Use A Licensed Legal Document Assistant Or Use A Judgment Enforcer?
I am not a lawyer, I am a judgment referral specialist (Judgment Broker)
. This article is my opinion, based on my experience in California, and laws are different in each state. Nothing in any of my articles should ever be considered legal advice. If you ever require legal advice or a strategy to use, you should contact a lawyer.
In this article, when LDP is used, it means a Legal Document Preparation or a Legal Document Preparer. In this article, LDP also means Legal Document Assistant (LDA), which means almost 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 some states, State Bars have preventedLDAs from operating.
LDPs do not offer a legal service, however they can assist you to fill out the court's or the sheriff's legal forms. Sometimes LDPs are also process servers, court runners, or court researchers - and can sometimes file or serve your documents.
LDPs don't, and cannot give legal advice. Most will not even give you their direct opinion, because that might be too close to being considered an Unauthorized Practice Of Law. (See Business and Professions Code Section 6400 A.) LDPs usually will not select forms for you. Instead, they can refer you to pre-printed brochures and flyers, with the same information that a web search would show.
The legal situation when at LDPs, is similar to when you are at a court clerk's window. Neither of them can give you legal advice, but both may point you to where you can learn what to do, and then you can return and explain to them what you need done. (Usually they will tell you if you do do something wrong, but they still cannot give you legal advice.)
Depending on what state, some people hire LDPs for do-it-yourself divorce, unlawful detainer, lawsuits, wills, bankruptcies, judgment enforcement, and many other tasks when one wants help to accomplish the legal forms or tasks themselves.
The main advantage of using an LDP is they may save you money. If your needs are simple and there are no complications, and you know what you are doing, you may save some money using a LDP.
In certain 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 are too picky), or where small claims judgments cannot be assigned, LDAs can be the solution to try to get judgments recovered.
There are many disadvantages to using a LDP:
1) If your task or case has any kind of complication or opposition, you may have to pay a lawyer 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 a good idea to try something, a LDP cannot.
3) Lawsuits can be won, and judgments may be enforced on a contingency basis. Contingency is an important concept and LDPs aren't contingency. Contingency lets you spend no money and no time, and someone else pays and works to get your goal accomplished. LDPs are always pay as you go.
4) If you pay for a LDA to help you enforce your judgment, usually you must also pay for a private investigator, and pay courts, process servers, and sheriffs.
Good web sites to learn more are: Wikipedia and in California, http://www.calda.org/Information.asp
by: Mark Shapiro
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