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LegalZoom

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3.9

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: April 19th, 2022

For over 14 years, millions of people have trusted LegalZoom for both business and personal legal aid. LegalZoom states that "whatever your legal need, we have the answer." They provide assistance with copyrights, divorce, business formation, estate planning (trusts and wills), name changes, patent applications, a power of attorney, prenuptial agreements, real estate leases, and trademark registration.

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The Good

  • Services
  • Low Monthly Price
  • Access to an Attorney
  • Free QuickBooks Subscription
  • Member Resources
  • Most Popular Features

Services

Overall, LegalZoom has many great perks for its services. It offers personal level and small businesses legal assistance, at a very reasonable and competitive price. In addition, both personal and business plans give the customer access to a lawyer for questions on legal matters and legal advice.

Low Monthly Price

LegalZoom's prices for both personal and small business services are very competitive. Its monthly package fees start at $9.99 for individuals and $23.99 for business owners. These prices are almost half the price of some competitors, and hundreds of dollars cheaper than hiring a lawyer. These prices are based on LegalZoom's economy package.    

Access to an Attorney

Both personal and business premium monthly plans include access to an attorney. These lawyers are familiar with the practice of law and have been known to provide excellent customer support. Customers can ask questions about their personal situation, seek advice through the whole process, and give access to legal documents or legal forms at any time. For example, a client can seek online divorce help and have documents reviewed by a lawyer through LegalZoom divorce review.

Free QuickBooks Subscription

Some of LegalZoom's Express Gold packages include a free short-term subscription to QuickBooks Online. This added bonus is especially useful for small business owners.

Member Resources

The LegalZoom website features an Article Center and a Video Center. These customer support features offer information and instructions in several categories of law.

LegalZoom's Most Popular Features

LegalZoom's legal services have been used to answer hundreds of legal questions and concerns. Among its most popular services are in helping people obtain a patent, building a business, and teaching people how to make wills and trusts.

  • Business Formation-  LegalZooms's LLC Formation Service helps start many new businesses. Whether you need help forming a corporation or LLC LegalZoom's attorneys can help. The step-by-step instructions and help from attorneys make starting a business easier and save small startups lots of money throughout the entire process. Although this type of legal aid may require more time from its customers, it also can save companies hundreds of dollars.  
  • Intellectual Property- A patent attorney on average costs $300 dollars an hour. That means if you hire an attorney and they ponder your case for an hour then you owe them $300 dollars. When you have an idea, LegalZoom's services might be a better option for you. The trademark application is simple and clear. LegalZoom will perform a trademark search to ensure your company isn't breaking any laws. Although you won't have all of the features you might have from hiring a personal lawyer, you also won't be charged the steep prices.
  • Wills and Trusts- Individual help with a will or trust can be quite useful. Many people do not want to hire a lawyer to assist them with their personal will or trust. This online legal service helps people quickly create and file their personal will or living trust.

These features have been used thousands of times and LegalZoom has made these processes simple and easy-to-use for its clients.

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The Bad

  • Additional Fee for Attorney Access
  • No Free Trial
  • Additional Charges
  • Not Unlimited
  • Negative Reviews

Although LegalZoom has many great features to its online legal services, there are a few drawbacks to consider. There is not a free trial for LegalZoom's services. There are additional charges and limitations to their business services. The limitations of LegalZoom are as follows:

Additional Fee for Attorney Access

The main concern with LegalZoom is that you can have access to an attorney, for a monthly fee. If you are paying for single use services or the economy package, you will be directed to its customer support team. LegalZoom's Customer Care Specialists, are not attorneys and are not as effective as talking to an actual lawyer. These Customer Care Specialists can provide general counsel but have many limitations to what they can and cannot say for each case. If you choose to pay for access to an attorney then the cost of the online legal service is much higher.

No Free Trial

Currently, LegalZoom does not offer a free trial for personal and business legal services. Without the ability to test out the services it is hard to know if this is a company you want to hire. 

Additional Charges

With LegalZoom's business legal service package, LegalZoom only allows legal forms and paperwork with 10 pages or less to be reviewed before they charge you a fee. Additional page prices are: 11-15 pages: $39, 16 - 25 pages: $99, 26+ pages: consultation required. A filing fee is applied for filing many of its legal documents and paperwork. These expenses are traditionally in the basic packages other companies offer. But again, LegalZoom offers its basic price for much cheaper than its competitors.

Not Unlimited

LegalZoom's monthly business subscription plan is not unlimited. Customers are limited to a certain number of pages an attorney will write in a legal letter, the amount of time you have on the phone with attorneys, and several other limitations.

Negative Reviews

LegalZoom complaints are common from its customers. The main complaint of LegalZoom was customer service. Many individuals talked to LegalZoom and had poor experiences filing documents, had critical reviews of its customer service representatives, and reported a lack of help throughout the process. Although many of these clients used LegalZoom's economy package, which doesn't give clients access to LegalZoom's lawyer help, LegalZoom needs to train its Customer Care Specialist better to help its clients.

Paying for a premium package can ensure that you won't have these issues,  before putting your trust in the economy plan make sure you understand the risks.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, LegalZoom offers great online legal services with several beneficial features, such as a QuickBooks subscription and educational member resources. The main selling point for LegalZoom is its incredible price, which is well below its competitors.

The main drawback to LegalZoom is having an additional fee for access to an attorney and other legal assistance. If your legal needs are beyond legal forms and paperwork, it may be wise to seek out an independent lawyer or law firm for legal representation and specific advice in unique legal matters.  

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Star Rating

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2.6

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73 Reviews

Review Breakdown

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30%

4 grade

8%

3 grade

3%

2 grade

3%

1 grade

56%

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Greg Francis Saratoga Springs, UT

I used legalzoom to set up a will and power of attorney. The cost was reasonable, but you do get what you paid for. Not a ton of hand holding and best practice advise. We still have our will, but ended up cancelling our service as we did not find the ongoing use of an attorney, worthwile

5 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi Greg, we value your feedback and appreciate that you shared your experience with us. If there is anything additional that we can do for you, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Feb. 23rd, 2021

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CoachTrista Saratoga Springs, UT

We used Legal Zoom to set up our will and power of attorneys. It was a good inexpensive way to do it, but the legal language can be challenging and it was a bit of a process.

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi Trista, we're sorry to hear that you found a part of your experience confusing. If there is anything else that we can do to clarify things, please let us know at help@legalzoom.com

Feb. 23rd, 2021