Anyone have an opinion on Pre-Paid Legal?

A co-workers husband is trying to get me to sign up for pre-paid legal services. Any opinions?

Anyone have an opinion on Pre-Paid Legal?
How often have you consulted a lawyer in the last five years?





See, you do not to buy Lawyer Insurance. Costs more than a visit to a lawyer
Reply:You must find out if this is something you need at this time in your life, also he wants to sign u up to make a commission off u.


If at this time you dont need a legal service only to make someone else richer then dont go for it. Do not allow someone else to use u for their personal gain!.
Reply:Don't waste your money. My boss was one of their referral attorneys for couple of years, and won't do it again. They claim to get you a discount on legal fees, but that 20% or 25% discount on a $5000 retainer isn't much, and by the time you might ever need to hire a lawyer, you've spent way more than the discount amount in monthly fees. Just put the money in a savings account and you'll have it if you ever need to hire a lawyer for something.
Reply:the typical type of use of an attorney's services would be with regard to an accident...and those you don't pay an attorney for. and if you planned to sue anyone you'd represent yourself in small claims court. And, if you needed a divorce you could do that yourself.





So what you'd need an attorney for would be suing a person


for over $5,000, for some problem when a person is suing you, or if you caused an accident, if you had a problem regarding your home or land.





From my experience pre-paid legal is for small cases, not for something extensive. So it depends on your need.
Reply:I am a prepaid legal associate and most of the people who will answer you have no knowledge of the services. If you are speaking of pre-paid legal inc., let me correct someof the things people on here have said. We do not get lawyesr by zip code. Many law firms in each state are on waiting lists and there is a huge criteria to be chosen as our law firm. We only take the top law firms in each state. Oure referral firsm are the same. If someone only got a 20% discount, then they should have reported the firm. The lawyers do not ask for money after the case is over. Again, they will get dropped and when the firm is getting paid well over $100,000 a month, in my state it is over $500,000 a month on a retainer by the company, that is the last thing they want is to get dropped. They will answer any legal question you have. Many people do not realize to what extent they can use them for. For example, I wanted to return an item to a store. The store would not allow me. I called my lawyer, I returned it for a full refund, got an apology letter and a gift certificate. Pre-paid legal is not a scam. We are publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange and we are endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as attorney generals, judges, etc. I hope I defended them well. Our founder has a heart of gold, so my suggestion to you is to not ask people's opinions on this board. Youget a lot of uneducated people handing out opinions. Do the research yourself and you will see.
Reply:Nothing illegal but a bit of a scam.
Reply:My opinion is that I think it depends on how much you really will use the service. I signed up for pre-pay legal with an employer I had many years ago. I think I used it one time in about 2 years, and when I did call with a question, the lawyer I spoke with really didn't answer my question (although he tried).





If I remember correctly, the service was reasonable; about $6 per paycheck (bi-weekly-and it's been a while). But, since I never really needed it, I would have been smarter to keep the $6 in my pocket and just hire a lawyer if I really needed one.





Lastly, and I can't confirm this, I think pre-paid legal just covers questions, and having documents prepared and court appearances cost extra.
Reply:It seems that anytime you prepay for services be it legal or medical, one never needs it. It's a psychological thing. Everything is status quo if you are covered and you feel good and comfortable and thus life is good. Once you are not covered, the fear factor sets in and it slowly erodes the your comfort zone and self-confidence because you are constantly worrying about WHAT IF? The professions and insurance people have always relied on the fear factor. Thus individuals pay out huge sums of money so they can feel COVERED and thus safe. Sadly, many times you are not as covered as you may think. The downside of coverage these days is that much that is most commonly needed is not covered and you pay out of pocket anyway. Just something to think about before delving into the unknown and paying for something that may never be of help to you.
Reply:Don't know if this will help. Right after I became licensed to be a lawyer I was approached by several organizations who sold pre-paid legal services to become part of their group. I turned them down because I had little or no experience so how could I help anyone, and because they appeared to be only interested in getting lawyers by zip code (not by ability) so they would have ties to each state.





Years later I have had clients who belonged to pre-paid groups but decided to go outside of the group because of the limited choice of lawyers and because the lawyers in the group did not have certain experience.





To me, when a family has an instance where they need a competent lawyer they should not be limited to just a few that belong to a certain group. It is like the HMO who insists that patients go to only certain doctors. Personally, I prefer to shop around and get the best professional for my situation.
Reply:It is my knowledge that reputable lawyers take money after your case is over.