
51
00:08:28.050 –> 00:08:29.670
The Our Shawn: You know, they’re missing a key clause.
52
00:08:30.840 –> 00:08:37.740
The Our Shawn: loan agreement, for instance, you know, there’s something called an acceleration clause, which means if, if, if the borrower and this is a payment.
53
00:08:38.670 –> 00:08:43.530
The Our Shawn: The entire loan balance becomes do immediately. So usually alone has installments.
54
00:08:44.220 –> 00:08:51.540
The Our Shawn: We often put an acceleration clause in there in the event of a default, which means the entire balance becomes do which then allows the
55
00:08:52.170 –> 00:09:04.410
The Our Shawn: Lender to get all their money back. Well, somebody Miss putting acceleration clause into a agreement and because they miss that we ended up in a situation where
56
00:09:05.430 –> 00:09:17.640
The Our Shawn: They couldn’t enforce their rights. Immediately they can only assume for the missing payments. Right. So it really slowed things down. So I think that’s your key consideration here. If you’re thinking about legals new inverse a lawyer.
57
00:09:18.660 –> 00:09:26.010
The Our Shawn: You know, go talk to a lawyer, go see what the lawyer would charge you most will at least talk to you a little bit for free and get to know you.
58
00:09:27.090 –> 00:09:31.770
The Our Shawn: I mean that’s policy in my office. If you’re a serious business. And you’re thinking about hiring a lawyer.
59
00:09:32.250 –> 00:09:36.690
The Our Shawn: You know, I’ll usually spend some time just getting to know you know personalities and business but
60
00:09:36.960 –> 00:09:47.370
The Our Shawn: The key to legals and really is this clause right here which is they’re not giving. They’re not a law firm. They’re not giving legal advice so not explaining documents. They’re just giving you documents.
61
00:09:48.030 –> 00:09:53.130
The Our Shawn: And if you’re a lawyer. If you have experience if you know how to tailor those documents that might be fine.
62
00:09:53.670 –> 00:10:01.950
The Our Shawn: But for most people. I imagine that’s not going to be the case. So looking forward to your comments dropping below its McBride attorneys law show is always don’t include confidential information.
63
00:10:02.520 –> 00:10:10.260
The Our Shawn: This is not an attorney client relationship based on the video. But I’m here to give you ideas, hopefully help you in your decision between legal zoom and a lawyer.
64
00:10:10.710 –> 00:10:19.620
The Our Shawn: And I would love your comments feedback. Make sure you subscribe, and Brian Tracy last show will be bringing you more tips, tricks, ideas, things that will help you be a better business owner
65
00:10:19.920 –> 00:10:24.210
The Our Shawn: And business leader. Alright folks are shot abroad sign off looking forward to hearing from you soon.