Legal document assistant

A legal document assistant (LDA, also known as "document technician", "legal document preparer", "legal technician", "online legal document provider" or "legal document clerk")^[1] in the United States is a person who is a non-lawyer but authorized to assist with the preparation of legal instruments. Unlike a paralegal, legal document assistants do not work under the supervision of an attorney.

The existence of LDAs is a phenomenon in US due to the strict licensing laws for attorneys compared to elsewhere in the world. The job was created by using the doctrine of pro se to enable someone to help another to prepare a legal document. In all America's states except for Louisiana and Puerto Rico, only an attorney can advise and draft a legal document for someone. With the self-help pro se concept and stock legal forms, the Legal Document Preparer profession was arise.

The role of a Legal Document Assistant varies significantly across legal jurisdictions. The job performed by Legal Document Assistants may be lawful in one jurisdiction and prohibited in other jurisdictions.