5 Reasons Consumers Love Legal Document Preparers

1. Cost. Document preparation services are not the same as attorney services, nor are they meant to be. Document preparation fees are much lower than attorneys' fees, because legal document preparers do not offer legal advice, and do not provide representation. Document preparation fees for things like divorce, bankruptcy, and small probate can be as little as 10% of what consumers would expect to pay an attorney to prepare these same documents.
2. Control. Consumers always remain in control of their legal action. It is up to the consumer, the pro se litigant, to educate himself about the issues and to construct his own strategy. Having control of the case strategy allows the self-represented litigant to be more agile in making compromises, and by being in control may be able to avoid long drawn out litigation.
3. Communication. Legal document preparers are generally superb communicators and are happy to keep their customers informed about their work. Many document preparers teach their customers how to check their case docket, deal with the court clerk, and efile their documents.
4. Court procedure. Many legal document preparers are former paralegals with years of experience working for law firms. Florida court procedure is confusing, but most document preparers are well aware of the minutiae of timelines, formats, and court rules.
5. Access. The pro se litigant is a customer to the legal document preparer – a valued customer. The level of customer serviced offered by legal document preparers includes easy access to the document preparer. Most document preparers operate solo or have a very small staff, so the customer almost always communicates with the same person preparing his documents.

Florida Parenting Course - a mandatory requirement.

Divorcing parents and separating couples with children involved in a Paternity Action are required to take the Parental Education and Family Stabilization Course, commonly referred to as the Parenting Course. In 1999 the Florida Legislature enacted new laws that made the course mandatory throughout Florida and set guidelines for the course. Over the years, the rules and guidelines have changed slightly, and the requirement has become more and more vigorously enforced.

Parties have always been encouraged to take the course as early in their court process as possible as the course includes information about how parents can help their children deal with the stress of divorce and separation. Now, some circuits will not schedule a court hearing regarding the divorce or paternity until both parties have fulfilled the course requirement.

A Notice for Florida's Seventh Circuit states:

“Pursuant to Administrative Order FM-2013-016-SC mandatory attendance at a parent education and family stabilization course is established as a policy in the Seventh Judicial Circuit for all parties in dissolution of marriage proceedings with minor children, paternity actions, family law cases involving issues of shared parental responsibilities or timesharing of minor children unless parties have previously completed a parenting education course and have filed a Certificate of Completion.

It is the responsibility of the Petitioner to provide the Respondent with a copy of these instructions and the list of providers. For dissolutions and family law cases involving issues of shared parental responsibilities, or timesharing of minor children, the petitioner shall complete the chosen program within forty-five (45) days after filing the petition. The respondent shall complete the chosen program within forty-five (45) days after service of the petition.

For paternity actions, the petitioner shall complete the chosen program within forty-five (45) days after filing the petition. The respondent shall complete the chosen program within forty-five (45) days after an acknowledgment of paternity by that party, an adjudication of paternity as to that party, or an order granting visitation to or support from that party. Each party who successfully completes the program shall file a Certificate of Completion with the Clerk of the Court, who shall file said Certificate in the appropriate case file.”

Each circuit may have slightly different rules and timelines. But, in general the courses and requirements are uniform throughout Florida's counties and circuits. The general course content is set by the Department of Children and Families, and each course must be approved by them. The person taking the course must spend at least four hours on the course, whether in a classroom or online. And each person must pass the course with a test score of at least 70%. Prices vary from course provider to course provider, averaging around $39.00, and there is almost always a discounted price for indigent/ low income people.

The information in the course is valuable for divorcing and separating parents. Navigating life after a break up is never easy, and preparing yourself for life after a break up is the best thing you can do for your children. Remember marriages and relationships end … but families don't.

Please sign our petition!

Dear Customers and Friends:

I need your help. The organization I belong to, the Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers, is working to convince the Florida Bar to remove the shackles placed on our profession. I only just recently learned I can ask folks other than just our membership to help us get this goal reached. Here are the points involved in this battle (and it is a battle), to cause the Bar do the following:
1. Investigate Unauthorized Practice of Law when there is consumer harm. Not when there is "potential" harm.

2. If the Florida Bar demands that we follow their rules, make those rules clear, and set out in a fashion in which document preparers can easily find and refer to the rules.

3. Lighten up on the investigation of document preparers altogether. We feel we are being bullied and harassed by an entity that does not supervise us. The Florida Bar is authorized to investigate UPL but putting document preparers out of business is counterproductive all around.

4. Give us some recognition for what we do. We are part of the solution to the ongoing justice gap. Until consumers are being served fully, there is no need for us to be perceived as a threat to lawyers.

