Scope & cost consultation
Before you spend an hour on it, we weigh the time a matter will take against what is actually at stake — a cost calculation, not a legal one. That answer sometimes is: don't.
Paralegal support & case preparation · New York & nationwide
That has stopped being true. The documents, the research, the procedure — all of it is now within reach. We arm you with the record, the organization and the procedure. You keep your percentage.
The argument
The billable hour was built on scarcity. Drafting a contract, forming an entity, assembling a complaint — these once required a licensed intermediary because there was no other way to obtain them. There is now. The firms know it. Their rates have not moved.
Access. Nothing more exotic than that.
The same output, produced in minutes rather than weeks, but billed at the old rate.
The tools changed. The invoice did not.
Doctrine
Most self-represented matters come apart on organization, not merit — a deadline missed, a document that cannot be found, a record nobody assembled. What finishes a case off, just as often, is not the law. It is the stamina, time and composure a matter demands from someone who has never had to give any of it before. These are the five disciplines we bring to a file. They are old ones.
Understand the published procedure before you begin. What the court requires, what the filing windows are, and what the calendar looks like — set out in advance rather than discovered late. Where the record is public, we also look at what made similar matters succeed.
Know what has been filed, what has been received, and what is still outstanding. A matter you can account for in full is a matter you can carry. And know how to ask for more time, correctly, before you need it rather than after.
A box of paper is not a record. Indexed, dated and chronological, the same material becomes something you can find, cite and rely on under pressure.
Preparation is quiet and slow. Walking in with the record assembled, the chronology straight and the procedure understood is the difference most self-represented litigants never get.
A result on paper is not the end of the matter. Deadlines, implementation and administrative follow-through remain until the matter is actually closed. We track what remains.
Open to everyone, built for scrutiny
The procedure, the forms, the deadlines — all published, all public. What you're buying here is organization and discipline applied to your file, not access that was never actually restricted.
Who this page is for
A wage claim your employer is stonewalling. A credit card balance you believe is not yours, or not in that amount. A landlord withholding a deposit. A contractor who took the money and left. Matters that are serious to you and uneconomic to everyone else.
You bring the dispute. We build the file behind it and walk you through the procedure, so that when you stand up you are the most prepared person in the room who is not being paid to be there.
None of this requires a partner. It requires someone who knows the order things happen in and will do the paperwork properly.
Track I · Consumers & self-represented
Every matter starts with a scope-and-cost conversation — how much time and paperwork this will realistically take, set against what is actually at stake. That is arithmetic, not law: we weigh workload against stakes, never whether you would win. Not everything clears that bar. Some things are worth a letter and nothing more. We would rather tell you that on hour one than let you spend twenty hours finding it out.
You do not need a law degree to file a complaint. You need the record straight, the exhibits in order, and someone keeping you objective once it stops being about the facts and starts being personal.
Once a matter clears the scope-and-cost conversation, we prepare you to file your own complaint or answer — using AI to turn the facts and exhibits you give us into a first draft for your review — organize your records into a chronology, and walk you through e-filing it yourself. We walk you through the procedure for your court date so you know what to expect. Every legal decision remains yours: what to claim, what to argue, what to file and what to sign. We do not determine your rights, select your claims or defenses, or prepare pleadings that require legal judgment — and we will tell you when what you are asking for is work only a licensed attorney can do.
Before you spend an hour on it, we weigh the time a matter will take against what is actually at stake — a cost calculation, not a legal one. That answer sometimes is: don't.
We use AI to turn your facts and exhibits into a first draft of your complaint or answer. You review, revise, sign and file it as your own.
The most avoidable loss in civil litigation is silence. We track what is due and when, so a response deadline never passes unnoticed. You prepare and file your response.
A dated chronology of what actually happened, your documents indexed, and the record assembled in an order a stranger could follow.
We organize your documents for filing and provide publicly available filing instructions and requirements. You review, sign and submit your own court filings.
Somewhere around the second draft, it stops feeling like a dispute and starts feeling personal. We keep you on the version that stays organized and factual — the record, not the grievance.
How this service is lawfully structured
New York draws a hard distinction between legitimate nonlawyer legal support and the unauthorized practice of law. Most operations in this space handle that distinction by printing a disclaimer and hoping. A disclaimer is not a structure.
The courts look past the label on the agreement to what the provider actually did.
