Pre-Paid Legal

Category Archives: Pre-Paid Legal

Common Services offered by Pre-paid legal Plans

Considering a pre-paid legal plan? He’s a run-down of the services you’re most likely to get and also some legal documents you need to sign before you enrol.

Telephone and Office Consultation: You have unlimited telephone access to a panel of attorneys regarding any legal matter of interest to you. You can also make brief consultation visits to your lawyer for up to 30 minutes per day at no cost to you. The only condition placed on these two benefits is that you enquire about a different legal matter. This aspect of coverage provided by legal plans is one of the most beneficial because it promotes preventive law. Preventive law is very much like preventive medicine – it helps in anticipating potential problems and taking the appropriate legal steps so that unnecessary legal problems or risks are avoided. With a simple phone call to your lawyer you can avoid getting embroiled in a hellish legal situation, and you can even identify legal rights you don’t even know you had.

Differences between Pre-Paid and Legal Plans

It is not uncommon to see the terms “legal plans” and “pre-paid legal services” used interchangeably. While they share a lot of characteristics in common, there are a number of differences you should be aware of.

Both of these terms refer to an arrangement whereby you pay a fixed monthly or yearly fee in exchange for legal services. The idea behind them is to save consumers on high legal fees whilst offering a valuable service. That’s where the differences lie: what kind of service is offered and what is covered. What are you entitled to in both schemes?

How to choose an attorney?

Throughout the course of your legal problems, you will have to make some tough decisions – If you were involved in an accident then you have to choose between bringing criminal damages or press with a plaintiff case, if you have a small business and you were involved in a deal, then you have to decide whether to sign it or let it pass. There is no clear-cut answer in many of these dilemmas, and getting the right lawyer is crucial to you. We examine the perks of choosing a lawyer in a pre-paid legal plan as opposed to hiring your own lawyer, and some simple steps you can take to choose a good attorney.

Pre-paid legal plans promote preventive law

Many people believe they need the services of a lawyer, under a pre-paid legal service scheme, to solve a legal problem or resolve an intricate situation. Often, your lawyer’s most valuable help could be before you get involved in legal trouble.

When you sign up for a pre-paid legal plan, you have the right to unlimited toll-free telephone access to your attorney. The sound advice and consultation given to you by your lawyer will help you take the necessary steps to detect and resolve any potential legal problems before they take more dangerous proportions. This is called in legal jargon “therapeutic jurisprudence” or “preventive law”. Just as preventive medicine helps prevent disease by detecting their symptoms, preventive law helps prevent serious legal consequences by detecting early problems. In an increasingly litigious society, there is real concern that assets you have worked long and hard to accumulate may be attacked by creditors and litigants, through no fault of your own. By the time a potential claim or liability is identified, it is too late to act.

Types of Legal Plans

A prepaid legal plan is a scheme based on the payment in advance of a set fee to defray the cost of providing future legal services to the members enrolled in the scheme. They vary in cost, scope of legal coverage provided and how the legal services are provided. We will look at the different types of pre-paid legal plans available in the United States and how to enrol into them An individual pre-paid legal plan is readily accessible to the general public. There are two types of individual plans: access and comprehensive.

An access pre-paid legal plan is the most basic plan. It is designed to give easy access to lawyer and a set of simple legal services for a low cost. Basic services furnished include unlimited toll-free phone access to your attorney for consultation and advice, letters written by the lawyer on your behalf, brief office consultation and the drafting or review of simple legal documents.

Who is involved in Legal services?

When you subscribe to a pre-paid legal service, you are likely to deal with an attorney and a number of other individuals and organisations who are involved in one way or another with the service. It’s important to understand the role of each participating party in a legal service plan, particularly when you’re unhappy with the service or when fee disputes or any other litigation with your provider arises.

So, who is involved in your pre-paid legal arrangement?

Your Lawyer

You get to choose your attorney from a pool of attorneys in the network.

Your lawyer is your point of contact for any phone advice or office consultation. He is the one who furnishes other legal services specified in your written agreement with your provider: he drafts your will, reviews simple contracts for you, writes letters on your behalf and makes phone calls to adverse third parties. If you are unsatisfied with the quality of work you are getting from your current attorney in the network then you have the choice of choosing alternate attorneys. You can also make a complaint to your provider’s in-house charge of complaints.

Who regulates pre-paid legal plans?

Pre-paid legal service providers are required to provide either a written agreement of the services provided in their plans, or at least a written communication concerning the services covered, together with the fees to be charged for services not covered in the written agreement of membership.

However, most people gloss over “terms and conditions” and just sign the agreement assuming they are covered for most legal services. This usually gives rise to frequent complaints about the service, fee disputes and complaints about attorneys. Generally, if you have any complaint with your service, you should first address any such complaint with your service provider. Contact them to get information regarding their in-house complaint process and settlement of disputes. If you are unsatisfied, then it helps to know who regulates your kind of legal insurance. Your state’s Department of consumer affairs licenses and regulates all pre-paid legal plans. Prepaid legal service companies are required to register with the department prior to commencing business and appoint a sales representative. Further regulation can be provided by your local bar association.