Everyone knows the expense of hiring a lawyer. Here are a few tips on how to do some things, without the assistance of a lawyer. It’s the internet is showing another way to help us save money.
Madison County Republicans:
Jeremy Porter, operator of boutique marketing agency Reaction Marketing Group, is always looking to save a buck. One trick he employed: slashing his legal fees by using an online service to incorporate his business. ‘I paid by credit card and received my articles of incorporation in a very professional binder with excellent instructions for completing the process on my own,’ he says.
The best part: The whole shebang–care of Robertson & Gable – cost him only $300. That sure beats paying north of $250 per hour for an attorney who might bill 5 hours for the job and have a paralegal do it.
Some other ways:
Flying Solo - Small businesses have a host of legal issues to address. Common ones include incorporation, intellectual property protection (trademarks, copyrights and patents), employment law and contracts. The good news is that federal and state governments have posted enormous amounts of legal resources on their Web sites. You can download the necessary forms and follow the step-by-step directions, potentially avoiding most, if any, legal fees.
* Incorporation - Each state has its own rules. For a rundown, check out the secretary of state’s Web site, or even the local department of incorporation.
* Intellectual Property - A business must file a trademark, copyright or patent with The United States Patent and Trademark Office. There, you’ll find forms, glossaries and how-to guides.
* Employment Law - The Department of Labor has a variety of interactive tools that simulate the interaction you might have with an employment expert.
* Business Contracts - You can do a Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) search and locate sample business contracts, but you probably won’t be able to gauge the quality of the form. A better approach is to use a legal-forms Web site, such as U.S. Legal Forms. This site has more than 50,000 documents, with an extensive selection of business forms. And when you locate a particular form, you can preview it before you make a purchase. Pricing per contract ranges from $12 to $20. There are also special packages, such as a set of employment contracts for $39.95.
Association Web sites are also useful. One example is the National Venture Capital Association, where you will find model venture-capital financing documents, such as term sheets, stock purchase agreements, investor rights agreements and so on. The authors of the documents include a variety of VC attorneys.
Getting Some Help - Even if you find useful documents, preparing them yourself may just be too time-consuming. For those who are willing to pay for a little help (but not too much), hybrid services automate part of the process and provide extra services. Names include LegalZoom, the Company Corporation, and MyCorporation.com, owned by Intuit (nasdaq: INTU - news - people).
Say you want to incorporate your business. At LegalZoom, you can fill out a questionnaire and the company will review your answers and may ask follow-up questions. Then, it’ll prepare all the necessary documents and file them with the appropriate government agencies. You’ll also receive these documents in the mail. Its pricing is not based on hourly fees but on a per-project basis.
‘If you already know what you’d like to name your corporation, and you know who the directors and shareholders will be, then it will only take you about 20 minutes to complete our online questionnaire,’ says co-founder Brian Liu. He also realizes speed is important: ‘In California, we hand-deliver the documents for filing, which significantly reduces the turn-around time.’
What You Need An Attorney For - Even die-hard do-it-yourselfers need lawyers for some things. Some critical areas include:
* Raising capital - If you run afoul of federal securities laws, you can go to jail. Don’t scrimp here.
* Employment - Terminating employees is fraught with risk. Talk to an attorney.
* Patents - You can do a patent search and file a provisional patent for initial protection. However, to do a full-blown filing, you still need an attorney.
* Trademarks - Filing is kind of easy. But if you want to protect your trademark globally, get some help.
Subscribe 
