LegalZoom
LegalZoom provides legal help to individuals, families, and small businesses through their do-it-yourself platform and independent network of attorneys. They empower millions of people in growing their business, caring for their families, and protecting their ideas.
BOTTOM LINE
LegalZoom has services starting as low as $79 and is an affordable way to start a business, get incorporated or start a living trust. Small business owners and families can receive ongoing legal advice for a low monthly fee.
PROS
- 60-day satisfaction guarantee
- Experienced attorneys
- Affordable packages
CONS
- Some services can be pricey
- Not ideal for complex legal cases
Top LegalZoom Reviews We Found
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I didn't have time to go through an attorney and I figured it would be easier going through LegalZoom... They did all the paperwork for the LLC and everything went great. They were like my agent. The online process was very easy... For what I’ve done, I can’t ask for anything better.
Read full reviewI checked out LegalZoom and went with them to get my will and a directive. I've also done a quitclaim through them. Using the service was easy and fast. It was inexpensive as well and I have really enjoyed it. LegalZoom is a great product and I've already recommended it to my real estate clients.
Read full reviewLegalZoom services
LegalZoom provides legal assistance to individuals and small businesses on everything from filing for 501(c)(3) status to creating a last will and testament.
When signing up for LegalZoom, the company asks for some information about you or your business. LegalZoom then suggests services, which allows you to pick the best package for your needs.
LegalZoom offers many services geared toward small businesses, but it also provides legal services to individuals and families. Customers looking to file for divorce, register a trademark or create a trust, for example, can schedule a call with an attorney to get professional documents created.
LegalZoom can help you with:
- Estate planning
- Marriage and divorce
- Residential leases
- Property deeds
- Power of attorney
- Contract and agreements
- Attorney-prepared documents
- Personal consultation
LegalZoom lawyers
LegalZoom’s attorneys must meet specific eligibility requirements to ensure customers are getting sound legal advice. LegalZoom looks for attorneys with five or more years of experience who are in good standing and have no public discipline records in their licensed state.
LegalZoom LLC and small business services
LegalZoom’s independent licensed professionals provide advice and guidance on naming and starting a business, including:
- Limited liability companies (LLC)
- Incorporations (C-corp and S-corp)
- Doing business as (DBA)
- Nonprofits
- Sole proprietorships
The “Help Me Decide” function on the LegalZoom website lets you know which business structure is right for you with nine quick questions. From there, you can go through the company’s six-step process to form your business.
The process includes searching for your desired business name, providing a business description, selecting essential services, speaking with a legal or tax advisor about an employer identification number (EIN), obtaining licenses and permits and paying for their chosen services.
LegalZoom price
The most popular LegalZoom packages start at $79 before filing fees. This includes starting a corporation or filing a patent application. Below is a list of LegalZoom’s most popular services and their fees:
Services | Starting cost |
---|---|
Limited liability company (LLC) | $79 (plus filing fees) |
Doing business as | $99 (plus state filing fees) |
Incorporation (C-corp and S-corp) | $149 (plus state filing fees) |
Last will and testament | $179 |
Trademark registration | $199 (plus federal filing fees) |
LegalZoom’s 100% satisfaction guarantee means you can get a refund or credit, minus filing fees or taxes, within 60 days if you’re not fully satisfied with your purchase.
LegalZoom plans and membership
LegalZoom also provides prepaid legal plans that include a 30-minute consultation with an attorney for business or personal needs. These legal plans, the Business Advisory Plan and Legal Advantage Plus, are offered on a six-month or one-year basis with a monthly subscription fee.
- Legal Advantage Plus: Legal Advantage Plus service starts at $9.99 per month and is best for individuals looking to discuss living trusts, child support, legal agreements or duties related to compensation.
- Business Advisory Plan: The Business Advisory plan starts at $31.25 a month and lets small businesses talk to an attorney to get advice on copyrights and taxes or forming their business and creating contracts.
LegalZoom FAQ
- Are LegalZoom documents legal?
- LegalZoom works with licensed attorneys and tax professionals with more than five years of experience. Its lawyers’ experience ensures that LegalZoom documents are legal and in compliance with federal and state laws.
- Can I get a refund from LegalZoom?
- If you’re not satisfied for whatever reason, LegalZoom offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Within 60 days of purchase, you can get a refund or credit on the price of services.
- Will LegalZoom hold up in court?
- Yes. LegalZoom documents will hold up in court, but state and federal laws are subject to change.
- Why is LegalZoom so expensive?
- LegalZoom’s prices aren’t necessarily expensive compared to the market rate. On average, independent attorneys and legal professionals charge an hourly rate between $100 and $400. Instead of charging per hour, LegalZoom uses a flat fee structure to provide small businesses and individuals with affordable legal services. Most packages and services also have state or federal filing fees, which are required by law.
Is LegalZoom legit?
Yes, LegalZoom is legitimate. Since launching in 2001, LegalZoom has helped more than 4 million people. Customers praise the company for its quick services — challenges with the legal services company occur mainly in cases where delays between government offices and LegalZoom cause the customer to contact the government organization directly. We recommend the service for small businesses looking for legal advice and individuals in need of legal assistance on important personal matters.
