Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
lawdiscuss.com
Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#2Looks like it has some growing pains. Most of the links at the top jsut link back to the main page. Alot of people have the "Tumbleweed" badge - "Asked a questions with no answers, no comments, and low views for a week".
It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure how many lawyers who normally charge hundreds of dollars an hour to answer stuff like this will really decide they want to do it for free. I'd like to see it take off but I think it may have a tough time.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#3This might prove useful as a resource but I suspect it will be highly variable in the quality of advice one can glean from it (just a quick perusal: a good answer on what it means to do a trademark; a very superficial one on what form of entity one should set up for a small business; and no answer to the perennially vexing question, "Why are there so many lawyers?").
I also think that the open-ended format, permitting users to ask questions about any legal subject imaginable, will tend to limit the site's usefulness for specialized areas like startup advice.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#4Something about the whole Stack Overflow/Exchange-type answer site look is very off-putting.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#5 I'm sure this site will get a lot of feedback along the lines of "I don't know how useful this will be," but I could see this being very useful if it gets enough traction. Let's not forget that many programmers consult for hundreds of dollars an hour for over hundreds of different technologies and yet Stack Overflow is very successful. You also don't need to be a lawyer to suggest something, a simple "I had this issue once and this is what I did" anecdote could still be useful for the questioner.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#6Looks like it has some growing pains. Most of the links at the top jsut link back to the main page. Alot of people have the "Tumbleweed" badge - "Asked a questions with no answers, no comments, and low views for a week". It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure how many lawyers who normally charge hundreds of dollars an hour to answer stuff like this will really decide they want to do it for free. I'd like to see it…
Lawyers sell expertise and judgment; this site lets them advertise both. I could imagine a highly specialized lawyer using it--for example, if you're really the go-to guy for dealing with Minnesota labor laws as they relate to commissioned salespeople, this site might be the only way you'd find your customers.
If they want to use this model, they could charge for advanced feed creation / filtering features, so they get an email every time someone asks about their exact niche (and is located in their area).
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#7Looks like it has some growing pains. Most of the links at the top jsut link back to the main page. Alot of people have the "Tumbleweed" badge - "Asked a questions with no answers, no comments, and low views for a week". It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure how many lawyers who normally charge hundreds of dollars an hour to answer stuff like this will really decide they want to do it for free. I'd like to see it…
To say nothing of the fact that laws are radically different in each jurisdiction. A correct answer for Palo Alto would say nothing about a legal situation in Toronto.
While the site's term of use cover the "duty of care" stuff, I see a lot of potential pitfalls for lawyers using this site and not many benefits.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#8They also need to give everyone a default "IANAL" badge, which they lose if they're photographed holding 1) a piece of paper saying "Hi, LawDiscuss.com, I'm $username!" and a legible law school diploma.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#9I'm honestly surprised some sort of "Legal Overflow" site wasn't created earlier, so props to these guys for giving it a shot. Based on the responses it looks like they already have a few guys with a legal background prepared to answer questions as best as they can, so maybe that will provide the "seed users" they need to provide value. Whether those guys are experienced legal professionals or just some buddies in law school is up in the air though.
Re: Lawdiscuss.com - Stack Exchange site for legal advice
#10I am sure if they figure out a way to make the best answers and best advice givers float to the top, similar to the seeking alpha cred system it will become very useful. Information wants to be free and the law is free to access, but difficult to gain access to for the layman.
My concern is the legal profession makes it's bacon by keeping the law mysterious and vexing. Legalese is often needlessly complicated and obfuscates a contracts true intention. As long as lawyers and law students continue writing in Plain English this will be a great tool to cut through all the crap.