Common Services offered by Pre-paid legal Plans

Considering a pre-paid legal plan? Here’s a run-down of the services

you’re most likely to get and also some legal documents you need to sign

before you enroll.

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.

Follow-Up Service: The panel of lawyers will write letters and
make phone calls on your behalf to adverse third parties.
Such follow-up service may be all it takes to solve many of
your legal problems.

Legal document review: Simple personal legal documents, such
as your insurance policies, sales contracts and leases will be reviewed.
Any questions of legal nature that you have about the documents will
also get answered by your attorney.

Drafting of wills: A will is a written document that regulates how
you want your property distributed after your death. Your attorney
will draft your will according to your state’s laws so that it’s valid
when you die. He will also advise you on any provisions you might
want to consider, such as appointing a guardian and establishing a trust.

Discount on regular fees: Any additional services not covered in the

written fee agreement will be at regular fees – either hourly or flat –

with a discount between 20 to 30%. These services generally include
family matters, such as divorce and the custody of children, and court

representation, such as traffic tickets and lawsuits.

Some of the legal paperwork you need to read carefully, agree on and
sign include the following:

Written fee agreement: This is an agreement that outlines what
services are provided in the plan, how much it costs and the
methods of payment.

Grievance procedure: This document details the procedures
that will be taken by the provide to resolve any complaints about
attorneys or disputes regarding service fees.

Benefits of Pre-paid legal plan for your company

Employers are on the hunt - researching benefit tools that are low-cost,

easily administered and satisfy their employees’ needs. One such tool is

pre-paid group insurance. We examine the benefits of having such a

work-benefit option from an employer’s perspective.

The first benefit employers expect from legal insurance plans is increased

productivity and efficiency. Today’s employees are interested in a variety

of benefits to balance their work with their life requirements. Given that

most American household had an issue with law last year that might have
led them to hire a lawyer, it’s only normal that a legal benefit would
increase employees’ morale and efficiency.

Having legal benefit as part of a work-benefit package can help the
company recruit and retain the best employees. In this age of
work-benefithysteria, many prospective employment candidates base
their career choices on the set of benefit package provided by employers.

Cost containment is another benefit. With less time and resources to be

used for personal matters, the company expects to make significant
savings on administrative costs.

Benefits of Pre-paid legal plans

Pre-paid legal services can be a very attractive
alternative to hiring a lawyer for many people.
You should consider the importance and relative

priority of these benefits in light of your own legal
needs.

So what are the benefits going pre-paid
compared to conventional hire of lawyers?

Benefit Number 1: Cost-Effective

Pre-paid legal plans can take the sting out of hiring a lawyer. Lawyers’

fees are prohibitive for most people: you can run bills of thousands of

dollars and this is simply out of reach of most working and middle-class

families.

With pre-paid plans, what you get charged is more in line with what you

pay for your health or home insurance. Plans start as low as $9 per month

and typically don’t exceed the $30 mark.

Benefit Number 2: Simplicity

There is a number of very complicated set of fees lawyers charge:

contingency fees, flat fees, statutory fees and hourly rates. In the case

of contingency and statutory fees, you have to get into the intricate

details of how these fees are computed – say for a contingency fee how

much is the lawyer’s commission? – and their regulatory nature – who

regulates the statutory fee and how do I know if these fees are in line

with regulatory guidelines?-.

The other two types of fees can be equally as complex. Increasingly,

attorneys choose to incorporate any overheads they incur, like secretarial

expenses, parking charges and travel fees into their flat and hourly fees.

They can also set a minimum number of billing units, like three tenths of

an hour (18 minutes), irrespective of how long it takes them to deal with

your problem.

This is just a sample rundown of what might influence the various fees

charged by lawyers, other factors and arrangements can apply too.
Contrast this with the simplicity in which pre-paid legal services are
priced and furnished. The process is simple and straightforward: you
sign an agreement to pay a fixed monthly fee and that’s about it. If
what you’re looking for is not covered, your plan provider will give
you a prior notice of a different billing so that you know exactly how
much you will be charged.

Benefit Number 3: Pre-emptive Law

Pre-paid plans offer unlimited phone consultation and advice. This aspect

of the service can save you a lot of trouble, money and time in the

future. Most legal problems you are likely to face in your day-to-day life

can be solved if you take the necessary steps in line with the law. With

the right advice and consultation with your lawyer, you can detect legal

blunders before they occur and hence minimize the risk of litigation and

protection.