Legally Easy is a free source of legal help, news and information from Charley Moore and the legal team at RocketLawyer.com. Rocket Lawyer is the easiest way to make a legal document, find a lawyer and get free legal advice for yourself and your business.
Lexis-Nexis teams with RocketLawyer.com for easy online legal services!
Lawyers.comsm adds “do it yourself” options for common legal issues
Addition is one element of the new, interactive Lawyers.com legal community site
New York, NY – July 23, 2008 – LexisNexis announced today that Lawyers.comsm, the leading online resource for consumers and small business professionals to find an attorney and legal information, has added access to a comprehensive legal document service that combines “do it yourself” legal forms with online legal document review by real lawyers.
The additions come as part of a larger transformation of Lawyers.com by LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® that includes implementation of a variety of new interactive features.
One of the key new capabilities is the Legal Document Services provided by RocketLawyer.com™. This set of services now enable users of Lawyers.com to save time by creating legal documents themselves, as well as accessing fast, affordable legal help online right when needed from Lawyers.com member attorneys.
“Today, more consumers and small business professionals use the web to research legal issues before contacting a lawyer, and with the right tools and services they can often handle simple legal matters on their own,” said Sharon Lubrano, vice-president of Client Development at LexisNexis. “The addition of services from RocketLawyer.com offers Lawyers.com visitors user-friendly online resources so they can act faster and more efficiently on common legal matters. And, they can find and connect with one of more than a million lawyers represented at Lawyers.com via the same, easy to use interface.”
“We’re gratified to provide Lawyers.com users with easy and affordable online legal document services,” added Charley Moore, Founder of RocketLawyer.com. He continued. “Combining our easy online legal documents and our patent-pending “Click-through Legal Review” by real attorneys, with Lawyers.com, now gives Web users everything they need to take control of their legal matters.”
More than just a legal forms site, RocketLawyer.com makes it easy to complete many personal and business legal matters at Lawyers.com. For example, individuals can use the service to set up a last will and testament, create a living will, produce a bill of sale, designate power of attorney and much more. Business can use the service to manage processes such as setting up non-disclosure forms, creating service contracts and employee agreements, producing real estate leases, creating licensing agreements and more.
All of this is accomplished via a powerful set of integrated services, including:
Interactive Legal Forms and Interviews. Users answer a few simple questions and create complete legal documents in minutes. These documents are ready immediately and available anywhere with Web access.
Document Collaboration and Sharing. Users can share documents and collaborate with family, legal counsel and other parties.
Click-Through Legal Review™. Users can access a network of attorneys who can review legal documents online for professional help.
Safe, Secure Online Document Vault. Users get peace of mind by backing up their important papers with FileSafekeeper™.
E-Signatures. Users save time and paper by signing legal documents electronically via a computer, cell phone or PDA.
In addition to new capabilities from RocketLawyer.com, Lawyers.com has expanded its vast database of practice area articles and information for consumers and small business professionals to include:
Life Changing Events – Helpful information on legal issues that arise in most peoples’ lives, such as divorce, starting a business, creating a will and more.
Community and Interactive Features – Interact with lawyers through community message boards, “Ask A Lawyer,” scheduled online sessions to discuss specific legal issues, and more.
Videos - Clips from experts on common legal issues
Blogs – Attorney insights on current key legal issues and trends
On the Docket – Read questions other consumers and small businesses are asking and benefit from the answers
“All of these new elements are great examples of the ongoing transformation of Lawyers.com from a large and useful online directory into an interactive online community where individuals and small businesses can find, discuss, learn and take action on legal issues that matter to them,” said Lubrano.
For more information, contact:
Yolanse Lau Marketing Manager RocketLawyer.com marketingmgr@rocketlawyer.com 415.738.6337
Personal and business credit, including rising bankruptcy filings are in the news almost daily. If you are looking for ways to understand your credit and possible legal solutions, like bankruptcy, RocketLawyer.com can be a good place to start. This article describes a few of the personal and business credit and bankruptcy resources you can find from Rocket Lawyer.
Denials of Credit and Credit Repair Help
There are several legal documents to help you if you have been denied credit. They include the following: Challenge to Denial of Credit Form, Request a Positive Report Form and the Credit Report Request Form. Also, in partnership with TrueCredit by TransUnion, every Rocket Lawyer Member can access their credit report by establishing a TrueCredit account directly linked from their Rocket Lawyer MyAccount page. TrueCredit can help you monitor your credit and provides lots of helpful tips about how to improve your credit rating with all three credit information agencies.
Bankruptcy Legal Help
The RocketLawyer.com Bankruptcy Worksheet is a good place to start for anyone considering the legal issues surrounding personal or business bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Worksheet will help you organize and understand your personal financial situation and gather the information that you should have available for your attorney for a pre-bankruptcy consultation. The Bankruptcy Worksheet can also provide the basic information about how to file for bankruptcy, step by step.
