FAQs - Legalo, U.K.

Here at Legalo we provide a very cost-effective alternative to using a high street solicitor for your legal document requirements. Our legal templates can be easily downloaded and adapted by you to suit your needs, and all at a small fraction of the cost of using a high street solicitor. Each comes with a free guide to assist you to create your legal document. As a result, you will find producing the final document you need easy and quick. By putting in a little time and effort yourself, you will be able to make significant savings in legal fees.

All of our legal templates have been drafted either by David, our co-founder and a solicitor with over 20 years’ experience in drafting legal contracts and other documents, or by another experienced UK lawyer. This gives you the assurance of buying a quality template.

We offer a satisfaction guarantee by way of a full money-back refund if you are not fully satisfied with your purchase from us and do not use your template to create a final document.

All of our templates are written in plain English, to avoid confusing jargon.

Each template comes with a guide to help you use the template easily, which also explains what each clause does.

Speed – unlike having to wait for a solicitor to be available, booking an appointment then waiting for him to be able to get round to drafting your document (which could all take several weeks), with our templates you can download them right away and get drafting without delay. Mere minutes later the job will be complete. If you need something done urgently, get your template from Legalo and get on with it.

Unlike some of our competitors, Legalo won’t tie you into any on-going contract or annual subscriptions – you only pay for what you need.

We also offer a free helpline by phone (0333 355 4900) or email (use the contact form here) if you need help finding the right template or in using it (excluding our giving legal advice).

If that were not enough, we also offer you free updates of the templates you buy for life. You need never pay again for the same template!

All of this puts Legalo way ahead of what any of its competitors offer – great quality and great value. Find out more about the Legalo advantage here.

Yes – all of our templates have been drafted carefully by very experienced UK solicitors. Most have been drafted by David, one of the founders of Legalo and a solicitor, who has over 29 years’ experience in drafting all sorts of documents and contracts for use in the UK and is particularly recognised for his careful attention to detail in his work. Find out more about him here: the Legalo team.

He is keen on quality control and supervises all the other templates. They too have been drafted by experienced UK solicitors.

The team keep all the templates up-to-date with changes in the law.

It is our mission to provide you with high quality documents, so you can have peace of mind that the template you buy will work well for you. We are happy to “put our money where our mouth is”, and so we offer a full money-back guarantee on all of our templates.

Our document templates are all downloadable in Microsoft Word format. You can then easily save them on your computer, edit them on your computer, typing in the relevant details, and produce your final professional-looking version for printing and signing. With our templates there is no need to print them first and then fill them in by hand (it is better if you don’t do that).

These templates should all be compatible with Apple Macs, so long as you have a proper word-processing program, such as “Pages”. They will not display correctly in free or basic programs like TextEdit (Mac), WordPad (PC) or NotePad (PC), as those are not full word-processing programs (the automatic clause numbering and clause cross-referencing will not display in those programs, for example). They are also not compatible with Microsoft Works, as Microsoft itself has deliberately made Word documents unusable in Works.

If you have a PC or laptop, but don’t have Microsoft Office suite (which includes Word), then we can recommend a very good, free alternative from LibreOffice, which is available here as part of their LibreOffice suite: https://www.libreoffice.org/. You will find it very similar in functionality to Word and it is compatible with Word documents. You can also try another popular free one called OpenOffice, but we don’t personally use that, so cannot recommend it.

LibreOffice is also available directly from Apple’s Mac App Store for a Mac.

Apps for the iPad are also available with a LibreOffice equivalent, but as we have not personally used them, we don’t know how good they are and cannot recommend them. Google “libreoffice for ipad free” to find them or search for “GlobalOffice Suite for LibreOffice” in the App store.

If you have difficulty viewing a template you have bought from us on an Apple Mac and you do have Pages, then please contact us and we will send you a version of the template specifically for use in Pages.

We do not recommend trying to edit our templates on a smartphone or an iPad or the equivalent. The main reason is none of them come with pre-installed word-processing software. You will have difficulty with printing, compatibility, editing and display from them, unless you have bought the necessary software.

We also do not recommend importing the document into GoogleDrive, as it will mess up the document layout (tab settings), the automatic numbering and the cross-referencing when you open it as a GoogleDoc. LibreOffice on a PC or laptop will not cause such problems.