I’m asking you in all sincerity to please, follow the link below, and vote for our freedom to help those who can’t help themselves in these issues.

Here are some comments which have been left by others who have joined to support our cause:

"Attorneys are very expensive and there are many things that can be handled by an individual if they have the right forms."
"Many people need help in the courts and cannot afford a huge retainer fee just to get any kind of justice."
"Stop beating on the little people in the business

To each of you who I have helped type up legal paperwork, I’ve explained how, even if we have a college degree in Paralegal Studies, unless we work directly for an attorney, we aren’t allowed to call ourselves by that title. With no written guidelines, we are expected to know what we can and cannot say to a customer to avoid Unauthorized Practice of Law. Many unsuspecting paralegals in this situation have put themselves in the path of losing their right to help folks by calling themselves that title. People can by law,  get help from us to get their legal forms filled out, with the same accuracy and at a much lower cost than if they had to hire an attorney. This not only is wrong for the document prep folks, it hinders everyday people from saving money. The link I’m providing in this letter leads to a Petition our Petition.  You can truly be of help to right a wrong.

Here is the link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-florida-bar-allow-nonlawyer-legal-document-preparers-to-continue-to-help-consumers-without-interference

Every signature counts. We now have over 400 signatures. Need 500.

Thank you so very much for your support!

Ruth Tick and the FALDP Team.

If a machine can do it - its NOT UPL.

The U.S. Appellate Case for the Second Federal District, Lola v. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, No. 14-3845 (2d Cir. 2015) interests me for reasons other than its stance on labor laws. I'm interested in the part about, if a machine can do it, then its not UPL.

David Lola who brought the case along with others who were in the same position, while working for a legal temporary employment agency reviewing documents. For this he was paid $25. per hour. His job was to go through the documents and search for certain words and phrases; categorize the documents; and mark other words and phrases to be redacted. (It sounds mind numbing). His place of employment was at a law firm in North Carolina [Skadden, et al].

Lola worked more than forty hours per week, but wasn't paid time and half for hours over forty. His employers' position was that he was not entitled to overtime pay because he was a professional and an attorney. They cited exemptions in the labor laws for overtime pay for professionals and attorneys. Lola argued that the work he was doing was not practicing law, because the work required absolutely no legal judgment.

He eventually won his case. The opinion included some interesting language.

“The gravamen of Lola’s complaint is that he performed document review under such tight constraints that he exercised no legal judgment whatsoever—he alleges that he used criteria developed by others to simply sort documents into different categories. Accepting those allegations as true, as we must on a motion to dismiss, we find that Lola adequately alleged in his complaint that he failed to exercise any legal judgment in performing his duties for Defendants. A fair reading of the complaint in the light most favorable to Lola is that he provided services that a machine could have provided. The parties themselves agreed at oral argument that an individual who, in the course of reviewing discovery documents, undertakes tasks that could otherwise be performed entirely by a machine cannot be said to engage in the practice of law.”

The reason I find this so interesting is that document preparers are frequently investigated for the unauthorized practice of law (UPL). And if the law of the land is that if it could be automated then its not practicing law, we could use that argument in almost every investigation against one of us. Its not exactly the law of the land, it is the law in the Second Federal District, but still persuasive.

Document preparers prepare documents. We don't provide legal advice or legal judgment. Certainly a lot of what we do could be done by artificial intelligence (AI), aka machines, aka computer software. Our activities may not be commonly done by AI but they could. A computer could automatically format documents, intake information, ask questions, and so on. A computer program can certainly know when to ask additional questions and use if/then logic.

So … since a computer could certainly do what I do in preparing documents, then that must mean that nothing I do can be considered the unauthorized practice of law. Right?

On White Privilege

I've been conducting my own social experiment on social media. I came across an article on my Facebook feed about a man, John Placek, in Pennsylvania that posted a billboard that sparked some racial controversy.

The message on the billboard dissolves from the statement: “whites have rights” to a message about Jussie Smollett -- the actor involved in the hoax attack in Chicago. Regarding the billboard Placek (who is white) stated: “We gotta get people talking. We gotta get them excited. And that’s what I’ve done. The board was never meant to hurt anybody. I would never do that. I’m a patriot. I’m an American. Period,”

Placek also stated: “Racism is misunderstood in America and I want to have the conversation," he said. “We need to get over: I’m black. You’re white. You’re Hispanic. Who cares? I don’t care about that. I do care about how you act and how you stand for my flag, our flag.”