Find a Lawyer to help with Credit and Bankruptcy Matters
The free Rocket Lawyer legal directory contains profiles of attorneys in every state who can assist with a variety of legal matters, including credit and bankruptcy legal information and filings. Click here to find a lawyer in your state.
New Law Alert: California Supreme Court Approves Same-Sex Marriage
In a 4-3 ruling, the California State Supreme Court has made California the second state (following Massachusets) to rule that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
What does this ruling change for gays and lesbians?
Married couples have several rights and protections that are not recognized for most domestic partner-type arrangements. For example, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, domestic partners can be denied certain benefits of marriage under federal law, such as filing joint federal tax returns, social security survivor's benefits and immigration sponsorship rights.
Prenuptial Agreement arrangements and Estate Planning are major considerations for any married couple and these issues will now be the substantially the same for homosexual couples as for heterosexual married people.
RocketLawyer.com recommends that all persons considering marriage think about a Prenuptial Agreement, which will help avoid economic problems in the event of a divorce. Once married, couples should ensure that they have at least three basic legal documents for themselves and their spouse: a Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney and a Last Will and Testament.
If you are unsure about the legal documents you need, the RocketLawyer.com Free Legal Care Check-Up is always a good place to start.
For more information about the California Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling, here is Attorney Gloria Allred.
Doing your taxes yourself has never been easier. Here are some tax time tips to help you get the most out of the many free and low cost tax return filing resources available online. Filing your taxes yourself can be really simple or more involved, depending on the amount of information you want to consider.
Where to start?
RocketLawyer.com offers discounted H&R Block® tax return services online. Every Rocket Lawyer member saves up to 30 percent off the cost of their online tax return. Since everyone needs tax services, this is a great way to get the most out of your Rocket Lawyer membership. If you are already a Rocket Lawyer member, login to access your discounted tax filing services. If you don’t have a membership yet, now is the time to become a Rocket Lawyer member and save even more. Go to: http://www.rocketlawyer.com/.
RocketTax.com makes it simple to complete and file your tax return in a few clicks online. You can trust the tax services from Rocket Tax because it's in partnership with H&R Block, the leader in tax help. Go to: http://www.rockettax.com/.
IRS.gov includes every U.S. Tax form, such as the U.S. Tax 1050 form, the 1050 EZ form, tax Schedule C and all of the other official tax forms, schedules, tax worksheets and tax instructions.
Whether you decide to do your tax filing homework or to just let the easy interactive tax return interviews at RocketTax.com do it for you, filing your taxes yourself should take less time and money than ever.
Use a Non-disclosure Agreement to Protect Your Intellectual Property
Do you have an idea for a new product or service?Need to discuss it with potential customers, investors or perhaps even competitors?If so, think about protecting your idea with a simple confidentiality agreement (also known as a “Non-disclosure Agreement, or “NDA” for short).
A Nondisclosure Agreement is contract under which the person (or organization) receiving information from anther person (or organization) agrees not to disclose proprietary and confidential information that it receives in this context. This type of agreement may be useful in a variety of circumstances. For example, a company might choose to share information with a sales consultant for the purpose improving its sales performance. In such a situation, the company would probably be sharing product and customer information with the consultant and would want to protect this information from disclosure by the consultant to third parties.
Some typical provisions that are included for the protection of the Owner include the following:
No Warranty. There is a possibility that the Confidential Information could contain mistakes or errors, or be based on assumptions that later prove to be incorrect. Therefore, it is common for Owners to include a "no warranty" provision that specifies that the Owner will not be responsible for any damages that the Recipient might incur from using the Confidential Information.
Risk of Disclosure. In addition to the "No Warranty" provision, the Owner may also want to provide that any disclosure made by the Recipient of any information is at the Recipient's risk. Because the Owner has already stated that it will not warrant the accuracy of the information, the Owner can further provide that the Recipient will bear the risk of using the information in violation of the agreement. For example, if the Recipient acts on some of the information and the information was inaccurate, the Recipient cannot hold the Owner responsible for the harm caused by the inaccurate information.
Limited License. Generally, the Owner and the Recipient intend that the Confidential Information will only be used by the Recipient for the limited purpose of reviewing the information and becoming familiar with the Owner's business to determine whether the parties might have interest in future transactions (based on some additional agreement). A "limited license" provision makes it clear that the Recipient is not acquiring the right to use the Confidential Information on a general basis.
General Provisions. A Nondisclosure Agreement should include provisions that (i) require amendments (changes) to the agreement to be in writing and signed by both parties, (ii) specify the state whose laws will govern and interpret disputes between the parties regarding the matters covered by the agreement, and (iii) prohibit the parties from assigning their obligations under the agreement to third parties. Generally, the state whose laws should govern the agreement should be the state of the Owner or the Recipient.
