LegalZoom

When I originally did it, I was happy with the language in the will. The original one was straightforward and more like other legal documents that I've done. My other experiences in divorce and real estate were much more straightforward in their language, setting out the terms and I understand they're all using a template and fill in the blank as to specifics. When I updated it this time, it's less straightforward and there are a lot more drawn out legalese stuff that was somewhat confusing in just the first reading. Maybe law has changed in my state to have all this legalese stuff in it. I'm not as comfortable with it. It seems excessive. I'd have to go back and look at the document again. I was just kind of scratching my head when I thought that this is not what my document looked like before. The original will when my kid was still young was where I’d named a guardian in the event of my death. I was satisfied with that experience.

When I could look at my computer, at the changed document, I'm like, “Wow! Something new must have come up.” My printer was broken at the time I made the change and paid the money. I reviewed the document online and downloaded it but I got the packet in the mail. It is still sitting in my big stack of mail that I haven't gone through yet. At the time I received that, I wasn’t dying to go get out in the herd. I've got to assemble a couple of people to witness my signature and go file it. I need to finish the thing and I'm gonna have to get out in public a little bit.

I'm assuming that if I want some explanations of that stuff, when I finally get off my tail and go get this thing filed, that I could call somebody and I could get explanations of some of this stuff. if you're gonna add so much legalese to it, it would be cool if you had a general explanation. So that if I go and look at it again when I'm not so tired and have a million things to do, maybe on second read, it would be better.

LegalZoom is a great place to start, depending on how complicated the person's matters are. If they were looking for a straightforward, non-scary, non-threatening, non-expensive way to dip your toe into a legal matter, I would suggest everyone start with LegalZoom and then follow up with an attorney to help connect the dots if there are things that are confusing.

I had one setback. But it was more of a technical issue with the way things are managed there. I should have expected that working with an online provider like LegalZoom that there wouldn't have a lot of interpretive support. For example, I wanted to start a new company. I plugged in the company name and they said, “Oh, great, your name is available.” So I'm down that whole rabbit hole. Until I learned that in the state that I wanted to incorporate, the name wasn't available. All LegalZoom provided me were, “Sorry, your name isn't available.” They did not provide me alternatives. They did not provide me any information about why my name wasn't available. So that was a huge setback. I ended up setting up a corporation with a name I didn't want.

I've gotta go through the whole process of now dissolving that corporation because LegalZoom took one of the options that I wasn't crazy about without providing any feedback. They moved ahead and got me the name even though it wasn't the one I wanted. So I over expected based on my previous experience for LegalZoom to be proactive and very helpful in that area. It cost me a lot of extra money. I could have just hired a lawyer to do the research. I would have had a bit of a back and forth with that attorney, which would have saved me money in the long run.

I would warn people that even if it is just a slight bit complicated, don't expect too much from LegalZoom. But overall, I'm still better off having worked with LegalZoom on the other two cases. I just wished LegalZoom would have said, “Sorry, can't help you,” or, ”Wow, this is getting a little bit more complicated” on that one case. But there was no human interface there too. So I understood. I understand that it isn’t perfect and that there are limitations.

I'm an independent person with no business, but I was just doing my will and trust, so when I pass away, my son gets my money. So they told me the money has to go in a trust. I didn't know that. But then again, the rep from my bank wasn't sure either. So, my bank is giving me a hard time. They can't even answer me. I called my 1-800 number.

It was disappointing and customer service is not what it used to be. I've seen LegalZoom on TV. I know Robert Shapiro and I'm like, "They look like a reputable company." That was why I went with them. Then like six months ago, I reached out to one of the people and I said, "Hey, can you send me some email? Just read up on it, so I can understand and learn about it. When I'm ready, I'll call you." I called that same guy. He said, "Here's my number." After he got me going, it was like after the third question and they wanted to get paid. Then everybody's very helpful but it seemed like after I had a couple questions here and there, I would contact that same guy and it would seem like I was bothering him. I didn't like that feeling that before I paid, they were very eager to answer any questions that I had. But after, it seemed like I was bothering him. So after that point, I never called back and asked for him or his extension or anything.

