ABA Site Gives Free Legal Advice to Online Businesses

Want to start an online business? Well, you're probably going to need some legal advice, right?

But if you don't want to spend US$200 or more an hour, you can log on to safeselling.org and get some free legal advice.

The American Bar Association launched the online resource at its annual meeting last week to help individuals and small business owners with questions about setting up, launching and operating an online store or other e-commerce venture. Among the sections covered are obtaining a domain name, selling out state and the rules for making refunds.

"We wanted the site to be intuitive for the typical small business owner," said Jonathan Rubens, editorial director of the site, in a statement.

"From obtaining a domain name to protecting customer privacy, our Safeselling.org site offers a complete range of logically listed mini-topics to help our target audience find the facts they need."

The site also advises users on such issues as including the products and services they can sell online as well as those that are prohibited; how to draft a terms and conditions agreement; laws and regulations governing online sales; taxes; payment processing; as well as delivery and return processes.

Safeselling.org is a companion site to Safeshopping.org, a site that provides information to consumers about buying online.