Chances are you hear several messages each day on ways to save money on legal fees. Companies like LegalZoom inundate the marketplace with advertisements for purchasing canned legal docs. I have a better solution – what about free canned legal docs? There is a fairly new social media site which aims to do just that. I am pleased to introduce all of you to Docstoc. To be fair, they provide more than just legal docs. In fact, you can find all sorts of helpful business documents at Docstoc. 
So how does Docstoc work?
Docstoc is an online social community for finding and sharing professional documents. The platform provides an opportunity for users and businesses to upload and share their legal, business, financial, technology, educational, and creative documents. All documents on docstoc can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded for free.
Why would you take the time to upload documents to Docstoc?
Everybody wants to know “what’s in it for me?” Well take a look at this personal email I recently received from one of the co-founders of Docstoc. (By the way, I think he singled me out because I am an attorney and they would like to gain more footing in the online legalsphere.)
Jason’s letter to me
“Before I co-founded Docstoc, I went to law school in Southern California. I wanted to remind you that Docstoc is a great platform to build more awareness for you and your practice.
For example, a document I uploaded is now the number one search result in Google for “LLC Operating Agreement” http://www.docstoc.com/docs/15512/LLC-Operating-Agreement
I’d like to encourage you to upload and publish some of your documents on Docstoc. Those documents will get ranked at the top of search engines and you can promote yourself and get referral traffic for free.
I always like to feature attorneys sharing interesting content on our home page, let Kathrien our community manager (Kat@docstoc.com) know if you published any content with us, and we will make sure to showcase your profile on the front-page of Docstoc.com.
Please say hi anytime, and let us know what we can do to build a better Docstoc for you.
Jason Nazar
Docstoc.com, Co-Founder”
That was a first
I have to admit that this was the first time I have ever been offered to have my profile showcased on the front page of a popular social network before. Very cool.
What do I use Docstoc for?
In two words – a lot. It is my practice to looks at several examples from other people before I draft any type of document. So, I go to Docstoc and conduct a free search, download a few docs, and then use these as examples. I DO NOT RECOMMEND using any of these docs as is. Copying a legal document is almost never a good practice. Why? It was probably written by someone who practices law in another jurisdiction, and for a client who’s goals differer from yours. But, it sure is helpful to review some professionally written documents before custom drafting your own.
More from Docstoc later
I hope to interview Jason Nazar in the near future and plan to publish the content from our Interview on this Internet marketing blog.
This is just silly. EVERY document downloaded from that site will need to be reviewed by an attorney anyway. This will usually cost way more than simply having it done right from the beginning. That’s the way it works in my practice, anyway. I’m not sure why you would promote this site as a useful free resource, since anyone who uses a free posted document without seeking attorney review is asking for trouble.
@Steve,
Thanks for commenting, but I think you may want to re-read the article. The site is recommended as a good resource for two reasons:
1) It is a great place to find documents, if you are looking for SAMPLES. As I said in the post – I do not ever recommend a person blanket copy another legal document. With that said, common practice in the legal profession is to look over other similar documents before drafting your own. In particular, if you are not a member of a law firm with a large library of documents at your fingertips (which almost none of my readers will be), then docstoc is an extremely useful website as it provides access to sample documents.
2) This site can be used to promote your business or practice via the act of posting documents for others to read.
Further, there are many non-legal documents at Docstoc, which many of this blog’s readers might find useful. I do fully agree with you in recommending that any non-attorney should “seek attorney review” of legal documents.
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