Epoq.co.uk Legal Services News

With the Legal Services Act (LSA) coming into force in perhaps as little as 18 months, the discussion and debate over the ‘commodification’ of legal services is beginning to gather pace. The chief objection, at least on consumer grounds, of so-called ‘Tesco law’ (the arrival of large commercial institutions into the marketplace through the Alternate Business Structures that the LSA will soon allow) is as follows: the law is complicated, everybody’s circumstances are different, and what works for one client may not work for another - essentially, refuting the ‘one-size fits all’ approach.

There is certainly some truth in that, but it is a long way from being the whole story. While it is true that most peoples legal circumstances are different, in practise for the majority of cases there is an awful lot of common ground - and by it’s nature, commodification is only concerned with that common ground.

There is an interesting article on this subject - “The Good Enough Revolution”  - in this month’s edition of Wired magazine, which discusses the market-changing effects of technology that is tailored precisely to meet the majority of market needs, and no more. And the law is no exception; in the piece, alongside such hi tech examples as Skype and drone planes, our own Richard Granat, CEO of Epoq US, discusses the concept of E-lawyering.

In it, he explains how law firms that embrace this principle, and make it the start point of their legal services (not the ‘be all and end all’, but the baseline from which they engage with customers ) are likely to succeed in the coming years.

The relevant section of the article can be found here, and the whole piece starts here. There is also some further discussion of Richard and his belief in E-lawyering on the Legal rebels site.

Epoq are very happy to announce that the latest member firm in the MyLawyer network are Thorntons Law LLP, who are the first Scottish law firm to join the network. In time they will be offering a unique range of legal solutions for Scotland, both through their own web service and via the MyLawyer network.
Thorntons Law LLP are the largest firm of solicitors in Tayside and a Top 20 firm within Scotland. With offices in Dundee, Edinburgh, Perth, Forfar and Arbroath they offer the full range of legal services to both business and individual clients.

Thorntons Law partner Ewan Miller commented “We are delighted to be joining the MyLawyer network and, in particular, to be the first firm within Scotland to do so. We look forward to building a dynamic and interactive partnership with Epoq. Their strength in the delivery of online legal services means we will be able to provide our clients with cost effective, convenient and flexible legal products. The legal market in Scotland will undergo significant changes over the next few years, and our partnership with Epoq will allow us to be at the forefront of this changing marketplace. Building our online capacity with Epoq is a key element of the firm’s strategic planning for the future”

Richard Cohen, CEO and Solicitor at Epoq, adds: “We are delighted that Thorntons have elected to join the network as our first Scottish firm- we see it as enormously significant that MyLawyer can now offer legal services across all regions of the UK, and couldn’t hope for a better partner in creating innovative online solutions for their region. We very much look forward to working with them.”

Epoq are delighted to announce that Wilson Nesbitt are the latest firm to join the expanding MyLawyer network of Legal 500 solicitors - making them the first firm based in Northern Ireland to do so.

This announcement is of particular significance for the MyLawyer service, as it means that, from later this year, potential MyLawyer customers in Northern Ireland will be able to access legal documents and support that is unique to their region, effectively expanding the scope and coverage of the MyLawyer service from just England and Wales.

“I’m delighted to formally welcome Wilson Nesbitt as out latest partner in the MyLawyer network.” commented Richard Cohen, Solicitor and Joint CEO of Epoq Legal group. “They are an innovative and forward-looking firm who already actively engage clients over the web, and are a great match for MyLawyer. I’m delighted they are partnering with us as the first firm in the network to support Northern Ireland.”

The MyLawyer service offer innovative online legal service for fixed fees and features live online drafting of documents backed with legal review by leading law firms. Some spaces in the network are still available, so firms intersted in joining the network should contact sales@epoq.co.uk in the first instance.

Content update:

Epoq have today added new templates to the range of Rapidocs templates available to our customers, with a new service for personal legal customers, as follows:

Housemates/flatmates sharing agreement

Use this agreement if you are, or are planning to, share a house or flat with another person or a group of people (maximum of 4 other people). The agreement will set out the financial (e.g. responsibility for bills) and other obligations that each housemate/flatmate will have to each other while living together in the property. Please note that this agreement is not suitable for use where you want to have an agreement to protect you financial interests while living together as a couple (where a cohabitation agreement should be used instead) or where one of the housemates/flatmates is the landlord of the property, or the property is not rented.

Existing Epoq customers interested in adding these documents to their service should contact either their Account manager or Project manager in the first instance.

Law you can afford: Epoq are proud to announce that their comprehensive online legal document service ‘Desktop Lawyer‘ has this week been relaunched, giving customers acess to over 300 legal documents that can be drafted live online.

Quite apart from the sleek new look, Desktop Lawyer now also boasts a wider range of features than ever before: there is more content available, the service can put you in touch with a Legal 500 law firm from our sister network (’MyLawyer‘) who can review your document or take on a case for you, and - perhaps most importantly - users can draft their documents online with no need to download specialist software to their desktops.

