LegalShield Review

Summary of our opinion

Don’t have time to read it all? Here is a summary of our opinion on LegalShield, to help you understand whether LegalShield is a good choice for you or not!

LegalShield provides legal support for small firms including legal consultations including what an LLC is, document and contract review, trial defense, and debt collection.

For those who want to save money and want to feel like they have a personal attorney without paying a high hourly rate, LegalShield is a great option. Members can pay as little as $29.95 a month to have 24/7 access to a Provider Law Firm in your locality.

This service is useful if you have quick legal questions or need help completing legal forms and customers in need of specific legal advice or representation will be well looked after. 

LegalShield can also connect you to a local attorney to help you understand local laws governing business services at a fraction of the average hourly law charges.  

For a full in-depth review, the following is our opinion of LegalShield in detail.

LegalShield fees

LegalShield uses new technologies to simplify the legal services process for your business and offer reliable legal documents at affordable and transparent prices.

The company runs multiple different packages depending upon your needs and size of business, typically charged on a monthly subscription basis.

The cheapest plan (less than ten employees) is $49 per month, followed by $99 per month for 50 or fewer employees, and $169 per month for 100 or fewer employees. There are add-ons as well, starting at $9.95 per month.

	Small Biz 10	Small Biz 50	Small Biz 100
Pricing/month	$49	$99	$169
Size of business covered	10 or fewer staff	50 or less staff	100 or fewer staff
Doc review	10 a year: <15 pages, max 3/month	20 per year: <20 pages, max 5/month	40 per year: <25 pages, 10/month
Advice, Consult & Research	Included	Included	Included
Letters or Phone Calls	10 a year/<3 per month	20 a year/up to 5 per month	40 a year/<10 per month
# users of LegalShield	2	3	5

The Small Business Plan offered by LegalShield is the one that has proven to be the most popular among customers because to its affordable monthly premiums and extensive feature set.

LegalShield also offers a more limited Personal Legal Plan from $29.95 per month that covers you and also your members, spouses, partners as well as dependent children in various legal matters. Add-ons can be purchased also for this plan. 

Supplements & other services 

	Price	Features
Trial defense	$9.95/month	Trial prep work for court defense
Business formation	From $145 + fees	Form your LLC
Registered agent	$120/year	Collect state notices
Trial defense	$9.95/month	Trial prep work for court defense
Home business	$9.95/ month	Unlimited phonecall consults (+ 1 hr legal work)
		2 x 30 min calls/annum on special legal issues
		3 docs reviewed/month (less than 16 pages)
		6 letters or calls/annum (<6/month)
		3 debt collection docs/month, IRS help

For entrepreneurs, startups and professionals who need to draft legal documents to create and grow their business, LegalShield’s pricing structure is affordable and competitive.

Who should use LegalShield?

For those looking for affordable access to a business attorney without paying high hourly rates, LegalShield is a great option. This service is excellent for those who have quick legal questions or need help completing legal forms. 

In a similar vein, LegalShield is an excellent choice for individuals who require legal counsel or specialized legal guidance. It is important to note, however, as LegalShield does not indicate in a clear and unequivocal manner that their legal firms would submit paperwork on behalf of members.

In the event that they do not submit paperwork, LegalShield will provide you with information on how to do so on your own.

LegalShield setup process 

To test the service offered by LegalShield, we decided to simulate the setup of an LLC on the Legal Shield website.

The order process was very short where the user is asked to select which state they’re looking to file for and are promptly moved through the checkout process, after entering some personal information to the payment methods (credit card and bank draft).

Compared to other legal service providers, the user does not get access to the LegalShield dashboard or sample documents prior to signup and payment. 

The order process of the document was straight-forward with users required to insert details including: 

• Name
• Phone
• Home address
• City
• Postal code
• Date of birth
• Security information
• Payment information

A progress bar at the top of the page details the 3-steps progress towards finalizing the order. We were able to complete this order in less than three minutes. 

