Do-it-Yourself Legal Eagle

Home Office Computing, Sept, 1999 by Carol S. Holzberg

Quicken Business Lawyer 2000 Deluxe

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WHEN YOU NEED TO draft a contract, who are you going to call--your cousin, the lawyer? Quicken Business Lawyer 2000 Deluxe ($40; Broderbund Software, 800-973-5111, www.broderbund.com) ships with several small-business legal documents, tools, and solutions to handle a variety of situations.

Quicken Business Lawyer (QBL) consists of five powerful but friendly modules. Business Lawyer 2000 offers more than 100 legal forms, documents, and worksheets, including powers of attorney, copyright applications, bills of sale, credit report requests, and Federal tax forms. You can search for documents in 13 categories, including General Business, Employment, Financial, and Real Estate, or use the Legal Search function.

The Business Letter Expert module boasts more than 1,000 business letter templates, arranged by subject in business, personal, and sales categories. The Plain-Language Law Dictionary provides jargon-free explanations of 7,000 legal terms. Finally, the Small Business Expert has advice for operating and managing a small business, including taxes, marketing and business plans, employees, and cash flow.

Although QBL 2000 can't compete with a live attorney, it's an invaluable starting point for legal advice without the hourly rate.

RATINGS

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING'S product scores are weighted averages of 1- to 10-point ratings for: Value (30 percent of total), Performance (30 percent of total), Ease of Use (20 percent of total), and Suitability for Home Office Use (20 percent of total).

KEY:

V = Value

P = Performance

E = Ease of Use

S = Suitability for Home Office Use