Legal DIY Web Sites Are No Match for a Pro, Consumer Reports Concludes

After road testing three leading Web sites that help you create your own will, power of attorney, and other important legal documents, Consumer Reports has concluded that none of the will-writing products is likely to entirely meet your needs unless those needs are extremely simple.

The independent non-profit testing agency evaluated three online services: LegalZoom, Nolo, and Rocket Lawyer. Using online worksheets or downloads, researchers created a will, a car bill of sale for a seller, a home lease for a small landlord, and a promissory note. They then asked three law professors — including Gerry W. Beyer of Texas Tech University School of Law, who specializes in estates and trusts — to review in a blind test the processes and resulting documents.

In his evaluation of the will-making programs, Prof. Beyer said that two of them could create good simple wills but he found deficiencies in all three, including features that could lead a user to add clauses that contradict other parts of the will. 

Consumer Reports’ verdict?   “Using any of the three services is generally better than drafting the documents yourself without legal training or not having them at all. But unless your needs are simple—say, you want to leave your entire estate to your spouse—none of the will-writing products is likely to entirely meet your needs. And in some cases, the other documents aren’t specific enough or contain language that could lead to ‘an unintended result,’ in [a professor’s] words,”

An article on the study, titled “Legal DIY websites are no match for a pro,” appears in the September 2012 issue issue of Consumer Reports.  To read it, click here.