For the Articles of Organization Filing Process, the steps/info required to enter are as follows:

• Name of your legally recognized business
• Purpose of the company as outlined in its mission statement
• The location of the corporation’s primary place of business
• The names and addresses of the officials of the company
• Provide the full name and address of the registered agent.
• Names and contact information for the directors
• Information about at least one of the people who incorporated the business.
• The total number of share capital, as well as, if relevant, the variety of stock held by the company
• If not limitless, the duration timeframe for the corporation

If you have LegalShield, you won’t have to worry about whether or not you possess all this information, even if it could seem to be rather difficult or daunting to do so.

Launch by LegalShield will link you to a local commercial attorney who will answer any questions you may have, give you advice on the best course of action for your company entity, as well as prepare and submit all of the necessary documentation for your articles of organization.

Canceling your LegalShield membership can be completed by contacting the Customer Support team via email, phone or letter.

Services offered by LegalShield

Here we take a look at the main services offered by LegalShield to businesses.

LegalShield supports firms with:

• Starting an LLC
• Amending the Articles of Organization
• Closing your company
• Filing LLC annual reports
• Transferring business ownership
• Formation advice including LLC vs C-Corp
• Selling shares in your LLC
• State requirements for starting a firm

General legal consultations

LegalShield members have access to an entire law firm in their state where they are matched with a qualified lawyer to handle immediate legal needs. As a member, you can contact your local law firm for an unlimited number of legal matters.  

Members can also upload tickets and other documents for review in the smartphone app prior to the consultation with qualified lawyers that hold an average of 22 years of experience.

There is a time limit but only on specialty legal consultations, and document reviews can be 15 pages long.

Document and contract review

LegalShield protects your business by having your lawyer review contracts and business documents before you sign them. The service also includes legal document filing to start your business.

A small business plan from LegalShield gives you access to lawyer drafted templates and the ability to consult with a business lawyer anytime you need advice. Also, you can submit business documents (up to 15 pages each) for review and feedback at no additional cost.

Company formation

LegalShield also operates a service called Launch for forming your business whereby a lawyer can help form an LLC with pricing from $149 + Filing Fees. LegalShield also helps with choosing a business structure for your company and applying for a Federal Tax ID. 

Launch by LegalShield services include:

• Establishment of your one-person limited liability company.
• consultation with a seasoned attorney who specializes in the creation of businesses
• Business name check
• EIN – Ensure that you have a valid Tax ID number
• The filing of legal documents to get your company off the ground.
• Declarations of Purpose and Purposes
• You and your company will get legal support for a period of three months.

LegalShield also offers personal legal coverage and identity theft coverage.

Launch by LegalShield service steps:

• Customer completes the formation questionnaire
• Complete the formation purchase
• Access the business portal
• Schedule a consultation with your lawyer and discuss your LLC/business formation needs
• Legalshield lawyers work on the formation
• Lawyer runs checks on your business name to make sure it’s available, as well as complete all the paperwork, including the Articles of Organization
• Business details: Approve your filing information, including your business name, and request your Federal Tax ID
• Launch your business. Three months of legal support are provided.

Customer support 

The LegalShield customer support team is available on Mon to Fri from 7am – 7pm. Email response times can vary.  

Customer reviews

When writing this review, LegalShield had more than 1,927 reviews on Trustpilot, for an average rating of 4.5/5. 

Customers tend to be very satisfied and report on points similar to those of our test: Service and advice.

LegalShield: Overall verdict

If you are the owner of a company and are seeking a company that will provide legal services around the clock, then in our view, LegalShield is an excellent choice to consider.

LegalShield can assist you in completing legal documents, irrespective whether you are using an Android or iOS device. Additionally, it can respond to all of your legal queries and provide legal presentations on a variety of legal topics.

Even if they provide company formation as an additional service, the cost of LegalShield’s incorporation package is high, and the features it includes are restricted. It is not ideal because there is neither a trial nor visibility on the many sorts of document templates that are offered prior to the purchase.

All in all, LegalShield provides a solid service for a certain type of customer and their pricing structure for the level of legal support and services provided are highly valued by many.