Want to implement a simple estate plan that will protect your loved ones as much as possible? For many people, the idea of going to an attorney and spending thousands of dollars just doesn't work. However, with a little bit of effort, you can do it yourself and save.
The first question usually is: “do I need a Will, a Trust or both?” The answer usually is “both.” Here are the basic differences between a legal will and a trust. As you can see, trusts, which have often been misunderstood, are not just for the rich. For many ordinary conscientious people, a trust is the best way to protect your loved ones and assets.
Here's why:
The Living Trust or Joint Living Trust, combined with a Pour Over Will, are often viewed as preferable alternatives to the stand alone Will. Some of the perceived advantages of the Living Trust are as follows:
1. Privacy. A Living Trust is more private. Under state law, a will is admitted to probate after the Willmaker dies, so that the terms of the Will can be administered. (Under certain circumstances, families with very small estates may be able to use abbreviated probate procedures, or avoid probate entirely, in which case it is not necessary to admit the Will to probate.) "Probate" refers to the court procedures that: a. determine the validity of the Will b. deal with potential Will challenges, c. resolve the claims of creditors of the decedent, and d. ultimately distribute the decedent's assets to the beneficiaries. As a result, the Will becomes part of the court records that can be inspected by the public upon request. In contrast, a Living Trust is administered by the Successor Trustee usually without court involvement, and normally does not become a public record. Thus, the terms of the Living Trust, including the identities of the beneficiaries and the manner in which the Grantor's assets will be distributed, remain private.
2. Reduced probate costs. A Living Trust may avoid at least some of the perceived "evils" of the probate process. A Will is subject to a court administered process known as "probate." This process takes time (generally, six months to three years), and involves court costs, executor fees, and lawyer fees. The cost of probate can vary greatly, depending on state law; the cost may range from 2% of the amount of the decedent's gross assets to 10% or more in some states. However, the costs associated with administering the trust assets after a Grantor's death, including the obligation to prepare various tax returns, account for trust assets, pay the Grantor's debts, and make required distributions, may be similar in amount to the costs of probate. Therefore, it is difficult to predict whether the amount of savings that might result from the use of a Living Trust will be more than a minimal amount.
3. Management of property. A Living Trust offers a mechanism for allowing another person or organization to manage all or some of your assets if you become unable to do so, or if you simply prefer to "have someone else do it." Thus, a Living Trust may serve as an alternative to a conservatorship or guardianship.
4. Affordability. Traditionally, the costs may have been to high for most people to create an estate plan, including a Living Trust. Today, however, you can put together your own estate planning documents for as little as $34.95 using the Easy Estate Planning kit at RocketLawyer.com. Just start here and you’re on your way to a sensible and Easy Estate Plan.
This is the first posting for the Rocket Lawyer blog. What is Rocket Lawyer? Well, it's not rocket science! Many of the legal tasks that people need to get done can be accomplished via the Internet, at a fraction of the cost of offline legal assistance. For example, everyone should have a living will, and if you read on, you will see how to obtain one for free.
Rocket Lawyer is dedicated to helping people locate the information and tools they need to do common legal tasks themselves and save. Everyone should have a will, a durable power of attorney and a living will (advance healthcare directive). Most people don't have these essential documents completed because the process has been expensive and confusing. Hopefully, that will start to change now.
In this blog, we will post for free some of the thousands of pages of information from our Rocket Lawyer law library. This will help you to create your own will, power of attorney, living will, small business documents, legal letters and thousands of other forms and legal documents.
The information in this blog will point you in the right direction. While we do hope that you will consider trying RocketLawyer.com and becoming a patron, we want you to be able to find enough good information for free to help you with your legal matters whether or not you ultimately patronize our paid services.
So, thanks for reading the first posting of our Rocket Lawyer blog. Please visit http://www.rocketlawyer.com for more information about us.
Now, as promised, here is our first free article:
What is a Living Will?
A Living Will is a document where you can state your wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment in the event that you either have a terminal illness and are expected to die within a relatively short time or are permanently unconscious. In general, individuals use Living Wills to indicate whether they want certain medical treatment withheld or withdrawn in order to allow a more natural death if the treatment is merely prolonging the dying process or there is no hope of recovery.
A Living Will is only effective when you are no longer able to make and communicate your own wishes. For example, if you suffer a stroke or are in a motor vehicle accident and suffer a severe brain injury so that you are in a coma, you may not be able to communicate your wishes. A Living Will in these circumstances helps you communicate your desires about certain medical procedures.
A famous example of a situation where a living will would have helped is the Terri Schiavo case:
Our featured Bankruptcy Lawyer for this issue is 
