Online Legal Sites

By David J. Bilinsky

Certainly LegalZoom and Dynamic Lawyers™ are not the only online legal form providers. What is perhaps surprising in this area is that Self?Counsel Press, the originator of the “self-help” legal form here in B.C., does not have their books and precedents available for download. You can certainly order their books online, but they haven’t moved into the online forms model (as of yet!) (www.self-counsel.com).

So here is a selection of those online providers from Canada:

Canadian Legal Forms
(www.canadalegal.com/forms/) is a collection of downloadable forms, a blog and links that appear to be by Peter Cusimano in Toronto.

FindLegalForms.com
(Canada Legal Forms) (www.canada.findlegalforms.com/forms) is a California company that now lists Canadian legal forms for download as well as U.S. precedents.

Lean Legal
(www.leanlegal.com) has forms for both Canadians and Americans as well as “free legal tools” (library, encyclopedia and dictionary). They also have free legal forms such as Bill of Sale, Promissory Notes, etc.

CanLaw Legal Forms
(www.canlaw.com/legalforms/indexlegalforms.htm) is a website by J. Kirby Inwood operating as Kirwood Inc. (“Doing Brilliant Work Since 1981”). Rabble.ca in a blog post (http://tinyurl.com/yfjnbow) states that the Law Society of Upper Canada has advised lawyers not to use Mr. Inwood’s services.

LawDepot
(www.lawdepot.com/contracts/canada/) offers legal forms for Canada, USA, Australia and the UK. It is not apparent who is behind this other than it arises out of the province of Alberta.

LegalFormsCanada
(www.legalformscanada.com/) is another site that offers Canadian legal forms. It appears that this site is hosted by Jordan and Jessa Hurdal (mortgage consultants in West Vancouver).

Advicescene
(in conjunction with LawDepot) (http://legal.advicescene.com/canadian-legal-forms.php) was founded by Kancy Kinney, BC LLB in 2002 and hails from Victoria. There is a blog as well as links and a lawyer directory.

eLastWill.ca
(www.elastwill.ca) is operated out of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia by Integral Publishing. In conjunction with this site are eLegalForms.ca, e-Mediation.ca and eLifeinsurance.ca.

DivorceOnline.ca
(www.divorceonline.ca/index.php) offers divorce documents as well as advice and a blog from Stirling Alberta and is operated by Integral Divorce Documents Inc.

UntietheKnot.ca
(www.untietheknot.ca/?gclid=CLCFyb2SoqACFSkYagodaUm3Ug) has “helped more than 5000 Canadians obtain their divorce, without the high cost of a divorce lawyer” and is operated by 0707073 BC Ltd.

Just for reference, online legal services do not have to be restricted to commodity law.

Three prestigious international legal firms offer online legal advice across a range of legal sectors and disciplines:

Linklaters Blue Flag Online Services
(www.linklaters.com/OnlineServices/Pages/Index.aspx)

Allen & Overy Online Services
(www.allenovery.com/AOWEB/OnlineServices/OnlineServicesHome.aspx?contentTypeID=8&prefLangID=410)

Clifford Chance Online Services
(www.cliffordchance.com/online_services/overview/?LangID=UK&)

This article originally appeared in the April 2010 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.