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Are Pre-paid Legal Plans Worth the Cost?
Are you enlisted in a pre-paid legal plan and worried your provider is simply
building up your fee for a service you’ll never get to use? Read on as we
discuss the chances of using pre-paid legal services in legal problems you may
be faced with.
In their lifetime, people are most likely to use legal services that fall into
four categories:
civil plaintiffs, civil defense,
criminal defense, and legal
help that involves a variety of transactional or business laws.
You are already covered for civil defense by your liability insurance. Your
insurer hires the lawyer who will defend you and have every reason to defend you
well since they are the ones who bear your legal costs irrespective of the final
outcome. In that concept, you already have “pre-paid legal coverage” in place
and a legal plan wouldn’t add much to the coverage.
Civil plaintiff attorneys in the U.S. work on a “no win, no fee” policy. This
means that they will not charge you unless they win you damages in an insurance
lawsuit or claim against someone who has caused you physical pain. Their
contingency fees are calculated as a “commission” on any money won, so there is
every incentive for your plaintiff lawyer to defend you and defend you well: the
more you win, the more he wins. There is no need to pre-pay for a service where
you stand to lose nothing, and where advice is readily available to you from
plaintiff lawyers ready to work on your case.
On the unusual occasion you need to bring criminal charges- like if you’re
involved in a serious auto accident- or need to defend yourself against criminal
charges brought against you, lining up a lawyer to represent you in advance is
not the smartest of decisions. In these situations, client-lawyer rapport is
critical: you need someone whom you can trust, build a rapport with and someone
able enough to defend you in a court of law. You barely get the chance to talk
to your attorney face-to-face in a pre-paid legal plan, and most of the
attorneys in the network do not do criminal defense work.
Transactional and business law is the area where you will most likely find
pre-paid legal services most useful. If you frequently need someone to draft
your wills, review simple contracts and set up advance health-directives or
simply want competent legal advice at your disposal, then going pre-paid will
save you the trouble of searching for an attorney and paying “a la carte”.
Fresno criminal defense lawyers and attorneys
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