Can anyone recommend a good prepaid legal plan?

March 7, 2008 9:42 AM

Can anyone recommend a good prepaid legal plan?
posted by swarkentien to law & government (8 comments total)

Where are you?
posted by desjardins at 9:45 AM on March 7

IAAL, IANYL, IAPBAPLPBIAAL (I am probably biased against prepaid legal plans because I am a lawyer).

You need to provide more information about what kinds of legal services you might expect to need for us to answer this question. Most of these pre-paid legal plans will just get you some phone time with some lawyer somewhere, and maybe some assistance with forms or documents. Are you concerned about criminal issues, issues related to family law, commercial issues with your business? You may be able to find a prepaid legal plan which closely fits your expected needs and is cost-effective, but you might be concerned that the providers are not incented to provide quality advice or accurate advice. I would also wonder if you would receive the benefit of the protections that would otherwise be available to you upon the establishment of an attorney-client relationship, like privilege, obligations to provide advice of a reasonable level of quality, etc.

In short, one-size-fits-all plans are probably wrong for you no matter what your size, but it's not inconceivable that one might be right in a specific circumstance. My personal view, though, is that there is no "good prepaid legal plan."
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 10:07 AM on March 7 [1 favorite]

Same with iknowizbirfmark, IAAL, IANYL.

Most pre-paid legal services function more like insurance policies than actual attorney/client agreements. Be careful that you know what you are getting in exchange for the prepayment. A number of prepaid services only cover certain types of legal issues, then change to contingency fee or billable hour services if suddenly your case becomes something bigger than an everyday issue the lawyer can offer advice on. In this situation, the service provider may even resort to referring your case out to another attorney.

My opinion...don't bother with prepaid legal plans.
posted by Dignan at 10:21 AM on March 7

I partially agree with the above. There is a very special type of person for whom the cost benefit math works out for membership in a prepaid legal plan. For 99% of people, there is no such thing as a good PPL plan, as PPL plans are currently designed. I don't think that the idea is fundamentally flawed, but I have never seen or heard of it being implemented in a way that the majority of people would be benefited by it. So, if you would like to, as suggested above, describe what kind of legal services you are looking for, you may get some advice on how best to obtain those services, which may be a PPL plan, but in most cases will not be.
posted by ND¢ at 10:27 AM on March 7

Echoing what inknowizbirfmark says, prepaid legal plans can be pretty terrible. To analogize to medicine, its like an HMO. You don't choose the servicer, and who ever you get has an incentive to spend as little time on your case as possible.

Even if you don't have specific needs right now -- but perhaps have some known issues on the horizon -- a competent general practice attorney in your local community will be a much better investment. Or, to answer your question directly, putting a local general practice attorney on retainer is a good prepaid legal plan.

In my experience, most lawyers that fit that description will be happy to:

a) meet with you for free for half an hour;
b) describe their experience and discuss your legal needs;
c) come up with flexible pricing and payment options for their services.

A general practitioner that's not willing to do that won't be in business very long.

Some lawyers specialize too narrowly to address amorphous needs. However, access to a general practice attorney for routine general questions can be the best resource for referral to specialized services when the need arises.

You may have to look for a while to find the right lawyer for you. Some are great. Some are awful. Don't be afraid to shop around. Good luck.
posted by GPF at 10:35 AM on March 7

IAAL, I'm not your lawyer. However, most prepaid legal plans do not provide you with the sort of protection you need. The only exception I can think of are employment-related plans for law enforcement and government employees. They protect against employment related actions, but nothing else.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:21 AM on March 7

The money that people spend on a prepaid legal plan is not likely to be recouped when you actually need legal services. From the plans I have reviewed, they provide hardly any protection at all for a significant legal problem (I recall looking at one plan that provided an hour or two of a lawyer's time; then the client had to pay the lawyer an hourly rate). You'd be better off socking away the monthly fee for the prepaid plan, into a bank account and saving it for any future legal needs.
posted by jayder at 12:19 PM on March 7

+1 to putting that money into savings and to avoiding the scams.
posted by averyoldworld at 2:36 PM on March 10