Interactive Practice
At our law office, we use state of the art technology every day to make sure that you receive customized legal documents that are prepared efficiently and in a manner that is designed to reduce the chance of error. Our drafting program is powered by HotDocs, see www.hotdocs.com, which we use to code and organize all of our legal documents. The fact that we personally take the time to code and build our own master estate planning documents (as well as master docments in all of our practice areas), which we continue to modify and improve on an almost daily basis, means that the legal documents that we are providing you with are most current, the most well conceived and most tested legal documents that we are able to provide you with.
Introducing the Interactive Estate Planning Experience
Our law practice is now taking the next step in what we see as the natural evolution of the practice of law in the internet automation age. In this regard, we are very proud to be one of the few law practices, and as far as we know the only firm in Maine, to be able to offer estate planning clients the ability to personally participate in an interactive online estate planning experience.
While our interactive planning experience is currently limited to intake information normally collected by an initial interview packet or at an initial client meeting, in the near future we hope to expand our interactive planning platform to allow clients to participate in the actual initial drafting of general legal documents such as: Wills, Powers of Attorney, Advance Health Care Directives, Leases, Deeds, simple Real Estate trusts, LLC Operating Agreements and more, by allowing clients to log on to a secure site that will present the client with an interview designed to automatically make the necessary legal drafting decisions based on the answers given.
What does this mean to you? By externalizing part of the initial drafting work to clients, it is our hope and expectation that in doing so we will be in a better position to reduce client costs and accelerate delivery, while still ensuring that documents receive the attorney oversight and review they need. This service will not be available in all matters or instances. We also understand that it may not be of interest to some clients. However, we believe that many clients do want to take advantage of lower cost legal alternatives, as discussed below, and/or want to be more involved in preparing their basic legal documents and our firm wants to be in a lead position to meet this need while ensuring that the quality of the legal analysis and the quality of the ultimate product is not lost in the process.
While we don’t believe that document automation services, such as Legal Zoom, Willmaker, Lawmart, Suze Orman's Will and Trust Kit, BuildaWill, or LegacyWriter, etc., take your pick, will ever replace the need for competent attorney oversight, review and/or informed legal analysis, we do believe that just as we employ document automation technology in our office to save us time, reduce errors and costs and ultimately improve the quality and efficiency of our practice, our clients should also be able to take advantage of that technology, and the cost savings, without taking any unnecessary risks by not using an attorney. While the cost savings of automation services such as those offered by Legal Zoom, Willmaker, Lawmart, Suze Orman's Will and Trust Kit, BuildaWill, or LegacyWriter, etc., are not a concern for many of our clients, for others the potential cost savings are an important consideration and we believe that the evolution of the practice of law will require that attorneys and law firms alike recognize that fact and change to better serve their clients.
To get started:
1) Contact attorney Smilie G. Rogers at the office at 207-361-4680, on his mobile at 207-467-5134, or by e-mail at smiliegrogers@smiliegrogers.com, or
2) Contact attorney Mary Kathryn Brennan at the office at 207-361-4680, on her mobile at 207-752-1752, or by e-mail at mkb@smiliegrogers.com,
See the following link for information on security measures employed by this service: http://www.hotdocs.com/blog/how-secure-my-data-hotdocs-document-services
In the News
Click here to review a recent artile about our firm and our use of this exciting technology in our practice.
Rate reduction does not apply to hourly fees, which may also apply. Discount must be claimed at the time of engagement. Discount does not apply to engagement entered into on or before 5-25-2012. Discount subject to change or termination without notice.
Attorneys in York, Maine serving Maine (York and Cumberland counties including: York, York Beach, Kittery, Kittery Point, Eliot, South Berwick, North Berwick, Berwick, Ogunquit, Wells, Kennebunkport, Kennebunk, Alfred, Lyman, Arundel, Biddeford, Saco, Sanford, Springvale, Acton, Shapleigh, Limerick, Scarborough, and Portland) and Northern Massachusetts (including: Boston, Saugus, Dorchester, Roxbury, Waltham, Beverly, Lynn, Medford, Newbury, West Newbury, Newburyport, Newton, Peabody, Lowell, Lawrence, Andover, Boxford, Amesbury), with a focus on Estate Planning (Wills and Trusts, probate and estate administration), Elder Law, and Tax (estate, gift, and income) matters, and providing general business formation (LLC, Corporations, and General and Limited Partnership) services and business succession planning and real estate services.