A special Make-A-Will Month promotion from LegalZoom, provider of on-line legal documents

August 15, 8:39 AMNY Working Moms ExaminerAmy Impellizzeri

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In 2000, former UCLA law school classmates, Brian Liu and Brian Lee, were working for top law firms.  That year, the friends decided to do something about all those relatives asking for help with legal documents.

They started an on-line legal documents service. 

Their company, LegalZoom, provides legal documents - but not legal counsel, as Brian Liu is quick to point out - such as legal wills, legal trusts, and formation of business documents.  They provide these documents at "lawyer-free pricing" which they estimate could save you up to 85% of the price a traditional lawyer might charge.

The process is fairly straightforward. 

Legal staff for LegalZoom create the template documents.  On-line consumers submit answers to various questions, following instructions provided by LegalZoom.   A document is generated and forwarded to the consumer after it is reviewed for things like consistency, pagination and spelling errors by LegalZoom's non-legal staff.

The credibility of the documents is paramount to LegalZoom.  That is why Lee and Liu approached high-profile attorney Robert Shapiro when they were starting up the company.  He agreed to get on board with them, helped co-found the company and Liu explains, "Mr. Shapiro is still involved, still a trusted advisor for us."

How's business?  Well, Liu reports that in general: divorces are down and new business formation is up.  And legal wills are up.  Way up.  In fact, there has been a 42% increase in LegalZoom's legal will business in the last 6 weeks (from the 6 weeks prior) which Liu attributes directly to the early news coverage of Michael Jackson's death and the uncertainty surrounding his estate. 

Why get a legal will from LegalZoom rather than going to see an attorney?  For Liu, that's not the issue.  "Sure, if you have the time and the resources and want to seek legal counsel, by all means do so."

But if you don't have a will (and LegalZoom estimates that nearly 75% of Americans with kids do not) because you don't have the time and/or resources to go sit down with an attorney, then Liu says, it just may be that LegalZoom is for you.

For a limited time only, and in honor of Make-A-Will Month, LegalZoom is offering examiner.com readers a $10 discount on a Last Will and Testament.  Use code "Examiner" in the referral box.   Offer good only until August 31, 2009.