Using Legal Zoom for small business owners and entrepreneurs

Legal Zoom is an inexpensive way to complete legal documents to incorporate a business, form a Living Trust, or complete any number of legal documents.

I first looked at using Legal Zoom as a small business owner when incorporating a business as an entrepreneur in another state. I was incorporating as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). I logged on to Legal Zoom and clicked under the heading of Incorporations, LLCs, and DBAs.

The total fees for filing costs and shipping paperwork for the state I was looking at was a total of $ 700.

An attorney in the state told me he could do it for $ 200. I figured I would incorporate and save $ 500. Since I had used the attorney for some other business transactions, I figured he was glad to give me a tremendous discount. And while I liked Legal Zoom’s approach, I figured I would go with the less expensive option.

Several months after I thought the LLC was formed – with an address in the other state as the home office – I didn’t have any proof. I still don’t have any proof even though the people handling the office address for me had an email that a local bank used to open a business account.

Legal Zoom would have been worth the additional money.

Individuals or business partners wanting to form a LLC should consider using Legal Zoom’s services.

Legal Zoom started in 2000. “Our founding vision was for an easy-to-use, online service that helped people create their own reliable legal documents,” states the company’s Web site.

The number of businesses using its services to incorporate rose 10% from August 2008 to August 2009. The top five areas for incorporation using Legal Zoom are: real estate, consulting, Internet (including electronic commerce), retail, and construction and contractors.

One of the “faces” among the co-founders who is recognizable to many is Robert Shapiro who served on the defense team for O.J. Simpson.

A note to any company looking to incorporate a business: budget for all state and local fees in addition to applicable insurance costs.

Additional legal documents include Wills, Living Trusts and Power of Attorney plus Trademark documents and documents for divorce.

Legal Zoom was sued in a class action suit in 2009. An article on the Website IPWatchdog.com, the author goes into detail about the problems related to their documents for Trademark services:

“If you call LegalZoom (and I know this because I tried it several times) the customer service representatives will answer your questions and do seem to be providing legal advice, which would be the unauthorized practice of law. In some cases customer service representatives told me things that if done would immediately cause the loss of rights.”

Legal Zoom offers newsletters to subscribers and an article center featuring a range of topics that include the differences between an Employee and an Independent Contractor.

Utilizing the service is easy for incorporating a business or other need. Simply log on to Legalzoom.com.