I agree with some of what he says, but do not believe he simply wants to start a dialogue. I believe he is racist and wants to tell the world that he is. I also take exception to his statements about patriotism. There is nothing more patriotic than dissent. As for Jussie Smollett, who by all accounts staged a racist attack on himself - he couldn't have come up with a more idiotic thing to do.

But, here's where it gets interesting. I posted the following:

“I think the conversation needs to be about privilege, not rights. In theory, we all have equal rights. But, in practice white privilege is alive and well. Choose whatever metric makes you happy ... economic, incarceration rates, education levels, or whatever. Whites are at the top of the spectrum, not by anything white people have done, but just because they're white. That's called privilege. The billboard is blatantly racist. He's calling out people to argue with him. Saying, poor me, I'm white and nobody fights for my rights. Well, that's because white people enjoy white privilege at every turn. He can say what he wants in his billboard and then own up to the consequences. Free speech.”

For that, I received an interesting set of responses:

“the term “ white privilege “ is racist in its self . What’s it called when. Once group says another group you have no rights to talk about racism ? Oh yes , bigoted and racist”

“your post is blatantly racist. Had the board said any other race you wouldn’t of said anything. Everyone has rights. Just because you’re salty about your lack of success doesn’t make it anyone else’s fault. You have no idea how anyone else grew up.”

“you’re isolating a group based on the color of their skin”

“White privilege has been debunked many times.”

“Everything you named has more to do with personal choices than any type of privilege. People have to take responsibility for their own choices instead of blaming another person's "privilege." One person's success doesn't take away from another person's success. If you don't want to be incarcerated then don't commit crimes. If you want an education then work hard and pay for it. Not to mention, there are many trade skills and manual labor jobs that don't require you to pay anything to learn it. The schooling is essentially free for many trade skills. Which is a field dominated by white males because white males are the ones willing to do the job. Everyone in this country has equal opportunity. Not everyone has equal outcome due to their own personal choices. That has nothing to do with race or privilege. “

I suppose the respondents assume I'm not white. I am white. I recognize my white privilege and am thankful for it. Privilege is like having a head start in a foot race. If all run at the same speed, the runners with the head start always win. Runners without the head start can win, but to do so, they have to train harder and run faster just to level the playing field. Just to try to make things fair. But the race set up like this can never be fair because the runners without the head start had to train harder and run faster to even have a chance of winning.

In this article, I'm not going to cite statistics to support my claim that white privilege is alive and well in the United States. I believe we need a dialogue. I welcome comments. Because if we are complacent about racism, we are no better than the German people who during WWII stood by as the Nazis murdered innocent people.

Links to news story and video:

Video

Florida Family Adoptions Made Simple

Florida adoptions are governed by Florida Statute 63. Private adoptions and adoptions of someone who is not a close family relative require a home study, background check, or the MAPP course (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting). However, Florida family adoptions have no such requirements, making the process faster and more affordable. While adoptive parents can certainly retain counsel to oversee the family adoption process, there may be no need. If all parties are in agreement, there is usually no need to hire an attorney.

Stepparent Adoption

In Florida a stepparent adoption is considered a family adoption. The petition for stepparent adoption and most of the required forms are Florida Supreme Court approved forms and can be downloaded for free from the Supreme Court's website. Stepparent adoptions are almost always consensual. Usually one of the child's biological parents has primary or sole custody of the child, and the other parent is not actively participating in the child's life. The biological parent's role is to simply sign the consent form, which must be notarized, and witnessed by two people.

If the biological parent pays child support, he or she will be relieved of that obligation once the adoption is final. This, in itself, can be a motivation for the biological parent to sign the consent form, particularly since he or she has been paying child support for a child he rarely sees. The consent form not only consents to the adoption, but also terminates the biological parent's rights.

Sometimes a judge may sign the order of adoption even though the biological parent has not consented. For example, if the biological parent is in prison, has had no contact with the child for a number of years, and stubbornly refuses to sign the consent form, a judge may grant the adoption without that consent.

Relative Adoptions - Within three steps of consanguinity

Florida also recognizes as family adoption, adoptions by close family relatives. For adoption purposes, a close family relative is defined as “within three steps of consanguinity”. Consanguinity means blood relation. Following is a handy chart to help make it easier to see who is a close family relative.

PERSON

1. PARENTS

2. GRANDPARENTS

3. GREAT GRANDPARENTS

1. CHILDREN	2. SIBLINGS
2. GRAND CHILDREN	3. NIECES/NEPHEWS and AUNTS/ UNCLES

3. GREAT GRAND CHILDREN

There are no petition forms for any type of family adoption except for stepparent adoptions on the Florida Supreme Court's site. However, most of the required forms are identical except for the petition forms. A couple Florida counties have local forms for grandparent adoptions. The main differences in the process are in stepparent adoption, there is only one biological parent that needs to consent. In other family adoptions, both parents need to consent.

