Salem Weekly has an ad in the current issue for an outfit called "AffordableCourtDocuments.com," which styles itself as 'The Peoples [sic] Document Source' and offers to have you FILE BANKRUPTCY $399.99. I hope they understand the law better than they understand possessive punctuation and verb tenses, but I rather doubt it:
Welcome to The Peoples Document Source. The non-attorney paralegal team at The Peoples Document Source is at your service. We offer affordable, reliable and fully prepare legal documents concerning a variety of disciplines. We offer Bankrutpcy Chapter 7 and 13. We offer affordable Wills, and Uncontested Divorce with or without children. We also offer criminal record expungments, name change, adoption, auto or home loan modification paperwork, and much more. All you do is sign and file.
Word of advice: unless you are the kind of person who likes to do your own dentistry, run away from these people. Their ad shows the classic balance-beam scales that have become a shorthand symbol for lawyers in the way that three gold balls have become the symbol for pawn shops. (Oddly, pawnshops are better regulated than these people.) Worse, their ad says "Low Cost Legal Help."
Funny, why doesn't it say "Low Cost Paralegal Help"? Could it be that they want you to think you're getting legal help, while they actually are simply charging exorbitant fees for doing nothing for you?
In the age of the Internet, paralegal document preparers are a huge ripoff. If you want to file bankruptcy on your own, go to the library and borrow any of the excellent Nolo Press books on the subject. Or contact a real bankruptcy lawyer and negotiate a deal for doing the legwork and preparing the schedules on a do-it-yourself basis and have the lawyer look them over and tell you what you've missed.
Giving $400 to people who do nothing but take freely available forms and fill them out for you is insane, and bankruptcy is nothing to fool around with. Alternatively, if they do anything beyond that, they are giving you legal advice, which they are not licensed to do and which can easily blow up in your face. Remember, when you file bankruptcy, you are also starting a lengthy period in which you cannot again file bankruptcy, no matter how dire your circumstances become. Worse, when you screw up a bankruptcy, you can easily wind up with the worst of all worlds -- you give control of all your assets to a bankruptcy trustee but wind up left with debts that don't get discharged. Some of the first folks to consult with me when I opened my doors were a young couple who were way underwater with debts, including student loan debts (which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy) -- the problem they had was that some clown like these document preparers had put them through bankruptcy .... while forgetting to mention one tiny little fact to them: they were still going to owe the student loans.
BOTTOM LINE: If you only have $400 to your name, spend it talking to a real lawyer about how to accomplish your legal goals in the best way for you, given your financial limitations. $400 of real advice that a real lawyer will stand behind is a lot better value than $400 spent on "service" that can put you worse off than when you started.
And, no, I'm not ragging on these people because they are competition. I don't do bankruptcy work (although I have thought about adding it to my practice, just to keep clients in financial trouble from winding up in the grasp of folks like this), so I'm not hurt. Nor do I do divorces, and they sure aren't competition for doing estate planning (as I've never had an estate planning client who didn't know that the Internet is full of cheap or free estate planning forms).
Nor am I ragging on paralegals. A good paralegal is a prized professional of great worth, but a good paralegal -- like any other professional -- is someone who is ethical and careful about not misrepresenting themselves or their services, No good paralegal attempts to sell legal services, especially not complex issues like bankruptcy, and especially not on a flat-fee basis that makes it impossible for them to invest any serious time helping you.
UPDATE: After posting this, a friend sends: The other day I saw an ad from one of those places, offering to get you a "quick claim deed." [sic - quit-claim deed]
Welcome to The Peoples Document Source. The non-attorney paralegal team at The Peoples Document Source is at your service. We offer affordable, reliable and fully prepare legal documents concerning a variety of disciplines. We offer Bankrutpcy Chapter 7 and 13. We offer affordable Wills, and Uncontested Divorce with or without children. We also offer criminal record expungments, name change, adoption, auto or home loan modification paperwork, and much more. All you do is sign and file.
Word of advice: unless you are the kind of person who likes to do your own dentistry, run away from these people. Their ad shows the classic balance-beam scales that have become a shorthand symbol for lawyers in the way that three gold balls have become the symbol for pawn shops. (Oddly, pawnshops are better regulated than these people.) Worse, their ad says "Low Cost Legal Help."
Funny, why doesn't it say "Low Cost Paralegal Help"? Could it be that they want you to think you're getting legal help, while they actually are simply charging exorbitant fees for doing nothing for you?
In the age of the Internet, paralegal document preparers are a huge ripoff. If you want to file bankruptcy on your own, go to the library and borrow any of the excellent Nolo Press books on the subject. Or contact a real bankruptcy lawyer and negotiate a deal for doing the legwork and preparing the schedules on a do-it-yourself basis and have the lawyer look them over and tell you what you've missed.
Giving $400 to people who do nothing but take freely available forms and fill them out for you is insane, and bankruptcy is nothing to fool around with. Alternatively, if they do anything beyond that, they are giving you legal advice, which they are not licensed to do and which can easily blow up in your face. Remember, when you file bankruptcy, you are also starting a lengthy period in which you cannot again file bankruptcy, no matter how dire your circumstances become. Worse, when you screw up a bankruptcy, you can easily wind up with the worst of all worlds -- you give control of all your assets to a bankruptcy trustee but wind up left with debts that don't get discharged. Some of the first folks to consult with me when I opened my doors were a young couple who were way underwater with debts, including student loan debts (which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy) -- the problem they had was that some clown like these document preparers had put them through bankruptcy .... while forgetting to mention one tiny little fact to them: they were still going to owe the student loans.
BOTTOM LINE: If you only have $400 to your name, spend it talking to a real lawyer about how to accomplish your legal goals in the best way for you, given your financial limitations. $400 of real advice that a real lawyer will stand behind is a lot better value than $400 spent on "service" that can put you worse off than when you started.
And, no, I'm not ragging on these people because they are competition. I don't do bankruptcy work (although I have thought about adding it to my practice, just to keep clients in financial trouble from winding up in the grasp of folks like this), so I'm not hurt. Nor do I do divorces, and they sure aren't competition for doing estate planning (as I've never had an estate planning client who didn't know that the Internet is full of cheap or free estate planning forms).
Nor am I ragging on paralegals. A good paralegal is a prized professional of great worth, but a good paralegal -- like any other professional -- is someone who is ethical and careful about not misrepresenting themselves or their services, No good paralegal attempts to sell legal services, especially not complex issues like bankruptcy, and especially not on a flat-fee basis that makes it impossible for them to invest any serious time helping you.
UPDATE: After posting this, a friend sends: The other day I saw an ad from one of those places, offering to get you a "quick claim deed." [sic - quit-claim deed]
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