Legal Templates: Do You Even Need a Lawyer?

Until recently, you did not have many options when you needed a legal document. You either hired an attorney to draft a contract for you or you did it yourself. Composing an agreement on your own without legal experience, however, can be a significant risk. Luckily, you can now easily find professionally created legal templates online that you can edit and customize to fit your needs. 

Of course, using a template cannot and should not replace a consultation with an experienced attorney. The best online legal templates, however, are created directly by attorneys or other experienced legal professionals. Read on to learn when you can use a well-drafted legal template to save money and time.

The Legal World Is Changing

Technology is dramatically changing the legal world. It has changed how attorneys work and has altered clients’ access to standard legal documents. There are now companies offering clients professionally created legal templates at a fraction of the traditional costs to acquire legal documents. As noted by our Head of Legal, Karyna Pukaniuk, “law is not solely about lawyers anymore.”

Many legal templates can be edited and personalized for a client’s specific concerns. They may also be shared with all parties of the agreement for comments and questions before finalizing the document. 

This can all be accomplished without undergoing costly appointments with an attorney and spending time on follow-up meetings and telephone conversations to consider edits. Aside from avoiding unnecessary legal fees, using a professional legal template also helps save time and reduce frustration.

The legal world is quickly learning that clients are eager for cost-effective solutions for basic legal documents. 

You Need Legal Help But That Doesn’t Mean You Need a Lawyer

As a small business owner or solo entrepreneur, you will often need to know the legal basics of business transactions. You may also need to use some basic legal contracts. However, that does not mean you need to hire an attorney to understand the core of the contract or to create a basic legal form.

Lawyers are not required to resolve common legal issues

Many common legal issues can be resolved by individuals and small businesses without hiring an attorney. Of course, if you are dealing with complicated business matters, you should probably seek professional counsel. For basic contracts and legal transactions, however, you can find reliable information and reputable documents online to solve your legal issues without an attorney.

According to Karyna Pukaniuk, “It is important to use good services that you can trust. Usually, such services work hard to provide the customers not only with a template, but also to fill out the website itself with information about templates, interesting tips, insights or warnings. When you find such a service, read all the information it contains. Get familiar with the document and its nature, and you will be able to better understand what you should pay attention to in your template.”

Short overview of legal services

For many years, legal services have been provided solely by lawyers and law firms. Unfortunately, firms often charge premium rates for the services they provide. But technology is constantly changing, and businesses must adapt, pivot, and make adjustments to stay relevant. 

The legal services industry is also rapidly changing. The use of legal document templates for business is expected to increase in 2023 and beyond. In the past, businesses and individuals had little choice for their legal needs. These days, however, professional legal services can be accessed conveniently, economically, and quickly online at services like Lawrina. 

Legal templates as a solution

Not all lawyers’ services must be delivered in an attorney’s office. Attorneys have long used legal templates and legal documents software to create contracts, petitions, and other legal documents for their clients. Once the original template is created, the attorney could quickly edit and customize that template for each consecutive client. Yet, the clients usually paid a premium for the legal document, regardless of how long it took the attorney to edit and customize the pre-existing template. 

Today, attorneys and legal professionals have created online businesses that offer the same advantages of templates used in law offices without the need for special software. These templates are a great solution for creating a legal document without the time and financial cost of hiring an attorney. 

Why You Should Think of Using Legal Templates

If you have a good understanding of your business needs and some prior experience with business document templates, you should consider using a professionally created legal template when starting a new business endeavor. 

As Karyna Pukaniuk explained, “When you start a business, you should understand that good contract templates are your base that will allow you to successfully build relationships with contractors, or get favorable terms from partners, and most importantly, a good contract will protect you from legal problems that will cost much more in court rather than buying a good template in the first place.” 

If you are wondering what are the advantages of using templates, consider the following factors: 

1. You can save a lot of money

It is no secret that lawyers can be expensive. There are specific times when you should seek an attorney’s advice and representation. Yet, when you need basic legal documents, hiring an attorney can be an unnecessary cost. If you use a reputable online legal site, you will obtain professionally created legal templates at a fraction of the cost. 

2. You can save loads of time

Hiring an attorney to create basic legal documents can be a waste of precious time. You will usually need to make an appointment, meet with the attorney to explain your needs, allow time for the attorney to create the document, and have a follow-up appointment to review and approve the document (oh, and don’t forget to pay your hefty bill before you can get the document!).

3. Technology has made using legal templates easier than ever

More people than ever before are comfortable using online services for a variety of needs, including freelance services. Additionally, there are now great online legal tools that enable people to draft any type of legal document online, download a prepared sample in PDF or Word, and share it with the parties. These solutions make understanding and using legal documents simple and convenient. Now, you have access to top-notch professional legal documents that can be used to create what you need directly on your personal laptop.

What You Should Consider While Using Legal Templates

While legal templates are a valuable resource that can save you loads of time and money and are usually very simple to customize, they are not always the answer in every situation. Businesses are all different, and there is no such thing as a legal template that will work for all enterprises. Before using an online template, consider the following warnings from our Head of Legal, Karyna:

1. Not all online information and templates are of similar quality

All Internet advice is not created equal. Likewise, the legal advice and free documents templates found online are not always created by experienced legal professionals. Be sure to use a reputable legal services site to ensure you are accessing comprehensive professional assistance and templates. 

2. Consult an attorney prior to using a legal template product

If you are new to the transaction or business and do not know where to begin, you can get a tremendous amount of information online from an established site. However, if you are still unsure of your needs or have questions regarding the content or documents, it would be wise to consult an attorney to have your questions answered. 

After consulting an attorney, you may feel confident to use a professionally created legal template without an attorney’s help. But always trust your instinct. If you still feel uncomfortable with the legal document or transaction, using a legal template may not be suitable for you at this time. 

Conclusion

There are times when you should seek the advice and representation of an attorney. Technology, however, has made certain legal services more readily accessible to the public. Therefore, in many cases when you need legal help, you do not necessarily need a lawyer anymore due to the various online legal services now available.

Professional legal sites offer state-compliant legal templates that can be downloaded and edited for your specific business and personal needs. Using these templates is not only simple and convenient, but it can also save you tons of money and time.