California Legal Document Assistant Bonds

Get Your California Legal Document Assistant Bond

Who is Required To Purchase the California Legal Document Assistant Bond?

California authorizes non-lawyers to prepare legal documents for individuals who are doing their own legal work or tasks.

Legal Document Assistants previously were called Independent Paralegals but California passed a law separating a paralegal who works for an attorney from an independent individual who provides similar work.

Some of the common tasks performed by Legal Document Assistants include preparing or explaining the paperwork involved in:

• Adoptions
• Bankruptcy
• Deeds
• Divorce
• Guardianships
• Small claims
• Wills
• And a lot more

The key distinction is a document assistants cannot provide any legal advice, only document explanations and document completion.

Before you offer any of these services, you must first be registered with the California Association of Legal Assistants and part of this process is purchasing your surety bond.

What is the California Legal Document Assistant Surety Bond Amount?

Individuals and businesses with one registered Legal Document Assistant must purchase a bond with the amount of $25,000.

Each individual must register in the county where they perform work. If you offer services in neighboring counties, you must register in that county and provide a copy of the bond. You are not required to purchase a new bond for each county.

It's important to know, the bond amount are the total amount of financial compensation available to customers in the event they are purposefully and financially harmed by an assistant's actions.

The surety bond is the primary way the California Association of Legal Document Assistants holds Legal Document Assistants accountable to the promises and actions they take with clients.

The bond is for the clients protection.

 

Why is a California Legal Document Assistant Bond Required?

As we've mentioned the bond is required to hold document assistants accountable to their clients.

It's unfortunate, but every year there will be a small number of Legal Document Assistants who commit acts of fraud like:

• Altering the legal or tax documents of a client
• Charging exorbitant fees
• Charging false fees
• Providing legal advice they are not allowed to legally offer
• Sharing a client's personal information with third parties

In the event a customer is financially harmed by a Legal Document Assistant, the customer can make a claim against the surety bond for financial compensation. However, this compensation can only go up to the bond amount of $25,000.

What Is The Cost of a California Legal Document Assistant Bond?

At a high level, the price of surety bonds is determined by a rate quoted from a surety.

A surety is an insurance company that underwrites this type of surety bond. Not all sureties offer these bonds.

For the sureties that do, they will use their own internal assessment process for an applicant, which typically includes factors such as:

• The personal credit of the individual, the business owner and/or owners
• The prior experience of offering legal document assistance
• Any prior bond clams if the individual or owners have been bonded in the past

The rate quoted by the surety multiplied by your bond amount will be the price you pay.

This is where we can help save you time and money.

We are a specialized surety agent and it's our sole purpose to price shop for you and find the lowest possible Legal Document Assistant bond price.

We do this by working with only A-rated sureties and collecting the rates from each surety that offers these bonds.

For your bond, we have secured a lot fixed price of $250 for a 2 year bond term with no credit or background check.

You can instantly purchase your bond so we can prepare it and get it issued for you.

What Happens After You Purchase Your California Legal Document Assistant Bond?

Once you purchase your surety bond, we must prepare your bond:

• Using the correct bond form
• With the correct signatures and seals
• Including the required power of attorney

It takes less than one business day to prepare your bond and get it read for issuance.

Once your bond is ready, the California Association of Legal Document Assistants requires a physical copy of the original bond.

This means we'll need to mail you a copy of your bond, adding about 2 to 3 days onto the process.

And this is a great reason to get this bond process done immediately. You don't want to have your registration delayed because you're waiting for your surety bond.

Purchase your bond now so you can get your bond issued and mailed within the next day.

You can always call a bond specialist at 1-800-608-9950 if you prefer to talk with a real person to get this process completed.

How Long Does a California Legal Document Assistant Bond Last?

This bond has a term of 24 months at which time it will need to be renewed.

This is another great reason to work with Surety Bonds Direct. You get assigned a bond specialist and they manage this process for you.

As your bond expiration date approaches, your bond specialist will reach out to you 30 to 40 days in advance to make renewing your bond fast and easy.

Renewing is as simple as paying the renewal premium. And we're always working to find you a lower price during each renewal period.

And just like when you purchased your bond, we will be able to get you renewal pricing with no credit check required.

You will need a continuation certificate as proof that your bond has been renewed and remains active.

Legal Document Assistant Bonds And Getting Your California Business License/Registration

The process for getting registered as a document preparer is very straightforward.

The process follows these steps in order:

• Register with the county clerk in the county or counties you'll be providing services
• Purchase your surety bond
• Ensure you have the minimum level of experience and education
• Have your base contract written as it's required for every client job
• Submit your registration