The people are good. Somebody always tells you something new that the previous guy didn't tell. I always say, "Is there anything you can think of that I should know or make sure I shouldn't do? Because this is all new to me. Just advice or whatever you can throw my way." Then they sent me out the card, but they put the wrong address. I had the wrong address for my son. They assumed he lived with me. I wish he did, but he doesn't. So I had to call back and I said, "No, that's not it. It's one digit off." The funny thing is, they didn't even ask me for his address. I called back and spoke to another guy, and I said, "Don't you need the address?" He's kind of yes and kind of no. So, I said, "Okay, well then, let me give you the address." Then the card comes, and he didn't even take the address that I gave him, which is where my son lives.

I had a problem and we made an appointment to speak to a lawyer on Monday. So, the guy helped me and he said, "Okay, let me see what she's got available." He said Monday was okay. This was last Friday and I thought that was not too long. He then said, "Oh, no." Come to find out it's the next Monday. So I said, "That's okay. I understand what's going on." But then I got an email from them stating, "Oh, your request that you put in for your attorney, you didn't finish it or you didn't complete it." So, then on Monday I tried to get a hold of the guy has been helping me. I spoke to a different guy who said, "Yeah, you're booked." But then he checked the notes and said, "Oh, I see the note here. They didn't have you booked." Other than those, everything has been completed and the people were very nice and patient with me.

There’s also the option with LegalZoom to be able to do things on your own which is super inexpensive. If you need any expert advice, you can either pay for packages that are all-inclusive or you can talk to an attorney on an hourly basis. It’s a great service and it’s like a no-brainer to use them. My last patent, which is still in process, I used a patent agent which was a little bit less expensive, probably half the amount of money than a patent attorney. I was just, “You know what? I'm gonna go through LegalZoom.”

LegalZoom is a large website. It’s a more customer-service oriented platform. An individual patent agent or patent attorney that will be like, “If you’re too argumentative or if you expect too much from me, I’ll just tell you to go find someone else, which I know that you’re never gonna do because you already paid me to put your application together.” That’s what happened with this guy. I would never get that from LegalZoom. Customer service is excellent. I don’t ever automate anything as far as LegalZoom. I always call and speak with people. There’s email to answer back and forth, but that’s only after I've had a chance to talk with them on the phone.

I’m highly satisfied with LegalZoom. With them, it’s all very transparent and self-explanatory. The caveat is to have a good idea about what to ask. Even if you’re using an expert service, you have to have a good amount of working knowledge of what it is that you’re trying to get accomplished so that you know if the person that’s working for you is doing a good job. Don’t just assume that if you have an idea that you’re looking to get patented that you’re gonna be able to hand over information. Also, assume that those individuals that are creating your patent have the same expertise that you have. That’s not always the case.

I had an intimate understanding of what I was trying to patent, so that when I got the application back, the drafts from the attorney, that I had enough knowledge to be able to say, “Don’t you think you need to put this in?” or “Maybe we can word this a little bit differently,” instead of just kinda taking them at their word because they’re a patent attorney.

In doing so, I apparently started a new will and I was charged for it. However, on that particular account, it wouldn't take the additional amount thankfully. Now, I have been asked to work with CDC Ethiopia in their response to the Coronavirus in that country. As a global microbiology consultant, I do a lot of work in that sort of thing and I had been working with Ethiopia for two and a half years. I spent the month before Christmas in Ethiopia training people to be mentors and training them to train other people. I feel very strongly for Africa and when we are allowed to travel again, I will be going over there, but I also want to make sure my will is in order. Now that I have a lot of details with my two children and my three grandchildren about who gets what, I want to go in there before my 30 days is up.

Right now, my will is in disorder, but I hope to sort through it. It may have been something I did wrong and I want to be fair because I thought LegalZoom was really good company. They have a good reputation too. Still, if it's the way their system is designed, it shouldn't allow you to fill in another will and bill you for it. Also, I thought for a while that I could print the document. It wasn't clear if I should print it on my computer, which is fine, and I wasn't sure if it was an option to have it sent in a nice package. Overall, they gave good service and I really like the price. I resent paying $800 to regular lawyer when this is something that is easily done online, so that's perfect for me.