Disclaimer: We do not take responsibility for your word-processing needs and you must take responsibility for checking any IT solution we have mentioned here will work for you on the device you are using. (We do not take any commissions from any IT solution we suggest above, and this is all just given as helpful suggestions and without liability.)

We do not email the template(s) to you, nor do we post printed ones to you. Instead you should download your template and the accompanying guide from within your account control panel (click on the “My Account” icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen). On completing a purchase, you will immediately be redirected to your account, from where you can see the list of document templates and guides that you have bought – from there you can download them. You can also download them from the final page in the check-out sequence by clicking on the indicated button or link. You can also download them from the links in the email (which bring you back to our website) we sent you confirming your order is complete after you have made payment.

If you need another copy later on, you can just log back into your account and download the template you need again for free – you won’t need to pay again for the same template. So just keep your account name and password handy.

Our templates are designed for compliance with the law of England and Wales and were, when first published up-to-date (we endeavour to keep them up-to-date). In many cases they may also be suitable for use in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but we cannot guarantee compliance with the laws of those jurisdictions, unless the page about the template specifically says so.

All of our Wills, Codicils and Deeds of Variation for estates can be used in Scotland or Northern Ireland. Our property templates should not be used in Scotland, as Scottish property law is in some important respects very different to that of England and Wales.

While it may be possible to use our templates in other countries outside of the UK, this might cause you some difficulties, as the law is likely to be different there and we offer no warranty as to their suitability for use in those countries. Indeed we could caution you against it.

These are genuinely high quality templates, of the same quality as those you’d pay 20 to 40 times more for from a high street solicitors’ firm. We know, because we are solicitors ourselves. We also have some of our customers tell us what they have been quoted by law firms to produce similar documents for them.

At Legalo we like to pass onto our customers the benefit of the savings we make by running a streamlined business. By drafting the templates carefully once but selling them many times, we can still make a profit and have the time to keep the templates up-to-date with the law.

We have cut the cost of legal work through savings on :

office accommodation, rent and rates;
other overheads, like expensive staff, travel and postage costs;
unnecessary insurance for giving specific legal advice; and
the cost of regulation.

In fact we have cut out everything that our clients do not actually need, while retaining appropriate insurance, in order to bring you, the customer, some of the most competitively-priced templates around. Yet you still benefit from the extensive training and experience of those highly-qualified UK lawyers who have drafted the templates – all the benefit; a fraction of the cost.

Please use the contact form on our “Contact Us” page or email us on [email protected]. We will get back to you quickly. Alternatively, you can call us on 0333 355 4900.

Even if it is outside of normal office hours, we will try to get back to you quickly. (Please bear in mind that we cannot offer you specific legal advice, as we are not a law firm.)

We recommend you always keep your Internet browser up-to-date, whichever browser you use, as this will solve most viewing issues. You may experience difficulties viewing our website (such as the buttons to click to make a purchase not showing up until you hover your mouse pointer over them) if you are (a) using a very old version of your browser or (b) using Microsoft Internet Explorer. The latter is now no longer supported by most modern websites and Microsoft themselves have ceased supporting it.

Our site has been made compatible with the most popular Internet browsers (e.g. Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox) and is also viewable on your smartphone or tablet.

If you have queries when using your template (or before you buy one), we offer a free helpline by telephone and email. See our Contact Us page for details. We monitor the telephone and email enquiries regularly (even during the evenings and on Saturdays), so we will try to answer your query quickly.

The helpline is intended mainly to assist you if you need confirmation that the template will suit your needs before you buy it, if you have queries over what a particular part of the template or guide is about or, in general terms, how to go about using your template. We have tried to reduce the jargon used in the law by keeping our templates and guides as free as possible from it, in order to make your using the templates as simple as possible.

The free guides, which accompany each template when you buy it, should answer most of your questions, but if you still have queries, then contact us and we will do our best to resolve them. You can preview most of the guides for free before you buy, in order to check the template you are thinking of buying is right for you and to see what it covers clause by clause.

