Legal advice is the life behind every small business – especially if in its early stages.
There are legal matters that must be attended to, such as insurance, salaries, licensing, trademarks – you name it.
Missing out on any one of them might land you in the midst of a problem – and that will cost you both money, and the thing that you cannot get more of – time.
Almost every firm will require the services of an attorney at some point in its existence. However, not all of them can afford one, particularly during the early stages of their business.
However, business owners that are smart enough to do their own research on the matter, can address these legal matters on their own – with the help of Online Legal Counseling. It is much cheaper than an attorney and gets the job done.
Stay tuned, as we will elaborate on the importance of acquiring online legal counseling for small businesses.
What Exactly are Legal Services for Small Businesses?
First and foremost, for those who are unfamiliar with the concept, let us establish what legal services are precisely what they are.
Legal service is defined as “aid or support in the area of law,” as well as “free service in the field of law.” Providing legal services includes providing assistance in the conduct of any other procedures before any court, other body, or tribunal. It also entails providing legal advice regarding any legal problem that may arise.
These services are often provided by a legal professional. Because law school is a hard nut to crack, an attorney can take over, and become acquainted with your company in executing their services.
As a small business owner, you can manage some of these legal services on your own, with a little knowledge at hand. It is possible to avoid the attorney, get the papers ready yourself, and submit them to the legal institution. Today, all this and more is available with the use of the rightful online legal services.
What are Online Legal Services?
First, you need to be aware of one thing. Online Legal Services are not the same thing as a law firm. Business owners won’t get the client-attorney relationship as it regularly happens when you hire a lawyer.
The legal entities providing online legal services are not authorized to participate in the legal practice and are forbidden from offering any sort of advice, explanation, opinion, or suggestion to a customer.
However, they can provide small businesses, clients, with accurate information on their prospective legal rights, solutions, defenses, choices, selection of forms, or tactics to be implemented.
Via online legal service sites, you can execute generic paperwork, and they also provide customer service guidance, specific file templates, and a neat user interface. So, the paperwork is already there, you just need to fill it in and submit it yourself, without the assistance of a lawyer.
Importance of Online Legal Counseling for Small Businesses
You don’t have to do research to find which online legal service your small business can enjoy as we did the homework for you. Some of the online legal services for small businesses you can acquire include:
- Training and advice for small business owners
- Advice on personal guarantees
- Trading terms and conditions
- Shareholder and partnership agreements
- Commercial premises lease advice
- Negotiating when buying goods
- Protecting intellectual property and business ideas
- Data protection
- Advice addressing consultant engagement like IT contractors
- Employment law advice
The importance of online legal advice for small companies is not only due to the reduced cost of service, but also because there are fewer possibilities that the information provided is wrong or missing.
Obviously, this may not seem like a legitimate excuse, but picture your lawyer returning all of your documentation because you failed to provide the right information.
As a business owner, you need to get familiar with the laws that your small business operates around. This will not only save you valuable time and finances, but it is always a good idea to be your own advocate.
No one, not even your close cousin that just finished law school, will be interested in your small business like you as an owner should be. Now, we are not saying that you should avoid attorneys by any means – they are absolutely necessary when legal matters are concerned.
However, doing your own research can give you a better direction of where to take your small business next, especially legality-wise.
Benefits Of Online Legal Counseling For Small Business
Online legal services might be a nifty option to consider, yet they are not aiming to replace a through-and-through legal service.
In case your legal affair needs more handling, you can always take it to court for settling.
If small businesses adapt well to their surroundings and use online legal counseling they can gain:
- Exemplary lower pricing of legal services
Your small business might part with a few dimes yet fulfill its legal requirements, without leaving many grey areas in between. Depending on the services you need, you shall spend anything between $80 and $500.
- Legal paperwork made effortlessly
Online legal services provide a wide range of high-quality legal papers that may be quickly viewed, recovered, and backed up, including business paperwork, wills, trusts, and related documents.
- Ready access to reputable attorneys
Before completing the procedure, you may have your paperwork evaluated by an attorney or even meet with him or her in person for advice.
- Transparency for close monitoring
Finally, unlike traditional law firms, which can mess up the working relationship by miscommunication, online legal services are cultivating a more transparent culture in the legal family. This allows clients to watch every movement that occurs in terms of legal concerns.
Online Legal Services Can Come in Many Forms
Just a few of the well-known brands in the world of online legal services are LegalZoom, LegalShield, Rocket Lawyer, and LawDepot, to mention a few.
You’ve probably seen advertisements for websites where they claim that you may meet with a certified attorney in minutes to discuss your legal issues. When you go through these websites, you’ll see that they provide legal services that are geared toward businesses, such as LLC formation, copyright registration, and patent filing.
The majority of online legal services operate on either a subscription basis – where the customer pays a certain sum each month in return for a predetermined list of services – or on a pay-per-service basis -where the client purchases specific legal services on an as-needed basis.
Importance of Online Legal Counseling: Final Say
So, after having a hell-of-a quarrel with your wife, and a long sleepless weekend you finally made the decision to quit your day job and start your own business – kudos to you! The smart thing to do is to fire up your web browser, and learn all there is about online legal counseling for small businesses.
There is an abundance of information out there. From basic info about how to start your business to all of the necessary legal documents that you need to submit to the legal institution.
After our thorough research and a little experience in small business, what we as an editorial team would advise, is to get all of the papers ready. You can do it online, with no spelling mistakes or bad handwriting.
Check them yourself again, and if you are really not sure if it is the right thing to do – always get legal counsel from an attorney, which can be the pricier option to consider.
