Oregon Legal Research Blog
Jim Calloway’s blog post: GPSOLO: Law Practice 2020 has lots of tips including this one from GP Solo, vol. 31 No. 3, by David Hiersekorn:
“Online Legal Paper Mills: Are They a Threat and How Do We Compete?
…. Using LegalZoom as an example, a consumer goes to the website and sees testimonials from smiling customers. Then they go through the online questionnaire, never encountering a question that they can’t answer. And soon they find that they are just a credit card number away from having the document they went looking for.
The magic of the LegalZoom system is its ability to make consumers believe that they have found a complete solution and that they don’t need to look further. If a question is difficult or requires legal advice, then it doesn’t make its way into the process.
Think of it this way. If a consumer completes the process and doesn’t have any unanswered questions, what exactly is he or she going to go ask an attorney? In Carlin’s terms, consumers stop looking for additional solutions because they think they’ve already found one….
Remember, usefulness is the currency of the Internet. People flock to the most useful websites. They don’t care whether you’re an expert or how much experience you have. The web isn’t about you. It’s about them. Put yourself in their shoes, assume that they have just learned that they have a problem that you solve, and then walk them through the process of solving it.
Lawyers have a huge advantage in this regard. The non-lawyer services can’t give legal advice and they can’t promise results or suitability….
Six and A Half Tips to Get You Started….” [For full article, link to GP Solo article, “Online Paper Mills” and the 6-1/2 tips.]