The High Cost of Free Legal Forms
Recently, Avvo began offering legal forms for free. As one can imagine, attorneys (both on Avvo’s platform and not) began questioning why Avvo would offer free legal forms when its primary customer base is attorneys who pay a monthly subscription to advertise on Avvo.com. In a post apparently meant to temper the reaction from participating attorneys, Avvo’s Lawyernomics blog points out that “Forms don’t create value, lawyers do.” I couldn’t agree more.
I have concerns, however, with the model for how attorneys create value for clients who download Avvo’s free legal forms. In the same post, Avvo states that “56% of people who try to handle a legal issue on their own end up getting stuck and 42% of those end up hiring an attorney.” So the model appears to be: (1) draw potential clients in with the promise of free legal forms, over half of whom will not feel comfortable relying on the document they downloaded. And (2) when they inevitably can’t move forward, they will return to Avvo, the same place they got the form that doesn’t fit, and get a referral to a lawyer in the Avvo network.
Something feels strange about that.
My other concern is for the attorneys who participate in Avvo Legal Services. They are reliant upon Avvo’s forms, the ones they did not draft, to draw in potential clients who will then seek their advice regarding Avvo’s work product. Beyond whether attorneys will feel comfortable giving advice for documents they did not draft, they become increasingly dependent on Avvo’s efforts to bring them clients.
Relying on another platform’s sales funnel reminds me of a phrase coined by Brian Clark of Copyblogger Media: Digital Sharecropping. The basic argument is that if you build your business on someone else’s platform, you are subject to changes to the platform that are beyond your control. A quick review of Facebook’s ever-changing rules for how it surfaces content to your timeline is enough to give internet marketers the shudders.
Any business that relies on someone else’s efforts to deliver clients via a platform they do not control is at risk of having a core revenue stream dry up at the whim of the platform.
Regardless of the price, the real value to both lawyer and client is in the relationship of loyalty built upon trusted counsel of a competent lawyer.
What Can You Do About It?
FirmForms allows attorneys to capture and engage directly with clients who are searching for online legal services. Attorneys use their own work product, the documents that capture their years of training and experience, to engage clients and establish a relationship immediately, not after the client has reached the limitations of free forms. The real value to both lawyer and client is the loyalty relationship built upon the trusted counsel of a competent lawyer.
Do not allow unfamiliar technology to keep you serving someone else’s customer.
Think of who benefits most on any platform: the platform itself. People are already searching for low-cost alternatives to full-rate legal services. Unfortunately, they often receive less-than-full-quality products and advice.
You can capture these clients and increase your revenue while delivering top-shelf service. You do not have to rely on someone else’s platform to deliver clients to you.
