The Pros & Cons of Prepaid Legal
Prepaid legal services are legal plans offered to individuals and businesses that allow clients access to a range of legal services for a small monthly fee. Purchasing prepaid legal services is different than hiring an attorney on retainer, both because they are much cheaper and because prepaid legal firms offer significantly fewer services to clients. Signing up for prepaid legal services, while potentially a wise investment, can also have some significant downsides.
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Pros of Prepaid Legal
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Prepaid legal services offer a number of different services to clients. Services may include legal advice by phone or email, brief office consultations, the review and preparation of simple legal documents and the short phone calls placed by an attorney to an adverse party. Prepaying for these services allows individuals access to them when necessary for far less money than they would pay a standard attorney.
Cons of Prepaid Legal
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Prepaid legal services are only useful if you use them. A person may end up paying several hundred dollars per year for access to attorneys, but never use the services provided, thereby effectively wasting the money. In addition, the services provided by the attorneys are generally not nearly as personalized or comprehensive as those offered by an attorney paid by the hour. A client may also have few choices as to which attorney he receives services from.
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Considerations
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The services provided by law firms that offer prepaid legal services will vary greatly. The website Expert Law suggests that people considering the purchase of a prepaid legal plan make sure that the company or law firm they they are considering is reputable. For example, an individual might check if the company is endorsed by the American Bar Association or if it is a member of the Better Business Bureau.
Multi-Level Marketing
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Some prepaid legal services also function as multi-level marketing plans. In these plans, the company asks members of the public to sell the plan to other people. The people who successfully sell the plan are compensated with a commission. In these cases, Expert Law suggests that those considering purchasing a plan from a representative read the contract very carefully before signing and not take the word of the person pitching the plan, particularly if he is not a paid employee of the company.
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