OK, one final spin and I will wrap up this monster post. Hey Bill, things are looking a bit blurry over at the NO SPIN ZONE: do I see you rotating? they know that only a fraction of customers are ever going to read the disclaimer and they are counting on it and they know people are going to be enticed by the huge, if not misleading, quoted savings amounts. Even they say in their fine print, “This website is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.” Wait, Wait, Wait! If LegalZoom’s services are no substitute for an attorney than why are they comparing their pricing to that of attorneys? I will tell you why: they are spinning it. LegalZoom’s document preparation services cannot be fairly compared to providing legal advice. This brings me to Legal Zoom’s second spin: they are comparing rotten tomatoes to ripe juicy apples. Still more than Legal Zoom’s $788, but with us you get a boatload of LEGAL ADVICE. Case in point, our standard fee for a trademark clearance search and the filing of a trademark application in a single international classification is $1250 including the filing fee. Small firms rarely charge anything close to $3142 to search and file a trademark. I don’t doubt that many large national firms charge the amounts listed by LegalZoom for trademark services, BUT the individual entrepreneur who is the Zoom’s customer is not likely to use a large national law firm but rather a sole practitioner or a small firm, like ours. So here is the spin: First, the amount saved over going to an attorney is highly exaggerated. And, of course, if you want a comprehensive trademark search that will add another $299 for a grand total of $788 saving you all told a whopping $2354 over using an attorney to perform the same process. For instance with preparing and filing a trademark, the Zoom will charge you $489 ($159 for their services and $325 for the Trademark Office filing fee) saving you $1285 over using an attorney according to them. For any one of their legal document services, LegalZoom prominently tells you on their website how much you are going to save over using an attorney. So where is the spin? Well, let me lay it out for you as simply as possible. Actually, I suspect the idea for Legal Zoom didn’t come from Shapiro but another founding attorney who brought in Shapiro because of his national notoriety. Simpson, he probably woke up one day and said to himself something like, “hmm, if I can convince a jury, despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, that OJ didn’t do, imagine what I could do with the American Public”. LegalZoom does not practice law and does not give legal advice.” No, the founding attorney owners of the zoom are just sitting back and taking your money without any of the heavy lifting.Ĭonsider Robert Shapiro, part of the legal team that spun the events concerning Nicole Simpson’s murder to gain a not guilty verdict for O.J. See LegalZoom’s own disclaimer statement: “LegalZoom is not a law firm, and the employees of LegalZoom are not acting as your attorney.
Yes, Legal Zoom was founded by lawyers and they trumpet that fact, BUT lawyers do not work with Legal Zoom clients. Hey, that is not surprising, lawyers are some of the best spinners. Yeah, Bill will tell it to you straight without the spin UNLESS he is paid to spin then he will spin, spin, spin like a top! And LegalZoom is probably the most egregious purveyor of spin out there. BUT for Bill O’Reilly to shill for them, the self-anointed straight talker, seriously damages his credibility in my book. I believe I have heard Denver’s own Peter Boyles also personally advertises for Legal Zoom as well. LegalZoom does have a HUGE advertising budget and they use radio as one of their primary advertising mediums. I was driving home the other day when who do you think I heard shilling for LegalZoom: no other than Bill O’Reilly.
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