Legal Document Assistant Explanation

I am not an attorney, I am a judgment matchmaking expert (Judgment Broker). This article is my opinion, based on my experience in California, and laws vary in each state. Nothing in any of my articles should ever be considered legal advice. If you ever require a strategy to use or legal advice, you should contact a lawyer.

In this article, when LDP is used, it means a Legal Document Preparer or Legal Document Preparation. In this article, LDP also means Legal Document Assistant (LDA), which means nearly the same thing - a person with education and training, that is usually licensed by a state. What a LDP can or can't do depends on what state they are located in. In certain states, lawyers and State Bars have preventedLDAs from operating.

LDPs do not offer any legal service, however they can assist you to fill out the sheriff's or the court's legal forms. Sometimes LDPs are also process servers, court runners, or court researchers - and may be able to file or serve your documents.

LDPs don't, and cannot give legal advice. Most will not even give you a direct opinion, because it might be too close to being considered an Unauthorized Practice Of Law. (See Business & Professions Code Section 6400 A.) LDPs usually will not choose forms for you. Instead, they may refer you to pre-printed brochures and flyers, with the same tips that a web search would show.

The legal status when at LDPs, is similar to when one is at a court clerk's window. Neither of them will offer you legal advice, but both can point you to where you can learn what to do, and then you can return and tell them what you want done. (Usually they will inform you if you do do something wrong, but they still can't provide legal advice.)

Depending on what state, some people use LDPs for do-it-yourself divorce, unlawful detainer, lawsuits, wills, bankruptcies, judgment enforcement, and many other tasks where one wants help to do the legal forms or tasks themselves.

The main advantage of using an LDP is they may save you money. If there are no complications and your needs are simple, and you know what you are doing, you may save some money hiring a LDP.

In some states, where lawyers take very few judgment recovery cases on contingency, and collection agencies charge too much upfront and too much as a percentage, and/or judgment enforcers have been put out of business by state bars (or have become too picky), or where small claims judgments cannot be assigned, LDAs can be the solution to try to get judgments enforced.

There are many disadvantages to hiring a LDP:

1) If your task or case has any kind of complication or opposition, you may have to pay an attorney the same, or more money, than if you went to them first, and you will also have already paid the LDP.

2) Just because one can do something legally doesn't mean you should. A good lawyer will advise you about whether it is worth trying something, a LDP cannot.

3) Lawsuits can be won, and judgments may be enforced on a contingency basis. Contingency is a powerful word and LDPs aren't contingency. Contingency allows you to spend no time and no money, and someone else pays and works to get your goal accomplished. LDPs are always pay as you go.

4) When you hire a LDA to help you enforce your judgment, often you must also pay for a private investigator, and pay courts, sheriffs, and process servers.

Good web sites to learn more are: Wikipedia and in California, http://www.calda.org/Information.asp


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