Any document can be tried out for free, and everybody who signs up with the service (it’s free to join) is given their own ‘My Services’ page where they can access and edit their documents online. Existing users can still accesss the old site if they prefer: the option to do so is provided when you first visit the site. (The site also merges the services of some existing Epoq sites under one banner: previous customers of the ‘Epoq Wills’, ‘Epoq Identity Recovery’ and ‘CVworks’ sites can now find the documents and services they need on Desktop Lawyer.)

The site still features its comprehensive free law guide, which is browsed by over 18,000 visitors a week, and to celebrate the relaunch we are also providing, for a limited time, access to a number of legal documents completely free - the perfect opportunity to try the service out.

We’re keen to see what you think of new site, so please feel free to comment below or to get in touch…

New Media Knowledge, the learning and business hub for for companies and inviduals working in Digital media in the UK, has interviewed Epoq’s founder and joint CEO, Grahame Cohen, on the MyLawyer service.

Grahame discusses the inspiration for MyLawyer, the competitive landscape,  and the benefits that MyLawyer can bring to those who enage with the law on the web, as well as explainaing how the service operates. The full article can be found here.

The MyLawyer service has this week been featured in Real Business, one of the Uk’spremier titles for business entrepeneurs, and the publication that hosts the annual Growing Business awards.

Rebecca Burn-Callendar reviewed the site and interviewed both Richard and Grahame Cohen, joint CEOs of Epoq, and decided that the service was a potential boon to thousands of small business ventures, concluding: “If you think the site sounds too good to be true, now’s your chance to test it. You can do a walkthrough of the site, using a real problem or an imaginary legal query, to see how mylawyer.co.uk handles your document. If you like what you see, you buy, if not, you still get an idea of how the final document will look. It’s win - win!”

You can read the full online coverage here.

Content update:

Epoq have today added new templates to the range of Rapidocs templates available to our customers. The new documents are updated versions of our Cohabitation agreements - in addition to updating the main Cohabitation agreement, we have added two letters to assist employees in the process of registering an option to purchase a share in the joint home. These documents are designed to be sold together, and the details are as follows:

Cohabitation agreement: This document has been completely re-written from our previous cohabitation agreement and includes an option for the user to create an option to purchase their partner’s share in property. You may not be aware, but living together does not give you an automatic right to a share in the joint home if your relationship ends. An option to purchase is where an owner of the home gives another the right to buy his or her share in it at a particular price to be agreed or valued at the time the option is exercised. This will give each cohabitating partners rights they would not normally have because they are not married or in a civil partnership.

Application to enter an agreed notice: This document is for people to register an option to purchase that they have created in our new cohabitation agreement.

Form K1 – Application for registration of a land charge: Another document to register an option to purchase as above.

Existing Epoq customers interested in adding these documents to their service should contact either their Account manager or Project manager in the first instance.

Content update: Epoq have today added new templates to the range of Rapidocs templates available to our customers. The new documents are for flexible working requests, and are filed in the Personal/Workplace category. We have created the following two letters to assist employees in the process of applying for flexible working from their employers. They are designed to be sold together.

The details are as follows:

1. Application for flexible working
Description: Use this document to request from your employer that you work flexibly. The document will also help you to determine whether you qualify for the right to make an application for flexible working under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996. If you do not qualify for this statutory right, you can still use this document to ask your employer to change your working pattern.

2.Flexible working appeal letter
Description: Use this document to appeal against a refusal by your employer of your application under section 80F Employment Rights Act 1996 to work a flexible working pattern.  Your employer should have met with you to discuss your flexible working request and have notified you of their decision within 14 days of that meeting.  If you disagree with your employee’s decision, you have a right of appeal.  If you wish to exercise that right, you must make your appeal in writing within 14 days of receiving your employer’s written notice refusing your request.  This document will assist you to set out the grounds for making the appeal.

If you are an existing Epoq customer and are interested in supplying these documents through your service, please contact your account or project manager in the first instance.

The LegalTech 2009 exhibition was in New York last week, and in between a full programe of conferences and customer discussions, Richard Granat, president and CEO of Epoq US, found the time for a video interview with Incisive Medias’ Beth Bianculli. The clip is hosted on YouTube and can be found at the page for all LegalTech09 videos.

In the interview Richard discussed DirectLaw,  the US service that uses Rapidocs to provide law fims and lawyers with the means to operate a virtual law firm, hence “leveling the playing field for solos and small law firms who want to compete with larger law firms - without spending capital resources for developing or licensing complex software applications”.

Richard discusses the state of the market today, describes how delivering legal services online is a proven strategy for capturing new clients and offering more efficient services to existing clients, and explains how the ‘virtual law firm in a box’ can help law firm in the increasingly competitive US legal market.