At some point in our lives, all of us will require legal services. While we may not have the need to hire an attorney, we will at some point be faced with a legal quandary that demands some professional expertise: drafting a living will, arranging a prenuptial agreement, settling a deceased parent’s estate, or incorporating an LLC.
In instances such as these, going the traditional route of hiring a lawyer may not be the most productive — or cost-effective — option. Retainers for legal consultation are notoriously expensive, leaving those with limited resources in a bind: Hire an attorney and eat the cost, or muddle through without professional guidance?
Fortunately, nowadays online legal services offer an accessible, affordable alternative to either of these two options. There are many to choose from, and they all offer a diverse range of services, many of which are overlapping.
Two of the best-known are LegalZoom (the world’s first online legal service) and its popular competitor Rocket Lawyer. Both services are noteworthy for offering fast, efficient legal services at a flexible rate, but which is best?
The answer, of course, depends on exactly what sort of services you require. This article will explore what LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer have to offer, how they differ from each other, which similarities they share, and how to decide which to choose based on your unique needs.
What Can Online Legal Services Do For You?
First of all, let’s take a look at what sorts of services websites like Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom can offer.
Online legal services offer assistance with three main tasks: incorporating a business, drafting and mailing legal forms, and attorney consultation.
Both of the services we’re profiling today, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom, can help you incorporate your small business, sole proprietorship, or LLC by preparing the relevant legal documents for you and then filing them for a modest fee. They also supply fully customizable legal forms for when your new business reaches its next stage of growth and it comes time to hire one or more employees.
Our recommended service is Bizee by IncFile
It’s also important to note what these services cannot do for you: Neither LegalZoom nor Rocket Lawyer offer legal representation. Both connect individuals or small businesses to the legal help they need at a discounted rate.
So, if you’re in need of an attorney to help you file a lawsuit today or issue a take-down notice due to intellectual property theft, it will be in your best interests to contact a law firm rather than an online legal service.
With that information out of the way, let’s explore what specifically LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer can do for you.
LegalZoom
If you’re planning to incorporate a small business or LLC, we recommend LegalZoom for assistance with the filing process. Why?
Well, for several reasons.
The two key points to keep in mind are that LegalZoom offers better quality legal forms than Rocket Lawyer, and it’s less expensive. Let’s look at how the prices break down.
Whereas Rocket Lawyer charges an average of $59.95 for most of its business forms if you are not a Premium Member, LegalZoom charges only $14.95. That’s a savings of $35 per form! For an additional fee of $7.99 a month, LegalZoom will also grant you access to its digital library of forms, all of which were drafted by professional lawyers.
Furthermore, their annual membership rates are considerably more affordable than Rocket Lawyer’s. While Rocket Lawyer charges upwards of $399 a year for full membership, membership to LegalZoom costs you only $288 a year, bringing you a savings of over a hundred dollars.
LegalZoom also offers almost identical membership services to Rocket Lawyer, including legal consultation, attorney document review, and discounts in the event that you need to retain a lawyer. They also have tax accountants on their staff who can assist you should you need help with financial planning.
With that being said, Rocket Lawyer does offer a couple of advantages that LegalZoom does not: their digital library offers a wider selection of legal forms than LegalZoom’s does, and the initial filing fee for business formation is only $99, which costs fifty dollars less than LegalZoom’s.
However, they also offer less for that rate than LegalZoom does, which is why we still prefer LegalZoom for small businesses and sole proprietorships. It’s simply better value for your money.
Now, let’s say once you’ve gotten your business off the ground, you anticipate that you might require ongoing legal service. If that’s the case, then we recommend Rocket Lawyer over LegalZoom. Why? Keep reading to find out.
Rocket Lawyer
Let’s say that you want to incorporate your small business, and you expect you will want regular legal service in the future. In that case, your best bet is registering through Rocket Lawyer. Why? Because if you sign up for their Premium Member plan, $39.99/month, you get these benefits:
- You get unlimited access to their vast libraries of legal documents.
- Once you have chosen the document you need, you follow the on-screen instructions to create your own customized version.
