What do you all think of sites that generate legal docs (free or paid)? Do you think they’re going to replace us lawyers? Are they even legal?? Isn’t it practicing law without license, or establishing attorney-client relationship?

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Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

They more or less fill out forms that are available to lawyers and the general public in public law libraries etc. So in that respect I don’t think they establish any A/C relationship or give legal advice.

However I do think they’re bad and using a template like that isn’t going to hold up if litigation arises. It’s kind of a “you get what you pay for” deal. Those websites are selling McDonald’s chicken nuggies and we’re selling gourmet hand breaded fried chicken.

I’m really hungry.

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Counseling people on the proper method for filling out official forms may arguably be upl in some jurisdictions / circumstances. Simply providing the forms is not.

That being said, there are many carve outs for certain industries and use cases where expertise is expected to be had by non attorneys. These businesses operate in those gray areas.


Interestingly, being as determining what is the practice of law is a judiary function, statutes are merely advisory. So essentially attorneys are the only ones authorized to decide when people must use their services.

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That is fascinating. So basically (at least under that decision), the legislature can restrict activities by saying “X is the practice of law and can only be done by licensed attorneys,” but they can’t carve out the ability for non-lawyers to perform any activity that the courts determine is the practice of law.

Thanks for pointing me to that. I was incredulous at first, but that’s a fascinating look into the judicial-legislative dynamic.

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Estate planning and elder law lawyer, here. Eventually, a legislature’s parent is going to use one of these websites to make a Will that has issues, litigation will ensue, fortunes will be “lost” and it will begin the path to being regulated.

I see form generated POAs all of the time and they are often so restrictive or vague that they serve very little purpose from a practical standpoint.

The other issue is that there is no person to person interaction where things like competence and undue influence are being considered and screened. Litigation revolving around whether someone was competent or not years after a document was signed can be expensive and drag on for a long time before being resolved. It is so much simpler to have a contemporaneous assessment by both the person’s doctor and the attorney preparing the documents of competence is at all a possible issue (such as someone with a dementia diagnosis signing a Will).

Attorneys are not just form fillers. Estate planning can be incredibly complex in some situations. I use a (expensive) program to help guide my own work, but the end result almost always alters the form product in some way because a form filler can’t navigate through every possible scenario that can come up.

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Though I agree with your other points, I don't think they will end up being regulated in a special way. It is the same as the difference between using an accountant for your taxes and turbotax.

Special regulations likely aren't necessary.

Real property is a good example. Whereas in the past a bunch of states considered overseeing a closing to be the practice of law, the trend has been in the opposite direction to loosen up restrictions and define more closing activities as not being the practice of law.

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