A recent article on law.com, Online Divorce Services Spark Debate, discusses Web sites that offer consumers assistance with divorces via document creation. The two sites featured in the article are CompleteCase and legalzoom. The article explores the pros and cons of self-help sites: “Pioneers of the services claim that it is an affordable alternative to exorbitant legal fees. Many divorce attorneys say potential customers ought to beware, because divorce is a complicated process that requires legal counsel.”
Business to consumer (B2C) legal sites have raised ethical concerns since the first sites went live in the dot-boom. But business-to-business (B2B) sites, that is large law firms offering online services to their clients, likely raise fewer issues. The online services offered by large law firm typically deliver advice via in-house counsel or directly to sophisticated business users; in either event, the use of the service typical is part of an established attorney-client relationship. Consequently, large law firms offering or considering offering online services to their corporate clients probably face fewer ethical considerations than a B2C site.