Thoughts on pre-paid legal plans?

Now, this sounds way too good to be true.














and this should be the first insight into the latest MLM scam

 

Good things are not cheap......and cheap things are not good.

Personally speaking, I think this can be applied to lawyers more than anything else, especially considering the weight of the issues that the service your money is buying may potentially be called upon to deal with.

I'd pass.......unless Whart would work for that.........

 

I'd imagine for day-to-day, routine legal issues its a good deal, however, if you're on trial for murder....

 

Cult?

 

Too many lawyers chasing too few cases. The legal field is at the saturation point. Eventually people will decide the cost and time to become an attorney is too great given the average level of compensation and enrollment will decline, until then schools will continue to produce 50,000+ new lawyers each year.

I read somewhere, a while back, that there is an attorney for every 30 people in the US. If the % is correct, do we really require more than 3~4% of our populace to be attorneys? How many lawsuits are you involved in anyway?

 

Bo
go read the threads wayno posted

 

Send a PM to Frank Parker. He knows a little bit about the subject, he was gracious enough to spend some time on the phone with me after I posted the thread Wayne linked to.

 

Supply and demand.

I know several doctors that retired early because of insurance issues. Insurance companies have you coming and going, they determine what they will pay you for your time, and they determine what they will charge you for liability coverage. Going to medical school in the US and not becoming a cosmetic surgeon is a waste of money IMO. You dedicate 12 years of your life and you'd spend $500,000 on your education if you were starting today, for what? A $150,000/year job? We will be importing our doctors from India given the economics.

 

Not to digress too much off topic here Bo....but up in the land of socialzed medicine (Kanaduh) your grocery list of doctors tasks would look like this......

Phone calls - they don't take them
Refills - billable office visits only
Talking to your family about a loved one - billable office visits only
Calling in antibiotics (ie. phone consultation) - they don't make them
Listening to you tell me about how your dog died - billable office visit
Filling out handicapped stickers - fee service paid by client
Blood pressure checks - billable office visit
Complete medical form for insurance - fee service paid by client

Etc...etc.....sorta like lawyers......hope that keeps it on topic.

My lawyer is actually pretty good, but we're good friends who go back about 12+ years or so and I get "a lot" of free stuff which is commonly repaid in a form of currency known as "free beer at the nudie bar" LOL !!!

 

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. is the best provider of prepaid legal services...much better than Hyatt IMHO. http://www.prepaidlegal.com/

 

Have been involved with one for years now. It is part of our FOP Fraternal Order of Police membership. Worked great for me during my divorce---cost me $100.00 total to get divorced. That $100 was for court fees not the lawyers.... A portion of my monthly FOP dues goes toward our plan..

 

who actually had to use it, is that its a big waste of money!

If part or all of the premiums you paid each month, say $25 to $30, actually went into some sort of escrow account that can be used for a future retainer fee in the event you had to engage a lawyer beyond the threatening letter stage...after a couple of years you would have $500 or more in the account to draw from, then I would really consider it to be "prepaid."

But what I actually got was...

The privilege to deal with ONLY their correspondent law firm for Orlando area and ONLY by letter or fax. NO phone calls, much less face-to-face meetings were allowed. It's been so long ago that I don't remember the specifics of the case but after writing one letter to the person I had the problem with, they asked for a $1000 retainer if I wanted to pursue the matter further. I do have to say that the local firm was well-known and respected.

Given that I was a member of Pre-Paid (granted that there are probably several companies with sound-alike names offering the service...mine was the chief provider) for over 3 years, what I paid overall in premiums made for one damn expensive letter!

It sounds good in concept but really, how many times in the past 5 years did you need to engage the services of an attorney? Me neither. You are locked into using their local partner firm and don't think you are going to be covered in the event of a more serious legal need like a divorce action or a foreclosure. You are still going to pay out of pocket so why take away your right to choose the firm?

Another thing that struck me as kind of odd was that in the quarterly newletters, the founder of the company kept touting the company's stock. A key to the company's stock value is profitability in taking in lots of premiums and paying out as little as possible to the corresponding law firms. Didn't make me too comfortable. And no disclosure is made to the consumer how much of a commission is kicked-back to the local agent or rep that signed you up. Save your money!
KevFla