LegalZoom Reviews
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A friend of mine did her own will and talked about doing it. Attorneys around here had gone up so much on their price for something that they just use a template and fill in the blanks for my other legal services and where I was drained of huge amounts of money. It seemed like Legal Zoom would be a good thing to do a standard routine document for less money than paying one of them. It was a long time ago when I did the original will through LegalZoom and my child was still underage. When all these COVID stuff came up, I was scared out of my wits. I'm not young anymore. I needed to update my will and change the executor since I only have this one child that would inherit what I have. My son is now of age and would be the executor of my will and my sole heir. I updated my old will and apparently, more has to be done than when I did the original one.
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.
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I liked the website. The interface seemed pretty straightforward. It's very no muss, no fuss. I set up two LLCs. I’m dissolving one right now with LegalZoom. I've also did my estate planning documents. I got their estate planning bundle. The process was pretty straightforward. The comprehensive suite of services provided made me feel confident that they have researched the needs of your target consumers very well. So I felt quite secure that they had done their legwork, and I'd be able to get a solid solution. I also liked the fact that I was introduced to a local attorney, who would corroborate a lot of the information I received from LegalZoom in my market. It was pretty cool that there were people that they had vetted. It turned out to be great. I was really pleased with that component of the service. I’m really happy about that.
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.
Hi Paul, thank you very much for your review. We work really hard to make our customers feel like they are in good hands, so we're happy to see that reflected in your experience. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help!
Everybody from LegalZoom I talked to has been helpful. However, sometimes, I'll explain to each person, "This is all new to me. So, please talk to me like I'm really like a dummy at it.'' Because it's all new to me, I wanna make sure it's right. Then I'll speak to a next person, and they'll tell me something new. I'll speak to the next person, and again, I'll learn something new. Today, I spoke with the bank because they told me I had to call the bank about what papers to give them. They told me to give them two papers but I wanted to make sure with the bank because my bank doesn't know what they're doing.
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.
Hi Denise. We are truly sorry for any misunderstanding or miscommunication on our part. Thanks for the feedback, we'll work on making this a better experience.
I started working with LegalZoom several years ago. But most of the reason why I decided to work with them now for a couple of provisional patents, and I'm one second away from filing my non-provisional patent application, is that it’s really an apples to apples comparison. They’re drastically less expensive than going through the Yellow Pages and trying to find a patent broker or a patent attorney. Their rates are sometimes six and seven times more than the process usually takes with LegalZoom.
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.
Hi Jeffry, thank you very much for your review. We work really hard to make our customers feel like they are in good hands, so we're happy to see that reflected in your experience. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help!
I live on Long Island, and I'm a laboratory director and a microbiologist. I started to be a customer about three years ago, and for whatever reason, I delayed revising my will. I didn't want to pay a lot of money, but now, our local county here is almost as bad as New York City as far as the Coronavirus numbers go including deaths. It made me think to update my will and a week ago, I found LegalZoom and filled in the details. I filled out the power of attorney too. It was very easy, and it went well. I'm meant to be able to have unlimited changes for up to 30 days as well and I had filled it out without considering my sons in the way of what exactly they wanted. I talked to them and now that I had more information, I went back on LegalZoom four days later and tried to change the details.
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.
Hi Martin. First, we'd like to thank you for your service during this time. We appreciate you taking the time out of your day to share your experience. We want to make sure everything is fully resolved and your will is now in order. Please feel free to reach out to a manager directly at your earliest convenience.
A client/friend of mine recently got admitted to a nursing home. He's elderly, no family at all. I've been taking care of his home and home for over 5 years. He asked that I take power of attorney. I had no idea where to start. Worried about him and making a wrong decision along the line... but I called Legal Zoom and within minutes I felt better. Tetica walked me through what I needed to do, and in 20 more minutes I was printing the documents. At least one step but makes me feel less stressed! Thank you!!
Hi Christine, we're so happy to hear this feedback and that you placed your trust in LegalZoom. Please reach if we can be of any further assistance.
In dissolving my LLC business, I have had the extreme pleasure in working with Legal Zoom. Each time I have needed to respond to questions from emails of Legal Zoom, the agents I have spoken to have been very calm and reassuring. They are well trained, very professionally polite, and easy to work with.
Hi Steven, we greatly appreciate this amazing feedback. We are here to help you if you need any support in the future.
LegalZoom helped me with the paperwork and filing of my LLC and SBA. They were always available within reason to answer any questions or concerns that I had. I highly recommend their services to anyone that is trying to start a new business..
Hi Steven, we thank you for taking the time to provide this awesome feedback. Please reach out to us if there is anything we can to assist.
We have used Legalzoom for over 5 years and they have been great at helping us navigate everything we need to do for our business. We love their service and highly recommend them to anyone needing business help.
Hi there Lynn, it is our pleasure to work with you for 5 years, and looking forward to working with you for more years to come.
This is the second time we have gone to Legal Zoom for important legal services. They earned our repeat business as they did such an excellent job for us previously. The whole process is very simple and relatively fast to complete, and when we had questions, they were answered promptly and in a very professional, clear, and friendly manner. We would recommend Legal Zoom to all friends and family!
Hi Roger, we appreciate you taking the time to provide this amazing feedback. If we can be of any other assistance, please don't hesitate to reach.
LegalZoom Company Information
- Social media:
- Company Name:
- LegalZoom
- Year Founded:
- 1999
- Address:
- 101 N Brand Blvd Fl 11
- City:
- Glendale
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 91203-2638
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.legalzoom.com