my friend at work was passing out applications for people to join a pre paid legal service. What is it? Is it a good idea to join one?
Answers:
First you must consider what is and what is not covered. Often posession of drugs and alcohol is not covered, but may be eligible for a discount price. While the coverage you are getting will give you coverage, once the coverage does not apply you are subject to whatever the lawyer charges. So say you have a plan which provides criminal prosecution coverage for 75 hours of pretrial and trial time, once your time is out, you then are suject to the fees that particular lawyer charges.
Not all lawyers charge by the hour for certain cases. You might have benefited more from selecting a lawyer for a specific case and shopping for the best price (hourly or package price).
For trial coverage you need to consider civil, work related, and criminal. Not all plans cover these items the same, and some plans provide only a discount prices of the hourly rate. Normally if coverage is provided for trial time, beside specifying a type of trial, coverage is provided by the hour up to a max. Some plans increase the coverage benefit per year up to a maximum amount.
Plans often do not cover (except for maybe a discount of their price) for child custody, divorce, drug posession, DUI/DWI, and charing involving drugs and alcohol.
Plans often specifiy coverage for motovehicles, such as fighting a ticket and representation.
Prehaps the number one reason to use pre-paid legal is two fold--first pre-paid legal provides you with your own personal lawyer. Services such as notary, contract review, legal advise, will writing/counseling, making letters and calls on your advices are often covered but to limits. For example, the lawyer might review a contract but up to X number per year, and X number of pages, with specific types not included in the policy.
Now say the will issue, that can cost a few hundred dollars alone, so the preventative feature is attractive in comparison to the expense of the service. However, consider this, some people need tax planning and trusts creation/maintenance. A person without a pre-paid lawyer would simply shop for one based on the price of a trust, which can be thousands, but in the case of pre-paid, if a trust is necessary you really don't have the benefit of comparing. I means 25% off of a price that is higher 100% higher than another lawyer across the road is not a good deal.
But I think for an average person (non-homeowner), a prepaid plan is a good idea. Imagine being arrested, and pulling out a card that at least gives you a lawyer for the first few days until you can make sense of everything. A lawyer who can provide you advice for free, and even help fight the arrest. So that's certainly one advantage. With the disadvantage being, what if the lawyer you have prepaid isn't any good, or itsn't available when you need him.
Personally, I think they're worthless. They tend to get the bottom of the barrel lawyers to work for them and their advance is so noncommittal and limited, it was hardly worth my time.
Just wait until you need a lawyer and then go out and hire a real one.
I think my friend had one of those... I think its like you pay a monthly fee to your lawyer, and when the time comes to when you need them, they are already paid. But since most lawyers are paid per hour I think... depending on how much had been pre-paid montly to your lawyer will determine how much time they can be with you in court/otherwise. It's like car insurance if you want to think of it that way.
Basically you pay a membership fee and when you need their services... well you're a member so they take care of u!!
However... in order to make a profit out of you, they cut corners and hire low budget services such as the ones provided by the court.
I wouldn't recommend to be on the customer side of it... however it is a good venue to make money if you join they "organization"!!
I don't think they're any good either...they are basically there to "sell" you insurance...insurance for a lawyer...The problem with this is that once they've sold you whatever they're selling, they're done with you...there is no future in it! It does not pay residual! Just in case you don't know, residual income is like royalties. You do the work once and get paid for that particular job forever. Kind of like if you were to record an album and then get royalties off of it for the rest of your life. Pre-paid legal is only "now" money! There is no way for you to become prosperous with it. You have to keep on finding new clients forever! I don't know about you, but I would WAY rather do the work ONCE and then get paid off of it forever...maybe some would say that that is lazy...I would say it is more like working smart!
We have been members of HSLDA for 15 years. That is homeschool legal defense association. They represent you in all matters related to homeschooling. It runs a hundred dollars a year, so I have paid fifteen hundred into it. (I think it is a bit more now for new members like one ten a year, but we are on the old contract) I think this is well worth the price. They have called the college for us, sent letters and made calls to the college dean, sent letters to the public school, the school board, made calls to the school board telling them to cease and desist in harassment, and are always available for small issues I call about. They also have a special ed counselor that we used years back for free. Plus I get a twenty percent discount when I buy school supplies, which actually almost pays for the membership fee. So I have to say I like this prepaid legal service.
They have never had to represent me in court, but that would be free.
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