Are Pre-paid Legal Plans Worth the Cost?
Are you registered in a pre-paid legal plan and worried your
provider is simply building up your tab for a service you’ll never
get to use? Read on as we explain the chances of using pre-paid
legal services in legal challenges you may be faced with.
In their lifetime, people are most likely to use legal services that
fall into four categories: civil plaintiffs,
civil defense,
criminal
defense, and legal help that involves a variety of transactional or
business laws.
You are already covered for civil defense by your liability
insurance. Your insurer hires the lawyer who will defend you and
have every incentive to defend you well since they are the ones who
bear your legal costs irrespective of the final outcome. In that
manner, you already have “pre-paid legal coverage” in place and a
legal plan wouldn’t add much to the coverage.
Civil plaintiff attorneys in the Unites States work on a “no win, no
fee” policy. This means that they will not charge you unless they
win you damages in an insurance lawsuit or claim against someone who
has caused you physical grievance. Their contingency fees are
calculated as a “commission” on any money won, so there is every
incentive for your plaintiff lawyer to defend you and defend you
well: the more you win, the more he wins. There is no need to
pre-pay for a service where you stand to lose nothing, and where
advice is readily available to you from plaintiff lawyers anxious to
work on your case.
On the atypical occasion you need to bring criminal charges- like if
you’re involved in a serious auto accident- or need to defend
yourself against criminal charges brought against you, hiring a
lawyer to represent you in advance is not the smartest of decisions.
In these situations, client-lawyer rapport is vital: you need
someone whom you can trust, build a relationship with and someone
capable enough to defend you in a court of law. You barely get the
chance to talk to your attorney face-to-face in a pre-paid legal
plan, and most of the attorneys in the network do not do criminal
defense work.
Transactional and business law is the area where you will most
probably find pre-paid legal services most helpful. If you
frequently need someone to draft your wills, review basic contracts
and set up advance health-directives or simply want competent legal
advice at your disposal, then going pre-paid will save you the
trouble of searching for an attorney and paying “a la carte”.
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