Law Brief: UK law firm goes online to take on US document brands

The Law Society Gazette reported yesterday that a high street UK law firm has announced its intention to take on US brands offering legal services online in the UK. Taylor Rose Law, which has offices in Peterborough and London, has created a dedicated website (Taylor-Rose.Net) offering consumers up to 30 online legal services, covering wills, employment and property matters.  Law Society Gazette say the move has echoes of services offered by US legal platforms LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer, which have built huge brand recognition in America and have now set their sights on expansion in the UK.

Taylor Rose Law says it is the first registered UK law firm to create this type of platform with contact from qualified professionals. The website provides fully automated document generation, harvesting necessary information through a series of question routines that respond to the circumstances of the individual. Once payment is made, the documents are instantly created and emailed.

In a statement, Taylor Rose said it intends to be a ‘major supplier’ of online legal documents alongside US competitors. The TRL website provides the opportunity to ask brief Twitter-style legal questions directly of its solicitors, generating a free response within two working days.

The firm wants to expand the range of online legal services to 60 products by the end of the first quarter of 2014, and 150 products by the end of the year. Their website indicates 4 options:

• Pay Per Document
• Pay by Monthly Subscription
• Create a Business Document
• Create a Personal Document

Taylor Rose say that “The platform, saving customers money and time – will make the process of attaining legal documents easier and more efficient.”

Extracts from their press release:

• A far cry from the time taken to arrange a meeting with a lawyer, wait for the final solution to be drafted and sent out, typically, documents with this new online platform take between 5 minutes and 25 minutes to create from scratch. Customers could see themselves saving days, weeks and even months – to receive correct, accurate and professionally checked legal documents.

• The website provides fully automated document generation, harvesting all necessary information through a series of question routines that respond to the particular circumstances of the individual.

• Once payment is made, the documents are instantly created and emailed to the user. Modernising the efficiency of the UK online legal services sector.

• Documents are charged on a PAYG basis and are typically £5 – £45, depending on their complexity.

• Customers will also have the opportunity to subscribe to a fixed monthly charge and access and store all documents for free.

• The website also provides the opportunity to ask brief ‘Twitter’ style legal questions directly of our solicitors, generating a prompt, free response within 2 working days.

• Investment into the platform will continue following its initial launch to facilitate quickly expanding the range of online legal services to 60 products by the end of Q1 2014, and 150 products by the end of the year.

Taylor Rose Law say that online legal services will be a fast growing and major part of the future legal services market, and they intend to be a major supplier alongside US competitors. Taylor Rose Law are amongst the first to provide these services in the UK – with many people not even knowing such documentation can be found and supplied online.

This sounds interesting, even exciting. It will take a lot of investment to become and remain a front-runner in this section of the legal market but in my view, it is the shape of things to come.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Martin Pollins

Managing Director at One Smart Place

Martin Pollins is a Chartered Accountant and MBA with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He has served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX. He is Chairman and Founder of OneSmartPlace and was a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996. He was managing partner of PRB Martin Pollins, based in Sussex, the first Accountancy firm to advertise on British television.He went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK’s first Accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK (at the time, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the UK). In recent years, he helped to raise several £millions to fund British films such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Head in the Clouds and Merchant of Venice with actors such as Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham. Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Penélope Cruz, Steven Berkoff, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and many more.

He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/

Latest posts by Martin Pollins (see all)

• Mysteries Galore - June 6, 2022
• Information about Telephone and Internet Banking - November 15, 2021
• Information about Falls: Why they happen and how to avoid them - November 15, 2021