When I started helping consumers prepare their legal documents for divorce in 1996, between 50-55% of family law litigants were self-represented. There were no family law assistance centers or facilitators at the court to help people get through the process on their own. Legal Document Assistants, formerly known as Independent Paralegals were mostly part of a cottage industry plagued by unscrupulous fly-by-nights. And Robert  Shapiro hadn’t yet created Legal Zoom.
Fast forward to 2011 where legal document assistants, have been legitimized for over 10 years. The new laws have helped to rid the legal marketplace of many, but not all non-attorney […]