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LegalZoom

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6.3

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: April 23rd, 2024

For over 14 years, millions of people have trusted LegalZoom for both business and personal legal aid. LegalZoom states that "whatever your legal need, we have the answer." They provide assistance with copyrights, divorce, business formation, estate planning (trusts and wills), name changes, patent applications, a power of attorney, prenuptial agreements, real estate leases, and trademark registration.

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The Good

  • Services
  • Low Monthly Price
  • Access to an Attorney
  • Free QuickBooks Subscription
  • Member Resources
  • Most Popular Features

Services

Overall, LegalZoom has many great perks for its services. It offers personal level and small businesses legal assistance, at a very reasonable and competitive price. In addition, both personal and business plans give the customer access to a lawyer for questions on legal matters and legal advice.

Low Monthly Price

LegalZoom's prices for both personal and small business services are very competitive. Its monthly package fees start at $9.99 for individuals and $23.99 for business owners. These prices are almost half the price of some competitors, and hundreds of dollars cheaper than hiring a lawyer. These prices are based on LegalZoom's economy package.    

Access to an Attorney

Both personal and business premium monthly plans include access to an attorney. These lawyers are familiar with the practice of law and have been known to provide excellent customer support. Customers can ask questions about their personal situation, seek advice through the whole process, and give access to legal documents or legal forms at any time. For example, a client can seek online divorce help and have documents reviewed by a lawyer through LegalZoom divorce review.

Free QuickBooks Subscription

Some of LegalZoom's Express Gold packages include a free short-term subscription to QuickBooks Online. This added bonus is especially useful for small business owners.

Member Resources

The LegalZoom website features an Article Center and a Video Center. These customer support features offer information and instructions in several categories of law.

LegalZoom's Most Popular Features

LegalZoom's legal services have been used to answer hundreds of legal questions and concerns. Among its most popular services are in helping people obtain a patent, building a business, and teaching people how to make wills and trusts.

  • Business Formation-  LegalZooms's LLC Formation Service helps start many new businesses. Whether you need help forming a corporation or LLC LegalZoom's attorneys can help. The step-by-step instructions and help from attorneys make starting a business easier and save small startups lots of money throughout the entire process. Although this type of legal aid may require more time from its customers, it also can save companies hundreds of dollars.  
  • Intellectual Property- A patent attorney on average costs $300 dollars an hour. That means if you hire an attorney and they ponder your case for an hour then you owe them $300 dollars. When you have an idea, LegalZoom's services might be a better option for you. The trademark application is simple and clear. LegalZoom will perform a trademark search to ensure your company isn't breaking any laws. Although you won't have all of the features you might have from hiring a personal lawyer, you also won't be charged the steep prices.
  • Wills and Trusts- Individual help with a will or trust can be quite useful. Many people do not want to hire a lawyer to assist them with their personal will or trust. This online legal service helps people quickly create and file their personal will or living trust.

These features have been used thousands of times and LegalZoom has made these processes simple and easy-to-use for its clients.

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The Bad

  • Additional Fee for Attorney Access
  • No Free Trial
  • Additional Charges
  • Not Unlimited
  • Negative Reviews

Although LegalZoom has many great features to its online legal services, there are a few drawbacks to consider. There is not a free trial for LegalZoom's services. There are additional charges and limitations to their business services. The limitations of LegalZoom are as follows:

Additional Fee for Attorney Access

The main concern with LegalZoom is that you can have access to an attorney, for a monthly fee. If you are paying for single use services or the economy package, you will be directed to its customer support team. LegalZoom's Customer Care Specialists, are not attorneys and are not as effective as talking to an actual lawyer. These Customer Care Specialists can provide general counsel but have many limitations to what they can and cannot say for each case. If you choose to pay for access to an attorney then the cost of the online legal service is much higher.

No Free Trial

Currently, LegalZoom does not offer a free trial for personal and business legal services. Without the ability to test out the services it is hard to know if this is a company you want to hire. 

Additional Charges

With LegalZoom's business legal service package, LegalZoom only allows legal forms and paperwork with 10 pages or less to be reviewed before they charge you a fee. Additional page prices are: 11-15 pages: $39, 16 - 25 pages: $99, 26+ pages: consultation required. A filing fee is applied for filing many of its legal documents and paperwork. These expenses are traditionally in the basic packages other companies offer. But again, LegalZoom offers its basic price for much cheaper than its competitors.