We are unable to give you legal advice via the helpline (or otherwise), i.e. specific advice on your exact situation, for example (a) exactly how to alter your template or (b) to check you have altered it correctly when you are done. The reason for this is that our business model is one of offering high quality templates at very low prices. This does not leave a budget for the very expensive insurance we would need to hold in order to cover providing specific legal advice. We are then able to pass on the savings from our not paying for legal advice insurance on to you, the customer. However, we do still hold insurance for the sale of legal document templates.

You will create an account with us when you make your first purchase. During the shopping cart stage of the purchase you will be asked to create an account to proceed. After you have created your account, you can login again with your account details (click on the “My Account” icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen). These are your email address (the one you used to create the account) and the password that you selected when you made your first purchase from us. When you create your account, remember your password and keep it safe and secure. You can reset your password if you forget it.

You can edit your account details from your account control panel (the “My Account” icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen). This is the screen you will see whenever you log back in after making your first purchase from us. Your login details are your email address (the one you used to create your account with us) and the password you selected when you first made a purchase from us. Keep them safe and secure. You can reset your password if you forget it.

We accept most major debit and credit cards (via a secure check-out for your protection: Elavon (formerly Sage Pay), except Amex, as well as Paypal (which is also a secure check-out method to protect you). You can use either Elavon or PayPal when you make your purchase – both are well-known, respected and secure payment methods.

For your peace of mind and security, we do not receive your card or bank details at any stage of the process (nor do we keep a copy of them on our server when you use either route). As we do not receive, handle or keep your payment details, they cannot be at risk of being hacked if our website were to be hacked, so this really is a very secure method for your protection.

For your benefit and protection, we comply with the PCI DSS standard of Internet banking security (which is a high standard). We are also set up for the latest “3D Secure 2” card protection, to eliminate card fraud, so you may be asked by your bank for further verification at this checkout stage.

We do not take payment over the telephone or by post, as that would entail our receiving your card or bank details, which would not be the most secure method from your point of view. We are not set up to receive payment by bank transfer either.

We are very proud of our document templates and confident you will find them to be just what you need and well drafted. Each template has been carefully created and is accompanied by a unique set of drafting and guidance notes for each template. The guides are available for free, and will make the job of adapting the document template you need quick and easy for you.

However, if you are not happy with your purchase because you have found the document unfit for purpose (see our terms and conditions) and can confirm to us that you have not used the document template to create a final document, then we will return your purchase price in full. Please note, as we are continually striving to improve our service, we may ask you (briefly) to tell us what you did not like about the template or why you found it unsuitable before we process your full refund.

You can therefore be confident in purchasing from us.

At Legalo we take the security of your personal data very seriously. We comply with the GDPR on data protection. We promise not to:

sell your data to others;
rent or lease your data to others; or
transfer or share your data with others (except your chosen payment provider in relation to the check-out process when you order from us).

We might use your personal data to keep you informed of our services, etc, but you can opt out of this marketing material at any time by contacting us at [email protected]. See our Privacy Policy for further details.

Please check your settings. Firstly, that you accept cookies – these are needed to complete checkout on an e-commerce website. Secondly, that your browser is up-to-date. Thirdly, that you are buying from a location in an EU, Commonwealth or North American country. We block purchases from many other countries.

That should iron out most problems. If you are still experiencing difficulties, then please contact us by phone on 0333 355 4900.

Our templates are intended for use primarily in England and Wales. Using them for other countries is inadvisable and we will not be liable to you if they prove to be unsuitable for use in other legal jurisdictions, where the law may be quite different to that applying in England and Wales. Frankly, we don’t want to take your money and sell you a dud that will be of no use to you if you intend to use it in other countries. We are more caring than that.

To avoid people getting into difficulties as a result, we have therefore blocked payment being made when you are resident in some other countries. If you encounter this issue when ordering from overseas, and you still intend to use the document in relation to a matter concerning England and Wales, then do contact us, as we should be able to help you.

We do not – this is a poor digital marketing strategy. Please don’t email us about this or whether we will change our minds about this – we won’t.

We don’t offer “collaborations” involving backlinks from us for websites you are promoting or guest-written articles to be published on our website.

You are simply wasting your time and ours in contacting us about any of this, so don’t be surprised or offended when we don’t reply to your emails about this sort of thing.

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