Legal Resources on the Web
Hopewell Valley Seniors Connect - July 7, 2009
General Legal Information:
www.abalawinfo.org - The American Bar Association site with lots of information. Click on Your Family (Estate Planning/End of Life, The Elderly, Domestic Violence) and Your Finances (Wills and Estates) for a variety of information of value to seniors. Also, the Find a Lawyer section (which also all these sites have) is probably the least unbiased of any.
www.findlaw.com - The articles under the Learn About the Law heading are outstanding. There are also videos and sample forms for nearly every legal purpose.
www.freeadvice.com - Click on the Law Advice tab for a full list of the legal information available. The articles most relevant for seniors are found in the Estate Planning category
www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.php - This site gives you access to the law library of the Library of Congress. It contains a lot of everything legal. To zoom in on what might turn out to be relevant information, click on US States and Territories, then on New Jersey. There you'll find everything there is to know about New Jersey laws
www.lawguru.com - The usefulness of this site lies in the fact that you can ask questions about the law and they'll be answered by email. The catch is that your question is sent to a local lawyer and you'll probably get a phone call shortly after the email arrives. You can also read previous questions and answers. They are categorized in the Knowledge Base found in the Law Guru Tools section of the home page.
www.lawyers.com - The home page of this site is confusing. Click on Understand Your Legal Issue (near the top of the page) and you'll be taken to a page where you can get legal information by looking either at practice areas or life events. There is a wealth of material here.
www.legalzoom.com - This site has only one function: to provide low cost, well written legal documents. You simply answer the questions as they appear on the screen, give them your credit card number, and an air-tight document (everything from a will or living trust to a divorce decree to a consent to drug testing) is delivered either by email or "by post printed on high quality paper."
www.nolo.com - While less heavily advertised than Legal Zoom, Nolo can provide equally diverse and high quality legal documents (generally at lower cost) as well as legal information (Nolopedia).
Senior-Specific Legal Information:
www.elderlawanswers.com - An site loaded with legal information for seniors. Moving from left to right on the blue bar near the top of the page:
www.seniorlaw.com/senior.htm - This prosaic-looking site is the home page of the law firm of Goldfarb Abrandt Salzman & Kutzin LLP with offices in the Empire State Building. It contains a heap of interesting and useful information in the many articles written by the partners.
www.state.nj.us/health/seniors.shtml - The web page of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Here you'll find information on all of the state's programs directed at seniors and the disabled.