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.

A competent attorney’s advice is your best option to minimize your exposure to potential risks and protect yourself from legal problems getting out of hand.

How to enroll for a legal plan

Are you thinking of getting on the pre-paid bandwagon? Choosing a
particular enrollment method can be very important in determining the
benefits, costs and conditions of coverage of your legal plan.

A voluntary enrollment refers to a membership of a legal plan where people
“voluntarily” subscribe to a pre-paid legal service in response to a direct
email offer, during an employer’s open enrollment period or during
individual sales representations. In this arrangement, you pay the prepaid
charge, get the standard discounts open to all other members of the plan
and get the coverage as per the terms and conditions of the plan.

In a group plan, all members are automatically included in the plan because
of their status as a group. For instance, many employees enjoy a 100%
participation in legal plans sponsored by their employers. They do not have
to pay any pre-paid charge or premium, as legal coverage in the work place
is now regarded as an employee fringe-benefit.

Some universities also provide legal coverage for their students, financing
the plans from their general tuition fees.

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.

The number one criterion has to do with a lawyer’s legal ability: someone who lays the law down for you, present you with options, explain the ramifications of each decision you make and give you recommendations on the best course of action.

In this day and age of complicated legal matters, many lawyers are increasingly specialized and you stand to get better information from someone with a practice focus in a particular area of the law than a generalist who deals with a broad spectrum of legal issues.

Building rapport is also very important: your relationship with your lawyer can make or break your case. You need a lawyer who gives you candid advice and council you can trust, someone with enough perspective to step back from an issue and look at it from all perspectives.

Client-lawyer relationships are very limited within a pre-paid legal plan.
Because of “preventive” nature of most plans, your contact with your lawyer will be limited on many occasions. You seldom get to talk to your lawyer face-to-face – as most of the consultation is done over the phone – and even when you get to talk to them, it’s difficult to build rapport when your office consultations are limited to a dozen hours a year.

The good news, however, is you still have some options left.
When you sign up for a legal plan, you get to choose your lawyer and there is a number of
steps you can take to increase the likelihood of getting a good lawyer.

First, you need to ask for referrals from previous clients.
Ask around about good attorneys in the network. Once you get a few names, check their
educational background, their qualifications and their professional track record with your state’s bar association.

After you receive your referrals, don’t shy away from setting up interviews with attorneys in the network. Most don’t mind receiving inquiries about what they do and how able there are.

Ask tough questions:
How long have they been in practice?
How satisfied are their previous clients?
How many legal problems of interest to you have they taken recently?

Group legal plans

Group legal plans in the workplace have experienced rapid growth recently
because of their usefulness to both employer and employee alike.

For the employee, a group legal plan is a cheap way to get legal coverage
in much the same way as other traditional benefits. For as little as $20
per month deducted from payroll, an employee is put in touch with an
attorney who can draft his will, buy or refinance a home, adopt a child
and plan an estate. Unlimited legal advice is offered at no cost to the
employee.

The benefits for the employer include increased efficiency and
productivity from their workforce, and reduced administration costs to
handle personal matters. Another very attractive benefit is the very low
cost involved in researching and implementing a group legal plan. In fact,
such plans cost employers very little in terms of time and investment.
Group plans are structured on a voluntary basis, paid for through payroll
deductions from the workforce. Additionally, the carrier handles all the
claims, redundant paperwork and customer service related to the plan.

Comprehensive access plans

If you are a member of a pre-paid access plan and are not getting the legal services you think you need, then it is probably time to upgrade to a more comprehensive plan.

A comprehensive prepaid legal service plan is designed to cover for the majority of your legal service needs in a given year. Access services, such as legal advice and information by toll-free number and follow-up service, are provided at no cost to you.

It’s in the realm of more complex legal matters that require more time and effort from your attorney, that the comprehensive plan is more beneficial than a basic, access plan.

You can have your trust set up, instead of a simple will, and a more complicated business sale contract drawn up as opposed to a simple contract. Legal representation can equally be provided in court for some cases, such as child custody.

Comprehensive prepaid plans are most suitable for people who need business advice, have family trusts or own real estates properties.