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You’re a Member, Not a Client
By arlene | January 19, 2008
Here is how it works. In a traditional lawyer-client relationship, you pay your attorney or legal firm when you need them. For example, if there’s an accident on your property, you call your lawyer. He or she works to resolve the situation, sends you an invoice with charges calculated per hour spent on your case, and you pay the bill. If you don’t use your lawyer’s services, you don’t need to pay anything—until the next need arrives.
In the prepaid legal world, you join an organization. Other members of the organization are lawyers and legal firms who are theproviders of legal services. Provider law firms can be located throughout your community, region, state, or the nation. Each month you pay an agreed-upon membership fee. When that accident or any other incident requiring legal services arises, you simply make a phone call (probably toll-free) to the organization. You’ll be put in contact with one of the provider law firms and the case will be assigned to one of that firm’s attorneys. In essence, the prepaid legal company becomes the client of the provider law firm. In many cases, the company can be that firm’s largest client, which should place the prepaid members in a good position to get excellent service.
The case is generally handled without any costs because you have already paid for legal services with your monthly fees. However, this may not always be the case, because your agreement with the prepaid legal services company may or may not have certain stipulations about additional charges. Clearly, you should be informed up front and in writing about such conditions. When interviewing one of these companies, be sure to ask about any services that will not be covered by that monthly payment. The legal world is already full of surprises. You don’t need any more, especially at a time when something goes wrong.
The Privileges of Membership
Several years ago one of the nation’s leading credit card companies promoted itself through advertising that touted “the benefits of membership.” It seems that many of these prepaid legal services companies really do offer significant benefits to members of the organization. Different companies will offer a different array of services, but as a rule you can expect your prepayments to cover such services as the following:
- Lawsuits.
- Tenant issues.
- Buying and selling property.
- Bankruptcy counsel.
- Disputes over property lines.
- Legal questions relating to small businesses.
- Contract reviews.
- Letter writing and notifications.
- Reviews of legal papers and documents.
- Will preparations and updates.
- Legal consultation.
- Traffic tickets.
- Warranty issues.
Again, services may vary from company to company. Different states will have varying regulations on what law firms can and can’t do. You should make it your responsibility to fmd out precisely what services will and will not be covered by your membership.
An Accident Jump-Starts an Industry
The prepaid legal services concept was set in motion about thirty years ago after the man who later founded the first of these companies was in an automobile accident. The accident wasn’t his fault and he believed he was fully covered. Still, he needed legal services to help him argue his case, and the legal bills kept piling up. He must have wondered, “There’s got to be a better, less expensive way than all these hourly rates!” This unexpected situation generated the spark that created a new legal industry.
The idea has caught on. Pre-Paid Legal Services was recently ranked twelfth on the Forbes magazine list of Top 200 Small Businesses. Money magazine ranked it the thirteenth hottest company in America. Fortune magazine recognized it as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies. This bit of statistics illustrates that the concept has certainly caught the favorable attention of the nation’s business community. Similar companies in your market are certainly options you should at least explore.
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