Whereabouts Unknown:

Occasionally that the whereabouts of a biological parent are unknown. In that case, a diligent search must be conducted, and an Affidavit of Diligent Search must be filed along with the other required documents. If the parent is not located during the search, then he or she can be served legal notice through constructive service. Constructive service is notice by publication. A Notice of Action form is filed with the clerk of court after all efforts to locate the parent have been exhausted.

Form requirement oddities

A search or the putative father registry is required in all Florida family adoptions. The intent of the putative father registry is to preserve the paternity rights of an unwed father, if, for example, he fathered a child and then he and the mother parted company. The original intent was that the father could register that he was the likely father of a child and then the child could not be adopted without his consent and further proceedings. As it is, since all adoptions require the search, even when the identity of the father is known, a search must be conducted.

Another form that may seem odd to some filers, is the Indian Child Affidavit. This affidavit states that the child is not an (American) Indian child. It is a federal form that is required in all Florida adoptions.

We can help.

Although people can certainly hire an attorney to oversee the adoption proceedings, there may be no need. If all parties are in agreement, and there is no dispute, a Florida legal document preparer can prepare the documents for a stepparent adoption or a relative adoption. If you need help with adoption forms, contact us at 800-515-0496, or visit us online at ADOPTION.

Why Choose an FALDP member as your legal document preparer:

Why Choose an FALDP member as your legal document preparer:.

A legal document preparer is never a substitute for an attorney. However, if all a consumer needs is properly prepared documents, a legal document preparer may be just the right choice. Legal document preparers may not provide legal advice or representation, but if no advice or representation is needed, consider the services of a legal document preparer. Members of the Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers must meet certain standards in order to join this association. Among these requirements are: 

• Completing our Online Courses - INTRO & a content specific course, or;
• Two years experience preparing Florida legal documents, or;
• Two year paralegal course, or;
• A combination of related professional experience and education, and
• Above average proficiency in spoken and written English;
• Acknowledges and agrees to follow the rules set forth by the Florida Bar Association and the Florida Supreme Court regarding UPL;
• Agrees to refrain from offering legal advice, and to refrain from representing themselves as legal experts.
• Agrees to abide by the FALDP Pledge.

Six Ways our Members Help Consumers

1. Providing Legal Information. A document preparer can assist consumers by locating laws, cases, and court rules. Although, the interpretation of this legal information is considered legal advice, locating them and providing them to consumers is perfectly fine. For example, on many of the instruction sheets for Florida Family Law Supreme Court approved forms, a Florida Statute is referenced, but the statute itself does not appear. Many Florida Statutes are straight forward and do not require legal interpretation. Providing the statute itself to the consumer may be all that is needed for the consumer to make an informed decision.

2. Explaining Procedure. Many consumers are stymied by not knowing the steps in their case. A document preparer can explain procedure so that the consumer knows what to do next, or what to expect next. And the consumer can also get a better idea of time frames and deadlines once he has a basic understanding of legal and court procedure.

3. Preparing Documents. Document preparers help consumers by preparing complete and proper documents to file in their case. Sometimes a form's instructions includes a list of which additional forms must be filed at the same time. However, sometimes the list is incomplete or more forms that must be filed at the same time are listed on yet another form's instructions. While a document preparer may not select forms for a consumer to file, showing the consumer which forms are required according to the court's written instructions helps the consumer follow the court's rules and moves their case along.

4. Formatting Documents. While many consumers may be able to fill out forms themselves, consumers may not be aware of specific formatting requirements, such as font, font size, margins, etc. By providing the court with properly formatted documents the consumer

4. Active Listening. Legal document preparers may not offer legal advice, but there are no rules to say a document preparer should not actively listen to their customers. Asking questions that help the customer arrive at their own decisions or acting as a sounding board may be the most valuable aspects of hiring a legal document preparer.

5. Flat Fee Pricing. Most document preparers offer flat fee pricing for various form sets. The flat fee pricing allows consumers to know in advance how much to expect to spend. And, rolled into the flat fee pricing plan, most document preparers also include corrections and minor revisions at no additional charge.

6. Affordability. Since consumers are only paying document preparers for limited nonlawyer services, the fees document preparers charge are much lower than an attorney might charge for similar document preparation services. By definition, document preparers do not provide legal advice, and if the consumer has no need for legal advice then there is no reason to pay for it.

So, for consumers who do not require legal advice or representation, a legal document preparer may be their best option.

CALL TODAY 800-515-496 OR VISIT WWW.FALDP.ORG