HOW TO KNOW DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRE-PAID AND LEGAL PLANS

It is not unusual to see the terms legal plans and pre-paid legal services used interchangeably. While they share a lot of distinctiveness in common, there are a number of differences you should be aware of.

Both of these terms refer to an arrangement whereby you pay a fixed monthly or yearly fees in swap over for legal services. The idea behind them is to save consumers on high legal fees whilst offering a priceless service. what kind of service is offered and what is covered therein. What are you entitled to in both schemes or services?

The Pre-paid services cover for specific legal services, free phone consultations and advice, drafting and writing of simple wills and trusts, review of sample contracts and writing of letters on your behalf.The Legal services not provided will be charged at regular attorney fees,though, you may be eligible for discounts.

The Legal insurance, by contrast, works much like other insurance plans, like health or car insurance. Anyway, specific legal services are offered at times, your insurance provider will typically offer a premium policy that covers for all legal services. 

The policy will pay on behalf of you, the policy holder, or reimburse all expenses incurred, costs or fees that you paid for legal services up to the policy limit. For example, your policy might reimburse any fees incurred in your court judgments or pay your bail money,a service not provided by most pre-paid legal plans.

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Main-while, Your legal insurance is also pegged to other insurance policies or premium you may previously have.Whenever you run into legal problems involving your other insurance, then your legal insurance policy will protect you against loss or liability.Example, if you are involved in a car accident when your auto-insurance has already run out and you are subsequently sued for recovery of damages, you will be protected by a legal plan insurance.

The difference between the two schemes is related to your choice of attorney. In any pre-paid legal service, you get to choose from a restricted number of the attorneys in the network area. By contract, a legal insurance plan provides legal coverage regardless of attorney. Thereby,You are free to set up interviews with any number of attorneys and decide on the ones you think will

provide the most best service for your personal legal needs at any time.

In conclusion, pre-paid legal plans are much more accessible to the general public. Legal plans are harder to come With as only a limited number of insurance companies offer such plans.

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TYPES OF LEGAL PLANS YOU KNOW

The prepaid legal plan is a scheme basically based on the payment in advance of a set fee to defray the cost of providing future legal services to the members enrolled in the scheme or services. They vary in cost or different attach cost, scope of legal coverage provided and how the legal services are provided.

We will view at the different types of pre-paid legal plans available in the United States and how to enroll into any of them when feel to do so.

The individual pre-paid legal plan is readily accessible to the general public in general. There are two types of individual plans,namely access and comprehensive.
An access pre-paid legal plan is the most basic plan services. It is designed to gives easy and simple access to lawyer and a set of simple legal services for a low cost. 

The basic services furnished include unlimited toll-free phone access to your attorney for consultations and advice if need be, letters written by the lawyer on your behalf, brief office consultations and the drafting or review of simple legal documents of source.

Any Complex legal issues not covered will be subject to an hourly or flat rate negotiable with your provider

Comprehensive plan goes beyond the basic legal services, to offer more complex and comprehensive coverage for a premium in cost.Though Generally, all the benefits of an access plan are provided at no cost to you indeed plus a broader range of services like drafting complicated legal documents, negotiations with adverse parties, the legal representation in court cases such as divorce and child custody. They also cover all the costs involved in a legal litigation and Comprehensive plans typically start at $300 per year and are most beneficial to middle-class families anyway. 

The group legal plan is typically sponsored by an organization as a fringe benefit to its members. The lawyer or law firm contracted provides free or low-cost legal coverage to all members of the sponsoring organization. (i.e) Employers, labour unions and even universities and any higher learning schools are now increasingly offering group legal plans to enhance the value of their benefits packages and reduce the cost of administrative burden.

 Law firms are contracted to provide participating members telephone and office consultations for their most time to time needed legal matters. These include, Preparation of wills and trusts,deed documents preparation and review, debt and real estate matters and family law. 

Additionally, legal coverage can be contracted according to a fee schedule negotiable between the plan sponsor and provider and publicized to participating members as due.

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WHO REGULATES PRE-PAID LEGAL PLANS

Pre-paid legal services providers are mandated to provide either a written agreement of the services provided in their plans or at least a written communication concerning the services covered and together with the fees to be charged for services not covered in the written agreement of membership therein.

With this, most people gloss over terms and conditions and for them to just sign the agreement assuming they are covered for most legal services. Thereby usually gives rise to frequent complaints about the services, fee disputes, and complaints about attorneys of course. 

  In all, if you have any complaint with any of your services, you should first address any such complaint with your service provider. Contact them to get information regarding their in-house complaint process if any and settlement of disputes amicably. If you are not in any way satisfied, then it helps to know who regulates your kind of legal insurance services.

If Your state’s Department of consumer affairs licenses and regulates all pre-paid legal plans services. Prepaid legal services companies are required to register with the department prior to commencing business and appoint a 

sales representative. And further regulation can be provided by your local bar association.

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