Legal Advice and where to get it

YmpkerYmpker OGContent Writer
edited March 2022 in LES Talk

Running a Web Hosting or Server Provider Business, or just a freelance gig can confront you with quite a lot of legal challenges. Laws are being changed daily and, lately, GDPR and Data Processing Agreements, as well as Cookie Policies are a frequently debated topic. When running a business and especially in the light of potential fines related to the misuse of client data legal consulting becomes something you'd not want to skip. In this thread, I want to present to you some ways to get legal advice on the internet at a rather "affordable" price. Naturally, there are different laws in place world-wide; this means the options to get legal advice presented in this topic will probably not be available or make sense to all of you guys.

Let's get started:

Wonder.legal

Wonder.legal is a great site to get legal documents drafted by lawyers and legal experts in your language/region relatively cheap. First off, you need to select your language/location:

Then you are presented with a search box where you can look for any document you might need (Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, NDA..). Once you have chosen the document you are looking for you are presented with a brief description of the document template and the extent it covers before you need to answer some questions (in blank fields or tick y/n). At the end a document will be generated and you can download it as PDF or Word by paying a one-time fee (usually some 10€-50€ per document), or opt for their subscription of 40€/month which allows generating an unlimited number of documents (so might be worth if you are going for ToS+Privacy Policy + Cookie Policy). Subsequently, you can optionally (only available in some languages/regions like e.g. for the UK) opt to consult a lawyer if you are unsure about anything for an additional fee. I think the site is perfect to get essential documents at an affordable price :)


JustAnswer

Justanswer, is similar to the German equivalent frag-einen-anwalt.de (I'd prefer frag-einen-anwalt.de if you are from Germany). It is available worldwide, so most people here could probably use it. You can set your own price from like 20-25€ per question (avg. I paid was some 40€ish) and a lawyer/expert will answer your question in written form (which is cool because you have something in written form from a lawyer as "proof"). At least here in Germany, lawyers are held accountable for their statements/counselling. JustAnswer, however, also offers a flat rate for unlimited questions in written form per month (also first advice only, but still pretty cool). Costs about 40€/mo iirc. There is a one-week free trial (hopefully) no strings attached kinda offer, too. Can be cancelled monthly :) So you could also just sub for a month, sit down, and sort all that legal stuff.


Gaius.legal

Gaius.legal offers legal advice for a monthly fee.
Included in the monthly fee is the first consultation/advice for any number of topics that come up during that month. Further legal work can be probably bought for an extra fee, too. One might not think that a "first advice" is worth a sub, but I have made a different experience (not with Gaius though). I have found that I often paid on frag-einen-anwalt.de for the first legal advice. You can set your own price there but it starts at 25€. Over the year I had asked like 4-5 questions on there and probably paid more than I would have had with Gaius for example. What's more, I could have used a couple of more "first advice" consultations but didn't want to pay up. That' s why I am happy to have found a few alternative solutions.
Not sure if they are covering global law since they are advertising "lawyers licensed in Germany". I suppose they would be able to help with German and European Law.

ETL Legal Consulting

ETL Group, is a big group of law firms here in Germany, but apparently also with offices world-wide kinda.
Some are supposedly in the UK, too. What you get for 16€/month (paid yearly, but any unused months are refunded if you cancel earlier) is 60 minutes of legal advice per month on basically any business-related topic. The cool thing here is that it seems it does not only cover the first advice on a certain topic but also further steps, or deeper discussion as long as it works via phone. Ordering the flatrate right now seems to only be available "per click" on the German website, but you can probably contact them to inquire about legal advice for your region given that they are present, globally.

Conclusion:

Out of the services mentioned, I have used Frag-Einen-Anwalt.de, Justanswer.com and plan on using Wonder.legal, soon. Gaius.legal and ETL group counselling are definitely something I am considering (among other german-only options) though for the future to get some stuff sorted on the phone or live chat that is not super in-depth but don't justify several 40€ish questions on Justanswer and Frag-Einen-Anwalt.

I hope I could give you guys some pointers for where to look for legal advice online.

Kind regards,
@Ympker

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