eLawyering Blog : Online Legal Services : DirectLaw : Document Automation, Web-Enabled Document Assembly, Virtual Lawyering

As many of you know who have been following this blog, DirectLaw is a client portal that enables a law firm to offer online legal services. It is not designed as a cloud-based practice management system, such as timekeeping and billing which we view as "back-office" functions, although DirectLaw still incorporates many practice management features. The purpose of the client portal concept is to enable the law firm to work with a client online, rather than just by telephone and face-to-face, and in ways that are powerful than simply using email.

This week, we launched a Free Version of DirectLaw.  We call it "free" because there is no monthly subscription charge, but there is a $99.00 set-up fee to cover our costs in activating a new account.

This is a fully operational platform that includes all of the virtual law platform features except web-enabled document automation and our state specific libraries of legal forms and documents.

Here is what you can do with the "DirectLaw Free Version":
 

• Legal Advice by Phone, E-mail and Web Cam.  Sell any or all of these services on a flat fee basis.  You set the pricing.
• Legal Document Review.  Offer review services and provide advice for existing documents or forms.  Example:  "I purchased a will from LegalZoom.com, and need an attorney to review it."  You quote a fee based on the complexity of work.
• Legal & Court Coaching.  Another legal advice service you can offer on a flat fee basis.
• Online Collaboration Features.  Share and store documents.  Communicate with clients online.  Secure, archived and accessible 24/7.  Works great for existing/traditional clients, as well online clients.
• Calendaring.  Publish important, upcoming dates/events.  Includes an automatic reminder feature.
• Legal Resources.  Publish client-relevant legal information/links.  Information is accessible via the "client space".
• Attorney Dashboard.  Manage all client-related data; communications; selection/pricing of legal services, etc.
• MyAccount. Stores client contact information.  Information is downloadable to Excel spreadsheet format.
• Integrated Credit Card Processing.  Accept online credit card payment for online legal services.
• Legal Invoicing.   Bill clients via the "client space".  Easy, convenient way to offer online credit card payment of legal invoices.  Works great with existing/traditional clients and for online clients where work beyond the scope of limited services is necessary.
• Rapidocs Solo, our Rapidocs document authoring system, is also included, so you see if you can automate your own documents.

The DirectLaw Free Version is to be distinguished from the Free Trial, which is not a fully operational version and is simply a "sandbox" which lets you play around with the DirectLaw features. You can convert from the Free Trial to the DirectLaw Free Version at any  time, and you can upgrade from the DirectLaw Free Version to Levels I, II, and III at any time. Click here to see the differences between the three levels of service and the different levels of pricing.

We decided to introduce the concept of a Free Version with the idea of accelerating the adoption of virtual law firm concepts by solos and small law firms. Our marketing data, based on analyzing Google Key Word popularity in this market space, such as "virtual law firm," "online legal services", and "virtual law firm,"  shows a relatively low hit rate compared to other trends in the law firm technology market space. We will provide more details of this analysis in a later post. What it says to me is that the number of lawyers, particularly solos and small law firm lawyers, who are simply just interested in learning more about the"virtual law firm" concept is a very low percentage of the total addressable market. This is typical of the way in which the legal profession adapts to new technology - - very slowly. Thus we think the concept of a "Free Version" of DirectLaw can be an important learning tool for lawyers who are interested in moving their law practices onto the Internet. By making this proposition a "no-cost" experiment, law firms can witness first hand how operating on the Internet can enhance their law practice and increase law firm productivity.

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LegalZoom has a clever plan to create an Attorney Directory for visitors to its web site that supports its market position. LegalZoom now attracts the most web traffic of any legal web site so this is an attempt to squeeze more value from this traffic.  Attorneys who enroll in the Directory, which is free except of a $99.00 set-up fee, are required to give users who are sent their way, a free 30 minute consultation. This enables LegalZoom to provide legal advice to augment its legal form document preparation services. The only lawyers who would participate in this Directory are those who are hoping to capture a case with a large fee, for either a complex matter or a personal injury matter --- cases which LegalZoom can't service with its legal form business.

These lawyers are not threatened by the fact that LegalZoom is offering an alternative, non-lawyer service that is eating away at the market share of solos and small law firms that provide legal services to the broad middle class in such areas as wills, incorporation, no-fault divorce, trademark, and name change, to name only a few. The reality is that these common transactions also require the legal advice of an attorney, but if lawyers are to keep their fees low, how can they give legal advice away for free?

Attorneys who are offering lower cost "unbundled legal services" which consist of legal forms together with legal advice for a fixed fee would not be motivated to provide 30 minutes of free advice. Many of these firms can charge a small fee for this legal advice. 

Nolo, one of LegalZoom's competitors, also offers an Attorney Directory, but these attorneys are not required to provide a free 30 minute consultation. As a result law firm's in the Nolo Directory are more oriented towards providing limited legal services to clients of moderate means. Nolo is the second highest traffic legal web site.

Disclosure: My Maryland-based virtual law firm which offers limited legal services for a fixed fee is a member of the Nolo Lawyer Directory. We are pleased with the results we are getting, even though we pay advertising fees to participate.

With this move, venture-backed LegalZoom, with its superior market position, will continue to increase its market share of common legal services at the expense of the legal profession.

With this new Lawyer Directory, LegalZoom can buttress its claim that it "puts the law on your side."

 

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A new web site based in Florida: http://www.idivorce.com     offers a set of automated Florida divorce forms for free. The user scrolls through a set of friendly but numerous screens, and inserts their financial information and other information. Once completed, the forms are instantly available and can be printed out from the web browser. The generated forms are not in Adobe .PDF format, as distributed by the Florida Supreme Court, but they seem to meet all of the court requirements any way, so they should be accepted by Florida court clerks.

The interesting feature of the site is that the forms are not only automated, which requires a capital investment, but also free. Apparently the research, development, and administrative costs will be offset by advertising revenues generated by Google Ad Words and other advertising networks. I see this as a trend in the sense that as legal forms continue to become more transparent in the sense that the legal profession can no longer control legal information distribution, they become commodities and the cost of legal forms themselves goes down to zero.

It will be interesting to see if this site generates enough advertising revenues to justify expansion to other states outside of Florida. Meanwhile it will be a useful site for Florida consumers. It would be useful if the site mentioned on the home page that only Florida divorce forms are available at this time, but there additional states are planned.  As presently presented the site is not in compliance with the American Bar Association's Best Practices for Legal Information Web Site Providers.

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