When you need a legal document prepared, you don’t always have to turn to an attorney if you’re willing to do the research and trust yourself.

Various websites offer reasonably priced, or sometimes even free downloads of many legal documents ranging from will preparation and estate planning, to divorces and requests for name change, to incorporation papers when you’re starting your own business.

Some sites offer very detailed text or sometimes even videos to guide you in choosing your required services. After creating an account, there’s a site which requires you to answer from a prepared set of questions and your answers becomes the basis of a custom document. There are also sites that offer some of the simplest forms free, and those that offer free forms and sample documents to download and use in creating your form yourself.

These sites would have been sufficient if only circumstances were so simple and only required straightforward answers, but a lot of the legal documents actually entail discretionary thinking on your part.

Do you know what you are going to do next after you have generated that legal document? This information may also be found on the website initially, but it is very likely that applicable regulations or processes vary from state to state or sometimes even per locality. A lawyer would be able to navigate through that for you, have the necessary paperwork ready, or even offer safe storage if necessary such as in the case of wills, which don’t have to be filed until its owner passes away.

You may hit a bump on the road when your answers are not straightforward. For example, in a second marriage you may want to leave your home to your children, but allow your spouse to live there until he or she dies. On-line forms may not offer the option of a lifetime estate.

The less likely that issues may be handled online once it gets increasingly complicated. If such is the case, you are going to need an actual lawyer who will continue to ask the necessary questions until such time that you get the desired answers. At least these online forms don’t require payment upfront which gives you the leeway to cancel halfway through the process, when it’s already clear that they cannot provide the results you intended. Don’t worry about the supposedly wasted time you have spent trying to do the thing on your own, at least it prepared you better for the actual call to the attorney’s office.

You might be pleasantly surprised to find out that a visit to the attorney’s office is not as costly as you thought it would be. When weighing your alternatives, call the attorney’s office first to know how much they charge for a particular service that you are looking for. If the rates are comparable, you would rather prefer a personal meeting and an expert handle the paperwork rather than going through the motions impersonally through the internet.

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With the downturn in employment, many people are going from holding jobs to creating their own. If you’ve started a small business, or plan to do so, you might want to consider the advantages of becoming an LLC.

LLC (Limited Liability Company) is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of organization in business because of the inherent advantages it affords its owners.

Although it may be easier to make your business an LLC, instead of a sole proprietorship, when you are establishing it, depending on how your business is set up it should be possible to convert it to an LLC.

If you launched your business as a sole proprietorship, you may have simply filed a DBA (doing business as) form in your area. It is possible that you may not have registered your business with the state. One of the forms you can use when registering your business is an LLC.

There are pros and cons to starting your business as an LLC, but the biggest benefit would be that it provides liability protection to the owners of the company. An LLC may borrow money for example, yet the owners would not be held liable for it in the event the business fails. If in case the company would be sued for some reason, the owners may not be held legally responsible.

A key benefit is pass-through taxation for the owners which means that they are still able to file income or loss on their individual income tax returns. Other benefits would be increased credibility with shareholders, less stringent requirements compared to corporations, and a more flexible management style. There are also no business taxes, board meetings or board of directors, as ordinarily required from corporations.

Its main disadvantages are in the aspects of legalities and fees. When starting an LLC the Articles of Organization have to be filed and paid in the state where you have registered your business. Some states also ask for annual report or franchise fees. These are free however for sole proprietorships and general partnerships and is reasonably-priced for small businesses. Ownership is also difficult to transfer as there are no shares to speak of and any changes must be duly approved by all the owners.

An LLC may be set up by a single owner in some states, but most states insist on at least two. Another disadvantage is a requirement for the payment of self-employment taxes, something you would have to do if an LLC becomes your only income anyway.

To save themselves the hassle, many people who wants to form an LLC resort to hiring lawyers for handling the legal requirements. Forms are also downloadable from the internet for those who are secure enough to comply with the process by themselves. If such is the case, just be sure to use the forms which are recognized by your state and research any possible special requirements if any.

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