Kagzaat is a great free website that offers customized, self-serve legal documents that you can print whenever you want, where ever you want. As a fairly new site, they currently offer two of the most common legal documents but will be adding more in the very near future.
There are, as I found out recently, a lot of websites out there that offer you legal advice, representation, etc. but most of them will charge a pretty penny for them. Some of them offer free consultations and other services, but what do you do when you either can’t afford such services, or you don’t need an actual lawyer’s representation? In that case, you might want to take a look at Kagzaat.com and see if they offer what you need.
Kagzaat.com is a totally free website that will help you create your own legal documents so you can print them out for use anytime you need them. Their website is, as of the time of this article, pretty new on the scene, so at the moment they offer only two different documents. They are smart about it, however, because they offer two of the most common legal documents as their first ones. Those are: rent agreements, and Right To Information applications.
Now, it is certainly possible to go to some office store and purchase some of those blank line documents, like rental agreements. For those that haven’t seen them before, they usually are a generic form that has blank lines where you can fill in pertinent information like your name as leasee or landlord, the address, how much rent is per month, security deposits, and any special conditions you can fill in on your own as well. There are, from my point of view, two major problems with those, however. First, they cost money. Not much, to be sure, but still something. I have seen them for as little as a couple of bucks and as much as twenty or thirty, depending on the exact form and where you buy it. The second issue is that you then have to hand write all the blank info, or set up your printer to get just into those lines (which is easier than it was three years ago, but still a pain in the neck).
Kagzaat addresses both of those issues, and does it quite well. They are totally free, for one thing, which automatically makes them head and shoulders better than any option that costs even a penny. Additionally, they have web forms that allow you to type in the pertinent information like names, addresses, etc. Essentially, they offer the same kind of generic forms, but they customize them just for you when you fill in the information needed. You can then print those forms from your computer or store them in any way you want, etc. The advantage is pretty obvious when you know what you need, especially since they tell you right there on the website that the documents created are designed for basic information. That means that if you need a super complicated, four hundred page contract, you’re still going to need a law professional, but for simple things like rent agreements, Kagzaat is like the self-serve gas pump or the u-scan express lane at the grocery store. If you know what you want, and don’t really need any actual human assistance, Kagzaat is a good way to go.
The website itself is pretty snazzy looking, without being overdone. It looks professional but still has some pleasing aesthetics. It’s functional, fast, simple, easy, and of course, free! All the best qualities I look for in a website for any purpose. It was started, and is run, by three students who apparently felt that legal documents should be free and open to the public without having to hire a lawyer just to type your name into a blank document. They have done a pretty darn good job so far, and even paid attention to small details. A good example is the tutorials they have in their FAQ page. The tutorial leads you step by step, in a pdf format, through the process of filling out your document and helps to explain what each section means. This basically takes the place of having a lawyer explain it to you for a high hourly cost. It might seem un-needed, to have a tutorial on how to fill out a rental agreement, but consider for a moment how the person who has never filled one out before would feel about it. Personally, I think it’s an excellent addition to the site and I hope they continue to add tutorials for each document they offer.
Now, once you have printed your document, you will still need to get it legally notarized, filed, or whatever else the next step is in your legal process, but Kagzaat makes that first step easy, fast, and free. That’s the holy trinity in my book of what makes a good website, as anyone who reads my column can tell you. This site is a winner and I would recommend it to anyone who has basic legal document needs. Until next time, my friends!
[Thanks to reader Panzer for the tip]
Check out Kagzaat here.
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