In a recent Pennsylvania case, a husband revoked a joint trust when his wife died. The Court ruled that the husband did not have the authority under the terms of the trust to revoke the trust. The trust was a form. Scalfaro v. Rudloff, 934 A.2d 1254 (Pa., 2007) (analyzed in Estate Planning, May 2008, p. 40).
The Court politely called the Trust a "Form Book Declaration of Trust." But the Court could not finally resist, when it stated that if "jolly old settlors" want to disdain legal counsel and use fill-in-the-blank forms, more litigation and unpredictable results will follow.
Use of forms from Legalzoom or Nolo Press often create more problems than they ever solve.
Please post your experiences with form documents, particularly form wills or trusts.
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7 comments:
i do not know if legal zoom is to blame. with the particular situation I would say he SHOUlD have had a lawyer to deal with this. it was noting prior to a death under the circumstances of children that any company could have-handled.
I filed a copyright with Legalzoom.com over 24 months ago and just received an email from the Copyright Office telling me that they can't find my prototype. I believe that Legalzoom.com lost my prototype and who knows what hands it fell into.
Sounds like the good ole boy network protecting their own. The judge is going to find something wrong with it if it wasn't done by a local lawyer.
sounds to me they are all sticking together as "good ole boy" networking in disguise. Believe me i've bt ain't cofortable to be cheated out of thousands of $.
Of course attorneys would love for you to not use legalzoom. LegalZoom has driven down their prices. Also when you retain an attorney for anything they do nothing. The person who does the work and legal documentation is a paralegal. Whom most are not licensed.
I am a family law paralegal and you are right, most of the work in a law office is done by the paralegal. It is the attorney's duty to review anything a paralegal prepares. We, as paralegals are not licensed. I studied for 2 years in a Certified Program -- the certification curriculum is prepared or approved by the American Bar Association. I have never used LegalZoom, but a few of my clients have. LegalZoom only takes your information and inserts it into a template that populates forms. Any person with a computer and access to Judicial Council Forms (in California) could do that. I think self represented parties should at least consult with an attorney to get legal advice and then decide if they want to represent themselves. Some attorneys are crooks too, so be aware of that reality as well.
M. Johnson
Just Ask A Paralegal
Is this all you've got. Does not sound too negative to me.
After all you can write a contract on a napkin and have it notarized and it could stand up in court. So what is the difference. Most lawyers do not want to deal with little peoples wills why should they no money in it right.
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