Judiciary Law § 478 prohibits practicing law without a license. § 484 separately prohibits a nonlawyer from being paid to prepare deeds, mortgages, leases and other instruments affecting real property. § 495 expressly contemplates a corporation furnishing information and clerical services to a person lawfully practicing law, where the lawyer retains full professional responsibility for the client and the work.
In Sussman v. Grado, a certified paralegal running a business drafting forms and orders for particular clients without the supervision of an attorney was held to have engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. In Carter v. Flaherty, an agreement by a purported paralegal to assess and research an individual's matter was held to be an agreement for legal advice, and therefore unenforceable. Doggart v. Praeger (2025) restates the rule plainly and cites both.
We read those decisions as design constraints rather than as risks to be papered over. The operative words in Sussman are "without the supervision of an attorney." That is the whole architecture of this service.
Anything requiring legal judgment — drafting that carries legal consequence, selecting claims or defenses, advising on what a provision means — is performed under the supervision of a licensed attorney who retains professional responsibility for it, or it is not performed at all. That attorney is retained by you directly under a separate engagement and bills you directly.
Administrative, documentary and factual work — organization, chronology, evidence assembly, exhibit indexing, factual and public record research, locating published case law and statutes, deadline tracking, formatting, general procedural information — does not require licensed judgment and is performed by LEGALWISE directly. Locating a published decision is retrieval, not advice; what it means for your matter is a question for your attorney.
We do not prepare leases or other instruments affecting real property for consumers (§ 484). We do not decide whether your matter requires an attorney, assess your legal position, select your arguments, or file with a court on your behalf.
LEGALWISE is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal representation. These authorities illustrate a distinction; they do not establish a catalog of permitted activities, and nothing here is a determination that any particular service is permissible in any particular matter. No court has approved any business model, including ours. You decide what to file, what positions to take and what to sign, and whether to obtain advice from a licensed attorney.
Packages
An individual does not need a law firm's hour block. They need enough hours to prepare one matter properly, at a rate that does not disappear into a retainer.
One matter, prepared properly
You are not underqualified for this
A clean exhibit index and a chronology that holds together do more for a self-represented matter than most people expect. That's the part we build. What's genuinely legal judgment, we say so plainly — see the boundary below.
LEGALWISE is a paralegal and case-preparation service. It is not a law firm. We organize records, assemble documents, track deadlines and explain published procedure. We do not give legal advice, do not determine your legal rights, and do not appear for anyone.
We state this plainly because it is the actual shape of the service, not a footnote to it. You direct your own matter: you decide what to claim, what to file and what to sign. You keep what you recover. And when what you need is legal judgment rather than organization, we say so and help you find counsel.
Counsel selection
The legal market runs on marketing. The firm with the largest advertising budget is not necessarily the firm with the deepest experience in your matter type, and an outsider has no easy way to compare. Gathering that information is research, and research is something we can lawfully do for you.
The information you need to choose a lawyer well is public. Almost nobody has time to go and find it.
We do not decide whether your matter needs an attorney — that is a legal judgment, and it is yours to make. What we do is make the decision an informed one, and make acting on it straightforward.
When you want counsel, we gather publicly available information on attorneys whose reported experience fits your matter type: what they have handled, how they structure fees, and how they bill. We can collect quotes from several so you can compare them side by side. We take no referral fee from anyone, which is the only reason the list is worth reading.
We tell you when what you are asking for falls outside what a non-lawyer may lawfully do. At that point you need an attorney, and we say so.
We look for attorneys with real experience in your specific matter type — not the largest ad spend in the county.
Published rates, fee structures and billing models gathered side by side, with quotes collected from several firms so you can compare before you commit.
We take nothing from any attorney we point you toward. That is the only way the recommendation means anything.
If your matter and your means fit a legal-aid or pro bono program, we point you to one — the same way an attorney's own office would, and for the same reason.
Terms
We do not take a percentage of anything you recover — not under that name or any other. What we do instead is let you pay over time.
Split the engagement across the life of the matter. Pay as the work is done rather than all at the front.
For qualifying matters, payment scheduled to the conclusion of the case. The fee is fixed at the start and never rises with your result.
You know the number before anything begins. Your recovery is yours entirely — we have no claim on it.
Deferred terms are offered at our discretion and depend on the matter. Ask when you write; we will tell you plainly whether you qualify.
Open a matter
Send the matter and the deadline. You will get an honest read on whether it is a fit, which package applies, and what it costs. If we are the wrong answer, we will say so.