Are Pre-Paid Services Worth The Money?

By Amy Norman


Besides health, life, car, and home insurance, do you also have legal coverage?

The question you need to answer is when will you be needing a lawyer. Prepaid legal insurance might just be the answer you have been looking for. You get telephone access to advice from a lawyer for a fixed monthly subscription, which makes the concept very simple. You pay a fixed amount in advance each month to defray the cost of legal services furnished in the future. These services span various areas of the law, anywhere from reviews of simple legal documents and the writing of a simple will to more comprehensive coverage of trials, divorce, bankruptcy and real estate issues.

Pre-paid legal coverage is a very attractive proposition for people who don't have the resources to retain a lawyer on a regular basis whenever they need assistance. Whenever legal matters arise, you have a network of attorneys you can use as retainer to look for preliminary advice about the issues and how the procedures work. There are services not covered by the plan but for a discount on regular hourly rates or flat fees, they can be available to members.

A hard fact, however, is that more than half of new subscribers drop out of a prepaid plan after their first year. One reason could be that many members do not require any legal assistance during their first year, so opt out. Also, when it comes to the scope of services offered, they're limited in nature and very basic. Most plans have certain caps or maximums as far as benefits provided are concerned, and purport to offer discount on standard attorney fees instead. However, by virtue of simply calling around by yourself you could probably negotiate a lower rate.

With pre-legal plans, another problem would be the possibility of getting assigned to a novice attorney. Because of cost considerations, many of the companies behind per-paid services assign trainee or inexperienced attorneys to handle phone consultation and drafting of simple legal documents. Two of the most important attribute of choosing a good attorney are rapport and understanding and you're unlikely to build these since 90% of the work is done over the phone.




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