Not Unlimited

LegalZoom's monthly business subscription plan is not unlimited. Customers are limited to a certain number of pages an attorney will write in a legal letter, the amount of time you have on the phone with attorneys, and several other limitations.

Negative Reviews

LegalZoom complaints are common from its customers. The main complaint of LegalZoom was customer service. Many individuals talked to LegalZoom and had poor experiences filing documents, had critical reviews of its customer service representatives, and reported a lack of help throughout the process. Although many of these clients used LegalZoom's economy package, which doesn't give clients access to LegalZoom's lawyer help, LegalZoom needs to train its Customer Care Specialist better to help its clients.

Paying for a premium package can ensure that you won't have these issues,  before putting your trust in the economy plan make sure you understand the risks.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, LegalZoom offers great online legal services with several beneficial features, such as a QuickBooks subscription and educational member resources. The main selling point for LegalZoom is its incredible price, which is well below its competitors.

The main drawback to LegalZoom is having an additional fee for access to an attorney and other legal assistance. If your legal needs are beyond legal forms and paperwork, it may be wise to seek out an independent lawyer or law firm for legal representation and specific advice in unique legal matters.  

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Star Rating

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4.6

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791 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

84%

4 grade

6%

3 grade

2%

2 grade

1%

1 grade

8%

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Scott Moore

I had LegalZoom do a will and it was amazingly easy... however, when I decided to have them do the paperwork and filing for my LLC I had an unpleasant experience. Excessive upselling and extremely long wait time. I started the process December 15th and it is now March 15th and my paperwork is still not even through the State yet. I paid for expedited turn around... but that is not the case. I have contacted them through the website, through the app and by phone... but the hold time is so long (hours) that I have to move on with my day. They are quick to pick up the phone however to sell you something. The biggest issue for me is that I can not get my business bank account setup until I have the paperwork back from the LegalZoom and at this rate, I will be out of business. Don't waste your precious time... have someone else do it for you or just figure it out yourself.

3 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi, Scott - If we can be of any additional support, please call us at (800) 773-0888 or by email at support@legalzoom.com.

Dec. 29th, 2022

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Steve Phoenix, AZ

They are just a service that does the paperwork and send it to you after its all done they take your money and only ask you in the beginning if you have any questions after that don't care about you there slow and take 2 mouth to get everything for your new business to strat you have to get the insurance yourself it's not really a lawyer office just get paid for doing paperwork only but if you don't know how to get the business license and tax ID they do that only not very friendly people so I don't think I will ever use them again

5 years ago

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Nick Kremenek Thousand Oaks, CA

Been overcharged for legal service I didn’t use. Paid for almost 18 months of a “business legal plan” but never used it. I was only able to get a few months refunded. Customer service was nice but this left a bitter taste in my mouth.

2 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi, Nick - we’d love to help resolve this for you, we'll have a member of our Executive Escalations Team take a look into what's happening with your order and contact you within one business day.

Dec. 8th, 2022

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Christian Peterson Jacksonville, FL

You need to know exactly what you want to do when filing forms otherwise all the requests to upcharge can lead you to buying unnecessary items. It seems like you need to be a legal expert to use this product.

2 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi, Christian - we appreciate your feedback on this, as we’re always looking to improve the way we communicate with our customers as well as our products/services. We’ll share your note with the team. Thanks again for taking the time to reach out.

Dec. 20th, 2022

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Snow Frog Los Angeles, CA

I have had blatant spelling errors in some of the nouns of the contract. For a while I was not able to log-in. My trademark was far more difficult than necessary.

2 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi, there - we apologize as our goal is to ensure each customer has a positive experience. If we can be of any additional support, please call us at (800) 773-0888 or by email at support@legalzoom.com.

Dec. 8th, 2022

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ROGER PRYOR Atlanta, GA

Overrated for the price you pay. If I could go back and choose another way I would

2 years ago

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Reply from LegalZoom

Hi Roger - we appreciate your feedback on this, as we’re always looking to improve our product and service. We’ll share your note with the team. Thanks again for taking the time to reach out.

Oct. 12th, 2022