[Stonehenge]

Has anybody ever used a service like this?

Last night at our local landscape assoc meeting we had a presentation about these services. It was something you could buy personally, and cover your family, or offer to your employees (though they would pay for it through payroll deduction). There was also a business policy you could offer (to protect the biz entity), and one for 2+ axle commercial drivers.

The gist of it seemed to be something like an insurance plan, with monthly premiums, a network of lawyers (instead of doctors), and a list of services they would provide - some of them limited, some of them unlimited.

Seemed like a reasonably priced service ($26/mo for the personal legal services, with no contract). It sounded like they offered top-notch attorneys in whatever specialty you needed at that moment: taxes, divorce, etc.

What's more, when at a recent committee meeting for that same association, we started chatting over lunch about the service (without any service reps there, it was just an off-the-cuff thing), and one of the local eqpt dealers told us about how much he used it and liked it (apparently he has a few kids that tend to get into trouble ).

Does anybody have any first-hand experience with this?

Is this something you'd like to see more information about on these pages?

If so, let me know and I'll do a little more research.

Jeff

[Stonehenge]

Or, let me know if you'd like me to be the guinea pig - I can sign up for this and see what kind of service I get....

[diginahole]

I could see using a service like that right now and for my first year of operation, but after that? How often do you consult with a lawyer? Mind you at $312/year I might just just talk to a lawyer more often.

Tell us more.

Save your money for now though...... if it smells like bad eggs, guess what it probably is.

[Stonehenge]

That's just it. It didn't smell like bad eggs. They're a very large outfit - they pay $1M/month in retainers to a firm that handles a good portion of their service in Los Angeles. They rattled off a bunch of other cities and dollar figs, but I don't remember them.


The way it was explained was - just like medical insurance - you take all these small payments, lump them together and offer them to a single firm or network of firms, and it becomes very attractive to that firm, yet very cost effective for you. Just like medical insurance, you probably don't use it every week or every month (I don't think I use it once/year - so far, anyway).

The company organizing this does not do any of the legal work themselves, they are just a contractor. And like John Allin probably has protocol that his plowing subs have to follow, this service has standards for the contracted firms, like answering calls within 4 rings, getting to talk to an attorney within 24 hours (which for a small biz like me is not easy). If the contracting company (Prepaid Legal) gets complaints about the sub (Legal Firm), they can and do pull the contract.

It's also something you can offer to employees through payroll deduction, as a nice benefit for them (and I was the only one to stand up and ask "Can my employees sue me using your plan?" I got a good answer - there's a clause in the contract, both for the employee and the legal firm, that they cannot discuss matters of their employment with the attorneys.)

And if you have an attorney you already work with and like, you can have this company try to add them to their legal network. Then you get to work with the same person, for less $$.

And, they can point you to the right person for the issue at hand - like medical specialists. Get a heart surgeon to work on your heart, get a tax attorney to help you with tax issues.

If people here show much interest in wanting to find out more, I'll sign up for my landscape biz and see how it goes. I think it might be a great service for the smaller employer. (BTW, they won't service employers with over 100 employees, if my memory serves correct.)


Jeff

[diginahole]

WOW, isn't it amazing how a simple comparison can shed so much light, and change a persons mind. I'm interested in finding out more and it doesn't smell so bad anymore either.

[Nebraska]

Stonehenge...

It is another benefit that you can offer your employees but in all honesty how many times do your employees even think about calling an attorney? I talked to one of my employees about it and his eyes began to roll in the back of his head..

It is multi-level marketing if I remember correctly.

My attorney told me to not call him if I sign up on it...why should he do the same work for less? Makes me think of my experience with Dentco and National Landscaping.

It was presented to me as a great service by a customer....then as a great way to make extra money....then as a great way to make great money getting others to make the extra money? I didn't do it and lost the customer...

Not all multi-level marketing is bad; ask them when can you become a representative of PPLS

....just my opinion

by the way it's $26 a month on auto-withdrawl from the bank account....otherwise you pay 6 months or a year in advance.

[Bladewizard]

I am a member of pre paid legal.....It is only 10.95 per month.....I will get the info and post it in the morning. You sign up , No Contract, you get a discount off corporate rates, which is an average of 100- 125 per hour...

[Stonehenge]

Nebraska - He'll do that same single instance thing for less because he's getting that same amount during the times that he's doing nothing.

I'll admit that pyramid schemes, or multi-level marketing as you so diplomatically put it ( ) send me running for the hills. I have no faith in an organization whose financial security depends on adding 'salespeople' to the pyramid. If this turns out to be something like that, I would tend to not want to be involved.

I had a similar experience with a Citigroup multi-level marketer/customer. An hour into my initial meeting with him and he's giving me his pitch on getting me to refer my landscape customers to him for insurance and investments. No thanks.

In the presentation I saw there was nothing about becoming an 'affiliate' or anything like that, but it was a presentation to a group of 20 landscape co presidents, not a single person.

I did also hear about a similar product from a neighbor, but this neighbor is one that I presume every idea of his is a bad one, because they almost always are. So I went in skeptical, but left not so much.

I'll have to look into this a little more....

[Stone Art, Inc.]

I realize that this is an old thread, but I felt compelled to reply regardless. I did sign up last year for pre-paid legal. My sales rep was floored that I insisted that I only sign up for a 3 month period and would not consent to the ACH debit to my account. Apparently it was highly irregular to have someone NOT give out account information on a service they merely wanted to take for a test drive. The services that appealed to me were simple. I wanted my Sales Agreement reviewed and to be prepared for collections, should the need arise. The Sales Agreement was reviewed and modified with the attorney's recommendations, but only with constant phone calls and follow-up on my end. And the one time I was in need of a collection letter I ended up collecting from my customer before I'd even received the draft from the attorney's office. The contract review was worth every penny I'd invested in the service, but the length of time it took for the responses, in addition to my time following up made the service unappealing to me. I did not renew and was very glad I'd not given in to the hard sales pitch.

[Bill Schwab]

My wife is a Pre Paid legal regional manager. WE have a residual income of $1600.00 a month from it, and she sells it like hotcakes.

The two most sued individuals are realtors and contractors. The service works very well for our purposesand the extra income is nice as well.

[GLAN]

This is interesting.

Not sure if I would use a lawyer more than I would use health insurance. Or equaly.

I maybe wrong, but here is my take on this....

The law offices that are partnered in this are probably a one name and associates types. And yes perhaps larger firms. My theory is that the representation you would be getting is that of interns and those recently graduating and passing the BAR. Newbies if you will.

Your case would be assigned to a newbie lawyer. The case is probably looked over and discussed with a senior member of the firm and a plan of action is formulated, then all the responsibility is thrust upon the newbie to execute. Yes, of course the newbie has the senior member to refer back to with findings, questions and the like.

But then again there are those certain cases where it doesn't matter how much you pay. The out come of the case is kinda predetermined.

Back in I dunno...83? I paid a lawyer $3,000.00 Knowing what the out come would be and that there was no other way to change that fact. But that I needed legal representation and due to circumstances it warrented that high a fee, and yet his time spent on my case... most of it was on the court date.

[ecoscapes]

stone, did you sign up? I thought of signing up the same thing - a guy in a networking group I was in sold that. It seemed pretty decent -- and was as cheap and my worthless cable I get. I thought it would be really nice to consult someone on the matters of contacts and bill collection and so on. I also thought it would be nice cause I have had a interest in property investments. If anyone is a customer and has a honest opinion on prepaid legal I would like to hear it.