- You can copy, print, share and sign your document on line.
- You get a free 30-minute document review with an attorney.
- You get a free Affordable incorporation filing and 25% off Affordable Registered Agent service.
- If you need an attorney for on-going legal representation, Rocket Lawyer offers four options to connect you to an attorney.
- For simple questions, you submit a short request online. One of more lawyers will respond to you within one business day.
- For more complex matters, you can request a free 30-minute consultation with a lawyer via their on-line Ask-a-Lawyer request.
- You can also speak to a Rocket Lawyer representative, they will connect you to a local lawyer within one business day.
- If you want to hire a lawyer, Rocket Lawyer offers members up to 40% off the attorney’s normal rate.
- A discount of 25% off for registered agent services (for an LLC or a Corporation).
In layperson’s terms, the Ask-a-Lawyer 30-minute free consultation is a great value for small business owners. You don’t need to incur the cost of hiring a lawyer for every small legal question.
If you are doing LLC, LegalZoom offers registered agent services (RAS), but it costs an additional $159. Whereas with Rocket Lawyer you get 25% off RAS, and it’s free incorporation filling included as part of the cost of signing up for the Premium Member plan. Overall, it’s better value for your money.
So, by signing up for the Premium Member plan, you get on-call legal advice, unlimited access to Rocket Lawyer’s vast data base of digital forms, and discounts on attorney’s fees in the event that you need to hire a lawyer.
For these reasons, if you’re looking for more of an ongoing relationship with whatever online legal service you choose to go with, Rocket Lawyer will probably be more in line with your needs than LegalZoom.
Which Similarities Do Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom Have in Common?
In spite of the few fundamental differences between cost of services, Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are more alike than they are different. Most of the individual services they offer overlap even though the prices may vary. Let’s break the complete list down even further to see how they’re alike.
Rocket Lawyer
• Attorney consultation? YES
• Review of documents? YES
• Customizable legal forms? YES
• Customer support via email and phone? YES
• Positive customer feedback? YES, good
• Availability of ongoing legal assistance? YES
LegalZoom
• Attorney consultation? YES
• Review of documents? YES
• Customizable legal forms? YES
• Customer support via email and phone? YES, and also live chat
• Positive customer feedback? YES, fair
• Availability of ongoing legal assistance? YES
As you can see, both companies offer many of the same services, though the terms of each may differ and the costs do vary.
Now that you have all of this information to help make your decision, what should be your determining factor when choosing an online legal service?
Keep reading and we’ll tell you!
Our recommended service is Bizee by IncFile
How Do I Know Which Online Legal Service is for Me?
As we alluded to earlier, which online legal service is right for you will depend on your unique needs, both immediate and ongoing.
Let’s say you plan to incorporate a small business, and you predict you’ll only need help filing the initial paperwork. In that case, you’ll probably want to go with LegalZoom, since you get overall better value for the cost of filing.
However, if you know that your business will necessitate future ongoing legal support, then Rocket Lawyer is the service for you for the reasons outlined above.
It’s important to think ahead into the future before you choose an online legal service, because being able to anticipate your probable future needs will inform how useful either service will be to you.
If you’re still undecided, consider contacting both LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer’s customer support hotlines for more information. Their staff is available to field questions pertaining to their services, and their input can help you narrow down your options to reach a decision.
Conclusion
Rocket Lawyer and LegalZoom are only two of the many online legal services available to you today. The goal of this article was to give you all the essential information you need to make an informed decision about which online legal service to pay for.
However, if you’re still feeling undecided, we encourage you to do further research before making any major decisions. It may be that there’s another service out there that will be even better aligned with your business-related needs than those profiled here. Only you can know what exactly you need.
Finally, if you’ve used an online legal service before and have one to recommend or advise against, please leave us a comment and tell us about it. Do you have direct experience with paying for help filing an LLC? Have you successfully used any of the customizable legal forms available on LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer’s websites?
How did their services change the process for you? Tell us all about it and you may see your feedback appear in future posts!
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