What are the benefits of buying legal documents from us?

The majority of online Australian Legal Document providers are not law firms!

Whilst it is acknowledged that the legal document templates provided by the majority of [non law-firm] Australian legal document providers will generally have been prepared by lawyers and that the templates they sell are updated from time to time as required by legislative changes.

This does not change the fact that you are not dealing directly with a law firm.

In order to understand what this means from a practical perspective you need to ask the following questions …

What happens?

🧩 If and when you have a legal question?

🧩 If the other party wants to negotiate amendments to the legal document?

🧩 If the legal document does not meet all of the requirements of your specific facts and circumstances?

🧩 If there is a mistake in the legal document?

Lastly, what happens if you are not directly involved in the creation of the legal document?

🧩 What if your accountant, tax agent or financial advisor uses a [non-law firm] online legal document service on your behalf?

To help you answer this question, please read our FAQ: If I create a legal document for my client on your law firm’s website am I giving legal advice or am I a "mere scribe"?

General Answer

A general answer is that online [non-law firm] Australian Legal Document providers are unable to assist clients directly, as they are unable to provide legal advice.

Certain [non-law firm] providers have adopted a business model whereby they earn a substantial ongoing 12 months+ plus referral fee for directing a client to a large directory of law firms who can assist.

This referral fee is charged to the law firm, who may decide to expense it as a marketing cost.

We submit that one way or another, it is ultimately the client who pays for the cost of the referral fee as it increases the cost of doing business for the law firm providing the service to them.

Feedback obtained directly from businesses who have used certain [non-law firm] online services

The valuable feedback we have  obtained is that:

❌ The quality of the online legal documents are basic, non-adaptive templates; such that

❌ The client is more often than not, required to seek assistance from a law firm in order to ensure their legal requirements are met.

As lawyers are required to undertake client interviews and make manual amendments to the legal documents, the final cost ends up much higher than the client could have anticipated, especially when the original online legal document was given away for free or at a nominal cost.

These kinds of business models may not rise to the level of bait & switch, however they may be found to constitute misleading and deceptive conduct.

In our submission, clients appear to be lead to believe that in the majority of cases they will be able to use the standard online documents without the need to engage a law firm to assist, when in fact the opposite may be the case, that is they may need to engage a law firm in the majorot of cases.

What are the benefits of purchasing legal documents directly from Blue Ocean Law Group?

When you purchase online legal documents directly from us, we have every incentive to ensure the quality of the online legal documents provided are as high as possible, and that you have all your questions answered.

List of Benefits:

✅ Our law firm already has a copy of your online responses so we can assist quickly and cost effectively.

✅ 1-stop shop. There is no need to wade through a directory of different law firms each time.

✅ Professional Indemnity Insurance (when you engage us for legal advice);

✅ Higher quality automatically tailored legal documents using Embedded Lawyer-Logic™;

✅ Deal directly with a law firm, no need for middlemen;

✅ No referral fees built into the business model;

✅ Lower overall legal costs;

✅ Legal document delivered directly from our .law web domain so you know we created the legal document;

✅ Legal Professional Privilege; and

✅ Enhanced Confidentiality.

✅ Blue Ocean Law Group (as far as we are aware) are currently the only Australian law firm providing you with the option to create more than 225+ Personal & Business Legal Documents online using our ⚖️ [Self-Service] and/or [Lawyer-Assisted] services.

Credits:

This FAQ was created by James D. Ford GAICD | Principal Solicitor, Blue Ocean Law Group℠.

Important Notice:

This FAQ is intended for general interest + information only.

It is not legal advice, nor should it be relied upon or used as such.

We recommend you always consult a lawyer for legal advice specifically tailored to your needs & circumstances.