We the People is a chain of legal document preparation retail stores that offer preparation of simple legal documents for a flat fee. No legal advice is provided as each store is operated by a non-lawyer. A consumer completes a paper questionnaire with facts about their individual situation. From this information, a centralized document processing center creates a customized legal document often using specialized legal software programs. The chain has been filling a need because it is expanding rapidly and reportedly generates approximately $24,000,000 a year in sales volume at retail. For many consumers, this chain provides a needed service at a cost which is much less than the cost of traditional legal fees. However, the consumer receives no legal advice and purchasing from a We the People store is not at all like using a traditional attorney.
The chain was recently acquired by Dollar Financial Group, one of the largest networks of check-cashing stores in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Dollar is a $400 million public company that trades on the over the counter market, so it has access to capital and sophisticated management resources. DFG's plan is to expand the We the People chain from 138 stores to hundreds of stores nationwide. It is not yet clear whether they will be successful in this expansion effort.
In prior years, some state bar associations have attacked individual We the People stores for violating state UPL statutes by providing legal advice directly to consumers. Many, but not all, of these conflicts have been settled since the Dollar acquisition. Dollar has assured state bar associations that store owners will not cross the line and give legal advice.
The fees that We the People charge are higher than similar services offered over the Internet . (We the People typically charges $399.00 for a no-fault divorce compared to $199.00, the going rate from many on-line web sites. See for example: LegalZoom. ). However, for those consumers who want to deal with a person face-to-face, or for consumers who don’t have easy access to the Internet, We the People is a lower cost alternative than traditional legal services.
Many lawyers complain about We the People, but fail to understand that for consumers any solution to their legal problem, is better than a solution that they can’t afford. Consumers are willing to get a “good enough” solution, rather than have no solution at all. Moreover, many lawyers will say that they are not interested in serving clients who can’t pay their legal fees, so why does the legal profession continue to try to regulate out of existence non-lawyer document preparation services that serve consumer needs?
Disclosure: We operate, through an affiliated organization, web sites that offer on-line non-lawyer document preparation services. [See for example: The Name Change Law Center and The Divorce Law Information Center.
